El Pollo Loco

I was so excited to have this place open, based on my husband’s rave reviews of another location. Not now and will probably never go back. Dried out and over cooked chicken, dry flavorless rice, mashed potatoes that had a nasty instant flavor and black beans that tasted like they were straight from a can. Spend your money elsewhere.

I like the black bean bowl from the under 500 calorie menu. It has broccoli on top which is pretty good and the rice beans and chicken fill me up. For fast food it seems like a good value. My kids love their Mac and cheese so there are some options for family meals as well.

This El Pollo Loco went from ground zero to fully functional only in a few short months. The whole construction process was so quick, it was insane! Crazy, I tell you! Crazy, I say!
I’d seen plenty of El Pollo Loco years ago when I was visiting Cali but had never wanted to try it, but now since there’s a location that’s nearby, why not try it?
Looking at the menu, I was a little overwhelmed by the different choices that I was presented with. But I quickly decided to try the three piece meal (it was only $ 1 more than the two piece — no brainer, right?). Of course, being the breast man that I am, I opted for the two breasts with one wing. I also decided to try the mac n cheese along with some corn. I paid, I was given a cup and a little buzzer, and I waited.
After a short couple of minutes, the buzzer buzzed and my meal was ready. Since I’m trying to be on the healthy binge (shut up! Mac ‘n cheese is healthy, okay!!), I poured me some water instead of the many soda selections (coke product) or even some horchata. Now, let’s see what’s the madness is about.
The chicken flavor isn’t too bad. I thought it could use a little extra seasoning. But since I was given two corn tortillas, I tried shredding some chicken meat, mixing some mac n’ cheese and corn in it, wrap ‘em up, and bite them. Not too shabby at all. But maybe next time I should ask for rice instead of mac n cheese because the mnc was just average. The corn, however, was flavorful and good. Try it.
All in all, I spent close to $ 10 for my meal, which wasn’t too bad, The price is pretty comparable to Dodo’s chicken that’s close to where I live. However, at El Pollo Loco, you’re given two sides and two tortillas of your choice. At Dodo’s, you only get one side, no tortilla, but you get an extra wing if you order the half chicken white meat combo.
Will I be back? Maybe considering that I get the majority of my protein intake in one sitting. I need them protein for some major gainz, you know? I can’t be a fit fatass if I’m not doing anything to stay fit but doing everything to be be a fatass.

Ordered chicken avocado salad that had NO avocado. Besides missing one of main ingredients, the lettuce seemed old with a sprinkling of tomatoes.
Not impressed and no competition for El Rey at the corner. I was hoping for a decent new fast food option in the area.

Ella is getting more fast food options. If the road wasn’t already busy enough, we get another restaurant. They did the build out of this place fairly quickly. I drove down Ella one week they were under construction and a few months later boom there was already a line of people.
I came in here for lunch with my co-​worker. We split the family pack which had 8 pieces of dark meat and 3 sides (special — usually only 2 sides). We got the mac and cheese, corn, and cole slaw.
The chicken itself is decently flavorful, it’s fancy rotisserie chicken in my opinion though. Out of the sides the only one that was good was the corn. For the price, it’s just a bit much for what you get.

The service is awful the food is awful. My plate was missing half the ingrediants the chicken was dry and tasted old and I found a big pointy bone in my burrito. Its just a bunch of little teenagers running the place and a really rude general manager.

Let me start off my saying I’m vegetarian. Although I have no opinion on the chicken here I was super excited to have a place like this in the neighborhood. My first experience at this location was great. Got an avocado chicken burrito but replaced the chicken with avocado and a hortchata. My second experience was very disappointing. I ordered a cheese quesadilla and rice and beans. The quesadilla was very sloppy and hardly had any cheese on the inside. Also, the beans contained meat (but that’s my fault because I should have asked). Overall I think this place is great for meat and non meat eaters if you’re on the go. Super cheap and fast and healthier than the other fast food joints on this street.

I enjoy this place. I’ve been here a few times since it opened. The staff seems very friendly and the prices are decent.

Food was good the first time we tried this. After that it has been just OK, inconsistent quality. Last two times orders have been wrong, tortilla soup hasn’t tasted the same any of the times we’ve gone and they seem to run out early, it’s gone after 7pm.
Ordered a quesadilla which is made with thigh meat, asked for it to have chicken breast instead and I received a normal quesadilla with a chicken breast on the side.
It seems the employees aren’t familiar with the menu, every time we’ve ordered one salad we’ve gotten a different one and have been told that «they’re basically the same». That’s fine, but it’s not what I ordered.
Food is alright, but not good enough to choose this over el Rey and at el rey at least you get what you ask for.

Yummy spot to eat at when you aren’t looking for much to eat. The burritos are pretty big, but not all of them are 12″ which they weren’t, the inconsistency was annoying.
Ordered two burritos and asked first to see what size of them since the picture seemed to assume they were small, but only the Ranchero was 12″, although the Chicken Avocado was only 8″.
My burrito was bigger and longer than my boyfriend’s which he was a little disappointed, but the chicken avocado one was a lot more flavorful than ranchero which tasted like it only contained rice and beans.
I preferred the chicken avocado, except dang, it was so messy to eat. The already added sauce was seeping out of the roll as I was biting into it which soiled my jeans and my boyfriend’s shirt.
I’m surely glad we didn’t go out to the movies with all that mess on ourselves. We definitely needed bibs while munching on the burritos.
Overall, the price was right for what you get. However, the water cup is itty-​bitty baby small…; can’t complain as it was free.
The drive-​thru personnel didn’t give us a problem either.
The parking was spacious.

Imagine Taco Bell, but 2x the price. Got a couple of burritos and what was purported to be a quesadilla (though didn’t have a scrap of cheese). Food was not THAT objectionable and just seemed overpriced until the two different fingernail-​sized chunks of chicken bone were discovered. Also, the chips were totally doughy and had to be tossed. One and done, what a shame.

I’d never been to a El Pollo Loco before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s basically diced chicken bowls/​burritos/​tacos. But I found my bowl to taste really good. They have good spices in the food.
I liked that you could grab your own salsa with your side of chips, and I also used some of it in my bowl. The green salsa was pretty delicious.
The interior is very fresh, new, and nicely done. They did a good job with the inside of the place.
My only dislike was that the staff seemed a tad unprofessional. I mean… I don’t want them to not have fun at work, but it seemed just slightly out of hand with how much chitchat and crosstalk there was going on with all the employees. One was talking over my shoulder to another employee while checking me out at the register…
Overall, a good experience and it’ll be a new contender with Chik Fil A on my lazy nights.

Being honest i expected just an average fast food restaurant being that they have like 6 nearby.
Well i was surprised the food was well cooked. And it had flavor. The service was quick and prompt. Parking was good. And also the place was clean.
I highly recommend.