Pollo Tropical

Went to eat here today and went through drive through– all lights and music was on, but no one said anything. So I went to the front to go inside but the door was locked. Sign says it opens at 1030 but here it is 1145, lights off inside.
Employee gets out of van from parking lot and said the «lights were off yesterday» that’s why they are opening late.
Seems like all the electricity is fine to me.
She went back to the van.
I’m so mad.
At least put a sign on your drive through and door if you aren’t opening and shut everything off and be professional.

Service was very poor. Sat in the drive through for nearly 25 minutes and the staff was not friendly at all and did not offer an apology or excuse for the slow slow service. Having said all that the food was excellent. Maybe next time we will eat inside.

Absolute worst restaurant experience I have ever had. Cashier was unfriendly, coughing over everything and even touched her tongue at one point while typing in our order. No ice in the machine. Have been here over 30 minutes as I type without seeing my food. A lady just came by and grabbed my receipt without saying anything. Every once in awhile an employee will come out with food and ask every table who it belongs to, even though they give you a number to put on your table.
At this rate, I’m not sure I’ll ever get my food. And no one has even attempted to apologize or provide an explanation.
Do yourself a favor and avoid this place.
Wish I could give it 0 stars…

My 1^st time here at this place. I hated it. I decided to go and I regret it. I only went to try it out with coupon in hand I ordered a Chicken Quesadilla Salad. I went through drive thru and ordered I asked the guy what dressing comes on it and he didn’t know. I asked if he could ask someone and he said no. So, I went a head a day ordered it anyway. He asked me twice what was my order after i ordered. I don’t know what was wrong with this poor guy. Terrible customer service!!! I went through the line and was completely ignored by the guy… He just handed me my salad and took payment. After I went home there was no dressing on the salad or in the bag. The salad was crappy. black beans were under cooked and hard. Lettuce was awful. Very little veggies. The chicken was so old, hard and awful. So disappointed. Never going back there… I am missing Grandy’s that’s forsure!

The place can’t be that bad. There’s tons of people there and long lines. I had it two times and the food is pretty decent. My only complaint is that I had a little silver skin on my pork and some bone fragments. But the food tastes pretty damn good and is cheap as hell. Plus the condiment bar is reminiscent of Taco Cabana. But, I did notice the management unable to handle easy situations.

Ah, geez.
I have to lower the ratings. I came again during the off-​hour, around 9 pm, and ordered the trio platter that consists of ¼ chicken, mojo pork, and calypso beef. And the result? the calypso beef was dried out and the mojo pork was lifeless. Both taste like they were old by the time it was served. And the chicken was the best part, but even that wasn’t exactly piping hot — but at least it tasted good and better than the other two meats.
I wonder if there’s a problem here when it comes to consistency, especially during the off-​hours. But because of the good stuff I’ve had before the last visit, I’m not going to drastically lower the ratings. I’ll just be more mindful of the times when I want to come over to eat. And if it’s the off hours, then at least I’ll just focus on getting a rum drink! ;)
One thing though that this place does well is in its sauces, to help elevate the meats and side dishes. My sides of balsamic tomatoes were great on its own, and the boiled yuca came with the garlic sauce. That garlic sauce is great — and I literally used it on everything — for the lifeless bread (made it much better), for the mojo pork (tasted much better and more «criollo» or latin), and of course, for the boiled yuca itself.
And I did enjoy the BBQ Guava sauce as well, as it was good for the chicken and the poorly made calypso beef. But really, the chicken is good on its own, in my opinion.
I’ll come back, but this time I might just go whenever I have coupons just to justify the potential misses.
You can do better, Pollo Tropical! Especially this location. I hope management takes heed.

Cute place: a gentrified gringo-​friendly version of all those «Pollo» restaurants opening all over the place serving amazing grilled chicken at reasonable prices.
The menu is simplistic, don’t over think it: ¼ chicken is for a small/​average appetite; ½ chicken is for the «dude» in your party. Rice+Beans is considered one side (opt for the yellow rice) so unless you are hungry you don’t need to order the 2-​side platter.
Overall it’s ok: the yellow rice and he black beans were more enjoyable than the Luke warm ¼ chicken I got. Grilled Chicken was average. Not worth a return trip for me.

We arrived for dinner at about 8:30 p.m. on a Wednesday evening. No customers. Seven employees; most not doing work. One was eating. Four were sitting at a table talking (see photo — if it uploads). Chicken was dry and cold. The place was filthy. Five tables had not been cleaned and had food on them from previous customers. The floor was littered with trash under the tables and had not been swept. No reason to ever return.

WHAT I LOVED
New fast casual option for the busy lunch crowd
Outstanding and fast service
Silverware and plates or let’s just sat no plastic
Ample parking
CLEAN
Delicious food with stellar fried plantains as an extra cost option
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT:
HUGE DING for such small chicken pieces especially when the sides are so abundant
The overly sweet and very dry roll
You saw this coming. This chain is owned by Taco Cabana (genuflect), but there may be only one condiment made in house and no fresh veggie salsas or toppings. Yeah… Tex Mex demands condiments but some variety in toppings would be great on the salads.
Overall a great new option, but such delicious chicken needs to be larger. Tried the Calypso or beef wrap today and it also suffered from very little steak

Chicken was very good, black beans were tasty, rice was dry and tasteless. Service was not all that great and some employees were just hanging around talking … We just figured it was all a part of making us feel like we were in the Bahamas.

I don’t get the allure. Tried it once– and the chicken was just OK– not worth the money– the sides were inedible and — it’s just chicken.
The second time I tried the other meats– GODAWFUL.
What am I MISSING PEOPLE???

I love the healthy options at a great price. They have a great variety of foods that can impress even the most picky eaters (myself included). My personal favorite is the wings with corn soufflé (seriously the best thing ever) and then get mash potatoes. The service here is nice and if you dine in they give you actual plates and silver ware. The food is brought to you by a server. They have a sauce bar and if you like spicy definitely try the poyo sauce. Mmmm

I really wanted to like this place. but, womp womp womp. After sitting in the drive through line for 12 minutes, I ordered a lite chicken meal (that comes with yellow rice and veggies and tomatoes). I asked to substitute the tomatoes for corn, and was told that they couldn’t do that because it «changes the whole dynamic of the menu». Hmm, okay, so then I asked can I please pay to get corn added? the lady said yes, and then began ringing up a whole new order «$ 6.99 chicken, $ 2+ side of rice, $ 2+ corn». wait, that is not what I asked. so I stop her, confirm again that I am going to get the Lite chicken meal the way it is, and add corn. After getting that ironed out, she tells me they are out of yellow rice and veggies. LOL. so I have to substitute the side. Wait. again. I thought we couldn’t substitute sides because it changes the «dynamic of the menu». Okay, moving on, at least I could get corn now. and then she says I can only get a choice of white rice or brown rice. So at first you cant substitute sides, but then you can when they are out of the side (at lunch time) that comes with the meal, but you cant get a side you want– only a choice of what they want to give you because they are out of what you wanted. I’ll pass. I then change my entire order and just get a LiteTropichop because you cant really go wrong with a bowl right?.. Wrong. This was honestly the most bland, un-​fresh tasting food I’ve had in quite some time. I’d rather pay the same amount of money and go to Chipotle which is within a mile from Pollo Tropical, and get fresh food, that has flavor. I actually get in and out of chipotle faster than I made it through this drive through as well. Needless to say, I was so excited to try this place, but will not be going back for round 2. The food was 1 star, and the service was 1 star.

I’d give this place 4.5 if I could.
With the New Year here my boyfriend and i have made it a lifestyle to start eating out healthy which is kind of hard since we are both such foodies and love eating out. Since we are to lazy to cook most of the time we just eat out. We came across this Pollo Tropical and we were kinda skeptical considering it wasn’t very busy but we went a head and gave it a try!
Hands down the best decision ever!
Their roasted chicken is my favorite its moist and yet very flavorful at the same time. We got the ½ platter for each of us. He got one side rice and beans with your choice of yellow rice with veggies, white rice, or brown rice, and black or red beans. I also got the ½ platter but with 2 sides which is a littler bit more, I got corn soufflé which is a sweeter more moist version of cornbread but still very delicious, and green beans which comes with some red bell peppers I think? and it buttered up. In addition all platters comes with a cold roll which I’m not the biggest fan of. The least they could do is warm it up or keep it under a heat lamp.
When you’re done ordering you get this table number and set it at your table. The servers will bring it to you. They also have a sauce bar which we’ve never tired they have a wide range of sauces for you to try.
The workers were well mannered, the service was very nice and didn’t take to terribly long and they have free wifi which is always a plus! You don’t tip the servers.
Over all we really enjoy this place. so much that within the week and a half we’ve discovered this place we’ve been here 3 times. I have a feeling were going to be coming back here quite often!

Wanted to try a new place to have something different. My visit didn’t go so well. I used the app to order my food and planned to do curbside delivery. When I got there, they couldn’t locate my truck even though I was the only running vehicle in the parking lot with the lights on since it was after sunset. So I went in to get order. Met management and employees were nice, so decided I would give another chance at that time based on how nice people were. Unfortunately when I got home I missed a good portion of my order. Called and manager took my name and info for me to get replacement at later date if I brought my receipt. That’s a problem since the receipt I got was burnt by their warmer when they could not do curbside delivery. So as of now, not sure what will happen when I go back. I do understand that they are newly opened but seriously is no one double checking orders that are being bagged for to go

Tried this place oyt the other day, and it was really good. The chicken is flavorful, and all the sides were fresh and tasty. They’re fries could have been warmer though. All in all, i would recommend this place.

I came here twice already because of the buy one get one free tropichop. Well the first time the lady at the counter made me buy a drink though I told her I didn’t before when I used the coupon, but she wouldn’t let me have the coupon this time without buying a drink. Well my girlfriend ordered after me and she was more insistent and so she didn’t have to buy a drink, basically I got RIPPED OFF AT THEIR GRAND OPENING. But honestly, I didn’t care much about that.
It was this second visit that really earned them a solid one star… I was nice to the lady at the front, but she practically ignored me, never greeted me, and when I was asking about a food she interrupted with a rude «HOLD ON» even though I had been «holding on» the whole time with how slow she was going and not saying a word to me.
Ignoring all that, I was at least looking forward to the food… Well the rice was ROCK HARD. I don’t mean one bite, but literally every single bite I felt like I could break my teeth. Lord have mercy, they need to close this place down for a few days and retrain everyone already. Sad, I really wanted to like this place cause it’s healthy and a good location and a good price, but the management SUCKS. Sorry to say!
–edit–
To be fair, some of the workers smiled at me and said «have a good night» when we left. So it’s not all the workers!

Went here for the first time tonight. Greeter was very friendly and helped me out since I told her I was new and wasn’t sure what all was on the menu. I got a Tropichop with chicken, yellow veggie rice, etc. Only reason I’m giving it 3 stars is because they gave me white instead of yellow rice. But other than that it was super good and I’ll definitely go back.

Very good for a different fast food lunch. Staff very friendly. Chicken is best in my opinion.