El Pollo Norteño

I came in and ordered the chicken family meal w carne Asada. I got home and was soooo disappointed to find out that the carne Asada was burnt and tasted awful! It was full of fat pieces that were very hard to chew! I paid a lot which I didn’t mind at first when I thought I was getting good food! But again disappointed for the nasty food I got! I do not recommend anyone coming here! Just go across the street to El Toro instead! They’ve lost a loyal customer! I’m never coming back here again!!!):

This place has the most disrespectful cashiers I have ever experienced in my life. Antonia is by far the most insensitive, disrespectful person at this location. She lacks customer service skills, she has a bad attitude and she is rude to non-​Spanish speakers. I am a loyal customer here. I live nearby and so it is my go-​to place for late night workdays. But no more! I have had it. Who wants to be mistreated by a cashier at their favorite restaurant? There is a Unilocal deal where if you spend $ 5 you get a free taco (~$ 1.50). She gives me a hard time each time I ask to use this deal when it is on Unilocal!!!Do you not know your own deals??? Get educated about your own deals! She acts like she is the owner and as if she is losing money! You are not the owner Antonia! And you should know about your work more! Then today, of course, I tried to use it and she grabs my phone without permission and reads it like for 3minutes! It is literally a sentence long. And you are NOT allowed to touch people’s property if you don’t have permission!!! Then the worst happened! She knows my mom well. We are regulars. She knows my mom has cancer. We were served SPOILED, RANCID CHICKEN!!! I told her if I could talk to the manager, supervisor, or lead to report the bad chicken. I wanted to make sure no one else would be served spoiled chicken and she downright lied to me! She said they had no manager, supervisor, or lead at their location. But then she claimed she was the manager. She tells me to bring the bad chicken back and she will give me my money back. I told her we threw it out and I didn’t care for my money back that I just want to report to the manager so it is not served to others! She doesn’t understand English very well so I told be in Spanish. She said ok, just bring me the receipt and I’ll fix this. I said ok. So I went back and she gave me a bad look as soon as she saw me, had me wait for awhile when I was the only customer in line, she went up to me and grabbed the receipt out of my hands, and said,“Lo que estas haciendo esta malo mija y te va ir mal. No esta bien lo que haces.” She yelled at me, mistreated me, she was condescending, and told me to be quiet multiple times. She couldn’t even give me a straight answer for her ridiculous question. I have it all recorded on my phone. Seriously? So now she was blaming me for their mistake? She tried to insinuate I was stealing? First, I am a loyal customer, and second, money wasn’t the issue. No need for $ 26 back in my pocket. Plain and simple: cashiers should have GOOD customer service and knowledge of location deals; location should NOT put deals on Unilocal or anywhere if they are not going to honor it WITH A SMILE or at all (a friend was refused his free taco); and DO NOT serve spoiled chicken! People could get sick! I am reporting this to corporate and to the public health department! NOTE TO REAL MANAGER: please hire new individuals OR retrain these terribly behaved individuals. It could have been solved by a simple: «I’m sorry. Here you go.» I WILL NEVER, EVER RETURN BACK. I’ll give my money elsewhere. El toro has better customer service anyways and they deal with dozens of customers at a single moment.

This place used to be my favorite place a few months back until I realized that they were giving out chicken that had gone bad. A worker that used to work there told me that there is also a bunch of rats in the restaurant. I bought a chicken there about a month ago and when I got home and opened it the smell of rot when up my nostrils. I tried to call to see what I can do and a lady and answered and was insinuating that I was lying. Not only that but she gave me a real bad attitude. I asked for her name and she didn’t want to give it to me until she finally did. She said it was Antonia. I don’t know what kind of boss hires people like that and what kind of boss gives food that has gone bad. I am going to report this to the health department. Who knows if rats have been all over the chicken before they give them out. It also sucks that they have no AC. What kind of nasty restaurant chain is this. I don’t recommend it.

CARNE ASADA VIEJA Y CORRIENTE
Pedi 1 libra para llevar y Cuando llegue a la casa descubri CARNE ASADA NEGRA* RECALENTADA un gran asco de carne.
Le llame al manager de este local y me queje pero no le importo !!! Le pedi el número del dueño y no me lo quizo dar.
Es una gran groseria que la persona sirviendo no le importe lo que sirve.
Mi proxima llamada sera al BBB y a la ciudad para que los investigen.
CONCLUSION: CARNE VIEJA Y NEGRA … NO SE VALE ! NO SEAN COCHINOS !!

I hate places that charge for a damn refill, especially after you spend a lot of money in there lame store.

Good morning everyone.
I never had been to this Pollo Norteno, so I decided to try it and see how good this food would be. The Food was not good and the chicken that I ordered was not good. The taste was awful and it was not wort it. I will never come to this Pollo Norteno again. Just and FYI, check the food your buying first before you pay and eat it.

I would NEVER go to this place again, not only was the food way below par, I got sick from the carna asada (sp) torta, my hubby’s chicken was nasty also, the skin was like rubber and the rice was badly cooked. I do not have more time to spend on this lousy excuse of a restaurant. I would not wish the night I had last night on anyone. Every 20 minutes or so I was rushing to the bathroom.

*sighs* deep breath
I honestly don’t know how to start. I want to say am astonished. On Fridays our office picks something to eat. We often choose Pollo Norteno. So when it came time to order or pick for our Christmas Lunch this year we had an idea… Pollo Norteno. We ordered food for 30 people (although there is only 21 of us). We received half a tray of rice, half a tray of beans, half a tray of chicken, half a tray of carne asada and half a tray of carnitas. After we realized they forgot to deliver our guacamole tray. I also noticed that if I served a spoon of rice (black serving spoon which they provided us with) on 30 plates it would not be enough. Their portions are pretty sad. I think we would have received more food if we ordered family packs equal to what we paid for the catering. I called catering coordinator Karina and expressed my concerns she said there is enough food there… She offered to send more rice and beans and she sent a cup of each… For example for the salsas with the biggest family meal you get about 3 cups of 4 oz of salsa. We received 4 cups of about 8oz of salsa for a $ 400 dollar order. I should have bought 8 family meals instead and probably would have received more food… or probably should have picked something else. I know we definitely will not choose Pollo norteno in the future. I would recommend that if after reading this you still feel like you must. Get the quantities they plan to send you and make sure you feel is enough or double the amount of people you are ordering for. I could not be more disappointed. We ended up running to El Torro where they sell cooked meat by the pound to make sure we had enough.

Love this place ! Best chicken in Santa Ana!
Who needs El pollo Loco when you got this place ! Real Mexican style !! I also ate the new location across from Dmv good stuff !!
I have never had any problems! Go check out people

I really didn’t like this place. The guy at the register was giving me attitude for asking for containers so I could get some salsa from the salsa bar. Also, it took about 25 minutes for me to get my food. I can understand when they cook the food to order but I saw about 3 other customers getting their order before me when they came in after me and that really bugs me especially when my food is taking forever. I only ordered 2 carne asada wet burritos and an order of carne asada nachos. I was getting fed up with it so I asked the cashier if my order was almost ready and he gave me attitude again.
Do yourself a favor and don’t bother with this place. The nachos we got were way too soggy and they didn’t supply enough nachos for the order. My wet burrito was huge but the taste of the carne asada was pretty bland. I’d rather go to the El Toro plaza across the street or even Alerto’s over this place. THIS PLACE SUCKS!

3.5. Decent flavor to the chicken. Some pieces were overcooked and not as moist as I would have liked. Liked the beans and the flour tortillas. Good salsa selection also. As long as La Pradera is around I probably won’t be coming back.

Great Customer service ! Really friendly pple. Prices here are great as well! Got myself a 20 oz drink, Carne Asada Burrito and Free Taco using the Eat 24 app to order and Unilocal check in offer for free taco. Meal was around $ 5! Food is pretty good for a chain restaurant.

I really like this place the location in santa ana moved across the street (across from the dmw). The chicken is well seasoned and the sides are really good. Its like el pollo loco with flavor.

Worst customer service ever! no one is friendly. They will be out business soon if they don’t change. The people that work there are so rude, why would they put themselves on a Groupon to drive sales and treat they customers so bad!

The chicken is burned and very dry. I didn’t give one star because the carne asada is actually pretty good.
I thought if the store’s name is El Pollo then at least it needs to sell good grilled chicken.

It’s a family run restaurants with great chicken salsas but poor decorating skills you might want to take you’re meal to go.
You have to try the pickled onions! they look scary but they’re so good along with the salsa red ones are the specially the good ones because they fire roasted chiles which gives it a smoky flavor it will go great with your chicken I supposed to the green salsa which is more of a refreshing saw something doesn’t go so well with the white meats.
Girls if you go be patient with the guys you can tell they are mostly a mail run restaurant so they rarely smile at the patrons.

Service suck the lady at the front didnt even finish taking my order turned around and then ask me again what my order was i mean come on i work at a very busy r estaurant and i know u gotta finish one thing that u are doing to move on to the next person or customer «not coming back»

I placed an order for pick up using a Groupon voucher. I ordered a carne asada burrito which is priced at $ 4.85. The guy charged me extra for guacamole which I didn’t ask for. When I asked him, he said the owner tells him to charge everyone for guacamole unless they say they don’t want it. How do I know to say «no,» if they don’t tell me they’re charging me. Sneaky and not cool. It’s the principle — I like honest businesses and people.

Excellent food! I ordered the 4 piece chicken platter and flan. So YUMMY! And the employees are extremely friendly! I’ll definitely be going there again :-)

Beware if you buy a Groupon. You cannot use the Groupon on the family meals. The chicken is excellent, the other meat options are also good. The other location in town recently closed so this is the only option in town for Pollo Norteño. The location is kind of is a tiny strip so parking can be challenging at time. If your in the area and can’t decide if you want to stop here, you can always a block away to the famous El Torro Market.

They closed the location on Grand so now the 1^st st. restaurant is the closest location. The food is the same as what I have gotten prior. Like the old Grand ave location, this restaurant isn’t very large and serves mostly as a place for pick-​up orders. The main thing that separates Norteno is that they grill the chicken with Mesquite, so you get great flavor from the chicken as a result. The prices are very competitive especially if you take advantage of their specials. The parking at this location isn’t that great and I actually had to park around the corner in the residential section. Service is very friendly here, so if you are looking for well-​prepared grilled chicken, Norteno does a fine job of providing this.