El Pollo Sabroso — Restaurant in Guanajuato

(photos are from one of my "happier restaurant visits" I am going to leave them there.)

I'm going to give this place a long time to figure out if they need my business. Yesterday, I bought 3 milanesa empanizada plates to go, and an extra salad. It cost me almost $340 pesos. Meanwhile I bought 1 kilo (they always make it 1.1 kilos when you order 1 kilo) of raw chicken breast and 1.5 kilos (they automatically measure out 1.6 or 1.7 kilos when you order 1.5 kilos) of legs and thighs in their polleria room on the side. I spent well over $700 pesos for chicken and chicken dinners, which makes 3 days of food for us, which in today's inflation climate is a lot of money. I had to go out and buy more food. My dogs got a very expensive guiso.

I walked back to my vehicle and put the cold chicken in a new, very efficient, high grade insulated cooler bag. Then I drove STRAIGHT HOME. No side trips to anywhere else.

We opened the cooler bag and all the chicken had a rotten smell in it, in 20 minutes from time of purchase to time of opening the package.

Which means, they sold it to me BAD.

None of the salads were any good. They ought to know better than to put cold salads and hot food in the same container.

Even the "fresh" salad was a little rotten.

They're not taking measures to deal with the 38° summer heat.

Sure these are hot temperatures in these summer days. But that's not an excuse to sell rotten food. That's an opportunity to "UP YOUR GAME' to meet safety requirements so your customers don't get sick and end up in the hospital.

I will wait a year before I go back.

Freshness of raw chicken had always been an issue at any of their locations.

Earlier this year, I came in to talk to the owner lady that they do not use ice to keep the chicken cold at the Avenida Sur location by Pollo Sabroso. I have not returned to that location, since. But until my last purchase there, on the final 4 visits, the chicken smelled bad the moment I opened the bag.

Which means, they sold it to us bad.

On my visit to the main location a few months ago, I stopped to tell the owner that the chicken in that Avenida Sur location was bad because they fail to use ice. The owner accused me of not keeping the chicken cool on my way home. She tried to turn it around on me, saying it was my fault.

Then the last time I went there, HER chicken was bad. Can't blame that on me.

Yesterday, I was buying food for my extended family, that I now have to turn it into dog food for my guard dogs. The workers had no ice on any of the chicken and it was not cold. Cool, yes, but not cold. Nothing looked good, and there was a little bit of bad smell in the polleria.

Just like I gave a famous nearby pizza place in downtown an extended "5 year break" from business when they tried to steal my credit card information, I am giving Pollo Sabroso a 1 year break because they knowingly sell bad chicken, and they lie about it when you hold them...

Le doy solo tres estrellas, no porqué sea un mal lugar, al contrario, buena comida, buen ambiente familiar, áreas de juegos infantiles, instalaciones nuevas y muy limpias. Pero mi calificación fue por qué está última vez que fui aún habíamos varias familias consumiendo alimentos y comenzaron a levantar las sillas sobre las mesas vacías y a barrer alrededor de nuestra mesa, tuve la sensación de que ya les urgía que nos fueramos de allí y que nos estaban corriendo, por lo que no pude terminar mis alimentos agusto y tuvimos que pedirlo para llevar y salirnos de allí. No había pasado otras veces o quizás llegamos en una mala hora, en fin, esa fue mi percepción. Aclaro, no es un mal lugar, vale la pena ir con la familia...

Una buena opción para comer, sus platillo son bastante buenos. También su pollo fresco. Como crítica constructiva, es un lugar con potencial y deberían mejorar la calidad de atención al cliente por parte de sus empleados y administrar mejor sus espacios, porque la verdad es un caos en el local donde compras pollo fresco y donde se realizan los pedidos. Hay mucha gente transitando y poco espacio para esperar la entrega de pedido, desperdician espacio que podría ayudar a acelerar la atención y flujo de gente...