El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in Alhambra

I've been to a lot of El Pollo Loco's over the years since I like to eat a healthy Mediterranean diet, and EPL's quality and flavors are usually consistent wherever I go.

After a long day of working in Alhambra, which is about an hour away from my home in Marina del Rey, I decided to wait out the traffic and grab dinner before heading home. This El Pollo loco was about a mile away from my location and on my way home, so I decided to stop here for those reasons.

I placed my order with the young cashier girl for a double chicken avocado salad and a few extra pieces of dark meat flame-grilled chicken.

As I was waiting for my food, I overheard the cashier talking to other patrons and apologizing numerous times. For one patron, it was not having any pennies for her change. For someone else, it was something else, but she kept saying "sorry." When the man in front of me received his food, the young cashier girl apologized to him and said that they are out of pico de gallo salsa. My heart sank. There is no substitute for the pico de gallo salsa.

I was almost ready to cancel my order and go elsewhere, but when I received my food, I expressed my disappointment to the cashier and told her to just give me some chopped tomatoes. She said that she's sorry and they don't have any, and that's when I started getting upset. "This is a Mexican restaurant, how do you not have tomatoes? Just get me some chopped tomatoes, onions, and cilantro, and put it in a container." I didn't even ask for any lime.

One of the cooks in the back overheard our conversation and did just that. When he handed the container to the cashier, she said that this mix is generally reserved for their burritos. Little did he know, he saved the day. And little did she know, if a restaurant is out of one of their staple ingredients, it should be communicated to the customer prior to an order being placed. She was obviously too young and inexperienced to run the place, but I wasn't asking a lot, and it wasn't busy.

When I got my food and went to sit down, I noticed that numerous tables were dirty and unclean from previous diners. I chose a table that didn't have any visible food residue on it, and it was so gross that I put my phone on the seat cushion instead of on the table. Upon eating my food, I realized that the cashier didn't give me the creamy cilantro that was supposed to come with the salad, nor were there any napkins in the bag or on the table.

I also saw another diner across from me who was sitting next to the exit door and sleeping with his head on the table. I couldn't tell if he was homeless or what, but he had a suitcase and some strange accessories. I don't know of any reputable restaurant that would allow its patrons to sleep there, homeless or not. It just makes for a really poor atmosphere.

Although the flavors were on point, the four piece leg and thigh chicken was somewhat disappointing in that the thighs had very little meat on them, almost less than the legs. It was mostly bone. The service was terrible and the atmosphere was disgusting. El Pollo Loco, you can and...

I really dislike this location. Let's start from the begining. I pulled up to the drive thru to order a Pollo bowl. The line was not long but it felt like forever just to get to the speaker (okay I get it sometimes things happen or maybe a slow customer) this did not upset me at all. I place my order Pollo Bowl with no beans extra rice and requested my salsa. No problem there. I pull up to the window and the cashier reads my order, "Pollo Bowl no beans extra rice?" Yes, I said. Why should I worry about my order being incorect when all main bases were cleared? I pay my order and receive my bowl in a bag. I did not even bother looking. This was stupied of me since I always check. I get home and pull out my bowl. It was dripping all over and no rice only beans and lots of them. So I begin to get really upset. Great! Now I don't have anything to eat. I can't go back its way to far from my house. So I remind myself I work in the same industry let me be a bit more understanding. I decided to call. Okay, first call no one picks up. I called them 10 times and wasted 13 minutes on attempting to reach a manager. I called the at 4:40 pm. It is now 6:27pm and still no one picks up. Worst worst business ever. Why does't anyone pick up the phone? So now I'm forced to leave a negative review on an empty stomach and super upset. They had multiple opportunities to save this customer and they did not. Do yourself a favor and don't come here. There are so many places to spend your money then a place like this. This pollo loco will only cause you a headache. Beware!!

Btw, the taco bell right in-front is much faster, accurate with orders and even...

They are only doing drive thru and pick up from the app. They are not allowing people to go in and order which makes the drive thru line long. We waited over 35 minutes to get to the window. The chicken was overcooked and dry we were very disappointed as we passed other pollo locos to go to this one as they are pretty good with having fresh chicken but today it was a big miss. Hoping next time the wait is not as long and the food is a lot better than today.

*Decided to give them another try today. This time I decide to use the app and there is no signs inside the restaurant where to pick up and I had to wait like five minutes before anyone acknowledged me at the counter. I get my order and ask for avacado sauce and red salsa only to be informed that they only had pico de Gallo. I ordered the 12 piece mix and used the coupon on the app the was supposed to give you the 12 piece mix for $20. We get home to see we only got two pieces of breast isn't 12 pieces 1 and a half chicken so it should be 3 pieces of each. Then to top it off I noticed that I got overcharged for the 12 piece mix I got charged $23 plus tax not the $20 that the coupon said. This is getting ridiculous not sure what the point of complaining is if no one ever reaches out to try and make it right. Last time I got an email that said someone in management should reach out to me in one to two days and no one ever did. Going to have to try new chicken places soon as there always seems to be...