El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in Bakersfield

Was enticed by an ad I saw on TV for a tostada salad. Google closest one and headed to their drive thru. They had a nice colorful pic of two tostada salads. I ordered the double chicken tostada, along with a pollo bowl and one sm beans and one sm rice. Cilantro dressing and avacado salsa normally available on there salsa bar for in store dining. First the option to pay with debitcard was only available inside and cash only on drive thru. You really need to get that fixed. Im ♿ so the drive thru is my option as getting inside is problematic for me. I was one of the few that wasn't upset when drive thru was the only option. The fact I had cash on me was a rarity given the $25 total. I was quite surprised that 10 oz of beans and rice was over $7 with tax. A lg beans or rice, I was told was less than $5 and was 16oz container. I know that there is a chicken shortage but whats with gouging for beans and rice? The employee and I had a bit of discussion about charges as there was a .40 charge for ranch dressing. I didn't ask for that but the normally free avocado salsa. I was told it was for the cilantro sauce and they had no key to ring that up on. Okay I did ask for that and .40 I was okay. I was told I was given two and ask if all the sauce was in the bag. Nope none of the avocado sauce I ask for numerous times for my salad. So that was disappointing, but the food presentation failed miserably as the bowl wasn't a bowl. in a big dark platter that made the $7.50 spent on a bowl an over expenditure lost in their vessel of choice for delivery. My salad. the picture showed 3 nice size slices of avocado on top next to appetizing grilled chicken. My salad looked little like the pic. I found 1 slice of avocado buried. If there were 2 more the avocado must of been not to fresh as it turned to mush. I am being generous with 3 stars as I realize people need their job's. So El Pollo why is there such a disparity between pictures and pricing. Okay u need to chg more for chicken, maybe that could be offset with better pricing on side items that there isn't a shortage. Until things change I can't afford to pay TOP dollar like I went out to a full service dinner and got a less than stellar fast...

I have been a customer I know for over 25 years. Always great food and great service. Always. Until August 27th. I was going through the drive thru as always. A sign said drive thru cash only. I had no cash. . I then parked and went in with my service dog to get my food to go. Even though I have a small service dog I never like to put people out by bringing in restaurants. This time I had to. I was met by that they wouldn’t take my order by a rude employee. I explained all of the above. Still refused my order. I asked for a manager and never in my life have I been treated so rudely. I then explained to her all of the above. She hatefully took my order but was so rude. I was very embarrassed because they were busy and everyone was watching. Just because my disability is not obvious such as if I was blind or in a wheelchair and my dog is small doesn’t mean I’m not disabled. They need to educate their employees. I did call their customer service to complain and 5 days later no return call. In all my years only my 2nd time to bring the dog into a restaurant . The other time was a very nice sit down restaurant in Bakersfield and I called ahead to tell them the situation and they were very welcoming to myself and my dog. Not to mention that the cost of their family meal at El Pollo had gone up more than 5 dollars and was afraid to eat the food that the rude manager might have done something to it because honestly she...

Find another place to eat! I have given this place more than enough opportunities to change my mind on their service but every time they continue to fail at the simplest tasks such as getting your order correct. They go above and beyond to make customers feel as if they are the problem until I over heard their manager Iama talking in Spanish to another employee ‘those are the people that always complain.’ Costumer service is nonexistent, receiving the correct order will never happen, and there is for some reason a false sense of entitlement on the restaurants behalf as if customers owe them something. Seems as if the customer is always wrong even when they are the ones that cannot get an order right such as you ordered something else or it is your fault that you did not check the order before you left, I made double sure everything was in the bag before you left and somehow, they still manage to forget something, like chicken in your chicken bowl! This place need new managers and employees that actually get orders right and managers that manage not try to make everything the...