El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in Bedford

I've been going to this location since it opened and 9 times out of 10 they get my order wrong. I'm not exaggerating, I literally started counting. Now I know some may wonder why I still eat here? Well because when the food is prepared or RE-PREPARED it's good food. I'm from California and I love El Pollo Loco, but I hate this location, it's just the closest one to my house. How is it that you can go through different management and different staff and still manage to never get an order right? And it doesn't matter if I go through the drive-through or come into the restaurant I can literally tell someone my order and there will either be something wrong or something missing. One time I came in, and they were literally OUT OF CHICKEN; let me clarify COOKED CHICKEN. I needed a 10pc I was taking it home to a full house I waited a whole hour for them to make it, and when I got home with it there were only 8 pieces of chicken in there. The receipt said 10 PC, I paid for 10. Today tho, made me want to actually write a review, I went inside to order the new street tacos that they have advertised and I asked for the Taco Platter w/one chicken avocado and one chicken street corn The platter comes with rice and beans. Then I wanted 1 separate Street Taco w/ Baja Shrimp. I asked the young lady cashier to substitute the Chipotle Sauce on the tacos w/ creamy cilantro sauce. THAT'S IT. The only change. First she only rang the Taco Platter And told me that my total was 7.78 which I knew was incorrect because the tacos are 3.19 each, and the 2 Taco Platter that comes with rice and beans is 7.19+tax, and I asked for a whole 3rd Taco. So I just made a puzzled look and asked "for the platter and the 3rd Taco?" All of a sudden, she was confused or frustrated and she had to re-ring my whole order, beating the register buttons. So I re-told her my order again, and was charged correctly. I waited for my food and then my name was called. Since I am so used to my order being wrong of course I checked it at the counter, and of course it was wrong. The Chipotle sauce that I asked to not be on my tacos, were on my tacos. So I brought this to her attention, she stared at me in annoyance. I then asked instead if the tacos could just be made with no sauce and may I have a cup of the CREAMY CILANTRO RANCH so that I can put it on the tacos myself. So, the 3 tacos were remade and this time they took a longer to prepare than the 1st time. When my name was called again the tacos were prepared (but I didn't check) and there was a cup of CHIPOTLE SAUCE sitting with my food. I again, asked for the Creamy Cilantro cup, she snatched the Chipotle cup and gave me 2 Cilantro Ranch Cups (I really just needed 1) and she stormed off the floor. I couldn't tell you where she went. MY THING IS: I have worked customer service my whole work life (15 years) and it wasn't busy in there; not in the drive-through and not in the restaurant. I don't have any type of speech impairments, I spoke my order clearly and only asked to substitute one thing. Why does my substitution bother you? And WHY are you mad at ME when you or your team messed up MY order. She was staring at me like I asked for the shirt off her back. I pay good money here, with or without coupons. I should get what I asked for and it should be done right the first time. And I should receive service with a smile because I did not come in with an attitude nor did I leave with one. When I got home I got thru my chicken tacos to find that my Shrimp taco HAD A BITE IN IT and only 2 Shrimp. I can't make this up!!(I mean I can, but I swear I didn't). I'm officially done with this...

I just had the worst experience at this store. After originally pulling into the Chipotle parking lot located on the adjacent corner, I remembered El Pollo Loco and drove over to them. I went through the drive-thru, ordered a Pollo Bowl, received it quickly and drove home to enjoy it only to realize there was no chicken. I drove back, went inside and the lady at the drive-thru remembered me, had realized she forgot the chicken and said “my bad”. She took the bowl back which was 20 minutes old to add fresh chicken to it so I asked her if I could have a fresh bowl and she said yes. She offered me free chips and queso which I appreciate but declined and asked for a refund.

The manger came to the counter to start my refund transaction, never making eye contact, apologizing or acting in any way that I would expect from a manger. I asked her if she was having a bad day and she finally looked at me and stated no, she was having a great night and apologized for me having a bad night. I stated I wasn’t but told her she hadn’t made eye contact with me once, hadn’t offered an apology and that I had to ask for a fresh bowl. But not before she cut me off defending her employee for correcting my order and offering the chips and queso. I again tried to explain myself and she continued to cut me off.

I asked to speak to another manager and she said she was the “highest” at the store and there was no one else to talk to. I asked again stating that there was someone above her but may not necessarily be at the store. She gave me his name but no number and asked if she could email him for me with my information and gave me a scratch piece of receipt paper and a pencil. Maybe I should have left my information but after the interaction, I didn’t feel confident that she would pass it along.

I asked for her name and she said it very fast and started to spell it and when I asked her to repeat herself she got very rude with me which I apologized and told her that I didn’t understand her and asked her to slow down. She was extremely patronizing with me and when I told her, I misspoke the word and she corrected me telling me what I meant to say. I again apologized for misspeaking and she cut me off telling me that she wasn’t going to get into this any further with me and that she didn’t have time for this. There wasn’t a single person that I could see in the dining room and I believe just one car in the drive thru.

This isn’t about the $6.04, or even the lady at the drive thru forgetting the chicken. This is purely about the extreme lack of customer service from a manger and being treated so rudely.

The food is great but I will not be back to...

El Pollo Loco has got to be the most underrated fast food restaurant ever (and I'd argue, better than a lot of other dining establishments as well).

I remember when El Pollo Loco first came to the DFW area and my first impressions were, "good food but kind of a high price". After that we rarely came back for years due to this grossly inaccurate assessment.

Fast forward to 2021, and I've been searching for new lunch options that are not too pricy while offering good (and hopefully healthy) food, and to my own surprise... it was the place I had pegged as pricy years ago.

You can try this little experiment to see what I mean (and a secret of mine). Just go there and order the "Original Pollo Bowl Combo" and while you're at it, ask to upsize your drink to a large. Now look at your receipt.

Yeah! All that food for under $7.

Yes, it's not exactly a lot of chicken, but it's still a TON of great tasting high quality food with a large drink for about as much or less than a combo at McDonald's. It's insane, and a shame that more people aren't aware of this.

As an added secret, ask for your receipt. Do the short survey on-line (~8 minutes for me) and your next visit is $1 off. Holy COW! That makes the total under $6. And I haven't even talked about the coupons on their app (which can be very decent).

What makes this even better is that their "fast" food actually has flavor. Everything tastes fresh, the salsa has a little bite, and it's been absolutely consistent anywhere/anytime I've visited. I promise you, introduce anyone to this place and you'll look definitely like someone "in-the-know" about great food.

I honestly can't gush enough about how great El Pollo Loco is, and yet I've never seen them busier than a few cars so I'm hoping a review like this helps to increase their business so I can have them around for a long time (because they're...