El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in Carlsbad

Normally my wife am I enjoy el pollo loco and we frequent the one by our home once every 2 weeks on average. However our experiance this morning here was not good. I went in and ordered an avocado burrito for her and when I got in the car and started to drive off, she opened it and immediately saw a bug crawling on the tortilla. She wrapped it back up and I brought it right back. The manager was apologetic, but seemed to think the bug got under the foil wrap outside of the restaurant. I was given my money back, but did not want excuses from anyone. One of the women behind the counter mentioned that the termites occasionally come in through the drive through window. Whatever the case, it was not a good situation and I hope the management takes it seriously and investigate where the termites are coming from...

I have only been here for lunch hours on weekends and weekdays and only in the drive thru lane since I am on my lunch hour and have to get back to work. There are rarely more than one or two cars in line even during lunch after 11:30 am or in the late afternoon. I think that may be due to competition from Jack in the Box and Pick Up Stix in the same mall. Parking is pretty good around the store and the drive thru workers have been very friendly. I've never had an order messed up. I usually get the $5 grilled combo with tacos carbon for a more filling lunch. At times the chicken can be dry but most of the time it's fine. And you can get those combos and other future orders for $1 off if you save your receipt and do the online or...

I've gone to this franchise for years now and even though they put up the sign "under new management," this place continues to worsen. The quality is dropping, the price is rising, I can't even go there anymore without having them mess up more order consistently. They try to penny pinch in every way they can. The other day I ordered a pollo bowl and a 2 piece combo in the to go line and the pollo bowl had three thumbnail size chunks of chicken and the two piece combo had nothing more than one wing. Do yourself a favor and stay away from this establishment. It makes me upset because it is one of my favorite places to eat and it's so close to work but I guess I'll just have to go to in and out...