El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in Carson City

Edit: 9/9/24 It's been 11 years since my last review and I can say with absolute certainty that this particular establishment is a blight upon the entire El Pollo Loco network and community. The originators need to take away the owner's privilege to call itself by the franchise name! Honestly... how it's survived this long is a miracle.

Original review 11 years ago I frequent this restaurant 2-3 times a week for over a year and always use the drive through. I have seen the restaurant empty as well as completely slammed and I have NEVER received such terrible service as I did today. There were a total of 5 cars in the parking lot, and 5 employees that I could see inside the restaurant through the drive thru window. While waiting for the person in front of me to get his food for 18 minutes, the dog that was in his car climbed into his lap and the woman in the drive thru window reached out to pet the dog and let it lick her hands and arms. We waited another 14 minutes after that for him to get his food, and then came up to the window. Who knows if the employee actually washed her hands, but as disorganized as the employees were inside, I seriously doubt it. I ordered the Poblano burrito, and when I finally made it to the window, the woman dropped the product she was about to give me onto the floor and had to make another, only to find out it was the wrong order. She then had a different burrito made, which she thought was my order, and yet again, was not. After taking my order for the 3rs time, we waited for 23 minutes in the 102 degree heat for the burrito while the guy in the car behind us began yelling out of his window because it was taking so long. (there were 4 cars behind us) This entire time I was looking through the drive thru window and 4 of the 5 employees inside were literally just standing around talking and laughing (directly in front of the window)while one person made the food. I could see that there were no customers at the counter inside the entire time I was at the window. My fiancé in the passenger seat asked me 6 times to just leave because we had waited so long, and it took all the patience I had for me not to open the drive thru window myself and ask the cashier to refund my money so I could be free of this mess. After waiting a total of 45 minutes in line I was finally given my burrito and the guy in the car behind me was irate. There was no apology from the staff about the wait, or for getting the order wrong. In fact, they all had a bad attitude and were very rude. Definitely no customer service skills present there. I must say, I've never had such a terrible experience at a drive thru before, and after over a year of frequenting this restaurant I will not be returning and I will leave negative reviews on every website I can find - that is how...

If u decide to eat here i would stick to the drive thru only, the inside defiantly made me second guess eating any of the food here. The floor is covered in food and trash, the tables and seats are just as dirty. Dirty tables, chairs and floor is not uncommon at fast food joints but for there to be multiple employee's standing around waiting for customers to come in an order, i would think they would have come out and wiped the tables and chairs off at the very least but no. The salsa bar is pretty scary also. The salsa wasn't looking to fresh, tasting it defiantly proved my worries to be right and of course an employee comes out with new salsas and instead of cleaning out the old or atleast dump the old salsa out they just poured fresh salsa on top of the old and mixed it in. There wasnt any lids for the soda pops, which they finally restocked after a handful of people had to request for lids at the front counter. Finally after i had been there for 30 mins, just about to leave is when they came an restocked all the lids. Ive tried a number of items on the menu and im never satisfied with the quality or taste. I come on average 2-3 time a year and since they've opened ive always left disappointed an regretting the money wasted on their food. Ive come to realize this place to be a dump an a waste of money. If u do choose to eat here i recommend sticking to the drive thru. I refuse to waste my money here anymore and the only reason ive eaten here in the last two year was because a friend or family member bought us lunch pr something. The only thing ive come to realize is the only decent item on the menu is the El carbon taco which isnt half bad. So pretty much i would recommend u turn around if u find urself contemplating ordering food from Carson Citys El Pollo Loco because u could pretty much eat ANYWHERE else and it would be better than here.

Just wanted to add that the ive never had a bad experience with any of the employee's and they have all been kind. So at ythe very least if ur were to go here the employees...

My son and I came into the restaurant 10 minutes before closing time, as we didn't know they close at 9:00 P.M. We're from another area where they are all open until 11:00 P.M. We both wanted a 3-piece leg and thigh meal, but the man informed us that, because they were closing in 8 minutes, all they had were 2 pieces of dark meat. We were going to go elsewhere, but he offered to sell us the 2 pieces plus a breast for one of us and the other would get a 3-piece white meat dinner for the same price as the dark meat meals. . The meal took a while to be delivered, and we were a good bit disappointed with what we got. The food was all overcooked, to begin with, sides as well as the chicken. My son remarked that his breasts were so overcooked, they tasted dry, and his wing was so small, there was hardly any meat on it. My leg was the smallest chicken leg I've ever seen, and the thigh had been cut with a knife to be even smaller. Not much there. My breast wasn't as bad as my son's sounded; not so dry, but it wasn't juicy either. . The first thing I noticed was that my son's corn looked old and overcooked. Instead of the usual yellow color, it was browned. Our macaroni and cheese was very cheesy, but seemed a bit overcooked. My potatoes and gravy looked and...