Pollo Campero — Restaurant in Citrus Park

8/31/2025- Placed an online order with the Pollo Campero on Waters Ave. in Tampa for 2 spicey chicken sandwiches + 1 side each (french fries with one, coleslaw with the other). Received a msg after placing the order instructing that it would be ready in 11 minutes. This was perfect, since this location is 10-minutes from my house. The order confirmation page presented after paying for the order contained the following instruction: "Walk up to the pickup area and give your first and last name." Got to the location right at 11 minutes. Looked around, saw a "Pickup Orders" sign at the left side of the counter, walked over and stood underneath the sign at the counter. There was no one at the counter at that time. After about 30 seconds, another customer walked in and went up to the right side of the counter where one would place an order if not previously called in. As he entered the shop, the employee who apparently was responsible for the front counter came out from the back. The guy immediately held out his phone, presumably showing info for a pickup order he placed before coming into the store. I concluded this because the employee immediately checked the shelves for to-go orders, selected a bag, then seemed to double-check the contents against the order. After, she went to the back again and asked the kitchen help something in Spanish, then came back out with 3 large empty cups. She placed the bag on the counter right in front of me then walked over to the drink dispenser to fill the cups. No "I'll be right with you sir", no "Just one moment sir", no acknowledgement of my existence whatsoever. Just walked over to the drink dispenser and proceeded to pour the drinks that apparently were part of the guy's order. It took her probably 2 minutes to pour the drinks, carry them back over to the front counter, get lids on each one, and then stuff them into a drink holder she had to ask one of her co-workers to get for her. Now I've been standing there for probably 5 minutes by now. She's packing up the drinks literally on the counter right in front of me. Still no acknowledgment of my existence. She finally gets the guy's order taken care of, but by now, another couple has come in and is standing behind 3-drinks guy waiting to place their order. 3-drinks guy takes his order, turns around and walks out, and counter-girl immediately starts waiting on the people who came in after him and got behind him in the "Place an order" line. And if that wasn't abusive enough, the order was not just a straight-forward "one 3-piece meal with this side and one 4-piece meal with these sides". At least, I assume that was the case since there was a major discussion/negotiation that continued for 2-3 minutes in Spanish before another employee finally came out of the back and asked me "Have you been helped?" (Mind you, the Spanish negotiation is still going on and the people have still not placed an order at this point.) So I replied "I'm here for a pickup order." He asked "For Uber Eats, or an order of your own?" Told him "An online order that I placed for myself." He asked for my name, walked over to the shelves containing the to-go orders, found the bag with my order turned around and gave it to me. Took him less than 30-seconds from the time he asked "Have you been helped?" Of course, now when I get the order home after having to wait in the "Pickup Orders" area for 10 minutes before anyone acknowledged my existence, the food is cold. In summary: I've been to this place 2 times previous to this time. First time I ordered a 3-piece grilled meal, was told it would be about 10-minutes before their next batch of grilled chicken would be ready; the actual time: 20 minutes. The second time I tried to order a side of french fries: sorry, we're all out of fries. Then this abusive third time. Although the chicken is good, it is definitely not worth this level of abuse. I'm done with you Pollo Campero; I will...

was really looking forward to trying Pollo Campero for the first time, but my experience was incredibly disappointing. I ordered an 8-piece mixed chicken meal through the app and received only 5 pieces of cold, dried-out chicken. My side of mac and cheese was replaced with beans and soggy fries without any notice.

I reached out to customer service and spoke with someone named Nelly, who seemed annoyed that I was even complaining. After sending photos via WhatsApp, I was only offered a $30 gift card to which I declined, even though I made it clear I was completely dissatisfied and wouldn’t be returning. I was eventually refunded for just the missing items and not the overall bad experience.

First time trying Pollo Campero and definitely my last.

Update: I updated the score to reflect Victoria's professionalism on the phone when she followed up with my negative experience. She seemed generally empathetic, resolved my concerns, and changed my opinion about everything. I will give Pollo Campero another...

When we first got there we were super excited to try their food we ordered and I asked for grilled chicken which they did not have which is interesting bc most of there menu is solely chicken I ordered fried instead when we went to put our straws in the drink the c on the lid was solid there was no hole in the lid 😳 so we drank without the lids the chicken was juicy I’ll give them that but the seasoning mix was weird and not too great and the rice was resembling school lunch fried rice the beans were actually pretty good though the roll was a roll nothing special the yuka fries were definitely undercooked and hard in the middle and for some reason they put sweet pickles on the chicken sandwich which does not compliment the flavors overall for the price I wouldn’t come back it seems like they are trying to be a different version of pollo tropicals and the pollo compero sauce was basically chickfil a sauce with pickle juice...