El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

Ignore the negative reviews about the wait times, it just opened and is in extremely high demand

I came back with my family and ordered the Family Feast and a Guacamole Chicken Burrito. Mixing the rice, beans and corn is elite. Everything was delicious and the service was again, top notch.

Its been 7 years since I last ate at an El Pollo Loco in L.A. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard this one was opening. I went in today, for Lunch, at about 10:45(they open at 10). It was slightly busy and it took about 5 minutes to get my food.

FOOD: I got the 3-Piece White Meat Meal, 2 breasts and a wing, with Rice, Pinto Beans, Corn Tortillas, and a drink. The price was on-par with most other places at about $15. The Chicken was hot, fresh and juicy, I burned my finger. The Rice was nice and fluffy with a surprisingly good flavor. The Beans were also good and paired well with the rice. The Corn Tortillas have always been pretty bogus being simply steamed, they did their job but barely. They have typical drink options but also have Horchata which was good. I also got some Churros and they were delicious. They were crispy and slightly chewy on the outside with a nice soft inside. The cinnamon sugar was well balanced and did not fall all over the place when I took a bite, kudos on that. The Avocado Salsa and Pico de Gallo Salsa are both delicious. I tried their Creamy Cilantro Sauce and was not a fan.

SERVICE: I had a fantastic experience from the employees and I am very critical. Everyone was friendly and helpful, smiling and they were hustling and putting out the food quickly. As I entered I was greeted by an older gentleman who guided me toward the kiosks where I could order. Later, a younger gentleman handed me my food and was very courteous, after which a younger lady offered me salsa. When I was leaving I decided to grab a few Churros but I accidently selected Dine-In. I noticed the manager observing everything and asked if he could be sure to make my order to-go. He noticed it was just Churros and went and grabbed them for me ahead of the other orders. Top notch. I watched him the entire time I was there and he was assisting everywhere.

ATMOSPHERE: It was very clean inside, it is brand new. However, they need to add some more tables to the space they have in there. The bathroom was clean, the drink station was relatively clean and the trash cans were not overflowing. A critique I share with others is the drive-thru/parking situation. I question your sanity if you wait 2-hours in a drive-thru. Once the new restaurant vibe calms down this should resolve.

Overall, I had a great experience. My food was fresh and delicious. The service I received was reminiscent of In N' Out and Chik-fil-a. I'd highly recommend giving it a try but until things calm down, come as close to...

My wife and I wanted to really like this place. She worked next to one in CA and would frequent it quite often. When we arrived today, we had to wait over an hour to get through drive through. I get that the restaurant is still in its infancy here, but wow, was service slow. When we finally arrived at the order screen, we ordered two Chipotle Guacamole Chicken Burrito meals, two large Cokes with light ice and two Flan. When we got to the window, the employee looked at the order ticket and then "looked" at everything in the bag and said, "Yup! Everything's there!" I should have known better and should have looked in the bag myself, but I didn't, trusting that what he did and said right in front of me was accurate. We left and got to our destination with the Cokes with light ice not being filled up to the top. We determined that because we asked for light ice that they chose to leave a bunch of extra room in the cups. We also found that they didn't provide us napkins, nor did they provide any eating utensils for the flan. The burritos they made for us, well they were just regular guacamole chicken burritos, even though the lady repeated the burrito order back to us. The burritos tasted subpar. Honestly, I've had better flavored burritos at Taco Bell, which is sayin' something. Also, the salsa for the chips - not a true salsa and it was super bland.

Overall, we were very disappointed. I really wanted to like the place, and my wife wanted it to bring back fond childhood memories, and it did quite the opposite for the both of us. I'd also like to add that we attempted to order several different items, including Dr. Pepper for my drink and at 1:19pm they were out of each of these items. For a company to officially be open for five days (longer than that, with respect to the soft opening), there should be plenty of food and drink on hand to not be out of product at lunch time.

El Pollo...

El Pollo Loco just opened up their first store on Fillmore in Colorado Springs the food is great, the services polite, friendly, upbeat and they try to help you as fast as they can. It is a little bit of a wait, they do have self-service kiosks to order your food which is helpful and they do have counter people to take your order. Little bit of a longer wait right now as they just opened up and I believe that's the first El Pollo Loco in the area soon to be followed by three or four more I believe. don't quote me on that, yet I believe there's more going to be open around Colorado Springs. It's been a long time coming and it's great to have them here. The only downside right now is the app is not working for ordering. At least mine doesn't and it says it right on the app. Don't know if it's a company-wide thing going on or just because the store is brand new and they're in the process of fixing that, yes traffic is manageable it is a busy place though because they have great food and decent prices. I personally had the avocado Bowl and for the price it was excellent. They give discount coupons on the app but you can only use one discount per day unfortunately. They have very good size burritos that are fresh and good size. The prices are a little bit High in my opinion yet I am on Social Security. " Highly recommended", fire roasted chicken. different sides and they are selling flan there. It's a nice added dessert. The only real downsize I saw was the parking has the drive-thru line blocks off a front section of the parking area and you can't get to the front of the store right off the bat because the line is usually long if you go there you could see there's a light pole there and that kind of blocks it where you can't get around the drive-thru line, yes they do have...