El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in Dana Point

Horrible!! Don’t get me wrong, I’m a total El Pollo Loco fan, especially for the double chicken tostada. However, this particular location was horrible! The food was just barely better than the service. The woman taking my order in the drive thru had a very thick accent so we were having a little trouble understanding one another, I ordered a double chicken tostada with no beans (I’m allergic) and rice only, and that was it. She wasn’t understanding my no beans, she kept saying “yes beans” so I finally just said you know what let me pull forward to the window to communicate this. Keep in mind there was no one in front of me or behind me at the time, I was the only customer. So when I get to the window I said “did you get the no beans all rice instead?” She says “you want beans?” I said “no, I’m allergic to beans I only want rice”, finally she got it and radios back to the cook speaking in Spanish and then looks at me with a “ugh” sigh over the radio, like I was asking so much by requesting no beans. So then she just hands me the credit card machine for me to pay, I said wait and show her my phone as I’m using my app, she once again lets out a big sigh like I’m completely inconveniencing her and asking so much of her! Then she again hands me the credit card machine and as I’m paying she puts her elbow on the counter, rests her head on her hand and literally starts shaking her head at me!! I get my food and not only did it not taste fresh, there was hardly any chicken (and I just paid for a double chicken and had but maybe 6 pieces of chicken total), there was no rice, luckily there was no beans, but I was given a tostada bowl with lettuce and 6 pieces of chicken, no pico, no nothing! It was terrible!! And the rude, condescending, unfriendly worker was even worse than the food was! I will NEVER go to this location...

I’m directing my post to the Owner’s attention because you’re the only one who truly cares about customer service particularly for senior customers. Just last Thursday, Feb 14th, 1:44pm, I came in your restaurant and was second in line to place my order. Your male employee started to ask me if it’s dine-in or takeout. So I said it’s a takeout. And so I said I’d like a 3pc chkn meal with no drinks, at that time, I took out my Senior ID card to show it to him but he said he didn’t need to see it. He asked for my name “Ramon” and I handed him $20, at the same he’s giving me the receipt. So I step out to wait for my order. While waiting I looked at my receipt showing the name “1 RAFAEL C”, and puzzled that it looked like I was not given a Senior discount. Then a female employee called my name that my order is ready, and so I showed her my receipt to see if I was given a senior discount, and she said it looked like I wasn’t . So I turned to the guy who took my order and asked for his name and he said “Lorenzo”, right away he said that I should have shown it to him why I was placing my order but I said I attempted to show it but he said he didn’t need it. He just gave me 79cents without saying anything, but I was embarrassed that your other crew were laughing besides him. I felt hurrying to leave this unpleasant situation. So with due respect to you being the owner of a hospitality establishment, and your employees attitude reflects the kind of customer service your business has, that that male employee lacked friendly greeting, lacked pricing, lacked apology and mistake and lacked courtesy. It was totally disappointing and frustrating and felt bad to have a bad experience in my...

This particular location of El Pollo Loco is so on the ball it is unreal. Every single time I walk in there or anyone walks in there for that matter they always greet you and always say hello and it's not just one person that does it it's several. Their food is always on point perfectly cooked and packaged very well and neat. They take time to ensure that you're very happy before you leave especially when you're doing take out. For example tonight when I got my three piece meal, I ordered all chicken breast and they felt that one of the chicken breast was not as big as it should have been so they showed me it before finishing packing it up and ended up giving me a thigh as well. I'm extremely pleased with this location I always have been and honestly I'm sure I...