El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in Denton

UPDATE: 9.3.21 I returned to the store drive thru and explained my order. The on duty manager, immediately recognized the error and corrected it on the spot. She explained to me how the error was made, which I understood- we all make mistakes and sometimes the hardest part is admitting it. She was super kind and made me a fresh bowl and chips.

I’m super happy that my first Denton fast food meal was made right. I chose el Pollo Loco because they are all over Cali and always serve great food, and of course the service.

To management below, thank you for responding and willing to rectify the matter, but the on-site store manager took care of it.

*disclaimer - I didn’t have time to post an after pic, bc I had to eat the meal in the car, but it was made right 🤤

I just left the el pollo loco store on University in Denton and my order is wrong. Kenya was the employee who took my order and payment. When I pulled to the window, she asked me if I wanted the puck sauce and I said no, I’m allergic to tomatoes and it sauces. I heard her tell the person making the bowl he had to make it over because I was allergic. I drive back to the office to enjoy a sit down lunch and couldn’t.

I immediately called the store and got an automated voice, pressed option 4 to speak with the store and it goes to a busy sound and then hangs up. I called six times- same out come.

Now I have to go back to this location to get the meal done right. I’m really upset because it’s a hassle to not only deal with campus parking, university traffic, but now I will not get my last break because of this mistake.

3 stars because Kenya was nice and she did tell him/her to make the bowl without pico, and the sweet rasberry tea was really good 😊

Be prepared for traffic in all directions; it’s hard to get in and out during lunch...

I usually don't leave bad reviews, but I'd be doing you all a disservice if I didn't tell you how HORRIBLE this place is.

It all began right as we pulled up to the drive thru window. The young lady asked us to give her our entire order all over again. First world problem?

Fine, sure...

We're asked to pull up which we knew would happen because of the size of our order. We sat idling (gas is $4 a gallon so.....) for 30 minutes waiting for our food. A young lady comes out confused as heck looking for whoever the food she was carrying belonged to because I guess that information wasn't passed along.

Okay, fair enough...

She runs back inside and comes out 5 minutes later with the same bag, "here you go". We look inside the bag and we're missing about HALF our order, to which the young lady shrugged and left. After discussing our options we decided to get a refund.

I walk inside and recite my ENTIRE order once again to get my refund. Why do you ask? Because apparently giving out receipts has been an issue in the past with other reviewers.

What I found baffling was that it wasn't even that busy 😐

So my refund was processed, which I made sure they gave me a receipt of. We weren't even offered an apology by anyone for the sheer inconvenience. Hell, the manager (or whoever it was that was helping the cashier do her job) didn't even acknowledge me or the issue at hand. I guess I won't much blame the staff because they're probably getting paid next to nothing, so why be motivated?

My $66.75 will be better spent elsewhere. I would suggest you avoid this place AT ALL COSTS.

[[EDIT]]

We drove down the parking lot a little and ate at Dairy Queen instead. Our food was brought out as soon as it was ready, the young lady thanked us, and apologized for the wait. Now...

I've been coming to El Pollo Loco since they first opened their first spot in Southern California. Since moving to Texas I was glad to discover this Pollo Loco in Denton county. Came in with a party of 5 for a Saturday night dinner as was my custom in California. I was in for a big surprise! I decided to try the holiday tray which included one tamale and 2 pieces of chicken. The tamale itself was something that clearly had come from the microwave...same taste you find at the frozen food isles at the store. It was tasteless and the filling was all mushy, yuke! The chicken looked more like pieces of quail. These tiny anemic pieces were tasteless and dry! Its like the taste of something that's been sitting out for a while. Certainly, not Texas size or even California size portions. The sauce selection was watery and in no way tasted like the sauce that gave Pollo Loco that special taste...same goes for the chicken, bland, dry and tasteless! Aside from the food quality being well below standard, the vibe in the restaurant was ghetto. Mexican food joints should NOT be playing hip hop! This is not the ambiance I want to experience when I enter a Mexican restaurant. Overall, I was very disappointed with our dining experience. Had I known the food was going to be that bad, I would have bought a $4.95 rotisserie chicken from Walmart. Instead I'm out $45, but promise I will NEVER be back and caution others...