El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in El Centro

I’ve been to El Pollo many times before and the service has usually been good, however this time was the worst experience I’ve ever had at a fast food restaurant. I ordered 4 Chicken Avocado Burritos and 1 Chicken Avocado Burrito with no beans over the drive-in speaker. She said that there were no beans in them, to which I stated it says on the sign that it has beans. She again stated it does not. I knew this was not true because I’ve had many of these burritos over the past year, but I was done trying to tell her what it says, so I proceeded to the window. Marcella gave me my total and took my payment. She then proceeded to hand me a bag full of chicken tacos. I knocked on the window and explained that I had ordered burritos and not tacos. Instead of fixing my order she started to argue with me. “NO you said tacos.” She sounded annoyed. I then repeated what I had actually ordered. This drive thru employee continued to argue with me. I said “Girl, I have my teenagers in my vehicle who heard what I ordered and would had let me know if I said something wrong!” Marcela proceeded with an attitude. “Well I said TACOS!!” “I’m sorry, I must not have heard you repeat back “tacos”, but that doesn’t change the fact that I ordered burritos. I even argued with you about the beans! I am the customer!” I watched as Marcela stormed away while clearly talking about the situation to other employees. Another woman came to hand me my burritos. I thanked her and asked for the name of the employee, who was conveniently missing her name tag. I was told Marcella. Most ridiculous customer service experience I...

We drove an hour just to go here. I thought it was ridiculous to drive that far from Yuma for fast food. I was wrong. We all had the double chicken salad in a tortilla bowl and some chicken tortilla soup.

The Double Tostada Chicken Salad with creamy cilantro dressing was fantastic. Lots of chicken and great quality lettuce and veggies and avocado slices. The tostada bowl was nice and crispy.

The Chicken Tortilla Soup w/ tortilla strips (large) was so packed with veggies and lots of big chunks of chicken was excellent.

I found out the chicken is never frozen. I saw 50+ chickens on the giant grill right in view behind the counter. It made me look around to make sure this was a fast food joint. It was. But in this rare case it didn't matter. This was great quality food cooked and prepared to perfection. I'm hooked!

The counter person was very friendly and funny. The price was kinda high but that's the case everywhere these days but considering no tip is involved it makes for a great deal.

El Centro is an hour West of Yuma Arizona where we are staying. I wish there was an El Pollo Loco in Yuma.

2 stars on ambiance is because well.... It's a fast food joint so fixed tables in the usual McDonald's kind of vibe is what you get. It didn't matter, I was too busy dabbing tasty soup from the corners of my mouth to...

LOVE their fresh food, delicious iced teas, and friendly customer service, BUT someone in management desperately needs to get on the ball with fixing or replacing their iced tea maker because it hasn't been working for a good TWO MONTHS. So no iced tea for us loyal tropical tea customers. Ridiculous. I have many friends who also enjoy El Pollo Loco's iced tea; they are losing business. What on earth takes 2 months to make this happen? So for...