Pollo Tropical — Restaurant in Florida

Such a disappointment! They missed the mark on multiple levels! I should add that I don’t often review places unless it’s positive but this was absolutely the worst service I’ve ever experienced. My daughter and I needed something delicious and quick close to the highway. This was one of her favorite places to go but the last few times have been so bad that we will never go back. We ordered dine in: 1/4 chicken with mojo pork & rice and beans and a troppy chop with sautéed onions & cheesy yucca as a starter with 6 cilantro garlic sauces. The gentleman taking our order could not get anything straight and kept trying to give us the family meal. He was unaware that there’s a dinner plate with 1/4 chicken and mojo pork. It took us about 5 min just to get the order right. After 25 min of waiting for our order, they called our number and informed me that they were out of the type of chicken I ordered. He offered me mojo pork or pork chop or grilled chicken as a substitute. I said no problem and asked for the grilled chicken. After 35 min of waiting, they called our number again. We checked the order and we were missing the sauces, sautéed onions and the grilled chicken. They replaced the 1/4 chicken with a fried pork chop. The team members then began arguing over who’s fault it was. I politely said, it’s okay, let’s just get it right. They swapped out the fried pork chop for the grilled chicken and when I addressed the onions and sauces for the 3rd time, they said they were out of both. At this point, I was beyond frustrated and asked for our money back. Unfortunately no one was capable of doing that either. The manager then went to the back and brought us 5 garlic cilantro sauces. We accepted and ate outside for the sake of time as we were driving out of town. So to recap: no chicken, no sautéed onions and seemingly no sauces with a 35 min wait and the worst...

Consumer beware! Oviedo deserves better! Extreme dissapointment best describes this location. This is now our 5th BAD experience which is why I feel compelled enough to even write this. If you frequent this establishment any time after 6pm, you will consistently hear, "We're out of chicken (it's literally in your name) we're out of pork, we're out of this or that." And Every single time, "Ok can i replace this with that?" If we're ordering a family meal and 10000% of the time it is NO! Zero willingness to work with the customer, no capability of using logic and changing like items to help out just, "NO!" Today we paid for extra rice (to our surprise, they had chicken left at 7pm wow!) And they made us wait longer for this rice they had to make and then never even put it in our bag. I thought, let me call and at least let them refund me or make up for it somehow. And nope the number never answers and you get sent to a hotline to leave a message. Yeah ok. Worse part is. Management will see this, chuckle and more than likely do nothing to make this right. I could care less about the $5 we spent on rice we never got. Its the principle. Over and over again this place dissapoints and there's not one person to take their mistakes by the horns, own it and MAKE THEM RIGHT. Mistakes happen, you shouldn't be defined by your mistakes. But you should absolutely be judged and looked at by how you handle things after. And that's why this Pollo deserves a 1 star. NOBODY WILL EVEN CARE ABOUT THIS. Corporate will look past this and refuse to realize the culture and opperational structure if this location is below standard and needs a change. Oviedo is a small community and if you cared about the community that keeps your location open, you'd do right by them by way of a grand re-opening with a more customer experience driven model. But, who am I. Just a lost...

I've lived near this Pollo Tropical for over three years and I'm not sure why I continue to go there. It's one disappointment after another. From the food taking much longer than it should, to missing items in my order, to dry and overcooked chicken, to rice that tastes like it was cooked that morning and sat in the warmer all day...you would think I've learned my lesson by now.

The latest frustration started with placing an online order that should have been ready at 8pm. I arrive about five minutes after 8pm to find no other customers inside nor in the drive thru, yet my order wasn't ready. I proceeded to wait fifteen minutes, at one point not seeing a single employee behind the counter or in the kitchen (it seemed like they stepped out back for a smoke break). Once my order was ready I quickly checked it, since I know that's necessary when you order from here. It seemed everything was in order. Once home though I realized that my 1/4 chicken and pork duo was missing the pork. Additionally, the quesadilla wrap felt like it came out of the fridge and the rice was clumping together and was even hard or crunchy in some places. I was also missing some of my sauces.

It's clear that the staff here simply doesn't care enough about their jobs or their customers to put in the minimal effort required. It's so frustrating because I love Pollo Tropical but this location just ruins it. What's odd is that every other "restaurant" in this area is the complete opposite. Management at this Pollo Tropical location simply needs to clean house and start from scratch with competent employees. Unfortunately this recent visit was the last straw so I won't be going back. I recommend you take your business elsewhere as well, unless you like being disappointed with your food and...