El Pollo Guapo — Restaurant in Hartford

I stumbled upon this small nice looking (or what it seemed to be) new restaurant in the downtown area while out finding cool spots for my brother to eat at while he is attending college in the downtown area. The lively music and the positioning right across the street in a medium exposure area from the local's favorite restaurant Bear's, I was delighted to walk in and have a bite with my family. Immediately upon heading to the registers to place my order I gaze upon the tables only to see how incredibly dirty they were. The menu was quite simple and as the name of this place establishes, is comprised of all chicken dishes. Everyone in my party ordered something different. We had ordered the House Fries, Hola Guapo tacos, nachos, two fountain sodas and a cheese quesadilla. After receiving my cup I went to fill it at the fountain. The soda machine was in a similar state to the tables, dirty. I sat down at what seemed to be the cleanest table that was available, still a bit dirty and had some dried soda crust on it.

We were served our food in a timely manner of about 7 minutes. We began to eat. First thing we all noticed: everything was over-seasoned/salted to a degree where it is almost inedible. It was past the give or take heavy hand normal margin of seasoning quantities. Even the fries were overpowered by the saltiness and lime flavoring placed on it. I would say the fries were the worst part of the dining experience.

Onto the tacos. They were good, we liked that they had a fair amount of guacamole on them but I think it needed some vegetable coloring. I mean like peppers, more onions (it was very light) and some salsa or pico to accompany it.

The nachos were not very colored with veggies or cheesy too. Just like the tacos they could've been better with some salsa or pico.

Lastly on the quesadilla: the onions in it were not high quality. For the price (relative to the downtown pricing) it could've been better.

What they did good: Portions were adequate for an adult Environment felt nice and welcoming I love that they offer our state's local soda from Hosmer Mountain

What could be improved: Staff hands on, they were not very customer centric. I had no problems although. Reduce the seasoning and salting of the above mentioned dishes Clean the tables, seats and the soda dispenser

Conclusion: It's good for people who spend their days in the Downtown Hartford area and are not willing to travel too far out for something different.

I'd...

I came here and asked if they could make something vegan— i wasn’t expecting them to say yes but they said they could and they have a sign posted that says they can accommodate vegan options. I was clear with my expectations asking for vegan food and making sure i made sure nothing had dairy or eggs because i understand some people don’t know the difference between vegetarian and vegan. They then brought me tacos with both cheese and aioli— i brought it to their attention and they made it again but then it had aioli on it still. I asked if the aioli was vegan and they said it was but i was skeptical after doing some research so i came back and asked if they could check the allergy information because i’m also lactose intolerant and also didn’t want to feel sick. After they checked they informed me that it was not vegan. They made it again for me and it was decent, however I wish they were able to make it correctly the first time because it defeats the purpose of not eating dairy if it’s just going to be thrown away. It also worries me for people with allergies and more serious dietary restrictions. I’m glad they were able to eventually accommodate me however staff should be more well versed in the meaning of dietary restrictions as well as communication with kitchen staff so information isn’t lost in...

Went here before a show last week I ordered a tortilla soup & a taco…The taco had was a weird on to order, it had mushrooms chicken and Brussels sprouts as well as feta cheese rotisserie chicken & tomato…it was just gross too much going on especially the sauce….but probably my own fault because when I think about it it doesn’t sound good…The soup was super thick…I’ve never seen tortilla soup made like that and I lived on a border town for years..It also had almost no chicken…not sure if it was the end of it or that’s how they make it, but after a few bites I tossed it…I just did not care for the food at all…The other thing is their hours it was like a twenty to 8 when we went in and I felt like they just wanted us to leave so they could lock up…we had to put all our garbage in a little white bag because they had everything done for the night…who wants to feel like people are eyeing you to leave…The bigger girl who took our order was also not really friendly…all in all it was not a good experience for me…my bf & his son liked their food….ground meat tacos…that was the only meat options chicken or ground beef…I will not be returning…They must do good business to be able to close at 8 o’clock on a Friday night…but I wanted to share...