El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in Lake Forest

I'll stop by this El Pollo Loco once in a while when I'm in the area. It's been about every Tuesday the past few weeks since I use the app to get the $5 lunchbox that they offer. And El Pollo Loco usually delivers good food at a good price. And with the app you can even get reward points to use... so for my money, El Pollo Loco is probably the healthiest and most reasonably priced of all the fast food chains. And at this particular location the staff is usually pretty nice. I've even had a worker recognize me from one of the other El Pollo Loco's I go to. I probably eat there too much... but for the most part the fast food workers are usually pretty nice. Especially considering they aren't the best paying jobs and I doubt they get any kind of medical benefits. So with fast food workers they deserve the benefit of the doubt. And people probably, me included, don't fully appreciate how much works go into prepping the meals. And definitely no one recognizes the workers in the back since they are out of sight. But it's just the world...

This location is allowing indoor and outdoor dining. They have added or changed I should say, a lot of things on the menu. There are tacos, burritos, bowls and a lot of new sides to go along with their standard Chicken Meals which are 2,3,4 and 8 pieces plus 2 sides. I didn't see if this store had french fries but some of them do. The reason for the 3 stars is it is still a countertop transaction and the line to order plus the gang waiting around the counter for their order to be called makes it crowded and awkward. The service was good but you could hardly hear your name being called with the chaos in the lobby and we sat outside. Walked up and the food had been sitting there. It would have been nice if they could have announced it loud enough, used the PA and turned on the speaker outside or walked it out to us rather than leave it getting cold on the counter. Just a thought. Oh yeah and they are no cheap...

We love their food. I have had some problems using the app. I have $10 in El Pollo Loco credit which I think shod spend like cash. But it doesn't, it's treated like a coupon. So today, I ordered the Double Chicken Avacado Fit bowl and I had a coupon for $6 which is about a buck fifty off. The cashier scanned my coupon but when I tried to redeem my Loco cash the register rejected it. So I told the cashier to void the coupon and I'll use the Loco cash. Since the total was now $7.85 I cancelled my previous redemption of $7 and tried to create a new redemption for the new total. The app refused to allow me to create the new redemption saying you can only do one redemption a day. Very frustrating. This is the 3rd time I have tried to redeem my points and had it rejected for some...