Pollo Campero Lawndale — Restaurant in Lawndale

Pollo Campero chicken fast food restaurant in Lawndale, California: Excellent food and service, friendly and professional staff, clean restaurant and bathrooms, and free easy parking, although somewhat expensive.

I got a 3-piece meal, which includes 2 side orders and a drink.

Both the chicken thighs and legs are large, juicy, flavorful, and NOT overcooked and dried out - which is a common problem elsewhere. The grilled chicken has a delicious lemon flavor. You can mix fried and grilled chicken pieces in the same meal, which I recommend for your first visit so you can try to decide if you like one better.

I like dark chicken meat (thighs and legs) because it is more moist and flavorful than white meat (breasts). Many other restaurants only serve white chicken meat and do not give you a choice of dark meat.

For 3 pieces, you can ask for 2 thighs and a leg for (presumably) more meat, or two legs and a thigh if you prefer.

You get free drink refills for soda, horchata (a delicious sweet cinnamon drink), a delicious sweet guava and/or peach nectar, and a red berry drink that tastes tart. It is nice that they have horchata - most restaurants do not have that option.

The drinks are self-service, so you can easily mix flavors, and switch flavors for your free refill(s). If you get the horchata, stir it frequently, or at least before drinking, because the cinnamon quickly settles to the bottom.

Definitely get the delicious beans side order if you like beans. It has a mild chili flavor and is NOT too spicy.

The coleslaw is crunchy, not sweet, and has a strong mayonnaise flavor. It tastes okay but not great. I prefer the coleslaw at Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), which tastes somewhat sweet and has less of a mayonnaise flavor.

I prefer the tortillas instead of bread rolls. They taste delicious with some beans and pieces of chicken in them.

The French fries are okay to good. (I think McDonalds has the best French fries if you order them with no salt, so they are made fresh and not over-salted, AND if the employee hangs the deep-fryer basket up over the frying vat long enough for the oil to drain out.)

Pollo Campero has Yuca fries that look like thick short French fries but is made from cassava root. The employee offered me a sample piece when I asked about it. It tastes okay, but has strange leftover fibers after you chew it. I would get a different side order.

The staff was VERY friendly & professional, and was genuinely interested in customers having a good experience. An employee came to my table after I had time to start eating & asked how everything was, which is very welcome but rare for a fast food restaurant. I don't know if that is standard practice here, and if it depends on how busy they are.

There are two large clean single-person male or female bathrooms, which may be a new requirement under the crazy transgender laws the radical Marxist Democrat super-majority in the California state legislature has been passing and the radical Marxist Democrat Governor Gaven Newsom has been signing.

The Democrat transgender bathroom laws result in less efficient use of bathroom space, fewer toilets, and fewer people being able to use the bathroom at a time. They punish the huge majority for a few psych cases.

(California Democrats recently passed a law, 2023 AB 665, that allows schools to send children aged 12 and up to a group home for transgender psych and medical procedures without their parents' knowledge or consent. Other Democrat laws and policies facilitate & encourage early-age sexualization, sexual grooming, and LGBT & transgender conversion of K-12 grade children without their parents' knowledge or consent.

California Dem 2023 SB 407 by Scott Weiner (SF) requires foster parents to "affirm" their young foster children's LGBT & Transgender conversions, even if they're artificially induced in school.

CA Dem 2013 AB 1266 allows students to use opposite-sex facilities, programs & sports teams.)

I'll be returning to Pollo Campero in Lawndale, California when I'm in the area, & I will recommend it...

First time trying Pollo Campero. We ordered the spicy chicken sandwich combo with fries, 9 pc camperitos combo with fries and ranch, 4 pc leg/thigh half grilled half fried combo with rice and beans, plantains, empanadas, a Pepsi and an horchata. The wait was a bit long in the drive-thru and apparently they're being timed so they had me park in front even though no one was in line behind me.

The spicy chicken sandwich, camperitos, fries, fried chicken, rice, beans, empanadas and plantains were good.

The grilled chicken thigh was undercooked in the middle but had good flavor on the outside.

The horchata is not good. We were given diet Pepsi instead of regular Pepsi. The horchata and Diet Pepsi ended up dumped down the sink.

Check your order before you leave. We were missing both orders of fries that came with the combos. I had to drive back to the restaurant to get the fries and ranch.

The food had decent flavor but I do believe the price was a bit much for the quantity and quality not to mention the multiple trips to get the order corrected. My order was over $56. The restaurant isn't in my neighborhood so the food at home was cold by the time I got back with the fries and ranch. Keep in mind when ordering that the combos do not come...

Just tried Pollo Campero. It's good, but it tastes A LOT like "Pioneer Chicken" for those of us old enough to recall that old chicken franchise. The beans, rice and empanadas were also good. The "fail" for me is the cole-slaw -- an insipid concoction of mayo-cream, cabbage and onions -- and something else that I've yet to figure out. The other two drawbacks were A) Their Aguas Frescas aren't "frescas" they're from a powder mix (I took a pass on drinks), and B) the PRICE! $44/12 Piece Family Pack with 3 small sides and 6-rolls. Too rich for my blood, both figuratively and literally. This is a "once in a long while" treat, for sure. They were also unable to give me a receipt because their register wasn't working (?).

8/21/22 UPDATE: Tried the chicken sandwich and it was better than KFC or Chick-Fil-A's -- tender, juicy and flavourful. However, of everything I've tried at Pollo Campero, I am SOLD in their chicken empanadas -- DEEELISH! I Still was not able to get a receipt for my...