El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I have never been so disappointed in service at el pollo loco. We tried to place an order at the drive thru, unsuccessfully. Everything we ordered was refused.. the excuse, we are short on chicken so we are not offering meals. Then when we asked for a manager there was no response. We literally sat at the speaker 5 minutes before someone came to the speaker, only to say "we don't have that much chicken!" Thennnnn to make matters worse, when we arrived to the window they didn't open it up for another 5 to 7 minutes. I literally called inside the restaurant to speak to the manager Elizabeth to complain while sitting at the window. Of course Elizabeth never came to the window. And im still sitting here waiting for the food we were finally able to order. Ridiculous! It's dinnertime we've been at work since 6am and have to come here to deal with a very rude, unprofessional staff. Not to mention we've been coming here for years and now this? Must be new...

Visited drive thru was my very 1st time ever to eat El Pollo Loco. They was patient with my slow ordering, mainly cus I was only person there. Overall the service was good. The food however, did not live up to expectations. If you only do chicken. Why isn't it the BEST darn chicken EVER? Had enchiladas & a chicken avocado burrito. Neither was very flavorful. Chicken specifically was not very tasty. It was bland like it was boiled in water with nothing, no seasoning or anything. Like the flavor was boiled out. Feel bad every time a see a commercial for them now. I wanted it to be good order more than I should have cus not wanting to waste I ate bad food. It was torture to force myself to eat that bad tasting chicken. The sides we ok.. the chicken/Pollo was not! Maybe that's why it's crazy, crazy bad tasting.? Again sorry to the nice workers who are politely...

In a word: Awful I have complained numerous times (to management, on the telephone customer survey) and the place is getting worse! The interior (counter, salsa bar, tables and the bathroom) are ALL unsanitary. There are a number of homeless persons who wander in and out helping themselves to free soda and salsa items. Management witnesses this but does nothing to stop it.

The service is EXTREMELY slow. I waited in the drive though today for about 12 minutes (there were 2 cars ahead of me) only to be told upon my arrival at the window they no longer had white meat chicken and I'd have to park and wait for an additional 5 minutes. This was 2:30 in the afternoon on a Sunday with not many cars in the parking lot.

They need to replace management and revamp their customer service and cleanliness guidelines. That was my last trip to...