El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in Mesa

Had the worst experience ever at this location. I had the unfortunate event of ordering my food and getting home to find that my order was wrong!!! I ordered TWO chicken bowls , one for me and one for my husband. Along with 2 chicken legs for my 2 small kids,,, well not to mention that not only did I have to miss out on dinner with my family and drive back 15MINUTES , but I also got such a disapontment with the managers way of "fixing" things. Since they did not get my order right and failed to add a second chicken bowl to my order the "kind" store manager was going to give me 2 free chicken bowls ( I would get home and have 3 chicken bowls) ,,, I said no , I don't need 3 chicken bowls I only need what I ordered 2 chicken bowls. I said I wanted my order refund since I had to drive back and miss dinner with my family and my time and gas is not free , and giving me a 3rd bowl would not work since we are only two at home. The assistant manager Guillermo said no, his boss the store manager told him I get 2 bowls and that's it!! When I asked him what he wanted me to do with the third extra bowl that I didn't need, he shrug his shoulders and said that's all you get. He got his store manager on the phone and I got the same attitude from him. I'm not pleased that they tried solving the problem by being wasteful with food after I told them it was no good since no one would eat it and would just be WASTED FOOD. They could of just refunded my order of only $20, APPOLIGIZED for their mistake instead of giving me attitude , saved a paying coustomer, and NOT HELD UP THEIR DRIVE THRU LINE for another 15 minutes and piss off even more customers. As a business owner my self, I would rather lose $20 and keep my coustomer happy and coming back ,,,than to anger them by "fixing" my mistake with what I THINK is right even after the fact they just told me it would be wasteful. As I was leaving with my one chicken bowl the asistant Guillermo was so apologetic and said if it was up to him it would have been a different story. I wonder if he really sympathized to see me so irritated or if he just said that since I asked for regional managers information. Sooo what did I leave with after that? Just the 1 chicken bowl that was missing to begin with ,,, AND STILL WRONG!!! I asked for no tomatoes or pico de gallo,,,and yes sir, sure enough my food had pico de gallo on it when I got home. I even double checked that the only tomatoes on it was the one from the pico and the lady said yes. It's sad since I'm pregnant and have been having cravings of their pollo bowl and I had been there 3 TIMES THIS WEEK. Still have proof of my receipts that I plan on e -mailing their regional manager Jose Camarena. Shame on me for not reading their reviews before going to this location. Sad to read so many people are dissatisfied as well with...

At first it was good until at least 1 employee were being very disrespectful. In my opinion it was 2 employees. I couldn't get the other ones name but the one I managed to get his name was called, "Jullian". I can't believe how they acted on my personal conversation with my wife while we were dining in. I was being a little loud but I was trying to get it in control so that others will not be affected but the 2 employees they were trying to make fun of some sort and it aggravated me even more. It was a very disappointing act by El Polo Loco for not training these people better so that they can be empowered to handle these type of situation. I can understand if one of them came up to me and said if I were going to keep this up they will have to ask me to leave but instead they wanted to aggravate me even more for their fun and joy. I didn't ask for a refund nor did I finish my meal due to their action. It was just a simple feisty conversation any couple could've had in public not knowingly but I did try to put a lid in it before it escalate into something else. They had no rights to do what they did. In simular cases people that tries to aggravate between couples have got senses beating into to them. I did not go that route instead I decided to call and talk to the GM OF THIS LOCATION. I know training employees for these type of situation takes no more than 5 minutes during training. Employees will follow directions as long as standard was there to follow.

In summary, they had no rights, I left El Polo Loco hungry after paying for the meal, and was very upset leaving. This is the first of maybe 15 El Polo Loco I've been to that gave me these feelings. Some El Polo Loco were visited by me on many occasions. This makes me questions the management position at this location. I actually don't blame the employee but I blame the managers for not doing their job for this location because other locations were very respectful versus this no respect for others at all. I hope this will help El Polo Loco better this location and not have this type of scenario happens ever again.

I know this was a very long review but I wanted all informations there for others to understand how undermanage this location is.

Will I stop going to El Polo Loco entirely? I don't think so, but definitely will not return...

I asked my cashier Teresa if they still offered the tortilla roll combo. She turned to her coworker and said something in Spanish. She then rung me up and said the total would be $11.88. This seemed a little high but I didn't worry about it. Once I tapped my card I asked which sides came with it. She told me that it didn't come with a side because they didn't offer the combo as I had previously asked. She charged me for 2 tortilla rolls and a drink. She didn't hand me the drink so I was confused. I walked back up and said can I have my drink cup. I was ignored until another associate handed me one. When I got my tortilla rolls (with no side) I was really hungry so I just told myself to eat it and go. When I bit in It was cold. The cheese was still in shredded form and not melted at all. When I took it back Teresa didn't say anything she just took it back. I watched the lady get 2 new tortillas out and scrape the filling from my old tortillas into the new one. She then put them on the grill press and rolled them up and sent them back out. The cheese was melted but the chicken was slightly warm still. This is the worst fast food experience I have ever had. I hope I don't get sick from the low overall temperature of the chicken. Teresa needs to be coached on how to deal with customers instead of making me feel like a free loader. All I wanted was a tortilla roll combo. If it was unavailable all She had to say is no we don't offer it and I would have got something else. I will never return to Pollo Loco because of this horrible experience. My order # was 152 @ 12:19 pm on 12/6/22. I left a bad survey as well. This is unacceptable service. When I was leaving my voice-mail I had to talk low because the staff was starring at me knowing that I was leaving a bad survey. How...