El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in Riverside

The food portions at this location are highly inconsistent. One day, you might receive a normal-sized chicken breast; the next, it's smaller than a thigh. Sometimes you get a reasonable portion of beans, and other times you're given barely half a cup. The temperature of the food varies just as much—one day it's piping hot, the next it's lukewarm. The experience seems to depend entirely on who is managing that day. If Gabriel is in charge, you can forget about any sort of quality or care.

To make matters worse, I observed a cook throwing trash away and returning immediately to cutting chicken without washing his hands. For takeout orders, food is placed in a steamed-up container, making it impossible to see what you’re getting until you drive away or get home. Essentially, if you don’t dine in, you’re left guessing about the quality of the meal you paid for.

There is one bright spot: a female employee who works the drive-thru window. She wears red lipstick and always greets customers with a smile and an upbeat attitude. Honestly, she's the only reason I’ve returned to give this location another try. Unfortunately, when she isn’t there, the food and the overall experience are disappointing.

Today, I was served what I thought was a thigh, but it turned out to be an undercooked piece of chicken. The chips were so salty I had to rinse my mouth with water after spitting out half-chewed tortillas. When I went inside to raise the issue, Gabriel told me, “That’s a breast.” I was stunned. He did offer to replace it, which I accepted, but the cook—again, without washing his hands after disposing of trash—proceeded to chop up an even smaller piece of chicken, no bigger than a thin thigh. He then placed the tray on a counter, uncovered, and left it there. I waited about eight minutes watching my food sit there, exposed, while other employees worked around it.

Eventually, Gabriel brought it over—without the side items—and asked, “How does this look to you?” By then, the food was lukewarm, and I was so frustrated with the entire situation that I asked for a refund. For a \

15 meal, it took nearly 25 minutes from ordering to finally getting my money back, which won't even reflect on my card for several days. I’m just thankful it wasn’t my last \\

I’m done with El Pollo Loco. The inconsistency, lack of hygiene, poor service, and declining attitude among staff—especially after the recent ICE protest—have made it clear that something has changed. I have my own thoughts on why that may be, but I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

To the woman at the drive-thru with the red lipstick: you’re a gem. El Pollo Loco doesn’t deserve you, and I wish you nothing but success in...

So we went here after our workout. First off the cashier girl just could NOT get our order correct. We had to go over it several times.....and she STILL GOT IT WRONG. We were double charged for a cup of corn and i had to go back and get a refund. Next, when we got our order my husband had ordered a DOUBLE CHICKEN AND AVOCADO salad and, if you look at the picture and the one it is supposed to be there is no similarity. There was one and a half slices of avocado and a few pieces of chicken. The iceberg lettuce was old, there was barely any cheese (plus it didnt have any flavor) and there was less than a teaspoon sour cream. Not what was advertised. So disappointed. I wish I could get my money back on that. Plus the salsa bar was messy, the green salsa needed to get a refill, and the overall restaurant needed to be cleaner with less flies flying around. Would not recommend...

Update July 27, 2018:

I had gotten an automated response from El Pollo Loco asking me to fill out a form. So I did that and now I will wait to see what they have to say. Should they satisfactorily resolve part of my issue I may adjust my rating. Will see if that happens...

2nd update: August 7th 2018

NO RESPONSE! DID NOT RESOLVE THE PROBLEM!

So a week has gone by and I still have not received a reply from Corporate regarding my experience. I had filled out their customer form as requested so apparently nobody in customer care is reading them (HELLO!!! ANYONE THERE?!?) Yeah, so because of this I will not be visiting an El Pollo Loco anytime soon, if ever, (I have written other restaurants off my list...like Burger King) so I don't have a problem writing off and leaving my one star rating. DO NOT GO HERE, they...

I’m so upset and disappointed...and I’m feeling really sick and I chipped my tooth while I found a weird thing in my salad that was covered with chicken and lettuce, I never really paid attention before I take a bite. The most disgusting thing I did in my life I threw up everything right away and I thank God that I never choked on that piece of plastic . And very worried that maybe it can happen to a child or anybody they would’ve choked. It looked like a blue rubber inside the plastic piece. I can honestly say that was one of my worst day ever. I usually don’t like to leave bad reviews on yelp but this one is really disgusting. they got me really sick and that was a waste of $40 to spend and honestly the customer service wasn’t great I was standing in line and the cashier seemed like she doesn’t want to work every customer walks to her the first thing she says was “anything you going to order it’s going to take 25 to 30 minutes” which basically seemed like don’t eat here!!! some of the people left because they don’t want to wait And some stayed. I feel like I did the wrong choice in my life to stop and eat there. Worst decision....