Fast-food chain outpost known for Mexican classics made with fire-grilled chicken.
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El Pollo Loco has been our 'go-to chicken place until today, when what happened with the food makes us think twice about future visits.
We ordered a basic family meal with two sides (beans and coleslaw) to 'go. When we starting eating the coleslaw, we spit it out! Why? There was a heavy scented taste of a cleaner (like a Fabuloso-type scent).
It was awful. One thing we look forward to is the coleslaw. It is DANGEROUS, the mixing of cleaning products with food!!!
We drove back to the El Pollo Loco where we purchased the family meal. At first the manager (Marissa?) wanted to know if we wanted another coleslaw. We refused. It too was probably tainted with 'cleaning fluid. Then she was offering just to 'refund the side' and give another side of choice. Really? She ended up refunding our original cost for the meal. She also said she had 'just came on shift'. Maybe she said this to indicate that she wasn't there when coleslaw was made. Hopefully she'll check the batch, find out who made it, dispose of the batch and discipline the person(s) responsible.
I remember walking into the Mission Valley location a few months ago and walking immediately 'out. Why? It was because of them mopping the floor with some heavily scented cleaner. A cleaner (similar to Fabuloso) that, today from the Genesee store ended up "flavoring" the coleslaw. 😝🤢🤮 sickening, gross #El Pollo Loco...
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El Pollo Loco is probably the best fast food bang for your buck. Double chx tostada salad mmmmh (appx 7$) is a serious fast food value. Hard to beat. This place revolves around delicious fresh grilled chx. 10X better than chipotle. The staff at this location are chill laid back latinos, that keep that hustle going back there around that grill (easy communication). I'm a regular at this location. Been here a 100+ times. Never had a single issue. Always clean. If you held a gun to my head and forced me to make a complaint, I'd say the pico de gallo could be little fresher sometimes. Overall though, it doesn't get much better then this spot for the price. Not to mention it's in a great location. FYI. I always find a spot but the parking does fill up. Drive thru is hardly ever busy. Usually takes no longer than 5 min to get my food after I make the order. Very fast fresh food. FYI. For all those looking for a reasonably healthy EBT choice, this...
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My order was fast and correct but the process of placing it could definitely use improvement.
The employee working the drive through was very distracted when taking my order. I repeated it to him 2 times and when he repeated it back to me he didn't have 1 thing correct. I again told him what I wanted, which wasn't complicated or custom at all, and he still only got half of it correct. After the 4th time repeating myself I just went with whatever he got at that point, which was short 1 item I'd originally wanted. I didn't feel like repeating myself another time. I'm not sure what the issue was, it was 2 hours until closing, they weren't busy at all (1 car in front of me), and the speaker seemed to be loud and clear. The food was good, hot, and served fast.
All in all, I won't let this experience keep me from going there again but if it happens another time in the futute I'll most likely be trying out a...
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