El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in Santa Ana

Today, 8-7-2025 I had lunch at El Pollo Loco on Bristol in SA. My experience was so disappointing on every level. I haven't been to a Pollo Loco in more than a year ago and I was very excited to eat there. So now they have the screens for people to order digitally and it was painful to see people not understand the new ordering process, and to see the employee just shout out instructions and walk away, and letting people that don't understand the system to try to order. Then when finally it was my turn to order, I ordered a Cobb Salad with avocado. When I got the salad, the lettuce was soggy and the avocado was so hard that I broke the plastic fork trying to cut it. So, I only took a few bites and I just didn't like it. So I decided to not eat the salad and instead try a quesadilla. I went to get in line again, and again it was painful to see people trying to order by themselves on the computer screen with no help from the staff. There were several people ahead of me and the line was just not moving because people didn't understand how to order. I finally just decided to leave. I left hungry and very frustrated at the whole experience. It's too bad because I have always loved El Pollo Loco. I think the worst part is that they replaced cashiers with these machines to order. They don't care that most people, especially seniors, don't understand how to order. I understood how to order but it pained me to see people struggle, and to see that the employees don't care. I will not...

I would give a 0 if it were possible. To start off Jason was incredibly unprofessional, but at the end of the day it’s pollo loco so it’s not like we were there for the service. They charged us for mango habanero chicken but didn’t even add the sauce. A simple task. When we called to complain about the mistake, the person on the phone was once again very rude. They then proceeded to not only accuse us of saying “rude things” ( which they never even clarified what they believed that we “said”) on the intercom but also threatened to not serve us again if we “said something” again and hung up very rudely before even letting us finish or get any of her information. The woman at the window (whom I forgot to add also slammed the window on us after asking for water) was around 40, short, with black hair and light brown skin. I’m not sure if this was the same individual on the phone but they should also be mentioned just in case. If you take a quick glance at the reviews you will see this is not an isolated incident. Corporate needs to step in and put these guys in check!

We will now exclusively be going to the Newport Pollo loco as they actually get your order right and don’t raise false accusations when you call them out on...

if i could give negative i would.No customer service they need to be retrained, this happened at about 5 something called the store women answered and was rude from the moment i told her that they forgot half the order and then they lied and said they gave it all to me in 3 bags while talking to her she kept muting me so that I could not hear them. I advised them to go through there footage and they will see for them selves they only gave me two bags I also waited a few minutes trying to put the food somewhere so it won't fall ,drive through guy said ok thats it and and so we left. I had to take everything back so that they can see that it was missing when I got there she was still rude arguing that they gave me all of the food and that she couldn't replace the chicken that they gave us because we had already opened them and grab them she said she can't because they would have to toss them out. I told her well toss them out I want fresh ones because they would be cold by the time we got home. She replaced them but with a snotty attitude...