El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in Santa Clarita

We've always liked this location and El Pollo Loco in general... until December 7, 2020, when we ordered a chicken tinga burrito that contained a shard of metal. We had cut the burrito in half for our 11-year-old daughter and she had already eaten half on Dec. 7, so when we reheated the other half the following day on December 8, we were horrified to find an actual SHARD OF METAL that looked like it came off of a serving utensil/ etc. in the burrito. We had no idea if she had ingested any metal the day before and immediately called El Pollo Loco corporate and the LA County Health Department to file reports. So, I worked in the restaurant industry for 13 years of my life, including in management. Rule one when something like this happens, and it absolutely does happen, is to call the customer and make sure everyone is ok. But did this location bother to so much as pick up the phone? Absolutely not. So I followed up by sending a form email through their online contact. Then I called again on Dec. 28, and again, Sally the rep tells me that the store will contact me immediately, and again, they do not. Then again in January I call asking Sally the rep, is El Pollo Loco actually NOT that concerned about my 11-year-old child or metal in their food? She again promised at least the courtesy of a phone call, which again didn't happen. At this point, I reach out to LA Health Department again (I mean, obviously they have bigger problems, but I did want to follow up), and have now contacted a lawyer. The food was frozen and saved, and everything has been thoroughly documented by phone and written records. It is now February and they have STILL not contacted me, so here I find myself on google to warn others of the danger of this location and the unprofessionalism of this staff, this location's management, and El Pollo Loco corporate.

UPDATE for the owner/ manager, posted below: I have already done that twice. Instead, if you are serious about addressing this, you can call me. I left my number on the form emails twice and with Sally in customer service...

Pollo Loco usually is a go-to for good food but this time it was mostly disappointing. I was going home to Anaheim after helping out my friend (who has Cancer) for a few days in Santa Clarita. GPS said there was an accident and a "slowdown of one hour. " (yikes!) I decided to kill time by going to eat. The atmosphere in this Pollo Loco is a bit odd. It almost looks as if a movie crew had worked to make the place look a bit dimmer. No napkins in the empty napkin dispenser. No iced tea cannisters. There was still sun but somehow even the sun seemed dim inside. The place was adequately clean but it just felt...dark. I looked at the menu. All the good deals were mostly gone. Only the Pollo Bowl and the Three Tacos Al Carbon were the last remnants of a more inexpensive era. I ordered the Pollo Bowl asking for NO Pico De Gallo. I am not a stereotypical Mexican who loves overly spicy "hot" food. My mom was. She got the hottest chilis and thought they were tame. I get heartburn at the drop of a hat. Another thong I am not is a habitual soda drinker. Water, iced tea and hot tea are my usual choices. Sometimes juice. Here they (like in many fast food places) got rid of the iced tea and pushed the sugar. However, among all the soda choices, there were two Minute Made juices. I sampled both. The Lemon Lime and the Strawberry (or was it Raspberry?). Still some sugar but actually quite tasty. I went with the Strawberry (or Raspberry). Turns out the beverage was the best part of the meal. The staff were respectful and professional enough. My food came quickly. They DID follow my instructions NOT to include Pico De Gallo but this particular PL puts too much "heat" in the beans and it distracted from the meal. Worse the chicken was not White meat as most PL do, it was obviously dark meat. My food was edible but the overly spicyness distracted and it wasn't really satisfying to me. It also seemed a smaller bowl and instead of three tortillas (as the one in Anaheim does (or at least, used to do) I got two. Overall, it was...

Came through the drive-threw ordering a Keto Burrito and a Quesadilla with a large tea. At the time of my visit they didn’t have any tropical tea but it took way too long for them to understand what I wanted. I simply asked for a black tea( after I found out tropical was out) and they made it unnecessarily complicated. I spent about 20 minutes waiting through the drive though and at the window was properly greeted however had to ask twice for creamy cilantro. Once I got home and dug in, the quesadilla was fine and yummy but the burrito was terrible. The tortilla smelled really bad and it was a dry and bland burrito. Not enough creamy or salsa pico. There were pieces of cilantro and tomatoes on the outside which leads me to believe that they don’t clean their stations. Which worries me because I didn’t see anyone inside wearing gloves, not even the person I assume to be the grill master. I got adequate salsa aside from the cilantro sauce but the chips were terrible! They tasted honestly like dust, they’ve must of been sitting for a while. What also worried me about this visit was the fact that they poured my black tea with a 10 or so quart container instead of the usual tap. The container wasn’t properly covered on top or sitting on ice. It was exposed and tea easily spoils when left out. This location regularly misses with things like chips or even whole items too! I’m still mad about the whole chips and guacamole fiasco I as with them. They missed putting it in my bag and when I called the guy was rude and inconsiderate. It was like he didn’t care that I was missing a part of my order! When I came through they ended up giving my guac to me but there were no apologies at all. Same situation happened when they missed an entire classic tostada in my order. I came back after driving home and realizing it was missing. They didn’t offer anything to compensate and instead just gave us the cold tostada that was...