Taqueria el pollo — Restaurant in Springfield

Best Authentic Mexican in Springfield. I have had numerous things. I always judge a mexican restaurant first on their tamales. These were great, masa was fresh, cakelike & moist, not like a wet sponge which some places in town seem to think is how a tamale should be. Pork filling was perfectly seasoned. Pollo Chimichanga was very good as well, freshly fried and crisp. Plain Carnitas plate I tried was also very good, with pork braised wonderfully. Highlight so far was the Verde Carnitas, came with same braised pork, with grilled onions swimming in a delicous tangy fresh verde sauce. Flour tortillas were fresh and tasted homemade, which I am pretty sure they were. Freshly fried corn chips as well with each meal. I lived out west for some years and this rivals, if not beats alot of places I have had. I enjoy they have a large selection of real sugar mexican...

Service was great, no complaints there, chips and salsa also given upon seating which also was fine. The main issue was with the food! Stopped in at peak lunch time and ordered a simple cheese quesadilla with rice and beans. First, the rice and beans were both cold somehow, not even warm. The rice was extremely bland. Didn’t seem to have any veggies or anything in it let alone flavor. Tasted like cold plain rice with orange coloring. The quesadilla was the only thing hot on the plate, but I expected authentic Mexican, and the cheese here was not your traditional Oaxaca or chihuahua. It was a processed white cheese similar to kraft singles, with a plasticky taste. The only thing on the plate I was able to finish was the beans and only because I was hungry and had spent $9.05 on this...

I’ve gotten food here several times before and enjoyed it, but the past couple times have gone downhill and tonight was the worst. First I arrived to pick up and they had no clue about my order — they hadn’t paid attention to online orders. They said it would be 5 minutes. It was three times that long. Then I checked my meal and it had the wrong enchilada sauce. They said they didn’t have the one I ordered. But did they say anything to me? No. Not while I was waiting, not when they gave me my order. They just chose another sauce, which was one I don’t like so I had to wait AGAIN for them to remake it. Then when we got home, my wife took out her quesadilla and it was missing kind of a key element for that meal — cheese! It had all the other fillings...