Pollo Campero Springfield — Restaurant in Virginia

So It all started with my 1st visit to El Pollo Campero in Springfield Virginia, first of all I want to say Kudos to El Pollo Campero for bringing the Franchise to the states, before 1998 the only way to savor the taste of home was to find out when my brother in law was coming back from El Salvador to bring me some Campero Chicken with out first filling the entire plane with smelly aromas of fried chicken from El Pollo Campero and making everyone on board hungry, with that been said there are the ones that say that it is not the same as the one from back home, but that is just a personal opinion, "Popeyes Chicken is Better for me"

any ways that is not wha I'm here for, I recently got a receipt from Campero register that prompts me to take a survey in return I could get two ( juice, tasty, finger liking good pieces of chicken, well the chicken is not to die for, since the survey link doesn't work, I.'m interested on the level of costumer service than anything else, if Campero is going to compete with the bigger chains of fried chicken they are in for a rough ride, of course as long as they have a market they will be okay. So my first experience was when I asked for a fork and the person bringing the order looked at the other person on the register taking the orders and they both looked like... hey is not my job right.!! well I ended up with no utensils, having to scoop my coleslaw with a chicken bone I had just eaten,

the second experience is that I placed an order of Grilled chicken the Lady behind the front counter said to the guy at the register we have a hundred grilled prices if he wants more, we all laugh at the comment... well they brought regular fried chicken,

well i waited a very long time for my order, I had to go to the restroom when I came back my order was not ready yet, I assumed that my name was called and my order was ready it was just that my name got called once whileI I was in the restroom, and that was it, they did not call me a second time or 3rd time if needed,

i don't want the two free pieces of chicken I just want a better costumer service, because even the survey link doesn't take you to the correct site to claim you two tasty pieces of Campero chicken.....

please adjust your level of costumer service not everyone visiting your stores are Central American Costumers that are used to low quality of service that keep coming back for more just because that is what we are accustomed to.

thank you,

your very dissatisfied...

My first time trying this restaurant, I got a 4 piece mixed chicken meal with a large drink. I must say, I was impressed! The fried chicken was very flavorful, crispy, and juicy. My meal came with fried breast and wings, and grilled leg and thigh. The fried breast was surprisingly still juicy considering it was the breast, and the flavors exploded in my mouth! The same can be said for the grilled chicken too. Delicious, juicy flavors bursting in my mouth with every single bite. What more could you want?

For my sides, I got to select 2 for this meal. I got the regular fries and the yuca fries. Both were amazing. Yuca was big and thick, but also crispy when hot. Regular fries tasted very similar to McDonald's, and still pretty darn delicious.

My meal also came with a free dipping sauce and a bag of 2 tortillas. The tortillas were warm, but had a strange stale texture. I would not recommend the tortillas as I had expected them to be softer overall.

I came back the next day for my family to try out. I ordered from the app since I had a $10 off any meal coupon. I ordered the 12 piece meal which comes with 12 pieces of chicken (I got mixed legs and thighs), 3 sides (I picked the same regular and yuca fries with an additional rice side), and additional tortillas or dinner rolls (or both if you want). I went with the dinner roll this time and I got 6 of them, even though they were listed as 4 on the app (which was a plus!). When I came to the store, the manager working there told me that the grilled chicken was still cooking which would be ready in about 5 minutes or so. I waited, and she came back out and offered me a free drink, which was very nice of her! Great customer service there.

After my food was ready, I drove home which was around 10 minutes away from the restaurant. Even after 10-15, the food was still amazing. The fried chicken was still crispy and not too overwhelmingly greasy. The rice was pleasantly seasoned, nothing too crazy. Pretty much the same experience as the last time I had it, except with a lot more food. The side portions increase with each meal upgrade, so you're really getting a bang for you're buck.

With my experience, I am sure to...

I was shopping in the area and decided to stop in as I had this marked down to try. Quite a range of items and what's nice is that with the 4-piece combo you can split between the grilled and fried chicken. I did the 4-piece combo: fried thigh, fried breast, grilled thigh, grilled breast, side of beans, and side of fried yucca (plus tortillas.) I was also tempted to get one of the fried chicken sandwiches.

Even with a drive home of about 10-15 minutes, everything held up well. Fried chicken, sandwich, and yucca wer still pretty crispy. Flavors were really good: fried chicken was seasoned, but not too salty and not remotely oily/greasy, grilled chicken had a nice variety of kind of an Gerber seasoning, beans were great, and the sandwich was perfect (I used the orangish sauce to dip it in. Not sure what it is, but it worked with everything.)

Small negatives in that the tortillas were just two, basic corn tortillas in a plastic bag that was slightly warmed. They kind of crumbled/cracked and I'm guessing they were just like a standard grocery store tortilla. And not totally a negative, but I'd recommend ordering ahead. We did a walk-in and I'd say it took about 20 minutes or so to get the order. There were a few people ahead of us. Upside is things seemed...