Don Pollo Mexican Grill El Original — Restaurant in West Valley City

Not what I expected. Still Very Good!

I was looking for a place where you can order a chimichanga or flauta smothered in sauce and cheese, with beans and rice on the side, add sour cream and guacamole. I ate such a platter in many restaurants in Arizona when I lived there.

I called ahead to ask whether the chips and salsa are unlimited when you eat -in. They ARE. Orders to-go are sent with a portion of chips and salsa. The man who answered the phone was friendly and did not rush me. I did choose to go there with my family. We ordered 3 chicken tacos and 3 steak tacos.

The atmosphere or layout of the place is what surprised me. There aren't many tables. It is designed with a high counter to the left of the salsa bar. You order at that counter and get your order number. There was a tv playing ⚽. Each time the phone rang it was answered in Spanish. Each time they called an order up, they said it in Spanish first, then in English. There is a tip jar to the left at the order counter.

The tacos were arranged neatly, with jalapeño and onions in the center. Each taco was a small corn tortilla on top of a corn tortilla with seasoned, grilled meat inside. I ate 2.5 and my son ate 3.5. We drank complimentary water. We were full from what we ordered. We disposed of our own plates and napkins. There were about 4 parties dining in when we entered at 2:40pm on a Saturday, and while we were there (about 25 minutes), several more came in. No flies, no hairs, no saucy messes. I recommend it.

I believe it may be a family-owned place, with additional staff. Everyone is polite. The place is not dirty, rather there is white paint stain on the floor and there were some crumbs in one spot on the floor. A quick sweeping would fix that. I did not visit the restroom but there were no unpleasant scents from the entire establishment. I plan to visit again, ordering more tacos with a side of beans. Their menu is simple. They have a chalkboard of specials around the $7 range (tacos, tamales, quesadillas, burrito + drink) and a sides menu. They have a chicken menu, ranging from the choice to buy 2 pieces of chicken up to a Whole Chicken. I spent $9.71 for the 6 tacos my family ate.

They make their huge batches of chips fresh every 2 hours. They also make their salsa every 2 hours. They serve green salsa and red salsa. The chips are sprinkled with chili powder or something else red. The back of the place near the entrance to the restrooms did have some smoke from the grill. It did not smell bad. I remember thinking we would likely smell like a grill restaurant when we left. My teen son said he would rate it a 3.5 but I liked it so I...

Here are my 2 cents over this restaurant ... Yesterday I was looking for something to eat for lunch time close to home, so I have got checked out over Google typing "Food near to me". Then some of the most common commercial options popped out over the map based on my location and always go for the none commercial chains restaurant and I saw this pin over the map where took my attention because it's almost 5 stars rating and most of them has many good reviews about the food they have. And is located just behind of many of those mexican food money laundry businesses around the country that personally won't dine on it. Well first thing I liked is close to me within 3 miles to drive up to get there. So I embarked to get there, once I'm staying over asked for the pastor tacos as a "give it try" mode and mexican pop soda as first timer. I was attended by the owner that turned out we have the same first name, and the odds ... Coincidence we wore camo shorts and black shirt that day and of course we are not fan of the same mexican soccer team. So this person was so nice, amicable and personally he fixed my tacos and let me tell you those were pretty good! This is a restaurant that I would/will try some else from their menu soon for sure! The menu is basic and easy to read and doesn't have that overwhelming tons of items BUT! what they have, it seems to solid and mainly good. I checked out many other person's plates and what they had in front of them looks fine to me. Usually I don't write comments and take the time for it. BUT this one...

I chose to come here for Mother's Day and it was not the best experience. They didn't have prices on the wall menu, so they gave us paper menus. We went off the prices in that menu and when it was time to pay they charged me $40 more. They said their prices had gone up but they hadn't updated the menus. After a big push they finally took the extra costs off and matched the prices they handed us in the beginning. I spent 20 minutes trying to clear the check meanwhile missing out on hanging out with my kids at the table. I would advise not going here if you have more than 4 people. We had a party of 8. They would bring meals two at a time with about 5-10 minutes wait in between. Then halfway they told us the food ticket was lost and asked for our orders again. I was bummed that we didn't get our food all at once. It felt bad to eat in front of those who didn't have their food, but we also we didn't want the food to get cold. The restaurant atmosphere felt very bare, we've been here before and loved the Mexico feel. The walls are pretty bare now, it just had an empty feeling. The workers were nice and were scrambling to bring each meal out. A few orders were wrong, but they were great to fix it right away. I don't think we will be back. Their prices have gone up quite a bit and it just doesn't have the warm Mexican feel it used to. The food is very delicious though! So if you're okay with all I've described you should...