El Pollo Loco — Restaurant in Yorba Linda

I will NEVER darken the door of this location again. Because I know I'll be vilified for this review, let me say that I am a business owner and as a business owner the customer is ALWAYS the primary priority. This is especially true in the service industry. Today El Pollo Loco was not staffed primarily by El Pollo Loco employees but rather by a group named Clear Motivations, which was evidently an adult special needs group. Let me say I fully support this kind of group, but it was not appropriate during a lunch hour rush, especially since one of the special needs employees and his assistant were sitting at a table on break leaving the front counter even more understaffed. Fast food is key during a lunch hour, fast being the operative word. There is a time crunch for most of us. I stood in line third and it took me ten minutes to get to the front of the line. When I got to the front of the line all the employees stepped away from the counter. After waiting more than 5 minutes with the line growing behind me out the door, I said "excuse me, the line is out the door, can you help us?" Evelyn, in her Clear Motivations polo, responded to me, "I'm sorry ma'am, we can let other people's food get cold," and left me waiting several minutes more. And I stood waiting several more minutes while they caught up in the drive thru, I could see all the orders on the board in red (late). Once my order was finally taken more than 20 minutes after my arrival I stood and waited another 10 minutes to get my order-- when I was able to open my tacos back at the office, back late from lunch, I found stale tortillas and dark avocado on my street tacos, my husband's $5 meal had almost no chips and whoever replaced the root beer syrup in the drink machine did it with something other than root beer syrup, I think it was actually a bad mix of something because it didn't taste anything like root beer. I will say again, I do not begrudge the concept of worker training for these special needs adults, but I do take issue with the complete breakdown of the service process of the restaurant, and I take great issue with the lack of urgency on the part of the trainers to do their job to serve El Pollo Loco's paying customers on a lunchtime time...

1 star for getting the order right 1 star for the food tasting okay

This visit was a disaster.

We've had subpar visits to El Pollo Loco before (I'm thinking of this one time the Santa Ana Canyon location gave us Chicken Bowls with no chicken), but this location is usually pretty solid apart from the occasional extended wait time in the drive-thru.

First, the girl taking our order was clearly distracted which resulted in me having to repeat my order multiple times.

After arriving to the window to pay, I noticed at least two employees not wearing their face coverings properly. One being the girl who took our order wearing it under her nose and a boy in the back prepping food wearing it under his chin.

After paying it took no less than 10 minutes for our food to come... likely more.

While waiting it was clear what some of the issues were. There was no organization at all. There were at least two employees doing nothing while standing near the pay window including the girl who took our order and boy who took our payment.

The work stations were a mess with food spread everywhere. I witnessed multiple times where the proper container preparation wasn't being used which resulted in food falling everywhere from the edge of the station containers to the edge of the station table on to the floor.

Maybe this was just a bad night, we all have those but we barely got a "sorry for the wait" as we were handed our food and left.

These issues should not exist in today's fastfood environment but because they did at this location, coupled with the issues we've experienced at other El Pollo Loco locations, I think it's clear that my Family will need to remove the entire establishment from our "eating out" rotation.

Last and for what it's worth, we ordered (IIRC):

Chicken Bowl Chicken Burrito Al Carbon...

I live up the street from the Yorba Linda location. I've been going here for over a year. It's typically great fast service but for the past two months (July to August) the staff that is working the night shift is just trash! The young men that work there are always professional but the young girls working the window always seem to have an attitude. Why? If I'm kind to you, and use please and thank you. The least they can do is be polite back! At some point there needs to be a level of professionalism. They've gotten my order wrong on three separate occasions, either not listening to what was ordered or adding extra things that don't belong on that specific meal. Its gotten to the point where I have to go back through the Drive-Thru to get it right. But if you complain it's wrong, on the new order they give you super dry chicken and forget something else that goes on the order..( tonight specifically August 24th) I should have gone back through the line a third time because the order was still incorrect. It's crazy, take the time to do the order correctly so you don't get a complaint and you won't have to remake the whole order! Pretty simple if you ask me. Also what's up with you guys not giving the receipt after paying!? When I come back around to get the order right they always ask for a the receipt, which I had not been given the last three times I've gone. Ive told them that and they brush it off. Very very disappointed with the service at this...