El Pollo Loco

My go-to quick service place when traveling for work. Fresh grilled chicken well seasoned and tasty side dishes. These places can be a tad worn but others are brand new. Regardless, I still go!

I come here often. There’s a guy who works here that always has the most positive vibe (for some reason I still haven’t gotten his name) but he’s always super cheerful, serves me with a smile, and moves the line SO FAST when it’s busy. I just love his vibe and hustle and felt compelled to write this review for him and thank him for reminding me how important it is to have a positive mindset at work. I’ll get his name eventually!

Employees at this drive thru are very kind. Ordered another classic chicken tostada salad and my app didn’t work again! Ugh, the employee was nice to inform me that the app is figuring out its problems. Also, I should’ve asked for the chicken extra juicy (my friend who worked there past def said it helps)

I just bought the 3 pice chicken and side dish and what a dusting thing ever. The food was not cooked as you can see the images with the blood in it also the chicken was so past due. What type of food do you guys service. My husband was one the one eating this dish and got ill with the chicken don’t recommend this place at all.

I have been coming to this pollo loco for the past 3 years and every time I eat here food amazing. The employees are great and super friendly!! Special shoutout to Monica she’s very attentive and kind !! 👍

I ordered a pollo bowl combo. Substitute the chicken for broccoli and add corn, as I usually do. I get to the window and I was asked to pay an additional dollar than I would normally. So I questioned the cashier. She speaks to someone on her headset, or pretends to, then tells me that it's extra if I want corn AND broccoli. I asked how much extra. She said a dollar. I pay, but when I look at my receipt, I see an additional charge for a tostada shell. She placed my order the way I requested and there was no additional charge, so she added a tostada shell, wow. Apparently, whomever was on the headset didn't like El Pollo Loco pricing, or the fact I didn't want chicken, or both. I also received steamed broccoli with mold on it.

Good fast food. Like Pollo Tropical in Fl but less sauces:(. Decent and reasonable.

This is the busiest El Pollo Loco restaurant I've ever been in. Shout out to the employees...they really handled a steady stream of customers professionally with the line almost going out the door at times!!! The place was sparkling clean and the salsa bar was fully stocked. This location is on a tiny footprint of a piece of property in Costa Mesa, parking is extremely limited but the healthy and tasty "fast" food makes it worth the effort.

I used to like this location very much, but multiple missing churros, salad dressings, stingy with the avocado salsas... I mean, I think a 3 star rating is generous. The lady at the counter the past two times, horrible customer service and always has a stank face. The parking situation sucks. Today I was missing my salad dressing again. They included 2 sets of utensils when I requested 4. All of this is on my receipt. Not sure if the workers double check it or not, but I don't think I'm going to return to this location.

Unhealthy for digestion is screaming vocalist music at play. Speakers too damn loud. Got the order wrong! Even though I asked for senior discount I got none.

We use to live across the street and frequent this location. We enjoyed it very much! The service was always on point, and tasty food. We don't live so close anymore and have other el pollo locos we could have chose from however we chose this location tonight. The ladies in the picture were rude. All because I asked for 13 salsa. (Burrito, 3 Tacos, 2 Quesadillas, Large side salad, small side of mashed potatoes, and chips.) She said 10 was the limit. Never have we been told this. How she can explain 10 to the amount of food, I don't know. The purpose of the review, the fact they were laughing and said they wouldn't mind a 1 star review.

My EBT card was giving me a hard time but Victor ( He was working the morning of 3/30/25) made the transition 2 pay w/my credit card really easy. He also made my order exactly the way I ordered it and the store was really clean. I'll be sure to visit more often. Victor is a great employee and very respectful and very informative about the store.

I seldom do fast food reviews, but occasionally I like to try El Pollo loco because it's on the healthier side of fast food and I've given a negative review to a bad one. So I figure I should review this one because it's probably the best one I've ever been to. Placed an order using the app and it was just about ready when I got there. Food was piping hot which is unusual for this place and the service was very friendly. Waited about one minute for the order to get done. Everything was correct and tasted great. The portions also are good size at this store. Most El Pollo loco try and cut back on the protein. If you're in town Looking for healthier fast food.... This one on Bristol is the way to go.

Super unorganized with their online orders and making people wait 25+ for their orders.

The food tasted very good. My favorite side is there rice and I tried their mango habanero chicken and it's very good there. Avocado salsa didn't taste fresh like it usually does. The service was very friendly. The ambience was good. Everybody looked happy.

What a sh...t hole! Service is as poor as service can get. Employees look at you like you're irritating them for coming to eat here.... They don't even provide you with napkins unless you ask and when you do they only give you two miserable looking sheets.... Chicken is dry as summer....What is happening to Pollo loco? I've been seeing this more often than not. Did Pollo loco corporate completely abandoned these fools and allow them to run on their own my chickens with her head cut off?

I ordered a double chicken tostada salad & was surprised how little chicken was in there, looking at the photos submitted by other reviews here. Probably 1/2 of a regular serving. I used a coupon I received in the mail, not sure if that had anything to do with it. Normally $12 it was $2 off, still no way worth $10, was less than 4 oz. They've turned into chipotle. I feel ripped off & Won't be back.

Don't come here unless you're going through the drive thru. They'll make you wait till kingdom comes. Waited for ten minutes and there was no line or people. Saw a customer waiting and still hid in the back.

Honestly the food is good at any time of the day. My favorite go to is the chicken salad tostada bowl. Always make sure to get the creamy cilantro dressing to go with it, its what gives it a final touch! I do have to say that customer service is not so great. I understand sometimes us the customers need to do a better job as well with the workers; yet sometimes its a tad bit hard when the service from the start sounds pretty rude. Now this tends to happen more on drive through then dine in. Not sure if that makes a difference. Location is alright. It is in the middle of alot of shopping centers so you will always find parking. I would only suggest though to lock your cars lol

Worse customer service I have ever experienced! They are so abrasive, worst attitude. Too bad is the closest one to me.

Decided to give an old fave spot another try after having a bad experience in the chains Torrance location. Much much better! Service, food quality, & cleanliness all great. AND this location had shrimp & new Baja breaded fish! The shrimp was super flavorful & delish

Perfect! Exactly why I chose EPL for our family lunch. Surprised they open at 9am however it was perfect as my family was arriving at 10:30 & I wanted healthy tasty food! I added extra white meat & several side salads along with the best guacamole ever... made daily there & the best chips for dipping. I am glad I downloaded the app for the reward points knowing I was buying several family meals & received free food for another time. Great food.. great choice to feed our larger group... much healthier than pizza! BTW: Great customer service!!!

1 piece of avocado for avocado salad ????? Im giving one star for the 1 pieces avocado

ordered chopped Salad with chicken. Chicken clearly was not cooked today. Was extremely dry and cold Was cooked yesterday or day before and hopefully was kept inside of fridge. Survey ID 082424111 0970 Awful quality for salad and wrong practice to treat customers with possibility of foods poisoning

This place is better than the one on Barranca, they only slipped in 2 pcs of old chicken in an 8 piece meal. I guess you can't really expect not to get yesterday's leftovers if you order at noon. I have a suggestion. Sell the old and dry ones at a discount for half price. When you are up front about it, people won't complain.

So here's the thing... you better not be in a hurry if you come here. The lines are always ridiculous because they are slow and cranking out the food. The drive through line is always into the street. If someone orders a lot of food in the drive though, they won't tell them to park in the lot and "bring the food out to them" so they can keep the line moving. They just let you sit there. Also they hold you card in the drive through long enough for them to write your card info down... kinda sketchy. Just go in and use Apple Pay so it's encrypted. I will say other than the waiting and the sketchy card situation, the food is good and consistent. Get the overstuffed quesadilla.

Service is horrible!! One of the manager there is so rude!! It looks like she doesn't want to be there!

It's interesting how the brief communication you can have with drive-through staff just makes the whole experience so much better. Obviously, the service was quick, and the food was fine and accurate, but the genuine friendliness and courtesy of the guy who took the order and delivered it at the window left lasting impression. Unironically, it's probably the reason I pulled into this location because the experience was the same at another one a couple days ago

Terrible service and poor food quality at this location on Bristol St in Costa Mesa. When we first arrived, all the tables in the dining area were dirty, there was trash & food on the floor. Staff was talking to each other, and there was no welcome greeting. I asked a question about a specific menu item to the cashier, and he had a blank look on his face, and he definitely didn't know the menu and didn't care. The overall food quality was average at best, and I honestly can't believe why anyone would spend their hard earned money going to this dirty El Pollo Loco and eating in the dining area. Really awful experience. Restaurant needs a lot of work to fix the bad atmosphere, so don't waste your $$$ or time, much better options out there.

The worst service !!! Complete lack of attention to customers standing at counter waiting to order and once a manager(?) comes to counter gives attitude

Attention El Pollo Loco Management Team: Don't charge me .40 cents for cilantro dressing when I can get it for free at another location. Condiments should be free.

If it were given an option, I would have chose 5 stars.. Literally, the smallest chicken breast I've ever seen in my life. I think the last time I cooked a Cornish game their breast was bigger than the 2 that I got. To add insult to injury, the chicken was literally bone dry. Pollo loco just lost my business permanently. Seventeen dollars for a three piece meal ha ha ha. Eventually, people like me. We'll catch up to businesses like you.

I come to this location often as it is near my work. Normally things are pretty good with service and food. This time I was handed my food and not my drink. Not paying attention, I drove away without my drink. I know I should have noticed and said something...but they also could have handed me the entirety of my order. Was not worth driving back for as the line was long. Not the end of the world, but it is frustrating not getting what I paid for. A meal for one person was $19.00...having the drink would have been awesome.

This location is zero for three for getting everything I ordered into the bag. First they forgot the salsa I requested, next time the forgot the salad dressing for my salad, and most recently they forgot the tortillas. The food is good, when you actually get it. Maybe time to try a different location.

Each time they forget something. I thought mcDonalds on Bristol was the leader in forgetfulness. Nope, that title goes to this El Pollo Loco. Tonight, a simple order of two tostada salads no Pico, dos locos salad and brc burrito and 3 drinks. Upon ordering, I told them I had a coupon. Getting to the window, I paid and they never asked for the coupon. They passed the food bags to me and said 'ok thx' as if I was ready to go. They forgot the drinks. I wanted the receipt for points and they said it was in the bags, it wasn't. I inquired if they applied the coupon.... They looked very confused and then instead of making an effort to apply it, they said I should have given them the coupon when paying. Well, they never said anything like that when I told them I was using a coupon at the speaker. Nice way to push it onto the consumer. I leave and get home only to find out they gave only one cilantro dressing for two tostada salads. The details do matter in business, as does training. I feel this location suffers and fails with both. As others have said, the drive-Thru line often extends to the street as speed and efficiency are not managed properly at this location. Too many negatives to consider this location as an option. We'll head to the Harbor Blvd location if we have to have El Pollo loco.

Worst quesadilla ever lazies fk. Hoorible quesadilla. Please dont waste your money on thus.

Chicken breast yesterday cold an old! Very disappointed.... One on Harbor much better food!

I probably go to this location about twice a week not cause the customer service is great at all but it's convenient and it's close to home but you ask them for extra avocado salsa and it's like they are selling they give one extra and that's it think it's a joke specially when your asking for extra

I ordered the classic chicken tostada. When I returned to my office to eat it.. it was missing the chicken. I drove back to get the order correct. What a hassle. Check your order from this place. Also, I was not given a receipt.

Use to be my favorite spot by the last 3x I went they always mess up the order or forget the salsa. I always get nachos and they aren't that good there anymore .. sucks cu it use to be so easy to order and no complaints but now I don't go there that often

Good fast device and great food for the $$$ This is our go to for last minute family meal packages.

I don't post negative reviews. In fact I recently posted how much I like this place. But this girl made me feel stupid for no reason. My gosh no manners or customer service. The girl taking orders at the drive thru today at 4:10pm needs an attitude adjustment. When the total was so little, I asked was it for a 20 piece? And the girl comes back and says," that's why I repeated it twice". I thought that was terribly rude to get defensive and say that to me. I wasn't even upset. She just wanted me to know that it was not her mistake but my mistake. I'm thinking wow, I just want my food. No need to be rude. Anyway, who gets all the orders correct anyway. No a big deal. It can be fixed. Oh well. And I really love this location.

Horrible experience. Waited over 25 minutes for a curbside pick up order to be ready just to be told to go through the drive thru to pick up my " curbside order ". Waited another 12 minutes in drive thru line just to receive my order. Total wait time was over 40 minutes. Save your time and money and go to Del Taco next door instead.

El Pollo Loco used to be my favorite place to get fresh salads and Chicken bowls but this location was a complete disaster‼ I ordered a chicken bowl with black beans & since I had my dog with me, I didn't realize just how disgusting it was until after I got home and tried to eat it... I'm attaching 3 pictures to show the meal, the Bad & the obviously slimey rice & beans⁉ I was so looking forward to having a wonderful meal but instead had to toss it out after a couple of bites⁉

Ordered two vegan chicken-less tacos. Young girl working drive thru had me repeat it a few times, and I kept saying "vegan". At least one of the tacos I got was not vegan, not even vegetarian because it had real chicken. Don't offer vegan/vegetarian items if you can't actually provide them. I Will never be back. I guess it's my dumb fault for ordering a veggie dish from a chicken spot. But again, don't offer if you can't accurately serve them.

Not only did I just Choked on a big bone nearly to death that was in my soup this time but on this Occasion and separate many accounts now I have asked for a certain amount of tortilla strips for a large family size chicken tortilla soupe and only recently one are you kidding me come on smh get it together and get the order right

Waited in drive thru for 25 minutes to be told we could not place 3 single orders. NO SIGN (NOTHING) The manager was nice and apologetic but the drive thru worker Martha was extremely rude. In my opinion despite how busy the drive-through is they should be prepared for Quality customer service and speak kindly. I had to go into the building and order after all this. I had to call when I got back to work because they also forgot the side of corn :(

I swear after Covid, fast food got exponentially worse. Ate here for the first time in awhile and got chicken tacos al carbon. How was the meat sooooo tasteless. It tasted like nothing. Like you were just chewing on material. 2 other people tried it and said the same. We were so shocked at how bad it was. Definitely not coming back. Better to go to SUper Pollo. It's actually tasty and fire roasted chicken.

Always forgetting something. Either it's the wrong burrito given or no side salad. Love the good. Hate the experience. Please hire more competent employees or train better.

My first time going to this el pollo loco at this location during my lunch break (1 hour). I went to the drive through, I missed the intercom, and the car behind moved their car up so I can't reverse back to the intercom to place my order. I approach the first window, I explained to the lady what happened and asked if I could place an order through her, just a 3 piece meal, she didn't listen to what I asked, she just rush off and said you need to go back in the line. I asked you twice and you didn't answer. I asked for her name, she pretends she didn't hear me. I asked for her name again (louder), she asked me, "why do you need my name?" I kindly said to her that I just want to know who I talked to, she still hesitated to give me her name. I told her that I can talk to her manager if she likes, and she said her name was Anaid. In addition, said she can take my order now if I if I changed my mind. If only she had given me this first option, I wouldn't write a bad review. I've never been so mad, to wait in long line, and was not served in a kind manner, I guess they didn't want my business. It's ok, I went to mc Donald's down the street, got my lunch, the representative was nicer and I got the Mariah menu (free mc chicken with order over $1 excluding tax). Why do I bother going to el pollo loco, the worker is not nice, no wonder I saw the wanted ad hung across their store. My prediction is that all the good employees probably left because of the rude employees are left to work there. I was hangry : hungry & angry. You need to go back in the line, and for that reason, I'll never go back to el pollo loco. I just want to bring awareness to everyone so you don't miss the intercom, or experience what I went through to save you the trouble.

Great option for healthy fast food! No coupon needed but we had one for a $10 meal for two so we used it! The meal was descent. Not a lot of food but enough to feel satisfied. And we saved the churros for later :-) The location is fine. Close to home. Okay part of the neighborhood, a little on the small side but not many people there so we have plenty of tables to choose from. 'A' for cleanliness as well. For the sides we enjoyed the broccoli, coleslaw, and rice. All delish. I've had their black beans before, too. Also a good choice. Will definitely be back. (1) we have more coupons but (2) it really is the best option for cheap yet healthy fast food.

I love el pollo loco menu. But this store is filthy. The employees are slow, rude, and know nothing of service. Please fix this store

I was asked to leave because I forgot a mask. I asked if they could provide one as I didn't have one . Got a straight no, I need to leave. Cold hearted female cashier ~ 6:10 pm Friday 1/21/22. Go eat wahoos across the street . They will treat you like a human rather than some virus infested vessel. Much better food as well. Cheers.

This place is hit and miss for the quality of the chicken. Last night, it was a miss... The 8 piece leg and thigh was overcooked and dry, and looked and tasted like it had been cooked quite a while before it was given to me. I ordered around 9:00 PM, around 2 hours before closing, so there should have been some fresh-grilled chicken there. The tortillas were fresh this time. In the past, I've received some that were crusted and hard. Salsa is always good here. Even with the negatives this time, EPL is still by far my favorite fast food chicken

Worst service Worst service worst food Worst service Ughhhhh Need I say more ? Every time something gets messed up and I get nasty attitude!

The guy at the drive through told me that I could only order a loaded quesadilla if I "have a coupon". That's either a terrible business decision, or their employees just lie. I was able to order the same item perfectly fine a week ago, and the week before that, so I'm inclined to believe the employee was just lying in order to not have to make it.

First time eating here. Waiting in the drive through line for 40 minutes. Ordered 1 burrito and kids Mac and cheese. Both were cold and disgusting. They said they were short staffed. They shouldn't be opened at this pace. Really disappointed. Zero care factor for everyone having to wait.