I live close by but I haven't been here in like 5 years because El Pollo is really overpriced and meh for what you get. I visited this past Saturday because our other choice restaurant was packed.
The positives:
- genuinely nice people at the register
- food didn't take long
- the tortilla chips were seriously impressive
- place smelled wonderful because of the roasting chicken
The negatives:
- overall impression of the food was of mediocrity. I had the chicken avocado salad. The chicken was really dry. I understand that they'd use leftovers for salads like this, but this chicken had definitely been kept on the warmer too long. The amount of chicken was good, though. The greens were primarily iceberg lettuce and therefore tasteless. The provided dressing was surprisingly good, but it can only do so much to dress up cheap, bland iceberg lettuce.
- filthy restaurant. It was half empty and all of the empty tables were dirty. I grabbed some napkins to clean up the least-dirty window seat so we had a place to sit.
So... this visit really affirmed why I haven't visited El Pollo Loco in years and why I won't return unless it's a last resort.