I realize "this is fast food" and not fine dining.. I get it...but I feel my complaints are legit. Over the years, El Pollo Loco has earned my respect as a well run fast food place. Great food at a great value. I've even utilized their catering services throughout the years with great success. There's a huge difference between having a crappy meal and having a crappy meal at a place you know is not a bad place.
Last week, my mother and I stopped at this location to bring home some dinner. First of all, the young man at the cash register was a mumble mouth. My poor hearing aid-clad mother thought she had to get new devices... I assured her it wasn't her ears... the dude talked like he had a mouth of marbles. We had to ask him to repeat himself EVERY...SINGLE...TIME...HE...TALKED... Furthermore, he clearly did not understand the menu offerings... we had to explain ourselves repeatedly and finally found something and pointed it to him so he understood what we wanted to order. FRUSTRATING.
The food... the chicken we were given was way - way - WAY overcooked. We were watching the "cook" put it in the box and we were incredulous that someone would deem it edible. It was BLACK. While we were waiting for our food, two other people came up to the counter with burnt chicken. It took forever for mumble mouth and his buddy to realize that they had a pile of people building up with burned chicken. When we showed him the food, he was unconvinced that the food was even bad. I wouldn't have fed it to my dog! He tried to strike some deal - 2 new pieces for 3 burnt ones. We flat out told him "No, we think we should get all new chicken". He started throwing attitude our way. My mother, fresh off of a 3.5 hour flight almost went postal on this stupid kid. Meanwhile Senor Grillmaster was flapping his jaws behind the grill, burning more chicken.
I've been to several El Pollo Locos around the valley and almost always get great food, great service and great prices. This location will not get our business again.