El Pollo Loco Reviews

I love this restaurant so I am sad to have to write this. For delivery they use postmates, it does not keep you updated with where your order is and when it accurately arrives making it difficult to use compared to other delivery services. The first time I ordered delivery my order never came, after talking to the manager at el pollo loco for 30 minutes she couldnt give me a refund and ElPolloLoco wouldn’t let me see my order as soon as I got a cancellation email of my order that i never canceled. So i have not yet gotten a refund. Secondly I decided to take a chance and place an order on ElPolloLoco today for delivery and realized I did not want to take the chance after i placed it after seeing the estimated time was close to an hour. so i went to cancel the order on ElPolloLoco and it told me to call the store. When i called the store they didn’t know what i was talking about and said they couldn’t cancel the order so now it’s past the hour and i’m still waiting for the delivery. It doesn’t even say that it’s been picked up yet. If it doesn’t come that will be 40$ down the drain after both orders. Do not order on ElPolloLoco.

I have given ElPolloLoco a fair chance, using it several times over weeks. It just doesn’t work. The staff have been given no training and stare at you blankly, every time. In my experience they are on able to give you credit without making you scan the receipt, and the majority of times. I redeemed a $10 credit, and after waiting 20 minutes and asking the entire order was missing. There was no record of it even in the cash register. I decided to use it one last time to redeem a digital coupon for a free entrée. But ElPolloLoco was unwieldy to use at the drive-through window, everybody waiting. I am technically savvy.
But ElPolloLoco just wouldn’t work, and staff had no idea how to help me. I ended up just driving away. So I’m deleting ElPolloLoco . Which is unfortunate in an age when apps and digital formats are so important for the success of the company like this.

The location I went to did not give a receipt with a barcode or numbers, so it makes ElPolloLoco useless if you cannot scan or type in a barcode in 48 hours. This is false advertising. They lure you in but do not honor the point system. This was reported via a review on the receipt that I assume goes to Corporate, and I got no response. I even called the store and they were nonchalant about it. I will find another more honorable restaurant to dine at. Stop false advertising with this useless app and wasting everybody’s time. I have seen other reviews complain about this same issue. Glad to know I am not the only one that has experienced this. And the food is overpriced for the quality of food you get 🤷‍♀️

You can tell that ElPolloLoco was created “just” for use during the pandemic. Unlike other populate fast food restaurants, ElPolloLoco doesn’t offer a few very simple and important features. Such as: an option to place an order and then pay in store, a simple feature that allows you to put any items on the side, and (MOST IMPORTANT) it doesn't offer any of the coupons that we get in the mail?!? For example, McDonald’s offers all of their digital coupons & physical mail coupons in their app. The El pollo loco app doesn’t offer any of their physical coupons!?! It has a section for “deals” but it’s always empty. They try to encourage you to use their digital app for orders, by creating challenges and digital rewards, but you have to pay full price! They don’t offer the same digital deals as their paper coupons?!? Why not? It doesn’t make any sense to try and convince me to use your app more but then have to rely on mailers to find physical coupons that I can’t even apply with ElPolloLoco ?!? I have to redeem those coupons in store?!? ElPolloLoco is very basic.

Well this was our first visit, so I haven’t tried the food just yet, but the online order & app were very confusing. I wanted to take advantage of their free chicken bowl offer, I couldn’t find any link to order it, plus I even downloaded their app so I could get reward points, couldn’t find any points that I should have earned from my dinner that I ordered, & their menus are totally confusing, some menus don’t even have the bowls listed at all, they have at least 2 menus that I could see, the menu on line here in Utah do not have the bowls listed, so when I called to place my order, I worried they didn’t make the bowls, but they do, so far as my free bowl it probably wasn’t legitimate. So when we do eat our meal I will do another review, hopefully it’s good

Horrible nonexistent customer support. Used it twice for delivery and the first time I was missing an item from my order. There is absolutely no customer support you can contact for help. The website simply hands your order to the franchise store and an available local delivery company. This part is exactly where it breaks down. On my second order, I noticed a delivery company was never assigned. My order got stuck in “order received” and an estimated arrival time. When it past the arrival, ElPolloLoco assumes it was delivered and charges you immediately. Called the store and there’s nothing they can do as they simply get the orders from the site and a delivery company comes to pick it up. Will be disputing the charge with my CC company.

I have continually had my orders canceled right before pick up. As in if my 4 orders, only one was not canceled when I got there supposedly due to no having any breasts or wings.

Tonight at 7:45 pm, I ordered one & half chickens plus a number of sides to be picked up at 8:30 pm. At 8:27 pm as I was close to the restaurant, I received the message my order was canceled!!
Then I was asked if I wanted to re-order which I did. I waited in the parking lot for about 5 minutes before pulling into the drive they. After giving my name, she told me they were out of “mixed” meaning breasts & wings.

Interestingly, the order was not canceled by them but left in progress.

This has happened twice before.
Why aren’t your people reserving the breast & wings for orders or making more?

I’m tired of driving all the way to the store only to have my order canceled!!!

I don’t even bother or care about points. By the way, I’ve stopped by this El pollo loco and found them out of breasts & wings at 7:30 pm. This is the Monterey & Dinah Shore location in Rancho Mirage, CA.

The standard, “[App] wants to use your location data” iOS pop-up didn’t show up, so I went into settings to manually allow Loco Rewards access to my location...but the options don’t exist like they’re not coded in.

I downloaded ElPolloLoco for the first time ever, created an account and signed in. Then a yellow pop-up explaining location data use showed up with a blue “search now” button on it. This button doesn’t work, bc ElPolloLoco doesn’t actually ask for the location data critical for ElPolloLoco to work.
This button does blocks all forward progress forever. Delete/Redownload did nothing. So, with a heavy heart, my path to chicken goodness ends in disappointment. 1/5*

“No Internet connection” message when my iPhone is on strong WiFi with full web access. Let’s me “sign in” and exit my profile, yet none of my reward points or offers appear. Tapping “Order Now” in response to “ 💪 up with a $6 Double Protein Avocado Fit Bowl” offer passes me to app, where offer is unrecognized. Looks like another El Pollo Loco trip will be cancelled. I’m off to Chipotle! Deleted and re-installed. Now, all I see is the startup screen. Nothing else happens. Another evening that I’ll ditch El Pollo Loco in favor of another quick service restaurant whose app reliably lets me order ahead.
Just checked back: App hasn’t done anything but display the splash screen for over a month. Useless.

I added ElPolloLoco to my iPhone 10 because I was given a $100 gift card. Initially when I downloaded ElPolloLoco , the “gift card/pay” icon was at the bottom, along with the other 4 icons (Rewards, News etc). I added the gift card to ElPolloLoco but I didn’t throw the card away. Unbeknownst to me, after using the card only once on ElPolloLoco for a $10 purchase, the gift/pay icon disappeared. I went back to El Pollo on a separate occasion to make a purchase using the gift card downloaded on ElPolloLoco but the icon wasn’t there and unfortunately the employee could not assist me. Thankfully I kept the actual gift card because I would have lost a $90 balance. I immediately deleted ElPolloLoco and added it again but it was still missing the gift/pay icon at the bottom of ElPolloLoco . How can this be fixed or should I just give up and delete ElPolloLoco for good.

I use to love El Pollo Loco, but after installing ElPolloLoco and joining the rewards I’ve been nothing but disappointment! I received two different emails to take their survey regarding their holiday items for $5 credit each, and never received either credit. Their holiday challenge where you buy 3 holiday items to get the fourth item free, never received. To make matters worse, their location on Harbor Blvd in Costa Mesa, next to the Ikea has the worst customer service ever. And there customer service number is so unhelpful.. they do nothing at all. What would be the point of having a customer service number if they do not actually help the customer.

I spend a lot of money with you all, solely based off your promotions and rewards..only to not get what you’re advertising in return. You are ripping off your customers! I am uninstalling ElPolloLoco and you will no longer get my money thanks!

You see what REAL developers make, and then you see this and think..... they didnt just get different degrees from different schools... they majored different subjects. You would be terribly surprised how many times I’ve placed an order on ElPolloLoco had my money taken from my bank then showing up to the Pollo loco and it’s closed or somehow missing the one thing they need chicken it’s a very predictable occurrence that’s how common it is and that’s disgusting why wouldn’t you let us know you have a shortage Chick-fil-A app does it? Sometimes the transaction doesn’t even go through which then causes it to erase my card and makes me re-added and God for bid you want to change your location because you have to redo your entire order and now you can save specific orders to be ordered in different locations you can only save specific orders in specific locations because who knows ask the developers

App is convenient to use, pleasing to the eye, and fast. A few problems: I dont like that the only way to use delivery is through their system. For a while they were using Doordash but not in a way that allowed you to monitor progress or give feedback through the doordash app. The only communication was through automated texting that often didnt work. I dont remember who they use now and what its like because ElPolloLoco crashes on startup since fall 2020. Many complaints like that on ElPolloLoco page. Typically if your device is outdated/not supported ElPolloLoco store refuses download or allows you to use an older version of ElPolloLoco , making this more frustrating. I would love to use an app to browse the menu and order ahead but this is the only one and it doesnt work and probably never will again.

I think ElPolloLoco is convenient and love the whole curbside ordeal but I would expect my order to be correct when receiving my items. And especially since it’s being created by the company itself and not a third party. The receipt was clearly correct but apparently that didn’t matter to the employee telling me I’m wrong when the items were missing and my drinks were not the drinks I even ordered. I still had to go inside and correct my order which is not the point of curbside. I am willing to try again but hope these issues aren't repeated. The only reason I did 3 stars and not 1 is because I like the idea of it with everything going on on the world we need it.

It was my first time ordering through ElPolloLoco and was expecting the food to get here once it said, 1:47pm. The order was placed at 1:03pm and once the time of arrival had passed I decided to call the store.

An employee answered and I told her it was my first time ordering through ElPolloLoco and she said “oh yes, your food is ready”but from the sound of it she didn’t realize I ordered the food to be delivered. A few minutes later I received a text message from door dash stating I’d receive our food by 1:49pm but it is now 2:04pm.

I’m very disappointed with this aspect of ElPolloLoco . I work late nights and sleep during the day so it’s definitely hard to want to get out sometimes.

Cant redeem deals when ordering via ElPolloLoco . So never got the free chips and guac for opening ElPolloLoco and logging in. The other deals didn't work either. I tried clicking on various and nothing was applicable to my order including the free chips.

I was impressed by the location information picking up i was near the store and automatically signaling to bring my food out. That was the major highlight about ElPolloLoco . And thats about the only good thing i can say.

I did get my food so i guess at the basic level ElPolloLoco does work.

I have been using ElPolloLoco for a few months. Initially it was good. Still is unless you want to apply coupons. If you have a coupon and they advertise that it can be applied, ElPolloLoco is a nightmare. It does not accept any, even mobile generated coupons. Last night it accepted a coupon but the payment would not go through saying coupon is invalid. After I looked at my credit card transactions, they charged and reversed the dozens of times I tried to apply the coupon. How stupid is that!

Some franchises are not always the best representatives of the parent company... that being said, ElPolloLoco works great, like it is supposed to. ElPolloLoco , however, does its job and does it well!

When traveling a lot, I’ve found there is not always consistency between physical locations. ElPolloLoco can help make so-so places better (or in some cases where the employees are not as tech savvy as they should be— worse). ElPolloLoco allows me to place orders ahead of time, keep track of spending, earn rewards, get coupons and deals, and see the specials/new items. In my local Restaurant, the only complaint is that they never have enough cilantro. They have integrated ElPolloLoco with their cash registers, orders are ready when I get there, and it’s easy to upload gift cards.

Bottom line, ElPolloLoco does what’s supposed to do and it does it well.

ElPolloLoco is ok a bit confusing the points expire very soon if you do not redeem them. The receipt needs to be registered on ElPolloLoco surging 48 hours or else it expires & you loose the chance on gaining points. I give ElPolloLoco four stars.

The food & service at EPL location of Brookhurst & Chapman in Garden Grove is excellent. I give this location five start out of five !!!! My family & I eat here at least three times per week. The chicken is well marinated , ,,cooked & served to perfection every time we eat at this favorite location. The customer service is prompt & friendly. Management crew is nice & professional. Chuy the chef is extremely kind. He makes sure the chicken is cooked well. I’m very happy with this location!!! Very clean all the time & the salsa bar fresh & well stocked Thank you all at this location ,,, keep shining !!!! See you soon for another delicious meal. Yum yum yum !!!!!

Unlike other countless restaurants’ apps, this El Pollo Loco app fills the entire screen on my iPad. Thank you! For someone with severe arthritis, being able to use the fullscreen of my iPad is a welcome relief when I order food online from the comfort of my sofa. I’ll even choose to just order El Pollo Loco over other restaurants because the ordering experience is much better when I can place the order from my iPad, where ElPolloLoco is not merely one of those iPhone apps where it’s stretched (but not widened) to the full size of the iPad screen.

Ok so it’s been about 2 months and ElPolloLoco is still crashing hard on iPhone 6S+ running the latest iOS 12.1.2 & most recent El Pollo Loco Rewards app update. Symptom is upon loading app it suddenly shuts down. Never even get to see the menu or layout just the load screen. I am horribly disappointed with the lack of response to fix this issue that has been well documented by many of your loyal customers. I am to the point where I just don’t go to El Pollo Loco anymore because I will miss out on the rewards points. Please listen to your customers and fix this technical problem. Thank you

I loooove el pollo loco food so I decided to get ElPolloLoco to get points and some deals ! Waist of time some how every time I am home ElPolloLoco works fine then I get near any el pollo loco restaurant and the server can not be found and doesn’t work I’ve attempted to use it at several different restaurant and it always happens. I have many food apps and this one is the only one that’s does it . Not only that I decided to wait to get home to start inputting my recipes and I had a 2 day old recipe and it wouldn’t input it cuz it said it was to old I was soooooo annoyed it’s only 2 days old. I have now deleted ElPolloLoco and won’t probably go to el pollo loco as much because I have other apps that’s get me better deals !!!!!!

ElPolloLoco itself is fine. Unfortunately the staff don’t support it and were exceptionally rude. She rudely told me I can’t pick up app orders in the drive thru. It would have been faster to just order it the regular way. Next, she abruptly threw the food together and slammed the window, clearly annoyed it was an app order. I waited till she came back and let her know we didn’t receive our drink. When I checked my order , the new fit salad had no dressing. Paid for a double chicken tostado and only got the regular one with no avocado. Also no salsa included. So ended up paying for items not received. Not happy and will not use ElPolloLoco again.

Very happy with ElPolloLoco not at all happy with customer service IAfter I ordered and paid for a family meal and family size guacamole and chips. I realized I had a coupon for free family size guacamole and chips with the purchase of a family meal. I asked if I could redeem the coupon somehow and the girl told me I had to order a family meal in order to redeem the coupon I told her the one I just ordered and paid for and she said well I’m sorry you can’t redeem the coupon. It’s hard to believe they couldn’t work with me on it the coupon expires tomorrow. If her attitude was better it wouldn’t of been so bad but she was very rude.

ElPolloLoco has improved but there is still more that needs to be done, especially in the “delivery” function. It tells you a “when” but that when is a very grey area that has resulted in me missing orders or standing outside for nearly an hour waiting on my meal. A better connection between ElPolloLoco and DoorDash is needed. The only way to track the order is through the website not ElPolloLoco , and the website is laughable at best in terms of tracking. Also a way to tell notes to the delivery people is very much needed.

That being said, I’m not too picky about how ElPolloLoco works. It’s overly complicated, in my opinion, but, whatever.
The thing that REALLY drops my star rating is there are WAY too many notifications. I make one $5 purchase and then I get an email, and a notification of the purchase, then another email, then a notification that the points have been updated, then another email showing my points, then another notification on ElPolloLoco . It’s ridiculous. Stop with the notifications.

I updated ElPolloLoco to the new version and the gift card option disappeared. I’m using the iPhone SE on iOS 13.2.2.
I bought a gift card on the el polo loco website and revived the gift card online with no barcode on it 😐. Just a long number with a pin. I believe I’m supposed to go to the restaurant and get a physical card for it? If so it defeats the purpose of an E-gift card, and it has no support for wallet. 😐 el pollo loco don’t outsource the gift card make it in-house integrate it in ElPolloLoco please. I’m looking for a response from ElPolloLoco team.

Has good features especially the scan the barcode feature but you'd think they save the step and let you pay with phone (Apple Pay) and have it all done at once. Be nice too if you could earn rewards as well as redeem online coupons. I'd also like a way to take the online survey with ElPolloLoco rather than go one which is way too long of a process.

ElPolloLoco is great but there is definitely a problem that management needs to address and not just at this location but multiple locations from the reviews I have read. It is a very frequent complaint—placing the order and getting that same order is a rare occurrence. As this is an ongoing issue it would seem that it is one that would be addressed. Not sure what the answer is but I think that is what management is for.

Aug 15 2023 2:17 visit with friend for dine-in... Two salads, one drink, chips and salsa came to $29.88. Complaint rests with $4.49 for tiny bag of chips which were literally a child size bag. In ANY sitdown mexican restaurant, chips and salsa are FREE and SERVED by the host before ordering. Your offering was disgraceful and insulting and even without the meal was overpriced with tacky dine-in experience and untended tables.

I went to scan a receipt today (6/7/22) 3095944221700, to put me past 50 points, and all my (43) points were gone. I had just scanned a receipt yesterday! WTF? I eat El Pollo Loco damn near Every Working Day (Mon-Fri, different locations). Just Not Right.

Each time I go to redeem a reward using the app, it tells me that it is not valid or does not apply. Happens when trying to use banked reward dollars or in-app offers. It’s very frustrating because I would have to otherwise wait in the drive thru to Order rather than doing curbside