All the previous reviews are 100% correct regarding the lack of customer service, rude employees with nasty attitudes and poor quality of food. I could sit here and tell you story after story but at this point it's a waste of time. Management please read this, we are all trying to tell you something. read more

Been here twice. Not great for my first El Pollo Loco experience! The restaurant was filthy both times. The service is not great either -- it doesn't seem like they do a good job training their employees. I'd steer clear of this location. read more

It's hard for me to give a less than three stars. The experience has to really have been lacking for me to do this. But, I feel that the staff could use some additional training or motivation to give better customer service. Ordered a family special and didn't get much of a positive transaction. Just felt like I was at the DMV. But, That is pretty normal for fast food style restaurants. The biggest thing is that they forgot one of my side orders. I typically do not get too upset about it, but I feel like this has happened before and maybe it is a standard problem within this location. read more

This location is awful. I love Pollo Loco and have lived in various locations throughout Southern California. The food is always cool and substandard. Last week they forgot to give me the tortillas with my order. They use a lot of left over food as pass it off as fresh. Save yourself some time and energy. Go to another location. Staff not well trained. read more

Okay so this is the nearest pollo loco by my job and the girls there are not very friendly and they take forever too give your food i waited 14 mins just too get my food , I been too other pollo locos and there fast and very friendly but this pollo loco on imperial in front of homedepot omg worst service ever even on the drive thru uugghh read more

Hahaha! This 'el pollo loco' location is a total fucking JOKE on all levels. It's borderline comical for the most part. The 3 times I've been (and the last 2 were to give it one more shot to see if the problem was temporary) got worse and worse. Think of something that could go wrong and it happened here. Service guy at the register is epicly slow, can't ring up items properly or input coupons, food takes forever to receive, and is across the board shitty quality..cold, stale chicken, under-portioned burritos and salads AND tacos with one tiny bite of meat in them (I brought it back and was like cmon guys what the FUCK), and once had a hair laying on my salad..right on the top. Mmmm Yummy! Always out of salsas..always dirty tables. Always young college kids who argue back with you and have fun battling against customers instead of fulfilling their needs. Management was yelling at someone at the drive thru saying 'sir you can't treat my employees like that!'..customers had wrong orders right in front of me and stormed out angrily due to the little dweeb employees attitudes/response..not once but both times I went, right in front of me! How does that happen..what are the odds?! Then MY order was wrong. They splattered my shirt with salsa refilling the tubs right when I was standing there. They could literally film a reality show about shitty fast food restaurants at this location. Entertainment value. You'd think it'd be more babied by corporate since it's on Imperial Hwy in a busy shopping area in Brea. I might go again just to see what happens next in the saga of continued epic failures. All other Pollos are 4-5 stars but this one's a 0. Good job guys! Love it. Oh and please find a new line of work and torch this building on your way out! read more

The manager was nice. The food was great. We used coupons so that helped with the prices. The two things we did not like was that the dining room was to cold for a fall night and the mild salsa looked foamy read more

Ordered a small chicken salad to go. When I got home and opened the container it only contained lettuce! Improper management and quality control. Won't go there again read more

Took 25 minutes to get my order, mini bowl and tortilla soup inside the fast food resturant. No one seems to know what they are doing. Cashier doesn't speak good English and understands even less. So many employees behind counter, they kept bumping into each other. This store has always had a problem.......it is much faster to use drive-thru. Placed my order at 6:32 & rec'd. it at 6:55, only after complaining to the manager. read more

Got home with two chicken salads...opened them up and the lettuce was completely wilted, orange and brown and the chicken was dry and burnt! Never again going to that el pollo! read more

CLEARLY THIS BUSINESS OWNER DOES NOT CARE WHAT KIND OF SERVICE IT PROVIDES! WILL NEVER GO THERE AGAIN. I drove through their drive through today at lunch. The teller handed me my food and I handed her my debit card. I sat a while (WAY TO LONG for any fast food), I saw what seemed like the manager showing her how to use the card with a chip in it. Which also took a while. Finally, the manager (Lady with short hair and tattoos), told me that my card wasn't working because they already tried to run it once and it didn't go through (which later I checked my statement and I WAS CHARGED). Now the manager told me that if I wanted my lunch I had to use ANOTHER card, or cash. Of course I had neither on me. So after waiting all this time and already being extremely late, she said I would have to go park in the parking lot while they held onto my debit card and figured it out. When I said I couldn't as I was already running late, she tells me "Then I guess you are canceling your order" and asks for the food back. So now officially way beyond the point of being just hungry and approaching 30 minutes late I handed back the food and she gave back my card. (Which she was holding hostage). I left hungry and sad as the manager was so rude and made it seem like it was my fault that THEY didn't use my card right. NEVER GOING HERE AGAIN, and I really liked their chicken. :( read more

Tonight was just really gross. They were out of small side cups, so our sides came on a plate (and they weren't the size of the small cup, way less). Like use the large and fill it half way?! The cashier didn't listen and asked for my side order 3 times. My salad had no dressing. The only good part was we used a coupon and paid $10 for a 2 person meal. The salsa bar was clean (for once). But the chicken! Ugh! It was undercooked. I'm not a picky eater or grossed out or complaining... It was undercooked. I heard the cook even say "man I have this fire on hot burning the outside crispy leaving the inside slightly raw... But no one says nothing. Because I know it's better that way because it's juiciest." As the other guy laughs. No. It's not better that way. And clean your grill. My fingers were black from the dirty ash stuck to the chicken skin. I used to love their food. How hard is it to mess up beans, rice and chicken?! Wth happened?! read more

The chicken was really good. I always get special request on chicken like 6 breast or 8 legs and usually at other el pollo locos they tell me they can serve me but at this location they always do on weekend nights. I go here once a week and the staff is always very interactive. read more

The negative reviews of this location are for a reason!!! The employees and management at this location are completely incompetent and have NO customer service!! I went thru the drive thru on 5/1 and when I got to the window to pay, she said it was "$20.14 and swiped my card. I thought that seemed a little expensive for what I had ordered so I asked her to repeat my order back to me.......the minute she spoke, I knew it wasn't my order. Long story short, I was at the drive thru window for more than 20 minutes while the manager (Lorena) tried to figure out how to process a refund to my card. Needless to say, the people behind me were getting VERY angry because it is a DRIVE THRU and they are stuck and can't get out!!! HELLO?!?!? I told the manager to just give me a cash refund since she couldn't figure out how to process it with my card - she couldn't do that. So, I sat there while she swiped her manager card and my credit card over 50 TIMES (no exaggeration!!). She was finally able to process my refund.........but guess what?!?!?!? MY ORDER WASN'T EVEN READY!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?1?!?!? I'VE BEEN SITTING HERE FOR OVER 20 MINUTES AND YOU STILL DON'T HAVE MY FOOD READY??? Not to mention that when my food was finally ready, she forgot my drink!! I reminded her and she gave it to me.........got home and it was only carbonated water!! WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!!! I WILL NEVER GO TO THIS LOCATION AGAIN!! INCOMPETENCY AND HORRRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE AT ITS BEST!!! YUCK!!! read more

Just left this location and I wanted to call the manager, but decided to write my 2nd review ever. Drive thru speaker was challenging to hear and employee on the other end seemed very annoyed with me since I needed her to repeat. Once I got to the window, I tried to kindly explain that it was hard to hear her, she didn't seem to care nor did she say one word to me or even smile. Haven't tried the food yet, but I just left that drive thru feeling irritated that I just paid $9 dollars for drive thru food and didn't even have a pleasant person to deal with. I love el pollo loco for fast food and I always have very friendly people help me at the window at the location in Fullerton. So sad. I don't think I'll go back to this location. read more

Janette Berrara.....Absolutely TERRIBLE! Another bad experience at El Pollo Loco!!! They had NO flour tortillas! The lady before us said, she just ordered some and they gave her the larger Tortillas. So thinking we were going to get our Flour tortillas. They made our order, went up to get it and a young man told us that they ran out of flour tortillas. We substituted for chips. Got finished eating and went up to get a lid for my salad and seen them making burritos....with FLOUR TORTILLAS!!!! I said to the young man "I was really upset, there are flour tortillas right back there." (a whole stack of them). The manager JANETTE BARRARA told her employee to LIE and say that they had NO Flour Tortillas. How very sad for the employee. (He went to hide in the back, he was embarrassed). My husband went to the counter and asked to talk to the manager. Janette Berrara LIED TO US and then LAUGHED at my husband as we walked out. Very, very SAD!!!!! read more

I don't eat much fast food, but El Pollo Loco used to be one of my favorite options because I felt like I could make healthier choices. I don't know what has happened to the food quality over the past few years, but it's gotten very bad at many locations. More often than not the chicken tastes old and dry. I live close to the La Habra location and the food quality is consistently bad so I stopped going there. I was close to the Brea location yesterday around 4:00 pm and decided to give that location a try. It was WORSE than La Habra which is saying a lot! The chicken was terribly dried out and tasted like it had been sitting under a heat lamp for hours. My theory is that they have too much leftover chicken from lunch so they pass it off on the drive-thru customers and to-go orders. How many people are actually going to drive back? There was nothing at all fresh about the food that I brought home for an early dinner last night. Even my husband said to never go back to El Pollo Loco again. One last thing our Loco Salads did not have any of the yummy cilantro dressing on it like they should have. They were completely dry making it consistent with the chicken. Maybe "dry" is the new quality standard for all El Pollo Loco menu items. read more

This has to be the worst El Pollo ever. Seems like every time I come here they either forget to put something in my bag which I paid for or they get the order wrong. I went through the drive thru tonight and ordered drumsticks and they told me they were all out of chicken. Really?! Last time I checked this was a chicken place! Also, the guy who took the order seemed like he completely hated his job. If you don't want to be there then get out and find a new job! There's plenty of other people who would love your job and appreciate having one. read more

I will never go back to Brea Pollo Loco ever again! Those machines are a total joke! NOT ONLY do they cause a huge back up because most people take too much time to manuever them, but they have to have their workers stand next to them so this defeats the purpose! Today I went for the first time in months and it was when i discovered the machines. They also had people from the company there testing the machines and people's reactions. My friend and I relayed how long it was taking with the machines and that we were never coming back as long as these machines were here. The company reps did not acknowledge our opinions and tried to convince us that its the best option. I told the guy machines will never replace people and the idea sucked big time. He laughed and said nothing. POLLO LOCO has lost a good customer. I know it's gonna lose more.!! read more

I love the food from pollo loco. But this review is to the staff from this restaurant. I come here unfortunately a lot because it's so close to my work but if I had another pollo loco near by, I would stay as far away from this place as possible. Using the drive through take an average of 15 minutes, the attendants are so rude, never smile as much as I smile at them to see if I can change their mood, either the mic from the drive thru doesn't work, or the attendants love to give you a hard time. Today I decided to avoid this bad experience I went inside. The cashier was very nice, not complaint. However the manager from this place doesn't have a common sense of customer service. I'm sitting down watching this scenario... Manager is coaching cashier at the register, she talks so loud that I can hear from my table all about their sales and schedule availability, something I believe should not be done I front of customers, now what drove me to write this review is that customer were walking in, their line was getting long, and the manager would not even knowledge the customers, she continued talking about their goals completely ignoring customers while customers were just staring and waiting to be helped!!!! Really??!! Finally the cashier told the next customer in line sorry about that sir, while the manager just turned around and walked away. Clearly upper management should reconsider who they have as their team leaders and if they are so interested and worried about sales (as manager would advise the cashier)I can warranty you this would actually help. read more

The food is great but I just waited 30 min in the drive thru for them to tell me they are out of Mac n cheese. Are serious?! I'm pretty sure had I known that I wouldn't have continued to order. Either way I got double mashed potatoes and gravy since all I like from here are the mashed and Mac n cheese. STILL paid full price for my meal and I'm not even satisfied. Definitely will be filing a complaint on the phone number I got on my receipt. read more

Had the rudest cashier girl named Liz. Run if you see her. She raised her voice at my dad and gave him attitude as well as all the elderly people there. read more

I eat at EPLs in Long Beach about twice a month. I enjoy their food and am thankful there is a fast food option that is healthy. This was the first time I had ever eaten at this EPL in Brea. It was awful. The service was like the twilight zone. I was the only person in line and the ladies (both) ignored me. One finally told me after 5 minutes of staring at her with no acknowledgement that she was cashing out the register. Well that's great there was another one and plenty of managers sitting around doing nothing. When another (very slow) woman finally took my order it didn't go through. Five people got their food before I went up and asked about mine. They asked what was missing. I said the entire meal. So they threw it together quickly and gave me the wrong tortillas. When I finally got my meal it was not up to the normal EPL standards. the coleslaw, rice and green salsa are watered down. I verified this by asking the guys next to me who said they ate there 3 times a week. Worst of all, the chicken was so over done I had to spit part of it out as it was inedible. SAD. read more

Worst experience ever went to the restaurant waited in the drive-thru lane as I pulled up I found out they were out of white meat nothing posted anywhere I could not back up had to wait until the drive-thru clears out overall waited for over 25 minutes with no food to take home. read more

Very good food. They changed everything up so you order from these machines and the employees are always more than happy to help if you don't understand how to do it read more

Love thier new $20.00 family meals. The assistant manager is amazing!!

The only times I've been there the service and food has been horrible! So close to home it would be so nice if they were even two stars. They run out of chicken! No salsa ready. Only one cashier with a line of over 6, with employees doing nothing. Manager not looking up as if to avoid eye contact with customer wondering what's going on. Drive through was almost 30 minute wait! Unfortunately I couldn't go anywhere, since I was stuck in the middle of several cars. I do not recommend this place. Do yourself a favor and go elsewhere! It's supposed to be "fast food". Please be ready to wait for chicken, since the only times I've been there, they've run out. Young staff, trying to be helpful... The real problem is the management. Get it together people!!!! read more

What happen to this place. Every night the line is full and they take forever to give you your order. My burritos were open at the ends. The girl made them and everyone left and there was no one to hand it to me. The person at the drive there could have handed it to me but he was busy with the line. This place is not what it used to be and it smells read more

So I've had multiple issues with this restaurant. How does a place that sells chicken, run out of chicken? Well this place can. I walk in to get dinner and am told that they are currently out of chicken and it will be a while before more is cooked. So I leave. But the final straw was my last visit. First there is only one entrance into this place, so whoever it was washing out the trash cans thought that was the ideal place to perform that task. So I had to step through dirty trash water. Then I go to pull the handle on the door, and it's broken and I almost punch myself in the face. And of course they had no sign saying be careful or just having the door propped open. So I get inside and order my food to go. When I get home and start eating, I realized that they gave me the incorrect order. I do not like certain items and ordered a burrito that does not contain them at all. So I ended up throwing away my dinner. When I write to corporate about my experience I did not receive a reply at all not even the "we are very sorry, we'll try to do better." Nothing. I will no longer do business with this location or this company and have been telling people to go elsewhere. I've worked in the refuse industry, trash cans are absolutely disgusting, and having customers enter your restaurant walking through where someone is cleaning them out seems like a health and safety violation to me. Avoid this place like the plague read more

Slowest drive thru ever... and they NEVER have the butterfinger blizzard whenever I ask. I have gone there at least 8 times and not once have they ever gotten an order correct. I always get 6 taco al carbon 3 with onions 3 without. They always ask do you still want cilantro? yes... I get 3 with just chicken and 3 with just onions... hello? Very disorganized. read more

We went for dinner Sunday 7/27/14. The service was Very slow - it was a chaotic mess,,, the salsa bar was depleted, several drive thru customers came in because of messed up orders and the staff just didn't seem to have a clue what was going on...Even though this is the closest El Pollo to our house - IF we go back to an El Pollo restaurant, it will definitely NOT be this one!! ( this was not our only bad experience here, thought we'd give them another chance :( read more

This location is ALWAYS SLOW!!! Went for lunch on Saturday, June 6 at 12:30 hoping to grab something and be on our way to get to a function by 1:00. After waiting 20 minutes, along with the 3 people who ordered before us, we were told they ran out of chicken and were cooking more. HUH?!?! How do you run out of chicken during lunch time? This location seems to be poorly managed. If they would have told us they were cooking more chicken when we ordered, they could have saved people from becoming frustrated and angry. We finally asked for our money back. As much as we like El Pollo Loco, this location is definitely a no go. read more

something is vey different about this loco. service is so awesome. its different, and I used to hate coming here. now I love it.