Reviews for El Pollo Loco

06/06/2013 - sarah
I frequent this restaurant 2-3 times a week for over a year and always use the drive through. I have seen the restaurant empty as well as completely slammed and I have NEVER received such terrible service as I did today. There were a total of 5 cars in the parking lot, and 5 employees that I could see inside the restaurant through the drive thru window. While waiting for the person in front of me to get his food for 18 minutes, the dog that was in his car climbed into his lap and the woman in the drive thru window reached out to pet the dog and let it lick her hands and arms. We waited another 14 minutes after that for him to get his food, and then came up to the window. Who knows if the employee actually washed her hands, but as disorganized as the employees were inside, I seriously doubt it. I ordered the Poblano burrito, and when I finally made it to the window, the woman dropped the product she was about to give me onto the floor and had to make another, only to find out it was the wrong order. She then had a different burrito made, which she thought was my order, and yet again, was not. After taking my order for the second time, we waited for 23 minutes in the 102 degree heat for the burrito while the guy in the car behind us began yelling out of his window because it was taking so long. (there were 4 cars behind us) This entire time I was looking through the drive thru window and 4 of the 5 employees inside were literally just standing around talking and laughing (directly in front of the window)while one person made the food. I could see that there were no customers at the counter inside the entire time I was at the window. My fiancé in the passenger seat asked me 6 times to just leave because we had waited so long, and it took all the patience I had for me not to open the drive thru window myself and ask the cashier to refund my money so I could leave. After waiting a total of 45 minutes in line I was finally given my burrito and the guy in the car behind me was irate. There was no apology from the staff about the wait, or for getting the order wrong. In fact, they all had a bad attitude and were very rude. Definitely no customer service skills present there. I must say, I've never had such a terrible experience at a drive thru before, and after over a year of frequenting this restaurant I will not be returning and I will leave negative reviews on every website I can find - that is how disgusted I am.