Latest visit: Nov 2025 (Fillmore St.) First visit: Apr 1998 (Santa Clara, CA) HQ: Costa Mesa, CA; Founded: 1980 (Los Angeles, CA) Now here's a blast from the past. My first experience with El Pollo Loco was in Santa Clara while there on a consulting assignment. Since that time, I've visited El Pollo Loco's in West Hollywood, San Antonio, Denver, Phoenix, and North Richland Hills. The latter arrived in NE Tarrant towards the end of our stint there. It was also not very good, and that location has been long closed. Other than that fateful visit, our trips to El Pollo Loco had been a success. I never penned any notes about any of those trips. They just recently opened up here in the Springs (turns out to be their 500th location!), so Mrs. RJG and I decided to give a try again. Let's see how it went. Even before leaving the house, we'd read that the parking situation was no bueno. We got there at 10:45 before the crowds, and had no issues. However it's obvious that ...
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