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 there isn't much room and they have a drive thru making it that much worse. It was getting messy as we were leaving. Not sure why they picked such a small area to open up in, as Colorado Springs has proven to be a haven for newly arrived chains. Shoot, In-N-Out Burger still has lines around their respective buildings, five years after first coming here. It's a new building, no doubt bulldozing some eyesore on Fillmore, an area that continues to improve. There wasn't any other way to go honestly.
We walked in and were greeted with enthusiastic counter service. You can order there or at the kiosks. Since there was a small line, I just went ahead and knuckled in our orders. The kiosk works very well, fast and efficient. I ordered the 3 piece dark meat chicken meal, and Mrs. RJG had the 2 piece of same. We each had sides of rice and beans. She wanted the corn tortillas and I went for the corn chips.
We got our fountain drinks - oh and hooray, they leave cups next to the kiosk so you don't have to wait for your order! That's a new troublesome feature that dumpster fires like Taco Bell has. The drink mix was good (not always a given). Our order was ready quick.
First off, everything came out hot temperature. The kitchen was clearly ready on this day. The beans are of the soupy variety and lacked flavor. Mrs. RJG was quick to point out they were cooked perfectly however. The rice was also properly cooked. I could have used more flavor but Mrs. gave a thumbs up. By default you get two salsas. One a red pico, the other a tomatillo green. I preferred the latter. I learned afterwards that they do offer a salsa roja, which is a spicy chipotle. So we'll get that next time. They also offer serrano's if you ask. The chips were crispy and excellent.
That gets us to the main course - the chicken itself. Oh yea, this is the way to charbroil a chicken! Very flavorful, hot, moist, and tender. This is the El Pollo Loco we remember from our previous visits.
This is for certain a Rotation place for us. Next time I want to try the corn and mac n' cheese, instead of rice and beans. And of course grab a container of salsa roja and a serrano.
Locations: 500+ with 2 in the Denver area plus this one. Others include California (391), Nevada (33), Texas (31), Arizona (27), Utah (9), and Louisiana (2). Doesn't quite add up to 500, but that's what AI is telling me. Their website is useless for research. There is still one location in Fort Worth for my friends in DFW. They were in Denver for a brief time when we had our summer townhome, but it closed down in 2011. They're obviously back with better management it seems.
4/21/98 (Santa Clara); 10/30/00 (West Hollywood); 3/22/03 (San Antonio); 2010 (Denver - closed); 10/25/14 (Phoenix); 12/10/16 (North Richland Hills, TX - closed); 11/7/25 (Colorado Springs; new entry)
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