El Pollo Loco announces expansion and tiny model

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storewanderer
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El Pollo Loco announces expansion and tiny model

Post by storewanderer »

https://www.qsrmagazine.com/news/el-pol ... sion-texas

A lot of families dine in at El Pollo Loco in the Reno area (all of the locations) but I have noticed when I go to locations around Sacramento few people dine in and the business seems to be mostly take out.

Still this tiny concept, I don't know how it will go. A lot of people have large complicated orders and it takes some space to put those together and check the orders. Also I hope this doesn't mean the end of that really good brewed unsweetened passion mango iced tea (or "tropical tea" to the drive through).
Alpha8472
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Re: El Pollo Loco announces expansion and tiny model

Post by Alpha8472 »

El Pollo Loco is often found in some really high crime areas in California. You do not want to sit around and dine in these neighborhoods. You want to get your food to go and run.

There's one near me and a short distance away there are people selling guns and drugs. It is pretty scary, but I hear the food is good.

California is very car oriented in most places. People like to get things to go, so a smaller restaurant is more likely here. The dine in model is not that popular.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on June 8th, 2021, 9:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
storewanderer
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Re: El Pollo Loco announces expansion and tiny model

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: May 6th, 2021, 1:02 am El Pollo Loco is often found in some really high crime areas in California. You do not want to sit around and dine in these neighborhoods. You want to get your food to go and run.

There one near me and a short distance away there are people selling guns and drugs. It is pretty scary, but I hear the food is good.

California is very car oriented in most places. People like to get things to go, so a smaller restaurant is more likely here. The dine in model is not that popular.
That is too bad. The ones in Roseville, Yuba City, and even Sacramento-Northgate seem perfectly safe. Northgate is on the edge of an iffy area but I have not had any explicit issues where the El Pollo Loco is personally.

The trick with El Pollo Loco is playing around with customizations and the salsas to get the food to a flavoring that you are satisfied with. I have found a lot of people go there who are not familiar with it, and order something, then do not return because they found the food to lack flavor. Some of the pre-determined items like some of the burritos or salads start off rather bland or like they are missing something. But once you determine what you like flavor-wise, experimenting with some additions with the medium pico, or the "house salsa" (mild pico really), or the avocado salsa, and if you want things like sour cream or guacamole on the entree or not (not a fan of either), this is a great place to go. The creamy cilantro dressing is especially excellent on the salads, as well as that brewed passion mango (tropical) tea.

Their best deal at present is the $5 combo meal with a pollo bowl (good sized rice/bean/chicken breast/pico/sour cream/onion/cilantro bowl- this is heavily customizable so there are a lot of options here to remove things or add other things), a chicken nachos, or 3 small chicken (dark meat) tacos and a tortillas/chips and a drink.

They used to have a Skinless Breast Meal- that seems to be gone now formally. It had the skinless breast, a side of broccoli, and a side salad (with that creamy cilantro dressing). No side flexibility and excluded the tortillas/chips (and the wing). But it was about $2 cheaper than the Breast/Wing/2 Side/Tortilla meal so I used to get it. I used to have a location where I would go near closing time and they would take the skin off the breast then re-season the breast and grill it for a few minutes. That was really excellent.
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