Portillo's Stops Taking Cash Due To Robberies

ClownLoach
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Re: Portillo's Stops Taking Cash Due To Robberies

Post by ClownLoach »

I did visit Buena Park last week and Portillo's was as strong as ever. They have made some wise choices, they eliminated separate ordering at the Salad Counter and installed signs pointing you to the main register. There are signs about the cash free drive through and it didn't seem to be disuading anyone from visiting. Looking at the setup the drive thru attendants are on the side of the restaurant facing the street, but that just would just make it easier for someone on foot to rob them, then have a getaway car pull up to the curb. I can totally see why they would discontinue accepting cash with their current model. Also many times a runner will bring your bags of food to the car well before you get to the drive thru window similar to Chick-Fil-A; for this reason accepting cash at the window does not work and would slow down their line. I did think that their exterior and interior could use some TLC, outside paint is fading and inside uses lots of stage style lighting on the overhead displays but many were dim or burned out. Nothing serious and anything they could reach with a ladder was spotlessly clean and working.

Food is still very reasonable price for what you get, and my perception was similar to In-N-Out they have increased prices by a very small margin if at all; I don't think anything has gone up more than 50 cents in over a year which is impressive. I split the large Italian Beef sandwich with my aunt, it was $9.99 and it was over a foot long, very heavy, enough for the two of us with a single large fry. There was definitely more than a pound of good quality italian roast beef on that thing - consider Albertsons is trying to get $14.99/lb for their mediocre Primo Taglio in their deli and you can see this is a steal. I did order a Maxwell St Polish sausage and it looked to be shorter than in the past, but that might not be a bad thing as it used to be two inches or longer past each end of the bun. They cut a section from a long sausage to make that one. What Portillo's does right (for themselves) is that one regular food item (a hot dog, sausage, sandwich, single patty burger) might not exactly be enough food for everyone so it encourages ordering a second item which for sure will be too much food. The prices are still very reasonable in an age where BK is trying to sell a whopper for over $8 alone, but you'll run your ticket up to about $20 when you inevitably order too much. Thankfully items like that wonderful Maxwell St Polish reheat well...
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Re: Portillo's Stops Taking Cash Due To Robberies

Post by storewanderer »

More on Portillo's price strategy here:
https://www.qsrmagazine.com/fast-casual ... gy-working

Beyond the entree items don't even go there when it comes to whatever their feature milkshake flavor is. Especially if it is one involving a cake slice going into the milkshake. I've tried that type of milkshake at other places and left disgusted but at Portillo's it is off the charts good. When I was last there they had what was a strawberry shake with some kind of lemon cake slice thrown into it, that was really worth it.

Also Portillo's will cook their otherwise unremarkable crinkle fries "extra crispy" - it is even an option for online orders. Really good.
ClownLoach
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Re: Portillo's Stops Taking Cash Due To Robberies

Post by ClownLoach »

Funny the cake milkshake is the only thing that I have disliked there. Maybe I got a bad one. It was a chocolate cake shake and the cake made it too rich and too sweet.
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