El Pollo Loco

El Pollo Loco is a Mexican restaurant that is found in Provo and American Fork. It is easy to find because the logo is a giant chicken head that sticks out on the top of the restaurant building. If you have pocket points the app, you can get a buy one get one free chicken bowl. I went to El Pollo Loco and had to wait awhile for food. It was super busy! There were three families ordering in front of me. The drive through was also super busy. I was hoping that by ordering inside and getting my food to go, it would be quicker, but it still took awhile. So be aware if you decide to come here, make sure you have around 10 minutes to wait for food since it will be awhile.

The food was pretty good. I have to admit, Café Rio and Costa Vida are still my favorite, but El Pollo Loco was pretty good. It fits in the same category as Café Rio and Costa Vida. I ordered the plain chicken bowl. It came with orange/redish rice, pinto beans, grilled chicken, lettuce, and salsa. The bowl was pretty small. There is a salsa bar at the side of the counters where you order food where you can choose any variety of salsa. They have several salsa ranging from mild to super hot. I believe they had 6 different options and some pico de gallo you could also put on your meal. I got the pico de gallo and the mildest salsa because I am not a fan of spicy foods.

The chicken bowl was kindof plain. The pico de gallo and the salsa made it taste better. The grilled chicken was a little over grilled, but the beans and rice were perfect! I typically prefer black beans over pinto beans, but the pinto beans were super good! The lettuce was shredded which made it taste really good in the salad.

Originally, I was going to eat at the restaurant, but because it was super busy, there was no where to sit so I got my food to go. The restaurant was very clean and had a lot of tables and chairs. It just turned out that around 6pm on Friday, everyone was out to eat at El Pollo Loco that night. The staff was pretty friendly. It was hard to understand them though because most of them spoke Spanish. I could communicate well enough to tell them what I wanted to order, but they mostly spoke Spanish. The restaurant has lots of food images up around it as well as Spanish cultural items. It reminds me of “Casa Bonita” which has a few locations around the US. It makes it a fun little area to eat food in. I recommend El Pollo Loco if you are looking a for a cheap and somewhat healthier meal. They have a lot more options besides chicken bowls and a few specials of the week that looked pretty good.