Pollo Campero

Good food, terrible service. An occasional mistake, I understand, but every time I order, they make mistakes. They give me the wrong food, or they forget food.
I phoned-​in today, to save time, but they still kept me waiting. Then they handed me my bag without any tortillas, and with one less Empanada than I paid for. Nobody checks anything, they are clueless! There were only 6 people in the restaurant!
Poorly managed, poorly trained, poor performance.
They lost another customer today, along with all my co-​workers, and friends.

The first few times I tried this place the chicken was kind of tasty. It reminded me of an old chicken chain in L.A. from «back in the day“called Pioneer Chicken. However, this time it was not as good at all. In fact, it’s strictly for the birds. The texture was unappetizingly «ragged» (to be kind) and dry (who knows how long it had sat under those dreadful warming lamps?) The distinct, sweetly spicy flavor of the breading I had remembered from before was pretty much gone. It was just plain ol’ carnival level greasy fried chicken with too many jagged little bones. Bone up on your Heimlich maneauver before eating this choke hazard bird! (Are these chickens anorexic or do they have skeletal deformities?) Uggh. The cole slaw was bland but edible; the fries were a dry, dreary mess. The only really good thing in the whole meal was the salsa. The staff, (I counted 2 employees), were distracted and slow. This place was unfortunately nothing to cluck about. They need to do a quality assessment. It’s rare to find really good fried chicken in fast food franchises, and this place is going in the wrong direction. I would not call this so much a «meal» as a gastric mistake, and I recommend you fly the coop on this one: Cockle-doodle-DON’T!

I love this place! The food is amazing! The staff isnt the best and sometimes you have to ask for the fresh chicken if you’re there late or something. But all in all GREAT food. Kfc has nothing on their fried chicken!

Food is pretty good here. I was pleasantly surprised. The place was VERY clean, and customer service was sooooooo friendly. They were very polite and attentive. Overall, my chicken bowl was good quality.

I’m in here right now and every single booth table is filled with trash from previous customers very unsanitary it looks like they haven’t cleaned it for a week.

Fried chicken is better than KFC but not by much. Roscoe’s is just down the street on Gower and for a few more bucks you can get much better fried chicken with table service. Cole slaw here tastes like potato salad. Not very good. I would skip it. Staff was not all that concerned that most of the dining tables needed to be cleared. See my photo. That table was like that when I ordered and it is still that way as I left. Management needs to get a better grip on things here.

Chicken is good. I’ve had better, but it’s ok.
What is bad is the service. horrible service !!

The service is not good in this location, the chicken doesn’t have that pollo campero flavor, we sit and eat and some guy was mopping the floor and smell like piss becouse of him, I guess he used the same water for the restroom… avoid this location

Fried chicken is sooo good! It’s like the fried chicken back in Taiwan! The chicken isn’t coated with heavy batter and the meat is moist and flavorful! All other fried chicken, the seasoning is only on the skin and no seasoning in the meat.
And the staff is very helpful and friendly, esp Bridget! So I will only come to this location!

I love the chicken here and the tortilla soup. They recently changed their Wednesday special to make it one leg and thigh and French fries for $ 2.99. It used to be $ 1.99 without the fries. I see what they did here. Still a really good deal if you want soggy french fries with your chicken.

Always delicious succulent chicken.

I’ve been driving by this restaurant for years and have always wondered what makes this one different.
My boyfriend and I happened to be next door at Game Stop, so why not? We ordered Chicken Strips only ($ 3.69 for 3 pieces) and 2 Piece Chicken meal ($ 6.29, choice of leg+thigh or breast+wing with Classic sides and two tortillas/​bread). They ran out of chicken breasts, so the employee offered us 1 leg and 2 thighs.
We didn’t know about their $ 1.99 leg+thigh deal until I had asked if the promo was last night (Wednesday). We, then, got two orders.
No wonder our first ordered took about 15 minutes. Every family (about 20+ tables were occupied) in the restaurant ordered the $ 1.99 deal.
Comparing all the fast food American fried chicken restaurants:
KFC (all breading, yuck) — Popeyes (crispy and moist) — Pollo Campero (scrumptious)
Will definitely come back when craving something fried and juicy.
Great customer service too!
Ps. Park at WSS parking lot. The lot in this plaza is too tiny.

First of all I wanna tell the owner of this business that my family love Pollo Campero than Pollo Loco. I think it’s because of how they cook the chicken it so tasty and crunchy. Anyway, my family and I usually visit Pollo Campero every Wednesday because of their special $ 1.99 for 2 chicken and to be honest in this kind of economy that is a very good deal for some people that need to save money like us. I want to let them know (how I wish I know their names) that we always had a very good service and excellent quality of food EXCEPT on JULY 9, 2014 @ 8:01PM (WEDNESDAY) and JULY 30, 2014 (WEDNESDAY) and those people that I wish to mention wasn’t working (sucks right?) :(
July 9, 2014 @ 8:01pm receipt under my name JEN
1^st:
I ordered 2 order of chicken special, 1 family size of rice, 1 family size of coleslaw and a family size of sweet plantains for dine in. This is what happened, so they called my name to get my order and guess what I got? A COLESLAW THAT HAS HALF WAY SERVING IN THE SIZE OF A FAMILY SIZE CUP ($ 3.99 + tax) I asked the guy who ready my order. I thought he was the manager because he was wearing a black polo and for some reason I thought that every manager wear a different color. I asked him very nicely if that’s how they serve family size because I pay more than $ 4 and that’s what I’m getting. He was kinda rude the way he look and he said YES. I asked him nicely AGAIN if he can put a little bit more and guess what? He just grabbed the cup of coleslaw without saying anything (Very very rude!).
2^nd:
We always order water every restaurant we go to and I told my daughter to ask for cup of water. Here’s what the guy said, «MAKE SURE TO GET WATER AND NOT SODA» that really pissed me off. He was watching us while we’re eating and keep walking back and forth to check on us. We’re not stealing soda and even though we want soda we can actually afford to buy it but we chose to drink water and especially me I’m pregnant and I’m trying to avoid those kind of drinks.
3^rd:
I ordered a family size of sweet plantains. First, I was debating to get a small size or a family size but I decided to get the family size (15 pcs). When I order at the beginning I told him that I’m getting the sweet plantains after we eat the chicken. So when I went to go get the sweet plantains the other lady was about to help me (the real manager) but the guy wearing black told her he will do it. I told him we will eat the sweet plantains in the restaurant and I was wondering why did he put a cover. Why? So I removed the cover when I got back to our table and count the plantains and you know how many he put? ONLY 10! I feel like I’m so nice to him and not bother myself asking him and let him embarrass of what he did, but when I heard he was getting off work I immediately stand up after he left and asked the other staff that my order is not correct. I was so happy that the person I talked to is the REAL MANAGER. I found out that the guy wearing black is in TRAINING. I told her everything that happened and it’s up to the manager if she’s gonna talk to him or not. My own opinion, if you really want to get the position you have to be nice with your customer REGARDLESS of what they order.
TODAY JULY 30, 2014 (WEDNESDAY AGAIN):
We went to that place again (same location) after 3 weeks and hoping the guy is not there. So he’s not there. Yay!
Bad experience AGAIN! Gosh!
My fiancée ordered 2 order of chicken special. They can only sell 2 order of special for each person so we decided to separate the rest of the order since we want 3 order of special. I ordered 1 chicken special, 1 family size of coleslaw and a small mashed potato. My fiancée got his order very quick then he asked the lady if he can have some forks and spoons since I ordered a coleslaw and a mashed potato. She was very rude and told my fiancée why is he asking for forks and spoons if he only got a chicken. My fiancée told me what happened after we left. If I hear that I will seriously confront that lady for sure.
We’re only 3 minutes away from the restaurant and when we got home we’re not really happy for what we got. A saggy chicken and a taste like old fried chicken that’s been there since morning.
I feel like not going back to that location anymore because of my experience and I FEEL BAD TO THE OWNER OF THIS BUSINESS NO IDEA OF WHAT’S GOING ON TO THAT LOCATION.

Kentucky Fried chicken goes south of the border!
Tasty fried chicken with better sides than KFC.

I always eat here it’s bomb. dollar wednesday’s are the best because the chicken is made fresh repeatitively! and the manager Maria is very cool! and always makes things the way i ask. Try pollo campero leftovers stewed in gravy and served with grits mmmmmm…

Pollo Campero is a small chain. This one is located adjacent to a busy Starbucks.
My bf and I stopped here on a Sunday morning. It opens at 10 a.m. We ordered a spicy empanadas. It was flakey, crisp and delicious. Prices are very reasonable.

If you aren’t Mexican they don’t like you much here… the servers are rude and give you their oldest chicken… you see fresh chicken come out and they fill others orders with it. then fill your box with stuff thats been sitting around and missing half its batter.
Also has anyone else noticed this place is expensive for a fast food Mexican fried chicken spot… WTF!
Anyway I went on a big hike up in the Hills. then I was mega hungry. I couldn’t decide if I want Pollo Campero (fried chicken and plantains) or do I want to drive through El Polllo Loco (corn cakes, sweet potato fries)…anyway I decided to go to both, I wish I could combine them… Pollo Campero needs a drive through and better staff but really they do have tasty batter…
So much for that hike… I think I just ate 5000 calories

This is a place I’ve been meaning to check out since I moved to LA. I remember when the first US outpost of this Latin American chicken chain opened up on Wilshire about a decade ago and all the long lines they had. People raving about the fried chicken. C’mon. I lived down south at the time. Chicken couldn’t be that good, could it?
Turns out, it’s not. Albeit it depends on what you buy.
The lines are long gone. There weren’t even any when I stepped into the Hollywood branch on Sunset one afternoon. I decided to try both the fried and grilled chicken. Good call, because the fried was very poor. The breading was lame and flavorless with some of the breading coming off the breast. Reminded me of having Weaver’s frozen fried chicken as a kid in Philly way, way back. And that’s not good to say at all. Also, they mixed up my order as I ordered the 3 piece. Which should have been, breast, wing and thigh. Well, they got the white meat right but they placed a leg in for the thigh. Big difference. Talk about a bait and switch.
The grilled was much, much better. Comparing these two styles were like night and day. The grilled was very juicy with tremendous amounts of flavor coming from the spices. Better than El Pollo Loco’s recent efforts. I would come back for this albeit not much else.
Sides-​wise, the Black Beans and Rice are exactly what you would expect. The plantains were great (why doesn’t EPL offer this?) and worth the extra amount for the ‘premium’ side. Fries? Well, just like EPL and Del Taco, the fries were pretty bad. Actually, they tasted like dehydrated strips of potato. Basically, if you’re at a Mexican/​Hispanic establishment, steer clear of their idea of french fries. Maybe the Yuca Fries are better. Didn’t order those.
Salsa bar is small with just two choices. Fortunately, they’re both pretty good. Especially the verde although there’s definitely a little spicy kick that comes in shortly after ingesting. Too bad the tortillas are bad and the chips are an extra buck. You don’t get them as an option with platters.
Place itself is your typical sunny look of a fast food place. Only this one has ads. You know you’re at a Hispanic place with the free check cashing for ordering a family pack of chicken. You wouldn’t see that at KFC. But ads for insurance? Now that’s just tacky.
Overall, pretty much a hit or miss place that I doubt I;ll be hitting again any time soon.

Meh, What can I say. NOTHING like the original. The Original in Guatemala was ridiculous. I think I may of had it in Tikal and in Guatemala City. BANGIN!
This place, first its located in Sunsets finest near Western, across from the home depot. faaaairly sketch.
Pros:
–Pretty awesome fried chicken
–Pretty awesome fried chicken
–Cilantro Sauce
–Near Yougertland
Cons:
Confused staff
NEVER any grilled chicken. NEVER
Never any ketchup
All of the sides are whack
dirty (but its painted yellow and orange on the inside so you cant tell)
Sketchy!
Try it once. If you like it, venture for more visits. If you have a bad experience, go ahead and pass, wait till you visit Guatemala to get the REAL DEAL!

I wanted to like it. I’ve always wanted to like Pollo Campero but I’m disappointed every time. The chicken is actually quite tasty but everything else sucks. The mashed potatoes I got were disgusting. The black beans with rice had no flavor. The dinner rolls tasted cold and stale. When we asked the guy to heat the dinner rolls, he said «one second» and took more than 10 minutes. He also tried to convince us that all of the dinner rolls were hard and cold. I’m sure they are, but that’s not the point.
I feel bad saying negative things about Pollo Campero because I understand how special it is to many Central Americans. It’s a part of the culture but it needs to improve if it’s serious about establishing itself to the mainstream US customer.