The long-held truism about El Pollo Loco is that you should never order anything there other than the charbroiled pieces of chicken that are their specialty. Seriously, for a nominally Mexican place — nominally in that “pollo” and “loco” are Spanish words, and Spanish is the language many Mexicans speak — their burritos are an abominable misuse of the concept. The BRC (bean, rice, cheese) exists, I am convinced, solely so that chintzy employers can get cheap craft services en masse. Indeed the only occasions in the past decade that I have eaten a BRC were (a) at OC Weekly staff meetings, and (b) on the set of VIOLENT BLUE. In both cases the only alternative was eating nothing at all, an option that ultimately might have been more preferable.
As for the classic chicken burrito, even back when I was on minimum wage at the Sunset 5, I knew it was worth shelling out the additional coin to embellish it with extra cheese and guacamole, thus rendering it edible.
So now they’ve decided to try their hand at hot wings. It’s something they should be good at – their chicken wings are generally good, and they also know spicy — the spicy quesadilla at El Pollo is probably the hottest basic fast-food item I’ve ever eaten, save those chicken jalapeno burritos Taco Bell had for a very limited time two years ago. Not that Taco Bell tried hard, or anything — filling something with jalapeno slices is cheap and easy.
Anyway, it seems that the truism still holds. The Buffaloco wings, which are offered primarily as part of a $5 five-piece deal that includes fries, are a failure.
I’ll give them credit for one thing — unlike the hot wings at KFC, which are huge and undoubtedly comes from chicken on ‘roids and hormones, these wings are anemic things, about half the size of the ones you see in the official advertising picture above. And of the five I got, four were lower-wings rather than drumettes, a karmic payback for all those places that only do drumettes. I happen to be a lower-wing dude, myself.
And the “Buffaloco” sauce — really? This was the best you could do, o crazy chickenmeisters? The jalapeno sauce that comes in ketchup-like packets would have been better than this, which tastes like barbecue sauce mixed with Tabasco. Buffalo sauce should not be sweet; almost by definition, it has to be sour. And yes, I’m sure I didn’t get the barbecue option, which I’m fairly certain is the usual EPL barbecue sauce (good for what it is).
I will add that it’s been nigh on ten years since I’ve had fries at El Pollo, but I remember them being very distinctive, big and browned with an almost baked flavor. These fries were tiny and tasty, an improvement while being somewhat more generic, with less personality.
Mitigating this visit was a chicken soft taco I ordered that was so overloaded with filling and salsa that it nearly collapsed in my hands. Good taco. So maybe the exception that proves the rule.
Don’t order the Buffaloco. Get regular wings, and put the jalapeno sauce on them. Better plan
Ahh.. the Sunset 5 food-run days of endless BRC’s for a buck. Good Times. I actually enjoyed them – minus the rice, of course, and drenched with 10 cups of their medium house salsa. The fries I liked too. In fact, second only to McD’s. El pollo loco fries were good even when soggy, maybe even better, especially shoved into the aforementioned salsa-drenched BRC or doused with jugs of ketchup. I never liked much else on their menu, maybe their twice-grilled chicken burrito (sans rice).
Their quesodillas taste like urine.
Did Shabaglian tell you that?
I’m not sure of Shay-Bags tastes… although, he was definately the food-run king.
Better bean and cheese burritos than the BRC:
Del Taco’s bean and cheese burrito.
Taco Bell’s cheesy bean and rice burrito.
Pretty much any burrito made with beans and cheese.
I vote thumbs-down on this comment!
In fact, I’d say that the BRC is probably the best burrito in its price-class (that is, if it’s still under a buck) and it’s by far, the biggest.