Review: El Pollo Loco - Mixed Grill Plate

El Pollo Loco's Mixed Grill Plate offers carne asada alongside your choice of a chicken leg or thigh served with Spanish rice, pinto beans, warm tortillas (corn or flour), fresh salsa, diced onions, shredded lettuce, and chopped cilantro (for taco making). A Mixed Grill Plate will run you $6.49.

It's a fair bit of food and enough for two of me, but maybe only one of you if you're a big eater.

For take out, the plate comes in a sturdy, compartmentalized plastic container that is strong enough to re-use.

Between the thigh and the carne asada, you can make quite a few tacos though you might run out of tortillas.

The chicken is juicy and seasoned to a nice flavor but the steak is, despite being marinated, on the bland side and needs to be paired with some lime or salsa.

My qualm with the steak is that every time I go to El Pollo Loco, I always see them flame-grilling chicken but I never see them grilling the steak. This suggests two things: one, not that many people are buying steak, and two, the steak that you get has probably been in a warming bin for a while. Fresh, grilled carne asada sprinkled with a little salt and lime while grilling would taste a lot better.

Other than that, the beans and rice were okay; I could do without all the liquid in the beans though. The condiments were plentiful and fresh plus you can always grab more at El Pollo Loco's salsa bar if you find them lacking.

Overall, El Pollo Loco's steak offerings have been pretty lackluster for me so far but there chicken is very good and sets them apart from what's being offered at other fast food chains.

El Pollo Loco Store Locator