El Pollo Local

Last night while watching a Family Guy rerun on TBS, we saw a commercial for the fast-food chicken place El Pollo Loco. I've never had it, but The Mrs. grew up in southern California and has fond memories of it.

Commercials for stuff we don't have around here are nothing new (Sonic comes to mind, though they are scheduled to open on route 1 in Saugus in a couple of months), but neither of us remembered seeing commercials for El Pollo Loco before, and this commercial said "come visit us on Revere Beach Parkway in Chelsea." It seems it was a locally produced ad, and for now there's only the one location, though apparently Tewksbury is getting one soon. Let's hear it for franchsing. Anyway, the Mrs. immediately said that we needed to go eat there tonight, and who am I to argue with such things?

The restaurant is in a newly built plaza adjacent to route 16 just before the Revere line, so unfortunately it's not exactly T accessible. They have quite a large and varied menu (though if you're not into chicken I suppose you're out of luck), with sandwiches, salads, and burritos in addition to the "flame-grilled" chicken, and even the decor is much nicer than a typical chain fast-food place. And if you order your food to eat there, someone brings it to you at your table.

The Mrs. opted for a traditional two-piece chicken meal with sides of refried beans and rice. I went for the chicken tostada bowl, which had pinto beans, rice, cheese, lettuce, pico de gallo, and sour cream, and came with a side of creamy cilantro dressing. Yuh-hun. All their chicken is marinated in a blend of spices and citrus, making it moist and very tasty. Everything is really fresh, nothing tastes artificial or processed. And yes, I ate the tostada bowl. In fact, I broke it up into pieces and dipped them in the dressing.

I would definitely rank El Pollo Loco miles above the swill served at Taco Bell, and I would also choose them over Qdoba (where I've always been made to feel like they're doing me a favor by serving me). I'm already looking forward to our next visit.