Pollo Tropical - Fort Lauderdale

So conflicted always about coming here. 5 stars for food always fresh, well seasoned, decent sized portions, and healthy. The rice is flavorful, the chicken is never dry or over cooked, the sauces are always good and add variety to what I always get. 1 stars for service I have mixed experiences with the cashiers. Some are friendly. Some are tired. Some look like they hate their job. I think a large amount of their stress comes from the fact that the kitchen staff seem to be inefficient compared to other stores. It seems like no one knows what they are doing. They are always walking all over the kitchen area to complete even a simple order vs Chipotle where it?s an efficient team where each person only does one or two things. I don?t know if it?s a training or management thing or how this kitchen area is laid out but it always takes a long time to receive food. This order took more than 15 minutes even though there were only two people in line before me. The drive through similarly takes such a long time. This is supposed to be fast casual food. It really is great food but I can get food faster almost as fast at a dine in restaurant.

Empanadas were cold inside from being thawed or frozen and waited 20 mins in drive through. Poor service and slow

This is a caesar salad. Uggh All green leaves. No crunch and the dressing didnt stick to the leaves. And this is the new Chicken Cuban sandwich Left over chicken pieces on one side and ham on the other. Gross! You can do better than this!

They supervisor and cook were visibly and audibly irritated at my large order. In addition they were racially discriminatory when prioritizing it. As a nearby business, I spend $300-$400 quarterly at this location to recognize my own employees. However, that will change after today's experience. Service matters....even more now.

The food was excellent, but the staff could use some improvement in terms of friendliness and attentiveness during the ordering process. The person taking our order had a soft voice and seemed to have difficulty hearing us, which made it challenging to communicate. Other than that, as mentioned, the food was really great.