Cooked?
El Pollo Real
- resultPass
- critical violations0
- last inspectedFebruary 19, 2026
- address3835 W 31St St, Chicago 60623
Is El Pollo Real clean?
El Pollo Real is currently Pass from Chicago Department of Public Health, from an inspection on February 19, 2026. No critical violations were recorded at that visit. On Cooked's ladder that reads clean 😇.
What did inspectors find at El Pollo Real?
These are the violations recorded at the most recent inspection on February 19, 2026, in plain English, with the city's own wording underneath.
- ⚠️Warewashing Facilities: Installed, Maintained & Used; Test Strips • 4-603.15 OBSERVED MULTI-USE EQUIPMENT TOO LARGE TO SUBMERGE IN 3-COMPARTMENT SINK. INSTRUCTED MANAGER TO PROVIDE ALTERNATIVE METHOD TO PROPERLY WASH, RINSE, AND SANITIZE ALL LARGE EQUIPMENT.Warewashing Facilities: Installed, Maintained & Used; Test Strips • 4-603.15 OBSERVED MULTI-USE EQUIPMENT TOO LARGE TO SUBMERGE IN 3-COMPARTMENT SINK. INSTRUCTED MANAGER TO PROVIDE ALTERNATIVE METHOD TO PROPERLY WASH, RINSE, AND SANITIZE ALL LARGE EQUIPMENT.
- 🚻bathroom / plumbing issuesPlumbing Installed; Proper Backflow Devices • 5-204.12 OBSERVED NO BACKFLOW DEVICE ON UTILITY SINK. INSTRUCTED MANAGER TO PROVIDE AND MAINTAIN BACKFLOW DEVICE ON UTILITY SINK..
When was El Pollo Real last inspected?
El Pollo Real has 17 inspections on record going back to February 6, 2013. The 12 most recent are shown below.
| date | result | score |
|---|---|---|
| February 19, 2026 | Pass | |
| February 11, 2026 | Fail | |
| May 28, 2025 | Pass | |
| December 13, 2024 | Pass | |
| December 6, 2023 | Pass | |
| September 29, 2023 | Pass w/ Conditions | |
| November 30, 2022 | Pass | |
| October 29, 2021 | Pass | |
| October 22, 2020 | Pass | |
| January 22, 2019 | Pass w/ Conditions | |
| May 22, 2018 | Pass w/ Conditions | |
| September 26, 2017 | Pass |
El Pollo Real vs South Lawndale
South Lawndale runs 64% clean across 668 tracked restaurants — 427 clean, 92 mid, 146 cooked.
Against the 668 spots Cooked tracks in South Lawndale, this one comes out cleaner than 40% of them.
Other spots in South Lawndale
How Chicago grades restaurants
Chicago does not use letter grades. Every inspection ends in one of three official results: Pass, Pass with Conditions, or Fail. Pass with Conditions means violations were found but corrected on the spot or under a deadline — the restaurant is open, with homework. A Fail means serious violations went uncorrected, and it usually brings a re-inspection within days. Chicago also flags “priority” violations, the ones most likely to actually make someone sick. Cooked reads Pass as clean, Pass with Conditions as mid, and Fail as cooked, and shows the itemized violations behind each result.
Source: Chicago Department of Public Health via Chicago Data Portal. Cooked refreshes this data daily — this listing's most recent inspection is dated February 19, 2026. Inspection results describe one moment in a kitchen's life, not a permanent verdict.