Pollo Tropical

Pollo Tropical's Florida stores average -0.52 high-priority violations per routine inspection relative to their county baseline (95% interval -0.61 to -0.43), below the county baseline. Rank 4 of 9 chicken brands, counted from furthest below the baseline.

-0.52vs county baseline, 95% interval -0.61 to -0.43

0.66 vs 1.19raw high-priority violations per routine inspection vs the baseline its stores face

132stores in 17 counties, 698 routine inspections, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26

The food: where these dishes come from

Pollo Tropical is known for citrus-marinated grilled chicken (mojo). The stories are about the dishes, not the brand, and live on PlateTales.

By fiscal year

Relative to the county baseline, first visits of routine inspections. Open circle and * = fiscal year in progress (data as of 2026-11-09). Hover a point for n.

Most-cited violation codes

Citations per 100 routine inspections, Pollo Tropical vs all Florida inspections, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26 (n = 698). Descriptions are DBPR's.
Code	DBPR description	Pollo Tropical	Florida	Ratio
36	Floors properly constructed, clean, drained, coved	45.1	39.9	1.13x
14	Food contact surfaces designed, constructed, maintained, installed, located	41.0	46.9	0.87x
03	Food Out of Temperature	32.4	35.0	0.93x
23	Non-food contact surfaces clean	21.5	23.6	0.91x
22	Food contact surfaces of equipment and utensils clean	16.9	43.6	0.39x

Outcomes

4.3% vs 19.6%routine inspections that needed a callback visit, vs all Florida (raw)

0.43% vs 1.01%routine inspections ending in an emergency order recommendation, vs all Florida (raw)

96%of 126 stores with 2+ inspections score below their county baseline after shrinkage toward the brand mean

Emergency closures

No Pollo Tropical store appears in DBPR's weekly closure extracts (2025-12-29 to 2026-11-06).

Other chicken brands

Ranked chicken brands, FY2023-24 to FY2025-26.
Rank	Brand	vs county	95% interval	Stores
1	KFC	-0.71	-0.77 to -0.65	239
2	Chick-fil-A	-0.67	-0.73 to -0.61	262
3	Wingstop	-0.63	-0.71 to -0.55	162
4	Pollo Tropical	-0.52	-0.61 to -0.43	132
5	Popeyes	-0.42	-0.49 to -0.34	213
6	Chicken Salad Chick	-0.41	-0.55 to -0.24	38
7	Zaxby's	-0.27	-0.39 to -0.13	122
8	Chicken Kitchen	-0.20	-0.40 to +0.01	33
9	PDQ	+0.06	-0.16 to +0.30	52

Look up a single Pollo Tropical location

Store-level matching: a store counts for Pollo Tropical when its DBPR business name matches the reviewed aliases in InspectLens's brand list. Co-branded units (for example KFC with Taco Bell) are not counted for either brand.