El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc.

As of December 31, 2025, our restaurant system consisted of 503 restaurants, comprised of 175 company-operated restaurants and 328 franchised restaurants, located in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Utah, Louisiana, New Mexico, Washington, and Colorado. In addition, as of December 31, 2025, we licensed our brand to 8 restaurants in the Philippines. We have not included these licensed restaurants as part of our unit count as presented in this annual report. The table below sets forth the locations (by state) for all restaurants in operation as of December 31, 2025.

Our restaurants are either free-standing facilities, typically with drive-thru capability, or in-line. A typical restaurant generally ranges from 2,200 to 3,000 square feet, with seating for approximately 50 to 70 people. For a majority of our company-operated restaurants, we lease land on which our restaurants are built. Our leases generally have terms of 20 years, with up to four renewal terms of five years.

Restaurant leases provide for a specified annual rent, and some leases call for additional or contingent rent based on revenue above specified levels. Generally, our leases are “net” leases that require us to pay a pro rata share of taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs. We own 15 properties, of which we currently operate 12 and license three to franchisees. In addition, we operate 163 company-operated restaurants on leased real estate, we own one operating unit with additional parking on leased real estate, and we have another 45 leased sites that are subleased or assigned to franchisees who operate El Pollo Loco restaurants. We also have two closed units, both of which are subleased for uses other than El Pollo Loco. We also sublease a surplus property of an operating location to a third party.

We lease our headquarters, consisting of approximately 24,011 square feet in Costa Mesa, California, for a term expiring in 2033, plus a five-year extension option.