KFC — Restaurant in Edmonton

After the KFC on 178 street had closed for renovations, my husband and I decided to go and order food from it now that it has re-opened.

In my option, this location has been renovated to encourage take out or "delivery" companies rather than cater to dine-in customers. Once you enter the main doors, the doors straight ahead are for delivery companies picking up orders (takes you straight to the pickup counter). The doors to the left, are for other customers. When you enter those doors, you are greeted with kiosks to take your order... or you can round the corner to cashier to place your order. Now if you didn't go looking, you would never have known there was an option to order with a person. This new design hides the pickup and order desk if someone didn't want to order via the kiosk themselves.

With this change, they've also removed a high percentage of seating. Keep in mind, that the renovation didn't really take away any of the existing "public" space that was there, instead it made it visibly inefficient for walk in customers (whether to eat in, or carry out). Before the reno, there was probably seating for 30+ people. Now, there are tables to accommodate at most 10-12 people, and if you want to sit on one of the 3-4 barstool, against the window and freeze those are an option too. Whereas before, they had tables, booths, and it made it so you could almost dine alone. The seating now would be compared to eating in a food court, tables crammed close, only the tables are much smaller, and the tables are all in a row. The bulk of the space that was taken away from the seating is now for standing or ordering at the kiosks. The machines are about 1/2 way in the KFC as you go in. So there is now more space for you to "order yourself," along with extra space to stand and wait for your food from a tiny pickup counter.

For us, we prefer eating in, and since they didn't have a comfortable option (aside from the cold window seating OR asking the individuals to share their table with us), we opted to eat elsewhere. Which is too bad, because they have the best gravy...

We used to love this location but I had a very bad experience today we went to get some dinner for my family and usually get the 25 piece party pack( I have a big family) it was never a problem until today a week ago I got that pack for my daughter birthday and got it no problem I just had to order it at the till I was told by the worker then we tried to get it today and they made us wait at the till for like 10-15 minutes it wasn’t even busy either everyone seem like they were just chilling in the kitchen minutes later they finally take our order and tried to order and they told us it wasn’t no longer available I told them why was that when I got it a week ago and when I asked for a manager they were running around like headless chickens and told me I can only order an 18 piece with 6 extra and the sides that comes with it we agreed to get it and when I got home I was disappointed some of my chicken tasted weird it was also very very greasy and some of the pieces didn’t look right and they didn’t give me what I wanted I asked for dark meat and crispy they told me they could give it to me and only got the dark meat i was even looking forward for the crispy that was my first time trying it but I guess I won’t get to they also didn’t even give me my bbq sauce they seem very unorganized there I even tried to order pop for me and my dad I paid for mine with the meal and had to pay for his she hands him the cup and tries to change us another cup and give his cup free I had to explain to the lazy like 3-4 times that we didn’t need the extra cup cause I didn’t pay for the other one then finally puts it back and lets me pay for the drinks I wanted and the crazy part it wasn’t busy either so they could of got...

Got the flyer in the mail. Decided what we wanted and drove to location to use the drive through. Drove all the way there and were advised we couldn’t get what we wanted as it was an order on line only item. Really! So we drove down the street to a competitor and spent the money there. I just couldn’t leave it alone without understanding what had just happened. So now that I’ve already had my dinner from down the street! Out came the flyer for an extensive read. Please don’t stop reading now.

So the flyer item we wanted. “You know the big front page with the best deal”. Well that one read “Available only at KFC.CA. So I checked the other “20” coupons on the flyer. 19 stated “Available on KFC.CA and, not ONLY Available. Well that made me feel better, not really! The final 1 was the offer that did not mention anything about itself being available on KFC.CA. But to be totally fair, right there in the middle of that offer was a big red dot that stated (hold on while I get my magnifying glass) “Coupons inside ALSO available on KFC.CA.

So it turns out that a well placed “ONLY” seperated a lifetime of customers (I’m telling everybody I know about this one) from this business location and the parent company and any other KFC, (I’m tired of typing that now) once more KFC.CA since that was the point I remember most from the flyer. I bet someone paid a lot of cash to a very educated person to come up with this whole flyer advertising campaign. I hope at least a couple of people read this and drive down the street. You never know it’s COVID-19 time and businesses are dropping like flies. So the government keeps saying. I’m gonna hunker down at home and order...