Corky's Kitchen and Bakery - Apple Valley — Restaurant in Apple Valley

UPDATE 1/14/2025 So since my last review of this restaurant I have been a steady customer bringing in both of my children quite frequently for breakfast lunch and dinner but most of the time my son and I go because he loves the Fried Chicken just as much as I do and the chef named Gustavo makes the absolute best fried chicken I've ever tasted in my life! The big bummer happened right around the holidays we went in to get our fried chicken and the pieces were so tiny and the meat was so dry that it was almost heartbreaking. I was thinking it must have been a bad night or maybe they got some bad chicken and a random freak delivery so we waited a couple weeks and went back about 2 weeks ago to give it another shot and it was again just sad disappointment. I spoke with our waitress and also with Gustavo and they both confirmed that the management had switched over to a different provider for the chicken. The pieces are 1/4 of the size of the previous fried chicken and the meat just is so dry and tough it's very very depressing and for $20 a meal you would expect it to be good quality meat and very juicy which it always had been in the past. I actually took a photo of the chicken next to one of those little flavored coffee creamers to demonstrate how small the pieces were and if you look at my photos from previous times you'll see the pieces were very nice size and it's very clear the difference. The photo I attached is taken on a saucer and I put the little coffee creamer next to it so you could get a reference of the how small the piece is actually are they almost look like Cornish game hen pieces instead of chicken. We're both very sad about this because we truly did love the Fried Chicken there I mean I don't know any other place to go to that had such good chicken and as I said the chef Gustavo made the chicken breasts where it came out juicy and so delicious and that's hard to do with fried chicken quite often you'll get it and it's overcooked and dry but he makes it just perfect and no matter what there's no way he could have helped this new chicken that they're using it was just really bad and as I said a tiny tiny pieces just rubbery tough meet very dry anyway hopefully management will see this and go back to the previous vendor for their chicken Supply I'm sure I'm not the only person that's going to be upset by the change and stop ordering the fried chicken. And I do believe that the fried chicken dinner is the second highest priced meal on the entire menu so if I was the one doing the ordering I would definitely want to make sure that that menu item is popular.

I previously posted a mediocre review but since then I've been back a few times and it's very much improved specifically the fried chicken. I went in today for lunch and was so happy with my food and the chicken was perfect nice and juicy cooked correctly everything really good couldn't have been more happy and the biscuit was off the hook ridiculous huge. I feel bad I forgot my waitress's name but she was really good and really had a great personality if I can remember her name I'm going to come back and edit this because she deserves a raise she did a great job and she was running around...

Today is my Birthday and every year the hubby takes me out to dinner somewhere new so even with covid-19 shutdown we decided to try and keep this tradition going and order to go to eat at home. Problem # 1 was the online ordering site they use(chownow) didnt work(corkys did not receive our order) but the money was pending withdrawal from our account so called and both the waitress and manager who helped me over the phone were very helpful and friendly thankfully. Problem #2 came when we walked in the door our order was just sitting on a table ready to go but getting cold Problem #3 was when I paid(with cash because money was being held for a pending order that they didn't get on their end) the cashier just tossed the receipt and I needed it to prove I paid cash so if i had a problem with the pending transaction from our bank account I could show them I paid cash(side note its kinda problematic that you don't have the name of your business on the receipt) I ended up waiting a long time for the manager to retrieve a new receipt from the system(had to go thru the computer and find it and all this time my food is getting cold) Problem#4 I ordered a corkys cookie sundae and had to remind them of this before going out the door otherwise I would not have received it. I do appreciate that they didn't let it just melt into a nasty mess (it was in the freezer) but I had to wait for them to put all the different elements of it into different containers because it was not ready so again our hot food is getting colder by the minute. Problem #5 you guessed it by the time we got home our food was cold Problem #6 my husband ordered the steak medium rare...as seen in the photo....it is no where near medium rare and it was bland.

I enjoyed my omelet but it wasnt anything spectacular the potatoes on my plate were on the bland side and could have cooked a little longer.

Their customer service over the phone was amazing both people I spoke to were very friendly and wanted to help. When I arrived both people I spoke to were very friendly but seemed over loaded with tasks and trying to tend to too much at one time. Food could use some improvement and so could time management. Wasn't very happy with this experience especially on my birthday but I also understand it can't be easy right now and they are still new. I'd try again in a few months to see if things have changed...

03/24/2025 Update: Payed a visit to my local Corky's with which I have had some good and some not so good experiences. My previous complaints were related to staffing or lack thereof. Today we can't I'm around noon and it was fairly busy. However there were plenty of staff members on hand to handle the flow of traffic accordingly. Our server today was named Jamie, and she was amazing! Although she was super busy, she was cordial, attentive, professional, and overall in control of every task she was dealing with. She went above and beyond her call of duty and she deserves to be recognized for it. So thank you Jamie for being so awesome!

01-09-2025 Update; My previous review which was over a year ago, accented a staffing problem. At the time they only had one waitress handling everything most of the time. I've been back here twice in the past 3 months or so, and the staffing issue had been resolved. 👍

First off, I've been visiting Corky's kitchens throughout the inland empire for over a decade. So my experiences had always been really good. Then there's this Corky's here in Apple Valley, where I recently moved to. I don't know if Corky's is a franchise, but it seems to me that whomever owns and runs this particular one is not thinking straight. The problem is not the food, the atmosphere, the cleanliness or lack thereof. None of these things are a problem. But then there's the staff. The last 3 times I've visited there had only been one waitress handling all the tables, all the door dash orders, and charging people for their bill. One person handling all that is just not acceptable! It took nearly a half hour for me to get my breakfast order. And I was by myself. I don't know what the lady's name is, but she's an older lady who does an extremely good job considering what all she has on her plate. So my complaint is not against the person working there but rather against who is staffing this location. My guess is that it is a franchise and the owner doesn't want to allocate much money towards staffing budget.

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