Charlie's Chicken — Restaurant in Claremore

Sunday evening 18 June at 5:00 p.m. went to the Claremore Oklahoma location for dinner. The service line was in need of cleaning and filling. For example the meatloaf had one slice, and there were pieces of fried okra and something else in the pan with the one slice of meatloaf. The meatloaf was a little dried out looking. I asked for meatloaf thinking they would probably bring out a new pan and retire the old. I got the one piece. The cornbread stuffing/dressing, the young man working online seemed confused when I called it stuffing it and he had to think and ask somebody else if it was dressing or what it was called. He seem new and was confused really easy. He was also working on filling it looked like a go order while there were other people filling some lockers behind the service line. When he asked directions from one young man behind him the young man seemed upset that he had to help him. As I said the service line had several items that look like they needed to be stirred and are even replaced. The baked beans while more than 3/4 full look like they have been a little line a while and not even touched up or stirred with a spoon. The gravy for the cornbread dressing look like it had not been stirred and was congealed. The cornbread dressing had like the last two spoonfuls and it was very dry. They didn't bring any more out or refresh that tray. The peach cobbler was the same way it was down to the last spoonful or two and mostly breading not peaches I ordered that thinking they might refill it too but they didn't I got the dry cobbler with only two pieces of peaches. The meatloaf did taste good. Like I said it was the last piece in there and a little dry on top. Most of the serving pans for around 3/4 full and look like they had not been stirred or maintained for a while. Stood the register waiting to be checked out and kind of had that ask for help when somebody finally stepped around a ring us up. Seems like they were focusing on the drive-thru more than they were the dining room. Seem to have plenty of help in the back but they weren't paying attention to people trying to come through the service line. I've eaten there during the week several times and if you're there around 10:30 when they open in the morning or till about 2:30 The service is usually going on weekdays and the line is maintained. But if you get there after 3:00 things start going to falling apart. Maintaining fresh items on the line and stirring items and making sure their temperatures are maintained and appearance to look appealing is important. The food is good there they need to work on keeping the line and attention to customers coming in at a dining room at a...

Charlie's has home style meals that are delicious and reasonably priced. It's a restaurant chain, yet maintains a little bit of a "family owned diner" feel. There are variations in terms of cleanliness and food quality when comparing one store location to another, I've been to a location in Tulsa that is usually pretty gross, but all the others I've visited have been pretty well kept, The location in Claremore is neither gross nor sparkling, and in the dozen or so times I've eaten there over the last 2 years it's been consistently good in terms of the food and fair in all the other parts of the dining experience that don't end up in your belly.

Speaking of your belly, you'll want to have plenty of room there, because whether you like your chicken in boneless chunks or bone in pieces, deep fried or rotisserie cooked, you will not be disappointed with the portions. They are generoussss. Which reminds me of another aspect of Charlie's that I almost forgot to mention. While it is a sit down restaurant with a drive thru, they don't do table service, so you won't necessarily need to add gratuities when you're deciding what to order against how much you would like to spend. It's served buffeteria style at the counter so you get to see the freshness of your side items firsthand, which is a good system for the type of classic side dishes they serve, such as fried okra, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans and several other southern staples.

Overall I recommend Charlie's to anyone who wants a home style chicken dinner without breaking the bank or having to deal with the daunting task of cleanup following the dreaded "had a couple beers, got all gung ho and decided to fry up big bird in the old kitchen stove at home" debacle. If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's actually good, trust me, it's not for you. Either way I offer the same suggestion. Your time and sanity are much better spent on a trip...

Entering the location you get a foal smell. The place just needs an all around facelift. I got service right away employees were great. As I sat down to eat looking around it seems they do there best to keep the eating area clean no complain there. Now the food... I got a 3 price chicken chunk with my side of corn Dodgers and green beans. Chicken chunks almost had no flavor just plain as could be and I could taste like it had been cooked in something that was cleaned with dirty water. The corn Dodgers were just fine tasted great. Ok the most disappointing part were the green beans. They looked great had the onions in them for that great flavor we desire the smell was a little of putting. I was very disappointed when I took my first bite and it tasted like they smelled kinda like old mop water in my opinion. I figured they just have not changed the water in the bowl and just keep dumping new beans on top... I will not return to this location I will go ahead and keep going to Owasso or even then better location in...