KO Chicken — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

TLDR; pricey, out of basic items, food took an hour, paortion of bill had to be refunded

I am going to preface this with the staff is great, and it's not their fault management doesn't have them set up for success.

Let me set the scene. We walk in a side door, there are 3 other tables sitting, and two people standing in the whole restaurant. Everyone has ordered but us. There are no signs directing the flow of anything in the restaurant or where you are supposed to order. The girl at the register said they have been "soft open since March 19", we visited on April 5th at 12:15, the day after their grand opening.

We ordered a 3 piece meal, a 6 piece wing meal, and another 3 piece (no meal because I didn't want a drink) and a hot Cheeto corn dog. Our total was $62, a bit pricey, but if the good is good, worth it. Right after we ordered and paid, the girl at the register informed us the corn dog wouldn't be ready 30 minutes. She offered a refund, but we figured we would get out chicken, and just take the corn dog to go. Our order was placed at 12:17. We didn't get our chicken until almost 12:50. When we get our chicken, they tell us they were out of KO sauce and are bottling more. 10 minutes go buy, still no KO sauce or corndog. When we finally get the sauce, it's in plastic cups that is literally melting the lid from being boiling hot. The chicken was eh in flavor. The strips are large, which is nice. The 6 piece wings were not good. And it was actually 5 wings and a chicken strip? The coleslaw was absolute trash. The fried remind me of an elementary lunch. They're the generic, thick, crinkle cut fries. The sweet potato fries were also not good. None of us finished our food and decided to get a refund on our corndog. Right after our refund, we are informed the corndog is done, they give it to us, and still give us our refund (which was nice). But at this point we are over it all and take the corndog and leave. No review on the corndog since no one has touched it yet.

With all that being said, you had 2.5 weeks of "soft open" to work out kinks. How after that and the grand opening, you manage to open and don't have basic sauces and food prepped is wild. We were super excited to try this place, but if we want fast chicken, we will stick to Slims. And if we want Korean fried chicken, we will stick with Bonchons. Sucks this place...

Ko chicken Bad food, so bad a nine year old who only eats chicken tenders and fries would not eat it. Saying the chicken was sour and the fries were bad.

When we walked in there were chairs on the tables and tons of people standing around, I asked how long the wait would be for food and they said no more then 15 minutes so we we decided to order but it actually took 30 minutes. They had a leak in the roof so they said takeout only but eventually changed their mind and let everyone eat there. They had opened 12 minutes before we came and they were limited on what we could order and said that the KO sauce would not be available all day, big bummer. It honestly felt like they rushed to open and nothing was ready or made.

We ordered the 6 piece wings because they wouldn’t let us order just 4 even though it’s on the menu, ordered the 2 piece kids tender meal, 4 piece tenders and sweet potato fries. The menu was confusing and we did not realize they were all meals so they came with fries and a fountain drink, we thought we were just ordering the entrees. The drinks tasted bad, like not enough syrup in the machine. The fries had no salt and tasted like an undercooked potato. The sweet potato fries were good but still no salt. Chicken tenders were so bland, no flavor at all and not very crispy. The wings are not wings, they are fried drumsticks with is okay but they are not advertised that way. Also they were undercooked, still pink in the middle. We didn’t finish any of our food and threw it all away. We spent $50 for the three of us.

We left still hungry and disappointed. I know it’s a new place but I’d rather be KO’d...

The tenders were significantly sized, juicy, and palatable. Crispy and adequately breaded, it was a pleasure to consume but like other tender offerings the breading's seasoning has fallen short. It's not as bland as RC but I would prefer... more.

This would be less a concern if the sauces had not underperformed.

The KO Sauce lacked any notable flavor. To quote my teenager, it was "interesting". The Honey Sriracha has some heat and genuine honey aromatics (fantastic in this regard), but was lacking the complexity I expected from a "Sriracha".

I finished off my tender with the half decent Honey Sriracha, my teenager decided to take theirs and the rest of my order to-go and use a sauce at home.

If we return I'll give the other sauces a try, but for the price I'd prefer a Dave's Hot Slider combo. Being so close to home, KO would do in a pinch but it's not topoing any of my lists.

That said, the staff and service were great. I observed several groups who arrived after me. Orders, including mine, were slow to come out, but that's understandable given the soft open and made-to-order food. Orders were served hot and with a smile. I could not ask for more there. It may be beneficial to the overall consumer experience if the fountain were positioned for self service (especially during high traffic and order prep time). I look forward to dropping by after the all processes are established and any lessons learned from the soft open are...