Culver’s — Restaurant in Port Orange

5 Stars for food and services at Culver's Port Orange.

A group of us was talked into driving 30 miles to Port Orange to have a belated birthday lunch and shopping excursion at the nearby huge Goodwill.

Carmen said that she drives over to this Culver's several tmes each week. She brought a stack of coupons to hand out to the 15 people who showed up after 12 noon on a Sunday.

Culver's in Port Orange was well managed. Clean interior, restroom, and no debris or litter outside. There was enough staff to handle the church traffic flowing in.

The staff was cheerful. Special thanks to Sandy who arranged tables and chairs to accomodate us, and Sandy was extemely helpful and friendly to us first-timers the entire time we were there.

Before I placed my order, I asked the cashier what was the best food in the menu. Butterburger!

What was the worst item on the menu? She thought about it, then brought the manager over. Their answer was ... anything with mushrooms... since they both did not like mushrooms. (No problem. I like mushrooms, and know friends who don't.)

Thanks to the coupons from Carmen, I ordered 2 double Butterburgers. They gave me a table number sign, which was nice. I joined the party and the food was delivered directly to my table.

Carmen said that Culver's has more good food if we didn't want burgers. Carmen showed off her cod sandwich. The cod was the size of a baked potato, and she shared her orders of Wisconsin Curds fried cheese nuggets. Culver's incuded coupon for a free fresh frozen custard for the next visit. Carmen handed out more coupons so we each enjoyed their delicious custard treat without having to come back.

Culver's has a raving fan in Carmen. We really enjoyed our time at Culver's in Port Orange.

Afterwards we continued our adventurous excursion at the huge Goodwill next door. But that's another story.

A great time was had by all. Thanks Culver's in Port Orange.

I am sure you will have a great 5 Star experience too. Tell 'em Carmen and...

The Culver’s of Port Orange has been under new franchise owners for a couple years now. The experience here has gone from above and beyond to lackluster and mediocre.

Very little hospitality, subpar quality of food, staff are as soulless as anywhere else nowadays, owner’s son Jan shows zero pride compared to prior franchise owner’s GM Sarah. The prior owners were always there. Only saw current owner infrequently in the beginning of their ownership.

In 2016 this new Culver’s won store of the year for the entire nation! Since the sale of this location to the current franchisees it hasn’t come close to that level of professionalism. They saw a profitable operation and bought it with profit in mind. The quest for money will never spur the passion needed for true success.

I rarely go to Culver’s anymore. It was my absolute favorite fast food restaurant under previous owners. Now it’s just another quick service establishment slinging food with underwhelming service and a owner’s son who looks very unhappy.

How sad this is witnessing somewhere wonderful come into existence in our community become just another money grab operation by people that bought something good and thought it would never tarnish under their mismanagement.

Update: Assistant Manager Elizabeth reached out to me regarding my concerns. She emphasized her goals to get this Culver’s back to a excellent level of satisfaction. She was very receptive to my feedback and had good insight as to their direction moving forward. Thank you

Personal message to Jan: Sir, please understand my concerns towards you are from my own past experiences being the son of a franchise owner. Feeling obligated to support your father’s goals should not be at the expense of your happiness. The sordid topic of coin can destroy relationships. Let go of resentment and make choices that...

Well, this was my first visit and I won't be back. It is expensive for what you get; quite expensive. It is supposed to be upscale (often called "the chick-fil-a of burger places") so I wasn't surprised at the prices, but $40 for 4 cheeseburger and 4 chicken strips (plus small fries and drinks) leaves one expecting delicious food. It was not, alas. "Bland" and "insipid" are the two adjectives which come to mind, aside from "greasy" I think they just melt a pat (or two or three, it was bad, y'all) of butter over the burger patty, in the manner of steak n shake wisconsin butter whatever burger, but they overdid it this time at least. In the end, I got a greasy, really greasy, soggy-bun double cheeseburger, which apparently is not seasoned at all with salt or pepper. I mean, I've never had a flavorless hunk of meat before, but this insipid, bland, greasy mess of a sandwich was utterly tasteless. The mustard and ketchup were okay, I guess, but too greasy to be certain. I'd rather some salt and pepper than a pat of melted butter, but I'm not the owner, and culver's is obviously doing just fine. I just have to say this again, sorry: the burger was absolutely without flavor or taste. Imagine, if you will, 4 Krystals (or white castle) burgers, that's how muchmeat was on my double, smooshwd so thin it was crunchy, and not in a yummy way, in a "oops we burned this to a crisp" way. I'd give zero stars if I could, but 1 is reasonable, as the drinks were cold and the order was correct. Fries were also bland and insipid and just bad.

Tl;dr : greasy, expensive, bland!!!, but fast-ish service and the order...