KFC — Restaurant in San Diego

KFC was known in my childhood as "Kentucky Fried Chicken," a fast food joint that was "finger lickin' good" due to Colonel Harland Sanders' no-longer-secret fried chicken batter recipe and its famed 11 herbs and spices.

A bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken on the dining table used to be a genuine treat when I was a young boy, long before a consortium of slick, carpet-bagging MBAs from up north renamed it, re-branded it, and figured out how to grow and raise genetically-mutated poultry on metal rods without feet, beaks, spines, or nervous systems, while pumping liquid hormones, pesticides, and carcinogens directly into their veins. This was also before KFCs like this location in Clairemont began sharing kitchens with Taco Bell, a chain restaurant known for purveying powerful, exotic laxatives.

KFC's most redeeming quality is that the food is both filling and cheap, and the cheapest way to eat pressure-fried chicken and a biscuit at KFC at present seems to be their "Fill Up Box" value meals. For $5.49, the Fill Up Box includes your chicken selection of choice, an 8oz container of mashed potatoes and gravy, a biscuit, a medium soft drink, and a chocolate chip cookie.

For purposes of this review, I ordered both the 2 Piece (Leg and Thigh) Original Recipe and the 1 Piece (Breast) Extra Crispy Recipe.

My Original Recipe pieces were coated in a soft and finely textured batter. Very well-seasoned, with lots of salt, but my goodness it is just so very greasy, resulting in a soggy coating that one does not associate with fried chicken. The taste was not horrible, and the chicken was anything but dry, with the melted fat from the dark meat making the oily chicken even greasier. If I had any issues with the flavor it was that the chicken almost tastes over-salted and my tastebuds felt brutally assaulted by heaps of MSG and oil.

Extra Crispy is even saltier and, yes, it is much crispier. The late Colonel Sanders despised the Extra Crispy recipe, once publicly denouncing it as "a damn fried doughball stuck on some chicken." Most people would concur with the Colonel that the batter is very thick, to the point where you could feasibly bite into a piece of Extra Crispy fried chicken without your teeth hitting any meat. I much prefer KFC's Original Recipe, despite the sogginess of the coating and all of the grease.

Of course, you can't have KFC's chicken without a signature cup of their instant-cook mashed potatoes covered with a lake of KFC's MSG-spiked gravy. Again, Colonel Sanders publicly said it best himself, "my God, that gravy is horrible," before suing KFC's parent company in the 70s for continuing to misuse his likeness to promote awful food products that he didn't actually develop. The problem with KFC's gravy is that it has no essence of meat or vegetables in it and tastes only of starch, salt, and MSG.

This brings me to the biscuit, which I don't think is awful. KFC's biscuit is not very flaky -- it achieves a lighter and more pillowy feel than most biscuits. Also, unlike other biscuits, it has an unusual lack of crispness on its sides, most likely because they're baked touching each other. Fluffiness is KFC's biscuit's signature, as is the very high amount of salt.

The less I write about the bizarre and inexplicable "freshly baked" Chocolate Chip Cookie in my "Fill Up Box" the better.

I'll conclude this by stating that, despite the icky food, KFC plays an important role in our world -- as Milton once wrote, there is no heaven without hell. This represents the alternative to responsible sourcing and disciplined...

UPDATE-I NEED TO SPEAK TO THE GENERAL MANAGER. I WAS JUST HUNG UP ON BY THE CURRENT ON DUTY MANAGER!! I HAVE STILL NOT RECIEVED MY REFUND AND THEY JUST HUNG UP IN MY FACE

I MADE AN ORDER ON THE APP AFTER RECIEVING A MESSAGE THAT SAID I WOULD RECIEVE A FREE 8 PC MEAL WITH A $15 PURCHASE. I PLACED MY ORDER EVERYTHING WAS CORRECT AND MY COUPON SHOWED. WHILE DRIVING TO THE KFC, I NOTICED IT DIDNT SHOW MY FREE BUCKET SO I CALLED THE STORE; I WAS ADVISED BY THE MANAGER TO SHOW THE COUPON ON ARRIVAL AND THEY WOULD HONOR IT. I ARRIVED AND SHOWED THE COUPON AND IT WAS NOT HONORED. I TOLD THEM THEY SHOULD STILL HONOR THE COUPON AND THEY REFUSED. I THEN ATTEMPTED TO CONTACT THE IN APP SUPPORT BUT RECIEVED A MESSAGE THAT THEY WERE CLOSED. I THEN WENT BACK IN AND SHOWED THEM THAT THE APP SAYS THE ONLINE SUPPORT IS CLOSED. THE MANAGER THEN CALLED (ALL THIS TIME IM CONSISTENTLY TELLING THEM THEY CAN HONOR THE ORDER AND COUPON AND WE CAN BE DONE WITH ALL THIS). AFTER SPEAKIHG TO 3 DIFFERENT PEOPLE ON THE PHONE THEY WANTED TO SPEAK TO THE MANAGER AGAIN. (ITS NOW BEEN A HALF HOUR OR LONGER SINCE I ORDERED). I THEN WAITED ANOTHER 10 MINUTES FOR THE MANAGER TO TELL ME HE COULDNT HELP ME AND WOULD HAVE TO PASS THE INFO TO HIS GM. I LEFT WITH NO REFUND AND NO FOOD. THE RIGHT THING TO DO WOULD BE TO HONOR THE COUPON REGARDLESS...I AM A CUSTOMER AND HAVE BEEN FOR OVER 40 YEARS....YOU HAD ME ON A CORDLESS PHONE IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR LOBBY IN FRONT OF EVERYONE TALKING TO SUPPORT....THE ENTIRE TIME(ALMOST 1 HOUR HAS PASSED SINCE I ORDERED AND IM SITTING IN THE PARKING LOT WRITING THIS REVIEW).I LEFT WITH NO FOOD AND NO REFUND...YOU PRETTY MUCH TOOK MY MONEY AND THEN TOLD ME TO SHUT MY MOUTH AND WAIT FOR YOUR GM. THIS IS UNPROFESSIONAL AND FLAT OUT RUDE ON THE HIGHEST LEVEL. NEXT TIME JUST...

I am reluctant to put one start as we love this place and eat here often. Tonight is our first ever real problem with this place and it is just plain gross to say the least! My wife and my two children went through the drive through to grab a fast bite to eat before heading home. Service was great and fast! When we got home my son was going to eat his food(chickenquesadilla) and as a habit of his, he always opens his food(quesadillas) before eating. Much to his surprise he instantly noticed that there was a living small black bug in his food. Disgusted as you can Imagine he quickly came to show his mom and I as we were indulging in our food. Upon further inspection we quickly learned that yes there was a living bug in his food. My wife instantly felt sick after already eating some of her food and so did I. Not sick from the food but sick from the thought that what if we just ate living bugs! This is completely unacceptable on so many levels! In pure disgust we still managed to call the store and let them know what we are experiencing. They did what they could and offered our money back and to replace our food. Obviously we didnt want our food replaced and what we didnt already eat went straight into the trash. They Gave us a 1800 number to call but they were closed. We will be following up with them first thing in the morning. Please please be careful and double check your food if you should choose to eat here. I will be following up with how his corporate call goes and what there solution is to fix this absolutely horrible experience...