Founding Farmers King of Prussia — Restaurant in Upper Merion Township

I'd booked my birthday dinner here for March 9th and was really excited for trying out a new restaurant. When I'd made the reservation the system that they use(at least in my area)OpenTable, asked if there was a special occasion and selected "Birthday," so they were aware.

First off, if no one's going to even acknowledge the occasion, why ask? I've been to restaurants with completely different vibes. When I made a reservation it asked if there was a special occasion and I mark yes a birthday. The servers have said "I know we're celebrating something...so I do wanna say Happy birthday." At Founding Farmers KOP? Nope. So again, why ask. Useless. Unimportant information to the restaurant/making of the reservation yet they ask. 🤷🏻‍♀️ That's part of the reason the service got a 3 stars.

My parents, myself, and my fiancé sit down. Collin comes over and greets us. My dad did have a bit of trouble parking, but that's to be expected on a Saturday night for any restaurant. So, he did sit down about 3/4 minutes after my fiancé, myself, and my mom. When he did sit down we ordered drinks, my fiancé and dad got alcoholic beverages. My mom ordered their ginger soda. I stuck with water.

I ordered the devil-ish eggs and they were pretty good. Good taste. Bit runny. They had A LOT of onions in them, I personally didn't know and felt it was a bit much. My fiancé absolutely loves onion, so he was thrilled. He loved them. So if you like a ton of thick onion in your deviled eggs, definitely for you! If I went back I personally wouldn't get them but, again, personal preference.

My parents had ordered the special soup? I think it was the special for that weekend? Week? Anyway, it was their 3 bean soup. When it came out my mom's bowl, had what I would consider a normal amount of beans! My dad? Maybe 6 beans? I mean, he took a single spoonful of the soup and there were a few beans on the spoon and that was it. He chuckled and said "wow, hun, I guess you got my beans because I'm out already" I'm not exaggerating either. It couldn't have been more than 6 beans. Rest was just broth. We all probably looked so weird to the table next to us(who's server had spilled a drink down the one guests back once we'd all sat down) all leaning over to inspect my dad's bowl of "soup." Really it was just all broth.

We'd told Collin "hey, you can take this. It didn't have any beans in it" (sorry, but 6 beans might as well have been no beans for a three bean soup) he said "oh wow. I'm so sorry. Let me just take that"

I ordered the Yankee Pot Roast, mom ordered the Braised chicken risotto, dad ordered tacos, and then my fiancé got I believe some sort of sampler situation? I know he really enjoyed it. Our entrees were all pretty good as a whole.

For dessert I got the butterscotch bread pudding which was really good.

Unfortunately this is the main reason. When we got the bill. BOTH soups were on the bill. For 11 dollars a bowl, and it be broth. Come on. Collin could have taken it off. I kept looking around for Collin for about 6 minutes(yes I counted the time) nowhere to be found. My dad said "ya know what, don't worry about it" he signed the check and we left.

He later told me he took it out of Collins tip. I normally a very against knocking someone's tip down for a kitchen error. But, sadly I had to agree with my dad on that one. Collin could have easily taken the 11 dollar broth off...

2024-01-27 Update You lost 2 stars.

We frequent KoP Founding Farmers often. It has always been a solid performer for our group. This last visit was a mess. A number of reasons:

1. the wait. Always seems to be a 15-20 minute wait. When you have a reservation for 8:15, you should show up 5 minutes early and be seated within 10 minutes. Anything more, is poor planning on the side of the restaurant.

2. Running out of meals. I completely understand that you run out of things. That’s fine. However, we experienced multiple issues. When seated we were told that a particular dish was running low, and if we wanted one, we should let the waiter know. We did reserve one of these dishes. The waiter then disappeared for 10 minutes, and eventually brought our drinks. Again, 10 minutes before he returned to take our order, we assumed everything was normal. 10 minutes later (30 min after being seated) we were told he forgot to actually reserve the dinner. Again, it happens, but it was a little frustrating. When re-ordering he offered a Mushroom Tart as an option for sides. So, we opted for that. 10 minutes later the waiter returned telling us that we would need to “wait 40 minutes to cook”. That’s odd, nothing takes 40 minutes to cook in a commercial kitchen. But fine, we will wait for it. They waiter then said, “actually, the kitchen is pushing something else and that was no longer an option”. We thought that was odd that the kitchen would define what we got, and he finally said, “actually, we are out of the mushroom tart”. Not sure why he felt the need to lie. But, he did.

3. with friends, even a messed up meal is fun. So, we enjoyed our dinner and when it was time for coffee and and dessert. We ordered and I chose my favorite, The Aztec Latte. I’ve had it dozens of times in the past. When it arrived, it was cold. Not warm, straight up cold.

Our waiter, with the exception of feeling the need to lie about dishes and their availability, was polite and friendly. I blame most of the mess on the kitchen. Perhaps they are short staffed? Perhaps they had new people on the line? Perhaps it there was some other disaster - either way, this was a sub-par visit. At this point, we will find other dinner spots for our group and give Founding Farmers KoP a year or so before returning.

Previous Review: This was the last place we ate as friends before the Pandemic lockdown, and the first place we went after it all opened up again.

Drinks are amazing, try em all.

Food is really really good.

Staff is attentive and...

I really wanted to love this spot but the breakfast/brunch buffet fell short for me. I went on a early Sunday morning, the latest morning time we could get for a party of 3 was 930am making a reservation with OpenTable. I was told by many that it's hard to get reservations on the weekend for their breakfast/brunch last minute well we made our reservation a few days ahead. When I arrived I loved the downstairs cafe, there was seating or guests could grab items to go. The restaurant itself is on the 2nd floor guests can walk up the stairs (there is also an elevator) the decor is fantastic and there are so many seating options (private rooms for parties/events, seating in the calm lit dining area, seating in their room of windows). I was pleased to have been seated in the room with the windows all the natural light pouring in. Our waitress Dayna was friendly and wonderful. There was a menu with beverages alcoholic and non and a flat rate for the buffet of around $30 (kids under 6 are free and I was surprised to notice they charge a 5% restaurant recovery fee). There is definitely a festival of food that starts in one room and cascades into two others. My mouth was watering...I ordered a caramel latte (made to perfection) and headed for the buffet. Some of the items weren't out and I got ahold of a staff member to ask if I could expect them to be replenished soon and he was very rude but nonetheless still optimistic I moved about picking up, scooping and filling my plate. When I got back to my seat I was ready. The food isn't terrible but it didn't make me happy dance, it didn't bring about joy joy feelings I guess with the decor, great server and hearing rave reviews I set my expectations extremely high, the food was just okay. They premade scrambled eggs and eggs benedict and they were just eh and luke warm. I will say their bellini is delicious as well. I will return to this restaurant but not for the buffet. I would really like to give it another go but this time ordering off their menu. My only suggestion would be that if staff will be on the floor where there is a chance for interactions with guests please make sure that they are friendly, kind...