KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN (KFC)
HOPEFULLY TURNING A NEW LEAF IN 2022
2022 - IMPROVEMENT IN FOOD AND MANAGEMENT — IT WAS AN EPIPHANY!
KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN #1960
1960 Gulf To Bay Boulevard
Clearwater, FL 33765
Phone - (727) 446-5935
• Catering • Wi-Fi • Delivery •
Manager - Sara • Asst. Manager - Erica
So my gal and I were shopping in Clearwater and low and behold passing Clearwater High School heading for Gordon Food Service, I saw what appeared to be a new store version of KFC. Compared to some older stores it looked like the Taj Mahal. And my experiences with KFC over the past ten years had not been a good relationship. I had them on the: DO NOT GO HERE LIST FOR TEN YEARS — Four stores all bad?
THE KFC PAST — If you read on you’ll see what in some terms for years I called it “ degenerate food handling” , no one could screw up Chicken that bad.
And just not the food, the help was obnoxiously incoherent like zombies and the stores were so greasy your shoes made noise like they were glued to the floor. But add bad food to the mix and you leave. They had twelve chances to get one right.
Too many bad experiences and I love Chicken. I am more than just a customer, I was a chef in my college days, earning my tuition. I started as a bus boy and two years later running the place.
I know most of the in’s and out’s of the food industry. I specialize in the plebeian restaurant and common table foods. Exotic, weird, off the wall, and Confit Duck and French Sauces, are not my forte since you can’t get most of the items. My closest experience in the Michelin world were the tires on my car. I like good, easy, friendly palatable, convenient simple combo, profitable make you happy cooking. I critique for the people who simply want a fair shake at a good meal and in the old days — Popeyes and KFC were serving garbage.
A GREAT SURPRISE THE NEW — MAY 30, 2022 — It was lunchtime and I saw this clean, new building and by reflex stopped the car and drove in saying to my other taster and friend, let's give them a shot.
I saw the ads on TV for the Super Chicken Sandwich and we were very nicely greeted by the Cashier/ Manager who took our order for two sandwiches, fries and drinks. I like the idea of cooked when ordered. Most of the competition lunchtime like “ Popeyes” precooks theirs and they get mushy, they made the bad list. A poorly looking not really clean operation. The POPEYES near me is the filthiest restaurant I have seen. Their store near me doesn’t need an epiphany, it needs a bulldozer.
A COMPLETE TURN AROUND — I'm a Food writer about town, I will knock whats bad but praise whats good. I also do write and research — political and theological— Critic, Chef, Complainer —( THREE “ C”s ) And also contribute time to feed the poor and homeless thru our local Charity circle work helping and cooking for hundreds on the Christmas and Thanksgiving Holidays.
I know something about the food business — FRESH COOKED is the key — Two of the most successful chicken operations today are CHICK-FIL-A and CULVER'S who emphasize FRESH COOKED also — It is the key adding clean stores, good management, pay your people for continuity. Advance from within — But what brings people back and loyal is fresh and wholesome in a clean environment — That is the key, its hotter, it tastes better. The place is clean, it looks better,
A few minutes later, out comes the order and lo and behold it was hot, fresh, tasty, huge and the fries were perfect as was the sandwich.
The packaging of the food was right, the store was immaculate, the staff smiled, and I quietly asked other guests how was the food and they said delicious and one said, “ spot on” an expression I never heard used with food . it simply means it met its expectations — and they were satisfied which indicates a return visit at some time.
IN COMPETITION WITH — KFC is number two in the volume of stores— McDonalds is number one and we do not eat at the Clown Circus. Of the fast foods Mickey-D the largest is the worst and even now they have sunk to new lows. Their Mickey D food is corporate putrid and they should be out of business being allowed only to be located inside prisons, state and federal mostly in foreign countries —
This time in the Clearwater KFC store was the first perfect meal I had at a KFC in twenty years. And I think the manager had a lot to do with it. The bottom line is management and training and the way that store is being run turned ten years into a positive in a difficult period of time with COVID and employment problems. She should be training other stores.
— 2012 — THE DISGUSTING YEARS — 2021 —
COUNTRYSIDE MALL — Food Unfit and should not have been served — 3 Times-
EAST BAY DRIVE @ Starkey Rd. — BAD - Food Take out or Eat in — CLOSED- 3 Times
PARK BLVD @ 66th Street — Stale Buffet- Help Screwing Off — No one working 2 Times -
WALSINGHAM RD — Combo Kfc And Taco Bell Store 1 Time was enough -
IT’S ALMOST AS BAD AS POPEYES ? — MAYBE WORSE —
🔘 I apologize, but truth is truth and I am a food critic and tell it like it is. This chain is really screwed up, at least in my area. Seven years later, I challenged my self. I know some places can have a bad day and thats why before I do a negative review I give them three or four chances.
🔘 Different locations tell us if it is a management area problem. After eight tries to get good food, I gave up. Greasy or overcooked, small pieces, old inventory, bad chicken material, dirty places , unclean tables, floor that are so greasy your shoes stick to them. It was an endemic problem cross the board — Every aspect of the four stores and three attempts each and I was done.
🔘 Help doesn’t show up for work, new young unskilled people on shift, long hours, boring work, it happens but when a chain in an area goes consistently bad in three locations you start looking at the management team and district supervision.
🔘 All four stores had the same problems, thats a corporate management supervision problem in Pinellas County, Florida, KFC must stand for Killed the Fried Chicken! Fix the food stupid and people return!
COMBINED - ALL FOUR STORES SHARED COMMON TRAVESTY
🔴 The chicken pieces for the money were the smallish wings, thighs and legs - little or no white meat, which is not the best part of the chicken, most chefs like to work with thighs, not these.
🔴 Nothing in the takeouts as fit for consumption, not worth the price nor the quality of the package.
🔴 The floors and tables had that overall greasy feel you get when you are waiting for the order and we decided take it home as it was cleaner.
🔴 I sent my secret shopper to get a bucket, potatoes and gravy and rolls. I also said could they should put a breast or two in the package. I got a tub of mashed, some gravy, rolls, five wings, one unknown part, two mediocre breasts and a package of bits.
🔴 It all looked pathetic, I removed the what appeared to be “ double breading to make it look bigger'. With the skin and the rest of the garbage parts in one pile, the meat in another and realized several things.
🔴 This was not a good ratio, not healthy and not fresh.
🔴The food had to of been stale since the insides had shrunk severely from the outside.
🔴The wings had the feather tips on, which most places dump as unfit to eat, the wings and parts were undersized, and the breast looked half the size of what I had been given in the past.
🔴The “ new" bits got dumped in the lake behind my house as the pieces were dark, old looking, ice cold and totally uneatable. The gator loved it.
🔴 And this happened on several occasion's from different locations. At Countryside, the food wqs so stale we just threw it out. We had enough and put KFC on the DO NOT EAT THERE LIST.
🔴And the KFC/TACO BELL joint store under one bad roof on Missouri not only had the greasiest floors, we were not impressed with the chicken, two bites and forget it, and ordered two of their New EL Mucho Grande Supremo Macho Burritos — Whatever the hell that was.
My opinion was the team member either forgot to put meat on it, or the meat fell off since I have seen baby diapers with more meat in them. We left and just dumped the crap on the table.
🔴When we critique we don’t complain, we are silent shoppers till you screw up. We pay the bill, I write and it goes out on the wires to the company, the newspaper and TV stations.