Chicken Pantry, Bunnell, FL on FlaglerRestaurants.com

In all fairness ... I love the fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, fried chicken livers and fried fish entrees served at this establishment. I would never suggest it to someone in a hurry, though ... as they say that their meals are prepared fresh and once seated and depending on what was ordered ... you can expect to wait an average of 20 minutes before your order arrives at the table. Fortunately, they do give you a complimentary dish of cornbread and butter to ease your hunger while you wait. I have visited this place several times since moving to Palm Coast in 2001 and have never been disappointed by the service nor the meal until now.

The first Friday in March of 2013, I invited a friend of mine to dinner at their new location. They had only recently relocated to SR100, not too far East from the intersection of US1 and I had visited them with other friends the month before and was delighted at their expanded menu offerings but stuck to my usual fried entrees instead. This visit, I was determined to try something else. There was a chill in the air that evening when we arrived shortly before 6pm. The restaurant had just been seated to capacity with only another couple ahead of us in the waiting list. We decided to wait it out since we were in no particular hurry and the fact that the locals were enmassed only fueled our expectations and desire. We figured that the wait would be worth it. As more and more parties arrived and entered their names on the waiting list it took nearly 45 minutes before, diners began vacating and those of us waiting could be seated. We were next on the list to be seated when the owner made a decision to favor a party of four who had arrived 10 minutes after us. Nearly an hour of waiting later ... we were finally seated and only because I approached the reception desk and asked if they suggest we leave and eat elsewhere instead. A gentleman, who neither identified himself or his position, volunteered to take it upon himself to personally tend to our seating and service.

We were seated in a two person booth and our drink orders taken. I wanted to try their chicken pot pie, my friend ordered the fried chicken liver dinner and asked the gentleman if we could order a couple of pieces of the fried chicken to sample and see what all the buzz was about their signature dish. He suggested we try the herb crusted honey roasted chicken instead. Both of us had never tried that before and so we agreed. He quickly disappeared into the kitchen before he could take the remainder of her order of sides. Fifteen minutes later we noticed that hot cornbread was being placed at every table where new patrons had just been seated. I commented to my friend that we hadn't been offered the same and luckily one of the servers overheard me and politely served us the same. It was then when we asked her to check on our orders since the gentleman had yet to reappear to complete her order of sides. She took my friends side orders and reassured us that our meal would be arriving shortly but that she would check with the kitchen to followup. Within a couple of minutes she returned to our table to confirm my friends orders. It seems that the gentleman had ordered a fried gizzard dinner for her and not the fried livers that she had requested. We reaffirmed her desire for the liver dinner. Fearing for more of a delay in getting our meal out I requested an appetizer of fried green tomatos rushed, just so that we could have something to tide us over while we waited. The server complied, then disappeared into the back. Finally, five minutes later our entrees arrived at our table together with the fried green tomatoes. It was only then that the gentleman reappeared to reassure us that the wait was worth it ... then commanded a hug from my very reluctant friend ... surprising her with an embrace ... commenting on how "cute she was" and how "she reminded him of his wife." He then disappeared for the rest of our stay into the back where the kitchen was.

Was the wait worth it?! Unequivocally ... NO. For the price of nearly ten dollars, the chicken pot pie seemed a bit undersized. Mostly, I was extremely disappointed by the lack of seasoning and flavor of the chicken pot pie. I can overlook the blackened spots on the baked pastry topping, but when I sampled my first bite ... I was greeted by the overpowering flavor of cooked onions ... then surprisingly everything else was quite bland. I was delighted to see that the pie was filled with a generous amount of chicken meat, but the gravy was a bit sparse as were the standard mix of vegetables one would expect to find with this dish. I would not be so critical about this if it had at least some flavor ... but adding salt only made it salty. My friend sampled the pie and concurred. We abandoned the dish and proceeded to try the herb crusted honey roasted chicken plate. Again, another major disappointment. We both noticed immediately an off flavor and the chicken seemed on the drier side. Whether the chicken was freezer burned, old or the seasoning had contributed to the flavor we couldn't say ... but after a couple of bites, that dish too was set aside. The mashed potatos and gravy as well as the dressing that accompanied it was, like the pot pie, equally lacking in flavor and remained largely untouched. Lucky for her that she orderd the fried chicken liver dinner. At least her dinning experience was not a total lost. I had to contend with the side salad with bleu cheese dressing that came with the chicken pot pie dinner and the cranberry sauce that came with the roasted chicken platter.

When a female server came to clear our table she asked us how we like our meal. Both my friend and I voiced our disappointment at two of the three dishes. We also took advantage of her presence to place two orders of the all dark 6 pc chicken special to go. I added another chicken liver dinner with my "to go" order as well. She asked for a box for what remained of hers. The server disappeared to place our orders and get a "to go" box but within minutes our table was visited by a rather irritated woman, the owner, who publicly voiced her disagreement with our assessment of the two dishes that we had left mostly unconsumed. I politely reassured her that she was entitled to her opinion as were we, when asked and requested that we agree to disagree. She must have assumed that we were trying to get out of paying, since she mentioned the degree of which the meals had erroneously assumed had been consumed. I had no trouble allaying her fears quickly and even reviewed the bill with her which was still showing the gizzard dinner error. We included the more recent "to go" orders and I settled the bill ... happy to have an end to the ordeal.

Would I come back? Off course. I may not have the desire to re-order the herb crusted roasted chicken or chicken pot pie in the near future again, but there is a reason locals have been patronizing this restaurant. Their signature fried meals are very good. I would however advice folks to avoid coming on Fridays during dinner time unless you arrive before 5:30p or after 7:30p.