https://www.porchrochester.com/
👎🏼 Overall 0 avocadoes out of 5 (great food; beyond AWFUL service)
We enjoy a great piece of fried chicken! We also enjoy eating a great lunch on a Sunday afternoon. Why not combine the two and have a great piece of fried chicken for lunch on a Sunday? That was our thinking for two consecutive Sundays last month when we went to Porch Fried Chicken.
Ordering online was so simple (yay!) and we took advantage of the special, the Holy Clucker. Making fun of religions aside, we found this $6 deal (drink included) a wonderful budget option for lunch…we ordered four of them. Our choices included the sandwiches, iced teas, additional add-on of mac and cheese on one sandwich, and added side of mashed potatoes and gravy .
Off to the Porch we drove and picked them up in pretty quick order. Waiting at the front entry was a bit awkward and we felt like we were in the way, but our order was brought out and off we went. Upon arrival at home we opened our yummy package and discovered the prettiest chicken sandwiches you could hope for.
The food was wonderful! The chicken was crispy and well cooked, the buns were of good quality, and the mashed potatoes were clearly made in-house. Everyone around the table was making lots of “yummy” noises as we enjoyed our lunch. The iced tea was a big hit as well! Of note for visit #2, the cooks put the additional mac and cheese as a side dish for one of the sandwiches and so we assumed it was a Side rather than a topping for the sandwich itself.
The food at Porch Fried Chicken on visit #1 was sooooo good! Five out of five avocados! The service would probably get a four out of five avocados due to the awkwardness.
Well, if one time was good, why not try two? The very next Sunday we were off again to Porch to pick up four Holy Clucker meals. Unbeknownst to us, however, was that this time would be quite different than the last.
Again, pickup was a bit awkward as there is no dedicated staff-person to take care of pickups. As we stood waiting, a family asked what appeared to be a server about sitting outside on the patio. The gal was clearly irritated and she told them they had to do everything themselves because she “had other things to do.” Okay then! Note to self, servers too busy to serve customers at the Porch. The rest of the employees seemed angry/upset/irritated too; you could clearly get the feel of the place and it wasn’t nice. And, of course, where there is smoke, there is fire. This would perfectly describe our coming interaction with this restaurant on this visit.
Upon our arrival at home, we opened our little sack eagerly awaiting our super-duper chicken sandwiches and sides. This time we ordered two of those great mac and cheese additions that scored so well last visit…but they were nowhere to be found. Oh well, we’ll take care of that later, let’s eat now while it is still warm.
The sandwiches did not disappoint and were well done again. Great job, Porch cooks! The mashed potatoes were, however, quite sour for some reason and no one around the table finished their portion. We could not quite put our finger on why the potatoes were sour: too much sour cream? bad dairy? what? And let’s not forget the omission of those two additions of mac and cheese.
Fast forward to the end of the meal. I called Porch and politely informed the gal on the other end that we had not received two addition mac and cheeses on our sandwiches. “How can we fix this?” I asked. After some clarification she said they would refund the additional charges, great, thanks! Some short time later we got a call from Porch and the woman on the line basically argued with us and rudely informed us that it was just $1 each and that these were simple toppings to the sandwiches, not sides. Okay, thanks for the condescending attitude and argumentation! Whatever these stupid things were, we paid for them and didn’t get them, end of story. An upstanding employee would quickly refund the cash after realizing the error.
Why in the world would a restaurant go through the trouble of calling customers and telling them they are stupid because they didn’t “understand” what these things were even though they were paid for and not delivered??? So here we see the issue…a terrible work environment that runs on hostility. Thanks for showing us what kind of business you are running there, Porch.
In sum, we thought we had a clear winner for price, convenience, food quality, and pick up. What we ended with is a toxic business that would rather argue with customers over things it didn’t provide than give them a good experience. HARD PASS, Porch Fried Chicken, HARD PASS. Attitude determines altitude.
Good Eats Rochester 