• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Tiny Urban Kitchen
  • About Me
  • Travel
  • Recipes
  • Michelin
  • Subscribe
  • Taiwanese
menu icon
go to homepage
  • About Me
  • Travel
  • Recipes
  • Michelin
  • Subscribe
  • Taiwanese
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • About Me
    • Travel
    • Recipes
    • Michelin
    • Subscribe
    • Taiwanese
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • ×

    Home » US Travel » California » Los Angeles

    Mrs. Knott's Chicken Restaurant

    Published: Jan 8, 2010 · Modified: Oct 28, 2014 by Jennifer Che

    This post is Part IV of the larger mini-series titled "A California Christmas."  The posts in this series include: Part I: Ten Ren Tea Station, Part II: Din Tai Fung, Part III: Sushi Gen, Part IV: Mrs. Knott's Chicken Restaurant, and Part V: Melisse.

    Knotts Berry Farm is a theme park not far from Disneyland.  Looking at it today, it looks like many other theme parks across America.  The park is filled with characters from the Peanuts gang, wild roller coaster rides, and various other rides.

    What's different? If you look closely, you'll notice there's this fried chicken restaurant right at the park's entrance that always has a HUGE line out the door.  What's the deal with this restaurant?

    Guess what?  This little fried chicken restaurant is what started this entire theme park.

    Knotts menu
    I won't go into a detailed history here, but here's a super brief synopsis.  The Knotts family were berry farmers, and Mr. Knotts had just started selling a new berry created by a man by the name of Rudolph Boysen. The Knotts family bought a plot of land in Southern California and created a berry farm.  Mrs. Knotts set up a tea house there, and one day was frying up some chicken for dinner when a tea guest commented on how delicious it smelled and whether it was for sale.

    The Knotts decided to temporarily sell fried chicken to make ends meet (it was the Depression, after all).  However, the fried chicken became so popular people just kept coming back for more.  Mrs. Knotts kept insisting she wasn't in the restaurant business, but the people loved the chicken, and the lines grew and grew and grew.  Eventually, Mr. Knotts started building some rides to entertain the people while they were waiting in line for the fried chicken.  And that is how Knotts Berry Farm (the theme park) began.
    Knotts T-shirt
    Of course, with all that hype, I was really curious how the fried chicken would taste, since to this day the lines are still super long.  This is why I have never gone before - I never wanted to wait so long in line.

    Amazingly, this past Christmas Eve, our party of 14 was seated immediately. No line!  Note to self: Knotts Berry Farm is a great place to come on Christmas Eve.  None of the rides have a wait, and you can go into the Fried Chicken restaurant without a wait at 12:30PM for lunch!
    Knotts rolls
    The wait staff are dressed up in traditional gingham outfits, maybe as part of the thematic experience.  We started out with some nice hot rolls, which were delicious!  Reminiscent of monkey bread, they were very warm, soft, and tasted great with butter.
    Knotts rhubarbKnotts salad

    Knotts chicken soup
    The sides/starters were actually quite disappointing.  The rhubarb was just boiled with a bit of sugar, and the salad had a dismal dressing to vegetable ratio.  The chicken soup was nice and thick and pretty good - probably the only redeeming starter.

    Knotts fried chicken
    The fried chicken was good.  I know fried chicken is all the craze right now, and every celebrity chef seems to want to offer his or her own version of fried chicken.  This fried chicken is not fancy nor expensive.  It's just good, solid fried chicken.  Crunchy on the outside, nicely flavored, and moist meat on the inside.  I can definitely see why it was so popular decades ago when Mrs. Knotts first started making it.  Definitely order fried chicken if you come here!
    Boysenberry pie
    And if you go, you have to get the boysenberry pie - more for historical nostalgic reasons than pure taste.  As I mentioned earlier, the Knotts' family started out as berry farmers, and this was the berry that Mr. Knotts had invented.  Definitely try the pie - it's good.

    Over all impressions?
    The fried chicken is definitely good, though by far not the best I've ever had.  At this point, I think the hype surrounding the restaurant is more historical and nostalgia than purely the quality of the food itself.  The story itself is really cute, and it's kind of fun to eat in this restaurant knowing that history.  It's worth visiting once, especially if you can avoid waiting in line.  Having said all that, I don't think I would be willing to wait in a long line just for the food.  In this day and age, there's plenty of delicious fried chicken to be had.

    ©2009-2014 Tiny Urban Kitchen
    All Rights Reserved

    More California

    • Valley Bar + Bottle Sonoma California
    • Robert Sinskey Winery
    • The Bistro at Auberge du Soleil
    • Majordomo Los Angeles - David Chang's Foray into the West Coast

    Recent Posts

    • La Salita Valencia Spain January 16, 2023
    • El Poblet Valencia Spain -2 Michelin Stars December 29, 2022
    • MercatBar by Quique Dacosta - Valencia December 9, 2022
    • La Pepica Waterfront Paella - Valencia December 5, 2022
    • Llisa Negra Valencia Spain December 1, 2022
    • Central Bar by Ricard Camarena - Valencia Spain November 29, 2022
    • Casa Ripoll Valencia - Beachside Paella November 27, 2022
    • Valencia Spain Trip Report - Itinerary November 23, 2022

    Primary Sidebar

    Jennifer Che Tiny Urban Kitchen
    Jennifer Che Tiny Urban Kitchen

    Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am an expat who moved from Boston to Hong Kong 5 years ago. Born and raised in Ohio to Taiwanese immigrant parents, I am a chemistry nerd, patent attorney by day, blogger by night, church musician on weekends, and food enthusiast always. Feel free to explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!

    More about me →

    Explore

    • Recipe
    • Restaurant
    • US Travel
    • World Travel

    Popular Posts

    • La Salita Valencia Spain
    • El Poblet Valencia Spain -2 Michelin Stars
    • MercatBar by Quique Dacosta - Valencia
    • La Pepica Waterfront Paella - Valencia

    Recipes

    • Appetizer
    • Snacks
    • Meat
    • Vegetables
    • Soup
    • Salad
    • Seafood
    • Noodles

    Recently Traveled

    • Hong Kong
    • France
    • Belgium
    • Boston
    • California
    • United Kingdom
    • Germany
    • Spain

    Support Us

    Recognition


    Featured on the front page
    of the FOOD Section: 2015

    Best Food Blog Awards:
    Restaurant & Dining 2012

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    About

    • About Me
    • My Equipment
    • In the Press
    • Project Food Blog
    • Privacy Policy

    Eating Guides!

    Eating & Travel Guides
    Trip Reports
    "Kawaii" (Cute Foods)
    Around the World

    • Pinterest
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • YouTube
    • Mail
    • RSS Feed

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Shop at Amazon

    Copyright © 2022 Tiny Urban Kitchen