Sonoma Chicken

Stunningly mediocre.
I ordered the seafood linguine. The cream sauce was noticeably salty. What little seafood there was (two clams, one mussel, three shrimp, some calamari) was tasteless.
My girlfriend ordered the chicken marsala over risotto. The rice was salty and dry, probably the worst risotto ever. The chicken tasted like something brown from a school cafeteria, also noticeably salty.
The bill was almost $ 40. The food was stunningly mediocre, bordering on awful. This place has all the signs of a cook with no tastebuds and management that doesn’t care. We won’t be returning.

Yikes. Not even a handful of patrons for the lunch hour and they are out of many items-​calamari, soup and no weekly specials.
We ordered and paid for it, as well as 45 $ worth of food, then was told «no calamari». My co-​lunchers, asked for a refund at this point, and to cancel the order. The cashier initially refunded her less money than what she was charged. Avoid this sonoma. y

Worst Sonoma Chx Coop ever, wait time for the food 55mins because they are under staff on a SATURDAY? Oh c’mon! Puhleaase ! We ordered Calamari, Roost Chx ½, roasted artichoke, and their special salmon platter with avo and red sauce.
After 35mins, i followed up my order and asks id I can even have my calamari at least. Then at 40min. My dad followed up his ½ chx which they said another 5mins, after 5 he got his chx but what keeps me confused is the salmon that’s the last to arrive which they said another 5 mins? What the f$ck! Seriously! Had I known that’ll be an almost an hour wait for a not so interesting food. We could’ve just go to downtown campbell or the airport location. This place sucks! Understaff… verrrrryyy slowwww service! = customer who will NEVER ever be back in this resto!

Oops! We came here after a hike and thought we could have a nice dinner before the Big Game, even though they had a little advertisement on the door about a Super Bowl party. When we got there, there were only a few people in the restaurant and we thought we had lucked out, but it soon became clear why no one was in the restaurant.
While the restaurant was almost empty, we had a difficult time finding any tables that were wiped clean. Ugh! I finally had to ask the cashier after she rung up my order to have someone clean off our table. She sent someone over, but it was like he had never cleaned a table before. While he cleared the table next ours of dirty dishes, it took him awhile to come back and wipe our table clean. Meanwhile, all the other tables around us had bits of food on the tables. It’s not like they were busy.
So we sat there waiting for our food. And waited. And waited. Normally, if we go to the Campbell restaurant, they’ll have the food ready before we get to our table. Here, we had waited 20 minutes and still no food. I mean, we were the only ones who had ordered. While we were waiting, this big group of people had come in and pushed the TV over and everyone was sitting down to watch the Super Bowl. They turned the volume way up, so it was time that we got the heck out of there. We decided to have our food to go. So I walked up to the front counter and told them that we wanted our food to go and they said they would and that they were still waiting for the artichoke to grill.
I went back to my seat and we waited and we waited. I swear, it was like they were growing that artichoke out back and waiting for it to get ripe. Meanwhile, the SuperBowl was getting louder and louder and we had had enough. I walked back up there and they gave me my order.
We then went out to our car, but smartly, I decided to check our order. Lo and behold, they messed it up. They didn’t include the pizza that comes with every order. So my wife walks back up there to get our pizza slices and they tell her that they couldn’t make the pizza because the oven was being used to make someone else’s pizza. They were willing to not fill our order correctly just because they couldn’t cook two things at once.
Look, Sonoma Chicken at Market, Skyport, and Campbell are good. I’m sorry to say that the service, atmostphere, and food is just not good. I’m sure others feel the same way because this place could be crowded and it wasn’t. Too bad. Save you ducats and find a better place just up the road off Blossom Hill or further north on Almaden Expressway.

I went to Sonoma chicken coop this weekend and I hadn’t been there for many years. I had very low expectations because I remember disliking it in the past. The restaurant was for the most part empty when I walked in. The man at the counter was very friendly and helpful. My friend didn’t know what soup she wanted so he gave her healthy sized samples of both! I ordered the chicken fettuccine Alfredo. It was a good sized portion and only $ 11! The best part was that they didn’t even skimp you on the chicken like most restaurants! My friend got chicken kabobs and they took super long to come out and she complained the chicken wasn’t cooked correctly. Other than that, I can’t wait to come back! They have artichokes as a side that I can’t wait to try (unfortunately they’re out of season right now)

Sonoma Chicken is a middle of the road restaurant with great variety and manageable seating for groups. I prefer the Campbell Sonoma Chicken versus Almaden Valley location because Campbell feels a bit more new and it’s centrally located. Occasionally (Thursday’s maybe?) the Campbell Sonoma Chicken has live music — which is always a treat. I enjoy the lunch special of half salad & half sandwich with a drink :)
Enjoy!

Decided to come here the other night, it was very empty so that was worrying me a bit, but after entering the place has several guest. We placed our order and could smell the food and it was delicious. We placed our order, paid and the received our glass for our drinks. Here is where the meal could have been better, the drink machine were not all working, it looked like they could have maintained the area better, but let me say if this is the only area where we had a bad experience then we are doing good.
In less that a few minutes, our order was ready for us to pick up, which we did the meal was hot (stove hot) and delicious. We ate our meal and were very full which was good especially this evening as it was chilly outside, so not bullies full and time to get home and relax.
Overall the staff was helpful and pleasant. The soda area needed some help, the manager was helpful too. We will be back again.

WORST. LOCATION. EVER. I hate to be harsh but this location is terrible!
Purchased a Groupon thinking we’d get the same quality/​service as the Campbell location (our regular go-​to location) but unfortunately, our experience was not good.
1. Walked in at 11:40 am, no cashiers to be found. Stood at the front for at least 5 minutes while the cooks kept looking at us but made no effort to alert the cashiers that they had customers waiting.
2. Ordered a cobb salad & rotisserie chicken. Sat down at our table & the cashier comes to us telling us that their rotisserie was broken and that we could order whatever else we wanted off the menu. Okay, fine.
3. Salad came first — it’s almost noon… no dressings were in the salad bar ‘station’. Another customer had to ask a lady who was cleaning the tables for a small side of whatever dressing he wanted. Finally, a guy comes out from the back & places the dressings in the station but no ladles to serve yourself (GEEZ). I went to the dressings, picked up the little plastic cup & scooped out my own dressing since there weren’t ladles or any staff around. 10 minutes later, another guy came out with the ladles.
4. Salad wasn’t very fresh. Tomatoes seemed really soft & old, asked for extra egg, didn’t get it so had to ask again. Their «focaccia» came to me super soggy & quite bland.
5. Friend’s steak came out okay but wasn’t cooked exactly the way he requested.
NO, SMH, JUST NO! Never going back & I do NOT recommend this location! Go to Campbell location or downtown SJ!

HORRIBLE!
I decided to give this place a second chance, and I definitely won’t be back.
We ordered the chicken, cheddar, and avocado sandwich and my stomach feels gross just thinking about it. The chicken was soggy and mushy and tasted rancid. The cheese looked like plastic and the avocados were hard. There was NOTHING good about the sandwich.
We also ordered the Salmon Sandwich. They were out of the dill aioli and failed to tell us until the food was ready, so we received a salmon fillet and a lettuce leaf on bread.
Service was also horrible. One star for the outdoor seating area.

Sonoma Chicken Coop (SCC) is a locally owned, and operated, chain of family-​friendly restaurants that started up in 2002. They serve up a nice selection of American fare (e.g., pizza, pasta, salads, chicken, burgers, etc.), and all their items are made «fresh, from scratch.» I’ve always had good luck eating at two of their other locations (Downtown SJ & Airport), but have yet to make the trip to this Almaden Valley location – despite it only being a few miles from my house. I think the 2.5-star Unilocal average always scared me off, but I finally decided to buck up and give them a try. I had some work in the area, so I came down with some co-​workers, on two separate days, to see what’s happening, and each experience was worse than the next.
Experience #1:
We arrived at SCC around 11:45 a.m., and despite them being «open» since 11 a.m., the doors were locked and the lights were out. We flagged down an employee who confirmed they were indeed open, and he proceeded to let us in. We then placed our orders (Tangy Pork sandwich w/​Sweet Potato Fries), paid and sat down with our buzzers to alert us when our orders were ready. My co-​workers received their orders, and began to eat. 15 minutes later I still did not have my food, and when I went to inquire about my food, they said they’re just frying up the fries right now – I looked in the back and there was a basket of sweet potato fries just sitting there above the fryer. As I returned to my seat I overheard the manager (older Asian fellow) yelling at the cooks in the back calling them «stupid» and «lazy.» When I stared back at him he began to laugh like it was all some kind of joke – professional with a capitol «P.» Five minutes later I received my food: the meat tasted old; the bread was stale; and the fries were cold. I really should’ve returned it, but I’m not like that…
Experience #2:
I’m usually always willing to give places a second chance, especially ones that I’ve had success with in the past; maybe they just had a bad day? Wrong. This time we arrived slightly before noon, and the doors were open (huzzah!). We placed our orders (Lime Grilled Chicken), paid and sat with buzzers in tow. This time my buzzer rang 1^st, and I picked up my food within 20 minutes – not exactly lightning speed, but I don’t mind if everything is being made to order. My two co-​workers sat around and watched me eat, and around 12:40 they started to get frustrated. After going up to inquire, they were completely ignored before someone gave them a glib, «It’s coming…» Several parties, who had arrived 15 – 20 minutes after us, had already received their orders. Mind you, my co-​workers didn’t order anything extravagant (Portobello Burger and Chicken and Mushroom Sauté), so the length of the wait is inexcusable. Finally, at 12:50, their buzzers rang (we suspect they were still out back harvesting the Shrooms and slaughtering the chicken…). The food this time was decent; nothing awful but nothing to write home about.
With consistently awful service and mediocre food, I’m never setting foot in this location again. I suspect it’s a management issue with this one store, and not a restaurant-​wide concern. However, I will be pretty hesitant visiting other SCC locations in the future. Sometimes Unilocal is wrong, and sometimes Unilocal is right; in this case, they hit it dead on. So, in summation, if you like to be treated badly and love mediocre food, then come on down. The rest of us with a modicum of self-​respect will find other places to spend our money. You’ve been warned.

The food is ok & if you have someone who listens to your spoken order, and gets it right, then cool.
The woman’s restroom is disgusting. Messy and the counter top is atrocious.

This restaurant is currently closed in Almaden by the health department of SCC because the «food could be exposed to vermin» I’m not surprised! It’s just gross every time I’ve been there! Not going back!