As the longest-standing theme park restaurant in history, it buries other hallowed eateries, and admission’s not even required. It can seat up to 1,000 customers at a time. The restaurant and bar, which only closes on Christmas, serves about 1,000 birds a day. The nearly 84-year-old restaurant is perched outside this regional theme park, which got its footing on the back of Cordelia and Walter Knott’s 10-acre farm of berry crops. In the 1920s, the couple sold fruit, jam, sweets, and biscuits to passersby from a farm stand. They eventually expanded with a stock of berry plants sold out of a stucco building that included an onsite tea room. To supposedly help with funds during the Great Depression, Cornelia added her homemade fried chicken to the menu in the summer of 1934, serving each 65-cent meal atop her own wedding china.
Success came shortly thereafter, and three years later, the tea room transformed into a full-fledged restaurant. By 1940, Mrs. Knott’s was serving 4,000 chicken dinners every Sunday to unfathomably large crowds that waited outside and wandered through Knott’s Berry Place, a shopping mall filled with small town bric-a-brac and home goods that stands to this day.
The Knotts never set out to abandon their origins as berry farmers. The theme park merely served as a preoccupation for entertaining chicken-seeking crowds.
There are plenty of menu choices at Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant, but everyone’s here for $21.99 headliner, which it serves all day. It comes with three pieces of the crispy good stuff along with salad, rhubarb, veggies, mashed potatoes, pie, and unlimited biscuits. The menu has barely evolved over time, merely adding substitutions of chicken noodle soup and sherbet and a choice of corn or cabbage with ham. The chicken recipe has only changed to remove one ingredient: lard.
All lunch entrees include buttermilk biscuits and seasonal butter or seasonal jam. Ask your server for today's offering. Your choice of tossed salad, cup of soup or house rhubarb, sweet kernel corn or cabbage seasoned with ham.
Lunch Entrees
- Mrs. Knott's Fried Chicken:
Two pieces of our famous fried chicken, mashed potatoes with Knott's country gravy. - Mrs. Knott's Roasted Chicken:
(Gluten sensitive option available)
Two pieces of our roasted chicken, mashed potatoes with Knott's country gravy. - Chicken and Dumplings:
Tender chicken and homemade dumplings topped with creamy chicken gravy. - Chicken Tender Lunch:
Mrs. Knott's famous hand breaded chicken tenders served with mashed potatoes and Knott's country gravy. - Fried Chicken and Waffle:
Two pieces of fried chicken on top of a buttermilk waffle drizzled with maple syrup and Knott's country gravy. - Chicken Fried Steak:
Lightly breaded tender beefsteak fried crisp. Served with mashed potatoes and Knott's country gravy. - Chicken Pot Pie:
Loaded with tender pieces of Mrs. Knott's Chicken and fresh garden vegetables enclosed in our hand pressed flaky crust. Topped with our creamy chicken gravy.
Lunch Specialties
- Chicken Parmesan:
8 oz Chicken breast breaded with Parmesan and panko. Served with rigatoni pasta with marinara sauce and a side of steamed broccolini. - Vegan Mushroom Bolognese Rigatoni: Vegan
House-made mushroom Bolognese rigatoni pasta topped with Vegan Mozzarella cheese. - Blackened Cod:
Pan seared blackened seasoned Cod served with steamed broccolini and wild rice. - The Proud Bird:
12 oz Hand-breaded chicken breast, lettuce, pickles, and mayo on a Hawaiian bun - garnished with a mini chicken slider. Served with French fries.
Dessert
- World Famous Boysenberry Pie
- Fresh Baked Apple Pie
- Executive Pastry Chef Heather Macia's Pie of the Month (ask your server for delicious details)
- Triple Chocolate Fudge Bundt Cake
You must go through the exit to eat there.
