Sonoma Chicken

«Service with a snarl», that’s the best way to describe this location. The greeting when you approach the counter is a sullen «I can only take credit cards», the is no hello and no small talk. The order taking is curt at best, on the verge of being rude.
For an airport location service is anything but fast and the food is not quite up to the level of what I expect from Sonoma Chicken.

I am super fan of their bread else where, that’s why I like to order my breakfast here on trip, but the service is way too SLOW and I think they mis-​ordered the sequence, many guests ordered behind me grab their food and gone and I was still waiting. After 13 min waiting, I ask «is my order ready yet?» They say «one second», but I still don’t see my item being processed and mentioned I need to go boarding now, guess what they say? «I am a human, not robot»! I ends up running to catch my flight with empty stomach. This is the first time I have intention to give bad rating!

Not really impressed. It is OK, and the service can be good, but I only go here when I am tired of the other options in the terminal.

¼ chicken — dark meat — pretty good
side of green beans — pretty good
i agree with some of the comments that some of the workers are clueless

Complete idiots. Don’t waste your time here. They don’t know their own menu, They don’t know what items on their menu are, and they don’t understand their mission of quick service at an airport location.
The chicken actually tasted okay but it took 15 minutes for them to plate a piece of chicken and a scoop beans; and it was NOT busy. The sautéed green beans had never seen a pan. They tasted like frozen green beans heated in the microwave. Zero seasoning of any kind and totally bland. The menu says the plate comes with a slice of focaccia bread. Mine didn’t. When I asked they did not seem to know what I was talking about. I pointed to it on the giant menu over their heads. I know they have it because they have sandwiches on the menu that call for it too.
They said they would bring me some. 10 minutes later, they bring us some slices of sour dough bread with pizza sauce on them… That’s just nuts.
They are completely clueless. Just avoid. There are plenty of better choices here at the San Jose Airport.

Even though Sonoma is a fast food order the huskily of food is very good. It’s my pick to eat if I get to Sjc early

I dislike this place quite a bit. The few times (the last times) I have been there, they were out of some of their dishes. The service is indifferent and slow and the food is forgettable. They are understaffed. The prices are notably high even for an airport — I did a double take when I got the bill and the guy behind me, the last time, did the exact same thing.
I will not return and I recommend you stay away. If this wasn’t in the airport with a mix of first-​timers and limited options, it is hard to imagine it staying open. They act like they know they have a captive audience.
Freedom now!

My experience here was underwhelming to say the least. The staff were friendly enough so they were able to garner an additional star but the food was bland and in serious need of seasoning.
I ordered the blackened tilapia and my sister had a blue cheese burger, we split a side of calamari as well. Although the food was presented nicely, within the first bites knew we made a mistake in eating here. The food wasn’t even warm, the tilapia was bland and served over a huge plate of unseasoned pasta which I didn’t bother to eat and garnished with a flower and stiff piece of bread. The only thing done semi decent was the asparagus. The calamari wasn’t horrible but far from ok. My sister’s burger was smothered in blue cheese and we left the majority of the food on our plates. I will definitely not be returning.

My rating is solely based on the food which I also enjoy at the regular locations. It was nice to be able to get a fresh and hot meal at the airport. I ordered a quarter piece of rotisserie chicken with warm lemon vinaigrette sauce. It was moist and delicious. I also ordered green beans which were well flavored as well. My only concern with the green beans is that they seemed a by too buttery which defeats the purpose of me trying to be healthy.
Besides my food, the service was below average. I had to repeat what I wanted multiple times and there was a lot of confusion when I was ordering what I wanted. I will definitely continue to visit the one in downtown San Jose.

Not sure if it my choice was the problem (cheese pizza) but I recommend to stay away from any pizzas there. It was a lake of oily cheese on top of awful dough, not crispy at all, there was no way to eat it without a fork/​knife or spoon if you like oil!

Simply said, the food was terrible!
The staff were friendly but when the food is that bad, it doesn’t matter at all.
I ordered a quarter rotisserie chicken (breast) with a side of «spicy» rice.
Chicken was dry to the bone, the rice was as bland and dry as can be.
I choked down most of it due to starvation but I would recommend to never step into here if you want food that is edible.

Today I ordered my preferred meal here, the smoked turkey sandwich, which has never failed me. Per the menu, the sandwich comes with mayonnaise unless you specify without. I always make sure there’s no mayo and usually add mustard. When I requested mustard, she pointed to the concession stand for mustard single packets. I asked if she thought that it’s odd to offer mayo added in the kitchen, but mustard must be added by me. Turns out that they do have honey mustard in the kitchen. Looks like I’m having my mustard after all! They earned a star today!

AVOID.
Overpriced for the portions. Polite but crappy kitchen operations and customer service. Food takes way too long or they don’t have items.
Make sure you’ve gotten all your items. When they didn’t have one of ours ready, they quietly left it out without telling us. When we told them a few mins later, they said it was coming. They they dropped off a replacement item without asking us if it was okay.
Airport food is supposed to crap. Here you pay more for it. And they don’t care… They know you’re just passing through, and that the options inside SJC are limited.

Sonoma Chicken Coop located at Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport next to Starbucks (Gate 12) is quite small with a dozen or so tables. They offer fast, casual dining with gourmet fare featuring their signature rotisserie chicken and innovative homemade specialties. Okay, let’s get real people…$ 12 bucks for a flavorless breakfast burrito — YOU GUYS GOTTA BE KIDDING ME! Besides overpriced breakfast, Sonoma Chicken also offers hand tossed Salads, freshly baked foccacia sandwiches, along with desserts… and they say, homemade desserts. Hands down, Best Feature: they open super early — like at 4:30 a.m. — fantastic if you have an early flight and need to pay way too much for a quick bite. Sonoma Chicken apparently has 4 restaurants around the San Jose, CA area — maybe they are better AWAY from the airport? Will have to check them out another time… Meh!

I’ve been here twice. I like roasted and BBQ chicken but it needs to be cooked and served properly. Both times I have eaten here the chicken was dry and overcooked. I’ll pass on this place as there are much better restaurants in the area that know how to cook moist chicken properly cooked chicken. Two stars removed for serving dry, overcooked chicken, one star removed for slow order taking and another star removed for slow service.

Zero stars. I have had to leave without my food twice. Yep, twice. I will never give this place another chance. People are rude and lazy. You figure having food srvice in an airport would have some urgency. 20 minutes for a hamburger.

Mountains of food of airport quality that is overpriced even by airport standards.

Lunch takeout from this Sonoma Chicken today. Definitely had better at other locations.
I ordered the Ginger Steamed Cod special. Per the website, «Ginger Steamed Cod
$ 11.99
Alaskan cod simmered in a ginger fish stock and topped with a cognac lobster cream sauce; served with brown rice pilaf with pecans and dried cranberries»
The cod was well overcooked and was tough to bite. The dish consisted of mostly brown rice; there was much else going on with this dish. The fish was bland, no seasoning. At least there was a decent sauce to cover up the blandness fish taste. I thought the brown rice was a little tough too. Maybe it’s personal preference that I prefer my brown rice on the softer side. I just thought the rice could have been more interesting if there were some more ingredients thrown in together. It was not worth the $ 11.99 at all.
And the free bread that comes with your entrée, I’ve definitely had better at other Sonoma Chicken locations.
Next time instead of being adventurous and ordering a special, I think I’ll just stick with what they’re named for – the chicken.
Parking is very difficult. I would consider you very lucky if you are able to find outside parking close to the restaurant. If you were like me and went during the lunch rush, I would suggest parking in the garage on the upper levels for parking spots.
I like how they take FiveStars and AmEx.

Not the fastest place to get food, but it was fresh. I had the quarter chicken with green beans, and I was happy that the green beans were fresh, not canned and mushy. They do seem to flash boil/​par boil the beans and then sautee them, so they’re not quite crispy.
Overall not bad for airport food. A quarter chicken meal with a drink was $ 12.
Grade: C+

2.0 Stars
Reviewed on 2÷2÷11.
I was thoroughly unimpressed with the lackluster experience I had at this location of Sonoma Chicken Coop. I was excited to see this establishment at the new San Jose airport terminal, but it was far being a great restaurant like it’s other locations.
You’ll notice that the menu is stripped down to accommodate the airport traveler crowd. They don’t have an extensive menu compared to their other locations. For instance, when I ordered their Half Chicken, the amount of sides I could pick from was fairly limited. I also didn’t like how the sauce I picked came in a little plastic container on the side. When I ordered the Half Chicken at the Skyport location, the sauce was cooked together with the Chicken.
I have to agree with the other reviewers on the disorganization of the whole kitchen and its staff. When I ordered the Half Chicken with the Coop Au Vin sauce, the kitchen staff messed up my order and gave me BBQ sauce instead. This was odd because my receipt clearly stated the Coop Au Vin sauce. I had to wait additional time for my order and barely made it onto my flight on time.
Next time, I’ll be sure to steer away from this establishment.