Best And Worst Chain Restaurant Chicken Pot Pies, According To Reviews

Chicken pot pies are the epitome of comfort food. Inside a pastry crust, you get a combination of chicken and veggies all in a cream sauce. Typically, the veggies include carrots and peas. Sometimes, there will be potatoes and onions or even mushrooms and other veggies.

We've had plenty of frozen chicken pot pies heated up at home, but ordering a pot pie at a restaurant is a whole different experience. Plenty of mom-and-pop cafes have a classic chicken pot pie that holds a coveted place on the menu, but there are lots of chains that also have a chicken pot pie on the menu. While a chicken pot pie seems like a pretty basic item, there's a whole bunch of variance that can exist from pie to pie, and it's in these differences that some chicken pot pies thrive and others are goopy, unappetizing messes. To help feed your next chicken pot pie craving (without needing to make your pot pie at home), we found some of the best chicken pot pies you can get at a chain and some others you may want to stay away from.

You likely already know the name Marie Callender from the frozen food aisle at your grocery store. The brand is known for frozen pot pies, but there is a chain of restaurants by the same name. Marie Callender's grew from a one-woman show in the 1940s to a family bakery to a pie and coffee shop in the '60s. The year 1969 brought a full restaurant like the one that exists today in 27 locations across the United States. ConAgra Foods, Inc. purchased the Marie Callender's brand trademarks in 2011, while Marie Callender Pie Shops, Inc. continued to operate the shops where you can get a fresh chicken pot pie.

Reviews for the pot pie within the restaurant are mixed, but largely negative. Yelp is full of complaints about not having enough chicken and too many mushy vegetables. It seems there's a balance problem in both the ingredients and the texture of the pie itself. In one particularly illuminating review, Vannessa D. states, "The worst chicken pot pie that I've ever had! A hint of peas, celery, and a bite-sized carrot with bits of chicken here and there sitting on top of a huge glob of cream of something! The crust on top was dry and cracked. Disgusting and a waste of $20."

Kentucky Fried Chicken, better known as KFC, has a whole host of options centered around, you guessed it, chicken. One of those lesser-known options is a chicken pot pie. We were skeptical too, seeing as it ranked lowest overall on our fried chicken chain list, but review after review on social media and across the Internet proves otherwise. Clearly, the pot pie is a very bright spot on this menu.

This is not the kind of chicken pot pie you would get to serve a family of four. Instead, it's more of a personal pot pie. Granted, the meal will be pretty big, so be sure to come hungry. This is the epitome of the golden pot pie with a perfectly cooked crust, and running a fork across the top, you can hear just how nicely cooked it is, and when you dig in, the crust flakes well. There's a whole lot of big carrot chunks, potatoes, and plenty of peas throughout the entire pie. Country Boy Cooking with Marshall may have said it best: "Ya'll, that thing is absolutely fantastic."

Price might be dependent on your location, but we saw the pot pie for under $7. For the hefty amount of food here, that's just a great deal. If you're looking for a deeply homestyle option from a fast food joint, this is our pick, even if the chain serves some of the worst fast food fried chicken we've ever had.

Across YouTube, you'll find many different appearances of Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen representatives going to various cooking shows (mostly on local news channels across the country) and teaching viewers about its chicken pot pie. While all publicity is good publicity, if you have a keen eye, these cooking demos may just turn you off from the dish. If the pile of cubed rather than shredded chicken didn't do it, perhaps the overly gooey filling would.

Rather than a more enclosed pot pie, this version has filling inside of a bowl with a pastry cooked over the top. It's really just glorified soup. The cream sauce looks decadent, and the veggies look perfectly softened for the occasion, but it reminds us more of a soup than anything else. So, why this issue? The food needs to be what it promises to be. That is, if it's a soup, be a soup. If it's a pie, it just needs to be a pie. Otherwise, in a restaurant like Cheddar's, which promises to be all homemade, it ends up feeling like corners were cut. Understandably, the goal is to get food out in a timely manner, but surely we can do better than a pie that is actually just soup with a hat.

If you've been to Hash House a Go Go, there's a good chance you remember a very key part of the experience: The portions are absolutely huge. In general, we've found that one regular-size meal could easily be shared between two adults, and you might still have leftovers for the following day. Chicken pot pie offered here is much the same. You'll find it on the menu called the "Big 'O Chicken Pot Pie," and like everything else, it's large.

Like many other menu items at Hash House a Go Go, the plating of the meal is what makes it extra special. While we aren't a big fan of pot pies that do not deliver on promises, at Hash House a Go Go, when you order, you know it's going to be a little bit different, so the change feels more intentional. Rather than being encapsulated in the crust, with this pot pie, the crust will set a little off to the side of the filling. That crust is really more of a pastry that you'll be able to break off and eat with your pot pie filling. Unlike other pot pies, it's not as runny, but instead has more of a casserole-like filling. One thing is for sure: The veggies are ultra bright and generous, as is the chicken.

We love local diners, and that's what Metro Diner promises to be. Even still, this once truly local diner (starting as one location in Jacksonville, Florida) is now a chain with locations in many parts of the country, though a majority of them are in Florida.

Metro Diner has a robust menu, full of tempting brunch favorites. The chicken pot pie is among the many lunch and dinner options in a menu stuffed with classic American meals. Like other pot pies among the worst, this is not a classic pot pie. One Reddit user discounts this type of pot pie: "Remember: If it doesn't have crust on the bottom, it ain't a chicken pot pie. It's chicken stew with a hat and delusions of grandeur." That's what's happening with Metro Diner's pot pie, but the problems here go even deeper. In fact, while some reviewers say they enjoyed it, there were also several complaints that it needs more veggies.

Jason's Deli is a sandwich shop with many locations. You'll find a menu full of sandwiches, salads, pastas, and huge baked potatoes. There's also a selection of soups, and that's where you'll find another of our picks for a great chicken pot pie.

Now, we fully recognize that this pot pie is not traditional, but what makes it better than other pot pies that are simply soups with hats is that this option is never claiming to be a pot pie entirely. It's labeled as a soup, under the soup section on the menu. It's a soup that calls itself a soup. We're all for honesty here. You can also ask for a puff pastry to go along with it to offer a similar flavor to a pot pie. For those who want just a flavor of the filling of pot pie soup, we love this as a choice, and with an extra puff pastry, it might just get even better. Admittedly, we'd love to take this soup and pour it on top of a Plain Jane baked potato for the ultimate comfort food pile.

This one hurts a bit, but P.J. Clarke's is a great example of the sheer fact that you don't have to be great at everything. P.J. Clarke's has all the old-time vibes, a heavy dash of history, and great drinks. The chicken pot pie, though, isn't so great.

On the menu, it's listed as the Country Chicken Pot Pie with a cheddar cheese crust. Sounds promising, right? In a subreddit dedicated to New York City, users shared their distaste for P.J. Clarke's chicken pot pie. One reviewer, responding to a question for the best pot pie in the city wrote, "NOT PJ Clarkes, I had it 4ish years ago and it sucked. Decided to give it another try this year, and it was still just as bland and unseasoned as I remembered, plus it was cold." Another user seconded this review, "Can confirm. PJ Clarke's pot pie is awful."

Granted, some will say otherwise. We saw several other reviews of diners praising the pot pie, but what ultimately pushes this one over the edge is the crust cap. By now, you know how we feel about a crust hat.

We love restaurants that pay homage to tradition, and Lazy Dog does just that. Using the collected knowledge of its founding family, Lazy Dog brings meals through items full of ingredients sourced from familiar sources. Just looking at the chicken pot pie, it's easy to see why diners love this one.

Lazy Dog, like most restaurants, offers take-away choices or in-diner seating, but it also has frozen TV dinners. Instead of relying on frozen chicken pot pie brands from your local grocery store, you could opt for Lazy Dog's very own frozen pot pie.

This chicken pot pie is so beloved that when the chain posts a video or photo of it on social media platforms, the comment section is a mixture of "yummy" type responses and requests to have the chain bring a location closer to home. Beverly Benton Collard seems to summarize the general consensus, writing, "This is absolutely the BEST! Each time I order it, my mouth is so grateful! (And, my tummy is comforted, full & happy. Yummy!!)" she goes on to make a second comment to drive the point home: "(Oh.....this is the chicken pot pie! Get it!! Get two! One to eat @ dinner & one to take home for dinner tomorrow!!)."

It's painful to watch once-enjoyable restaurants fall. Boston Market is certainly one of those places. For many years, it was a go-to pie pickup spot, but then, these restaurants started disappearing, and the restaurant seemed to fall apart. Take, for instance, a post Boston Market made to social media with a couple of photos of pot pies and a caption celebrating "that first bite feeling." Curiously, however, these are not the pot pies served in restaurants, which Amber Marie Regan points out, "That's not how the pot pies look. No bottom crust, only top. I've made hundreds when I worked for them in Michigan." She's right. The other photos of Boston Market's in-store pot pies have only a topper.

While the not-whole-crust situation automatically hurts Boston Market's overall chances of being a quality pot pie, customer photos show just how bad these can get. Jennifer Small shared a photo on Facebook where the chain's pot pie looks nothing like it should. The chunks of chicken are huge, there are minimal pieces of veggies, and the filling isn't really there. To top it all off, the crust top is peeled off like a giant cracker. Hopefully, this isn't common, but it sure doesn't do much for the public opinion of Boston Market's pot pie.

When you do a search for Potbelly's Chicken Pot Pie, as we did, you discover that several recipes are floating about for copycat versions of Potbelly's Chicken Pot Pie Soup. Imitation may very well be the best compliment, but copycats all but promise a homerun, and in the case of Potbelly, that seems to be the case.

Over on X, the love for Potbelly's Chicken Pot Pie Soup is real, with @swiftlydelicat writing "I forgot how much I love Potbelly Chicken Pot Pie Soup. Literally the best" and @LoriAHiggins celebrated with "Potbelly chicken pot pie soup is back for the cold weather season and I'm a very happy person." Really, we're just excited that, like Jason's Deli, this is a soup that knows it's a soup, so the brand calls it a soup. People love this one, and Potbelly is totally buying into its own deliciousness, proudly proclaiming, "#ICYMI: We literally hand-crumble warm fresh-baked pie crust into our chicken pot pie soup. Serious business."

It's a tale as old as time: A neighborhood cafe sells chicken pot pies and brings all the flavors of home. Mimi's Cafe follows this same course across 12 states and 42 locations, with a menu that is nothing short of expansive. As we've seen, however, this often results in less-than-stellar individual items, and the chicken pot pie at Mimi's leaves a lot to be desired.

It seems Mimi's Cafe falls victim to the same pastry-over-filling issue we've seen time and time again. As a comment to a Facebook post sharing a chicken pot pie from Mimi's Cafe, Linda Lindley commented, "If it really looked like that, it would be great, but I was in there three days ago and had a piece of plain dough lying on the top that had been stuck under a broiler and had a few brown spots in it." Her review definitely isn't going to inspire anyone to order this supposed comfort food that is actually a bowl of filling with a pastry beret.

For steakhouses with a great chicken pot pie, Claim Jumper Steakhouse & Bar simply must be in the conversation. You'll find these locations out west, and they're limited, but certainly worth a visit if you're in the area.

Part of the reason this pot pie is so solid must be based on its legacy, with a recipe dating back to 1977. There's no top pastry fluff nonsense here. Instead, you get a fully encased chicken pot pie with classics like carrots and peas as well as mushrooms. The reviews here are what convinced us. On the restaurant's site, Michelle shares how it makes for a special birthday meal: "I thoroughly enjoyed every bite of my delicious CL chicken pot pie, so much so I went back to have my birthday dinner there 2 days later with my family!! It was packed with tender tasty chicken, flavorful vegetables, a great creamy sauce, and a yummy crust." But what really marks a great meal is when people promise to order it time and time again, visiting frequently and sharing, "World's best chicken pot pie bar none. My better half and I eat at Claim Jumpers at least once a week in Laughlin, NV."

When deciding which chains we were going to rank for this piece, we assumed Cracker Barrel would be on it, so we were dumbfounded to discover that chicken pot pie does not show up on the menu online. So, we dug deeper, first calling our local store. Over the course of that phone call, we learned that Cracker Barrel indeed sells chicken pot pies, but only on Sundays, at least at that location. To find out if this was the case for all stores, we reached out via the chat feature on the chain's website. After being connected with a real person, we were told that the chain does not sell chicken pot pies. A real head-scratcher, to be sure. We pushed further, discovering that locations can differ from one another. So, the moral of the story is that if you're looking for a chicken pot pie at Cracker Barrel, it might be best to call ahead to see if it's there. But the real question is: Is this pot pie worth trying to find? Unfortunately, we don't think so.

Like so many other unfortunate pot pies on our list, the Cracker Barrel pot pie suffers from the plague of the pastry top. However, it's just in a flat sheet, not even cut to match the bowl. It's just not trying very hard at all.

To determine which pot pies were the best and which were the worst, we scoured social media reviews, Yelp, and the chain's own websites to find reviews. We considered important factors like a delicious taste, balance of ingredients, and whether it lived up to the expectations it set forth. That is, based on the menu, a soup should be a soup and a pie should be encased, unless the presentation is always bonkers at the establishment (like Hash House a Go Go, for instance).