Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen — Restaurant in Ontario

I went in for their limited time pickle lemonade, and unfortunately it wasn't in stock. So I decided to get their pickle chicken sandwich (extra pickle of course), boneless wings, and a lemonade.

I was hungry, of course. So I ate the sandwich there. Then brought the chicken and lemonade home for dinner tomorrow. The sandwich was amazing! The textures had so much character to them. And the flavour of the small slice of cheese didn't overpower the sandwich. As always, tomato and pickle compliment each other brilliantly, each taming the extreme parts of the other. It wasn't as spicy as I expected. Overall, a great sandwich!

As for the pickle glazed boneless chicken wings, I made them into a delicious tomato pickle soup today. For the broth, it's a regular can of budget tomato soup, water, chicken stock, garlic and dill weed from a pickle jar (but not the vinegar), then later, whatever was left in the bottom of the beet jar, and the delicious Popeyes pickle glaze. It's savoury, almost sweet, slightly sour, but not too acidic, with a very small kick from the chicken. The flavour is well balanced, not muted but definitely a lot toned back from what you'd expect. I really enjoyed it.

As for the lemonade, I added some pickle brine to it, since I had it handy. Similar to tomato, the change in PH significantly changed the flavour, and possibly even the colour. I added some dry dill and ginger honey, because why not. And I found it to be a delicious companion to my soup. It certainly quenched my thirst, and tickled my taste buds, but there was zero puckering.

Thank you...

This was the first time I had ever been to a Popeyes and it was not an experience I need ever repeat. While the restaurant itself was clean and bright (one would expect so of a new restaurant), and the staff were pleasant and patient, the food was awful. I ordered the $30 Holiday special of 10 pieces of chicken with 2 large sides and 5 biscuits. For the sides I ordered the fries and mac 'n cheese. Being an ostensibly southern-style restaurant I had high expectations for the chicken and the mac 'n cheese. What a disappointment when I got home. Excited about the biscuits, my husband grabbed one immediately and spit it out just as fast. He said it was too salty so we threw them out. The chicken was a mix of mild and spicy pieces and while the chicken was cooked properly, it lacked any real flavour. I splashed a packet of their Louisiana hot sauce on my spicy chicken which didn't improve the flavour at all. The fries were greasy and salty so we threw them out. But the biggest disappointment was the mac 'n cheese. It was a gelatinous mess of overcooked pasta swimming in a fake cheese sauce and the whole thing had the consistency of undercooked scrambled eggs. My family considers this a $30 lesson that we shall...

Food was great overall - I had tenders and mash!

I did have one note for the business owner though - when you order mobile pickup and you are waiting at the mobile pickup counter, you would THINK staff know you’re there to pickup a mobile order. Every single time I’ve gone to any Popeyes they see me waiting and ask what it is I’m looking to pick up.

For some reason your staff today decided to abruptly tell me that I should have told them that I’m there waiting for my mobile order and that that’s why I was waiting for it … even though I was the only one in the whole restaurant who had just made an order and I was standing directly at the mobile order pickup counter. Nobody appreciates condescending staff. Some customers are not talkative or may have just come off of a long flight as I did 😉 so communicate effectively - greet customers and see what they’re here for rather than staying behind the counter silently and then blaming the customer for your lack of customer...