Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen — Restaurant in Burlington

We we're here two days back-to-back. Sadly, the experience those two days were like night and day. Had we just gone the first day, the review would have been 5 stars. Had we gone only the second day, we would have given it ZERO stars. I averaged it and rounded down because the second day was so awful. The first day we went, it was August 13 of this year. We arrived about thirty minutes before the dining area closed (the drive through is open an hour longer). They didn't have the mild chicken in stock but the shift manager told us she could get us a batch in about 16 minutes. We we're fine with it, waited and happily ate. They even greeted us as we left because they had locked the doors to the dining area by the time we were finished. This manager was quite tall, probably six feet tall but a great demeanor. I'm describing her because I don't want her blamed for what happened to use the day after. SO... The day after, August 14th. We arrived around 8:15 PM. Ordered essentially the same thing we ordered the day before. My receipt is stamped 8:20 PM. While we waited three more parties ordered after us. The third and fourth party to arrive received their orders first. Odd, but we continued to wait. The second party to arrive went up to ask about their order. The staff apologized and offered them free sides as compensation. By 8:50, we had had enough. My wife wanted to leave. I went up and just asked for a refund. I told them "I'll pay for the sodas, but refund us the money for the chicken and we'll be out of here." They offered us free sides instead but I told them "My wife is already fuming, and this receipt is stamped 8:20! It's been already thirty minutes and the two parties who arrived after us are pretty much done eating." I stood and waited for someone to override the register. The manager emerges from the kitchen. I asked her if she was the manager which she acknowledged. I asked her "...how long does it take to cook a batch of chicken? 16 minutes?" She responds "12 minutes". Now I was even more mad. They could have cooked nearly two and a half batches of chicken while we waited. I don't know where the screwup happened, but clearly someone or some thing dropped the ball here. The cashier then asked if we still wanted our chicken. I told her if it can be done in the next few moments, yes. But if it was going to be longer I just wanted the refund so we could go somewhere else to eat. I told them "Please, let's just get it done..." We eventually got our food. They even gave us a refund. All of us were starving, told the kids to "...just eat, so we can get outta here." I don't want to get anyone fired... But perhaps you can share this experience with the staff and make it a teaching moment. I also don't want to make it an issue of bigotry (which it probably isn't). However, the facts cannot be denied or glossed over. The first two parties to arrive we're of Asian descent. The third and fourth parties to arrive (much later) were of Caucasian descent. Sure, the likely excuse is they ordered different things. Plausible explanation. It doesn't change the facts though, and anyone looking in from the outside would be left to wonder. Again, I don't want to blame the entire staff because we were treated so well "just" one day before. Unfortunately, it's been two months since that incident, but the simmering anger/frustration from that day...

I ordered family ghost pepper order on the mobile app so that it would be ready by the time I got there a half hour later. When I arrived I spent 15 minutes in a line and when I finally got up to the window and told her I was there for my mobile order she said pull ahead and nothing else. When I finally got to the window another 15 minutes later she informed me that they weren't making ghost pepper wings and that I would have to get a refund from the app because they don't offer refunds. The app by the way doesn't offer refunds either. After some discussion I told her I would take five spicy chicken breast in place of the Wings. That was when I discovered that they hadn't prepared the drinks or the sides yet despite the fact that it was now an hour after I placed the order. It took them another 25 minutes to get the order together with the new chicken breast making the total time to prepare this meal from 5:30 p.m. until 6:47 p.m. most of that time I spent in the Drive-Thru line unable to leave due to a high curb. The girl in the window was very sweet and clearly wanted to help but also wanted things to move along because as I stated before they were extremely backed up. She was more than willing to do the chicken breast swap but they had to cook the chicken. She asked me just to wait there in line until it was done. I can only hope that this is an unusual occurrence for this location. It is however the third time that I've ordered with Popeye's mobile app and had a bad experience I won't be using their app again it doesn't work. I also had two experiences with their app where it will take your order place your order supposedly and then you arrived in the place is closed. In which case you're kind of out of luck if you're traveling through and it's annoying and takes up hours of your time trying to get your order or your money back. Terrible app. And most of the franchise holders are rude and don't care. The only good thing about this experience as if you manage to get the food and it's usually good and the staff is...

Was super excited to see a Popeyes because we had not had it in quite a long time. Stopped by and it was closed until next day for some reason. No big deal.

Came back following day after placing my order online for a 6:30pm pickup.

Arrived promptly at 6:30pm to be told someone “just ordered” a huge nugget order and it would be 8 min for fresh nuggets. Okay. No big deal. Even though my order was placed beforehand.

At the 20+ minute mark of waiting, I had to ask for my food.

The cashier looked like they’d rather be somewhere else and I can’t blame them. This location is either very poorly staffed, poorly trained, or both. Either way, the cashier was handling front orders and online orders and was not able to manage the time efficiently.

By the time I received my food, I had been waiting more than 25 minutes for an order placed online a half an hour beforehand.

In addition, the fries were barely room temp and soggy. The beignets were also soggy. The only thing that was warmer than room temp were the nuggets that were only suppose to take 8 minutes.

We love Popeyes but this location needs to get its...