Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen — Restaurant in Cleveland

Today is April 19, 2024, and this is an amendment of my last visit, in November 2020. Yes, it has been that long since I've been to this Popeyes on Carnegie, in Cleveland, Ohio. I am so happy to see that this Popeyes has fixed the bad food and customer service issues, which is pretty much their whole business. My visit today was surprisingly pleasant! As I waited at the drive thru window for my online order, I observed that most of the workers were males, and they were about their business. I may have seen one young lady. I saw 2 gentlemen bringing their prepared shrimp and chicken to add to the prepared food servers, and it looked so good. Upon getting me order...I now know that not only did it look good, but tasted like the cocaine chicken (my term of endearment for excellent fried, takeout chicken) I had come to expect from Popeyes, but could only get if I went 5-7 miles out of the area to the South Euclid Popeyes. I don't know if the place is under new management or what... but whatever has been done here, it's a recipe for success! As you can tell from my review below, from November 2020, this Popeyes has done an about face, and I'm so happy to be able to patronize this neighborhood establishment once again. Thank you, Carnegie Popeyes, for great customer service and great food once again! See you soon!

Could someone please tell me what happened to this restaurant from spring/summer 2020, until now...November 12, 2020? Did the cook from the spring/summer leave? I recall the chicken was so good and fresh, that my family and I joked that they were cooking with cocaine. Our last 2 visits, in the last 2 months have fallen so short of our earlier experiences, that we have decided from here on out, we'll take the ride to Mister Chicken. The chicken has been dry, greasy and seems to be old of late. Nothing like it was in the earlier part of the year. I ordered a small green beans, and seriously received just a tablespoon of the side dish. SERIOUSLY! To top it off, the people at the window are rude and totally devoid of any customer service characteristics. The young man with the natty hair that was at the window on the evening of November 12th, couldn't even say, 'you're welcome, as I made a point to say, 'thank you', after the way he practically threw my order at me. Service is sloppy overall. A month ago, in two chicken sandwich meals, the fries were left out. Since I live close, I called and was told to come back and the 45 minute line I had previously waited in... wouldn't be that long. Well, it was and as I tried to call from the car to see if I couldn't just go to the window to get the fries, the phone was put on voicemail. Then, when I did finally get to the speaker, and told them I had called and was told to come get my fries (I had the receipt), the same natty haired young man completely misunderstood, and I had to explain twice before he understood that I had my sandwiches, not my fries and was told to come back and get them. Of course, I got 2 very, very small fries. The 8 piece meal I also bought that night was as dry and old, as the chicken I purchased tonight, November 12th. I figured it was just an anomaly a month ago, so I gave them one more shot. It was just as bad as a month ago. And people wonder why we don't patronize businesses in the black community. It's because our patronage is not appreciated. You're treated as if they're doing you a favor, by letting you spend your money with them. I would not recommend spending your money at this establishment. Money is too hard to earn nowadays, to spend it on such baaaadddddd food and baaaadddddd service. Mister Chicken may be a little farther away, but it's worth the gas and ride to get a edible product, and be treated with respect. So, Mister Chicken... here I come. I know you won't...

I didn't get mad while I was there and Im not mad currently. As a professional I see some things that, if the employees and managers are desiring to be better at their job, should be taken into consideration.

The counters and floors were covered in trash and bags. Popeyes is a chain not a franchise, so Im not surprised that discipline is loose. But as a human being Im not sure how you can see that and not feel the need to fix it. The girl at the front counter was not understandable. I stood there for about 15 mins waiting for my order and every person that ordered had a difficult time understanding her. This wasnt helped by the way she quietly mumbled everything. Proper dictation and pronunciation is really important for customer service. Employees seemed to be in no hurry, even though there was a crowd of customers waiting. The employees said that they were waiting on Mild chicken and it wasnt available, but spicy was. There was a heap of spicy chicken on the waiting rack. I was there for a grand total of 45mins and never did I see mild chicken get put back out. Common sense would say that if you are running low on a product, start preparing more. I don't know specifics, Im not an expert on the Popeyes method for preparing chicken, so I won't criticize past that. Employees were in no hurry (Part 2). This has to do with the actual speed that the workers moved. I asked for BBQ sauce after standing at the counter for a few mins. The girl started walking back to the counter, was interrupted by another employee that was commenting on something that had gotten on her apron. They exchanged dialogue for about 20 seconds, then the girl on the BBQ sauce mission looks at the fridge, looks back at me and asks "What did you want?" I responded kindly, and she then walks back to the fridge in the back where she finds the BBQ sauce. She is walking back to the counter now, then she stops and starts throwing away some papers that are on one of the counters. Which is hilarious to me, because it was the first example of maintenance I had seen all night. But the real kicker is that as she is doing that, another employee comes up from behind and starts rubbing her shoulders. I watch this for about 10seconds, and Im about to lose it. Im a patient person, I don't get angry at people, especially when its over fast food, but this was just disrespectful to keep me waiting like that. If you're in the fast food industry, move fast.

Bottom line is this, I work in a family business. I don't have employees, but I deal with employee relations. If I was a business owner, and I walked in and saw these things going on in my restaurant I'd fire every last one of them. Its an incredibly disrespectful way to treat customers, and the way they treated the workspace shows disrespect to the company owner.

The odd thing is that I thought the food was fairly decent. I don't like fast food, but the food didn't taste bad and it didn't...

The line was backed up onto the street but there were no more than 15 cars ahead of me when I arrived with a friend at 4:48PM. Our order was not taken until around 6:00 or so. We ordered 2 spicy chicken sandwiches, 3 regular chicken sandwiches, and 2 medium fries. The total was supposedly around $23 and some change. I got to the window, paid with my credit card and the guy at the window reads back the order to us. He asks to hold onto the receipt so he can confirm that we get the correct order. After another 2 minutes or so he comes back to the window to tell us they can’t do the spicy sandwiches and ask us if we want mild sandwiches instead of spicy sandwiches. When we asked why they can’t do it, he reluctantly said they might be able to make them but it would take a while. Considering we already waited over an hour at this point, we opted to wait. Another few minutes go by and we get our food. But there were 3 spicy sandwiches and 2 regular sandwiches. No fries. We brought this to the guys attention and he just stared at us with a dumbfounded look on his face. We asked for our fries and our receipt. Another minute later we got only one order fries and no receipt. At this point we told the guy that we did not get all of our order but had given up hope of them getting it right, and left. I am beyond disappointed with my experience and have never had any experience at any restaurant (or business) anything like this. And the icing on the cake: no napkins were in the bag, we were never offered any sauces, and the food was not hot like I would expect it to be after waiting for them to make it. I will never return to...