Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen — Restaurant in Columbus

I've been to this location probably 75 times or so by now. It has gone through some turbulence. There have been times when the restaurant has been literally dysfunctional to the point where it was impossible to get any food for for a myriad of reasons. However the owners have since fired most of the staff and started over... twice! So I'm going to replace my previous review when I had gone only a dozen or so times a couple of years ago with just how the store is right now in August of 2021, and the current state of Popeye's food.

The current drive through service in terms of speed/time spent in the drive through has become great this year, night and day from years passed. Popeye's I would say has the fastest drive thru right now between all of the places in that Plaza (Wendy's, Taco Bell, KFC, McDonald's, Tim Horton's, White Castle, Arby's, Gyro City, and the cajun purple and green building that took over the Long John's SIlver is the slowest of the lot don't even try). So that has been huge for me because not being able to make it through the drive thru quickly had been the only issue I'd had with this store. The staff is mostly efficient now, fairly pleasant for a Popeye's, and they get my order right about 85% of the time. I'll take it all day, I'm here for it, I'm giving this Popeye's a 5/5 for service.

All things considered I'm still going to maintain my prior position that Popeye's food isn't very good, and that overall it's the worst of the whole fast fried chicken group. The chicken strips are uniform and lacking texture, the sides mostly taste like cheap salt, it's all very greasy and cheap.

But there are a few items where Popeye's just runs away with the gold.

Popeye's gravy on their mash potatoes is unlike anything in this class. It's spicy and has pieces of what might be meat in it. Their apple pies are the best fried apple pies in all of fast food, bigger and better than all the rest, with the most legitimate apple chunks and bold cinnamon sugar.

And the spicy chicken sandwich, my word! Popeye's has by far the best spicy chicken sandwich among all fast food and big chicken joints, it's not even close! It's a chicken breast they bread and fry right there in the store, they mix the spicy mayo right there in the store, it's on a toasted brioche bun with barrel cured pickles that Popeye's specifically and secretly developed just for the sandwich. That's true, I looked it up! This sandwich is THE BOMB! I order it with extra spicy mayo, extra barrel cured pickles, and every time I think about my inevitable heart attack. Then I crave this sandwich. There have been weeks I've had this sandwich four times. I'm out of control! $4 is less expensive than Wendy's Spicy, than all of McDonald's spicies, Arby's buffalo chicken slider is cheaper but also smaller and just Frank's Red Hot. None of them have anything on Popeye's, it is not even close!

When it comes to spicy chicken sandwiches at fast food places or fried chicken joints, Popeye's is the King of the Mountain. Same situation with their fried apple pie. Their gravy is spicy and stands out among the competition. It's neat that they offer red beans & rice as a side. Everything else isn't good.

5/5 would recommend this...

I did not have a good experience here may I add when I place my order there was not a sole in site no one behind me no one in front of me after everything that I said I was asked is that it is that it and because of that I forgot that I was wanting to get the banana cake that I wanted to try I spent over $50 when I made it to the window I paid for my order I got my drinks another woman came to the window and handed me my bag as she's handing me the bag I asked for honey black and ranch she repeatedly said it's in the bag it's in the bag just dismissing me so I asked is everything's in the bag she just walked away from the window so I pulled up past the window to check my order I was missing my five piece tender my nuggets my large fry and four of my biscuits so then I pulled back around and told the young lady at the window I was missing my tenders my nuggets fries etc and the attitude started flying I find it funny how you want my business you took my money but I cannot get what I ordered and now being talked to and treated like I did something wrong because I didn't just drive off and accept the fact that I was not going to get the rest of my order because I'm telling you I didn't get everything now you're upset with me I gave her my receipt which she did not give back she came back to the window with my large fry in my nuggets and I said honey I'm still missing my tenders and my biscuits she said what you didn't get your tinders either I'm still missing my biscuits I say you need to roll back them cameras and we need more communication skills making your customers feel like they did something wrong because you didn't give them everything they ordered it's not okay did not get a sorry nothing I felt like I was bothering these people by...

This is one of the worst experiences I've had in a long time. My boyfriend and I ordered a Surf and Turf combo and a $10 chicken strip box. It took a few minutes at the drive thru speaker for someone to take our order. When we got to the window we had to order again because the girl didn't ring in out order. The whole time I was trying to give her my order she was playing with her headset and gossiping with the other employees, talking about someone else that worked there, so it took about 5 minutes for her to ring in our order. When we finally got out food about 10 minutes later, she only gave us one meal, no sides. I told her about it, and we had to wait another 5 minutes for the rest of it. She gave us the wrong sides so we had to wait yet again! When we got home we discovered we were still missing a side and the food was really cold and rubbery. I would have just gotten my money back at the restaurant but it was late and didn't want to go find somewhere else to eat. We didn't call them when we got home because I don't want a replacement, I don't want anything from them at this point, I'll never go back there again. As a former restaurant manager I underatand the struggles of the night shift, but this was horrible. They need a manager with a backbone and better training...