Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen — Restaurant in Crystal Lake

On the evening of April 27, 2025, I made my way to the Popeyes location in Crystal Lake, Illinois, around 10 PM, eager to indulge in a delicious meal. When I arrived at the drive-thru, the sign indicated that the restaurant was closed, but after a brief moment, someone responded to my order. To my dismay, the person answering seemed quite dismissive and unfriendly.

I placed my order for the 16-piece chicken meal, accompanied by two additional sides—one being the classic mashed potatoes and the other, a helping of coleslaw. After a short wait, which felt longer than necessary, I finally received my food.

The drive home took just about four minutes, and I was looking forward to enjoying my meal. However, upon opening the food, I was met with a disappointing sight: the chicken appeared as if it had been sitting out since early morning, with a dull color and an unappetizing texture. Hesitant but hopeful, we decided to taste it, only to find that it was shockingly dry and nearly impossible to chew. The biscuits were even worse—hard and crumbly, lacking any of the warmth and buttery goodness I had come to expect.

Having spent $68 on this meal, it was incredibly frustrating to find everything inedible, forcing me to discard it all. In the end, I had no choice but to seek out a meal at McDonald's instead. This experience was far below the standards I expect from Popeyes, and I am left feeling disappointed and...

My husband & I love Popeye's mild/ classic chicken pieces. Our 3 almost grown kids go for Popeye's spicy chicken. They give the mashed potatoes and gravy 👍👍👍 too. We are all fans of Popeye's cole slaw. It's super yummy mixed in with the "taters"!

If you ❤️ fried chicken, but you're not in the mood for the small mess and greasy fingers that fried, bone-in chicken will get you, Popeye's chicken sandwich is your perfect option. Choice of mild or spicy.

Friendly staff. We almost always order through the drive-up. Unfortunately, they often do have trouble getting our order correct. Funny though, it's not only Popeye's. We are a family of 5, and rarely if ever do we even order drinks to complicate things. Yet roughly 3 times out of 5, restaurants will mess up or leave something out of our drive-up order. Popeye's is no better than the others.

With that said, Popeye's makes great food, and we are very happy they opened up in our small...

I really enjoy Popeyes especially when you only have KFC for over 30 miles and I don't drive. Anyways, I was excited to see a Popeyes while coming home from a day trip! I'm not going to bag on the ordering experience. I have to complain hard on the chicken tenders: Adding 2 extra tenders does NOT make up for the very lightly done fry job. The batter was almost white! First impression was, dang it looks undercooked! All of my enthusiasm gone, I tucked in... CRUNCH and then perfectly cooked juicy chicken! It was still hard to look at, yet went so well with their amazing buffalo sauce. And I said wasn't going to mention the staff, well I have to... So glad you gave me 2 buffalo sauces instead of 1 and a ranch sauce! I love Popeyes and it was probably just new oil, hence the 4 stars. BTW, the mac & cheese here was fire! Don't think I need to mention their biscuits... So buttery you DON'T need to put any on! Thanks for serving us!...