Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen — Restaurant in Eureka

EDIT: After several months, I gave this location another try, for lunch, and for the first time, they got my order right, and it was good. Bumping my rating up to 3.

------- Original Review (2 out of 5) ------- As a Eureka resident and as a fan of Popeyes restaurants, I really, really want to see this restaurant succeed. That is why I have waited all this time to finally add my review. I have been to this particular Popeyes at least 5 times. I usually am ordering for a group of people (3-5 people). I watched this location being built with excited anticipation. I first ordered from this location in their opening week. The first time was chaos but I assumed things would improve. Now, over a year later, I can say with some confidence that things have not improved much, if at all. This Popeyes has the highest chance of messing up an order of any restaurant I have ever ordered from. It is very likely they are out of some of their main offerings, especially if you make your order after 6PM.

My most recent experience was a few days ago, and what I observed was disappointing, if not shocking. First off I made my order, which cost about $80, through the Popeyes mobile app at around 6:45PM. I was told in the app my order would be prepared "soon". I arrived at the restaurant before 7PM. I decided to go into the restaurant so I could more easily catch what would be missed or messed up (because it always happens at this location). The restaurant was a mess. A huge part of the floor was covered in liquid and there was no one cleaning that up. Instead the flooded area, which entirely surrounded the fountain drink machine and counter with straws, napkins, etc., was marked off. I was glad I didn't have a drink in my order. Then I noticed something else peculiar: There were 3 young women in Popeyes uniform sitting next to each other in the seating area, eating some Popeyes food, but also talking to each other, and looking at their phones. I got to the line at the counter and gave the young woman there info about my order. She did very little with that and shortly after hitting a few buttons on the computer/console and yelling out a couple things, walked out and toward her female coworkers sitting at the tables. So at that point there were 4 young women in Popeyes uniform sitting, chilling, chatting, in the seating area, while there was a huge mess on the floor and there were some customers waiting for their food inside and a line of cars waiting outside. It appeared in that moment that the only people actually working were two young men and a middle-aged woman I assume was the manager. The manager yelled out at the one guy doing ALL the cooking. That one young man cooking looked overworked as hell with food dust all over him. The other young man looked to be scrambling to get things and work some machines. Meanwhile, all the young women were sitting, chatting, eating, most with their phones out in the seating area. The scrambling guy yells out that he cannot find any rice. At this point I am distracted by an older lady that gets up from the seating area because she had been waiting a very long time for the food she ordered. They eventually, finally, start working on my order and when they do they call me up to tell me they do not have any coleslaw, nor red beans and rice, and the tenders would need time to cook. At that point it was 8:30PM! I asked if I could cancel my order completely and I was told they couldn't cancel it but that I might be able to cancel through the app. The app did not provide a direct way to cancel the whole order, only a way to report missing items. I left the restaurant empty-handed, after wasting over an hour waiting, not knowing if was going to get my $80 back. I had to reach out to customer support and wait for them to get back to me (I was told this could take 24-48 hours) to finally get...

I would love to be able to give a proper review of the food, however, just came to the drive through - excuse me BOTH drive through, and sat at the window just to see the workers look me dead in the eye and ignore me. It was about 5:45pm on Thursday July 10th. I first went to the number 1 drive through - there was no one in line for either, and a woman in a mini-van at the window. I sat for about 8-10 minutes. Saying “hello” multiple times. Being patient. I drove around and saw the woman in the mini-van being helped. I understand technology not always working and while there were zero signs saying the drive through was down I decided to go drive back around and wait at the second drive through. Same thing. No one connected through, no one said to please wait, no one acknowledged I was there. I pull up to see the woman in the minivan leave so I decided to just go ahead and drive up to the window to see what was going on. Could have been that the drive through was down even though menu was turned on… also understandable. When I got to the window the young girl with fake eyelashes and LONG black hair looked me dead in the eye, rolled her eyes and IGNORED ME. I still waited. I saw her take care of two customers at the counter and then turn around and wait for the chicken to come over the line and box up for her customers. My kids were hungry, I was not dressed to come inside, I was patient, beyond patient, tried multiple attempts just to have an eye roll and complete disrespect. The girl with the long hair saw me. Two women in the back cooking chicken saw me. ZERO SIGNS. ZERO COMMUNICATION. AND NOT BUSY AT ALL. Sorry Popeyes but y’all screwed up hiring these awful employees. I won’t be back...

Could not be worse, honestly. I ordered a large drink and was given two mediums because they were out of large cups (this seems to happen often there, that they are out of supplies), which was weird. I was asked to pull up and wait, ok, no problem. The guy waiting in front of me got out of his truck and went in looking kind of annoyed, not a good sign. While waiting I heard the lady in the truck behind me asking the cashier at the window why there were two cars in front of her just sitting there (blocking her in). After 15 minutes the man that was in front of me finally comes out with his (small) order and says "good luck getting anything it's chaos in there." So I decide I'm gonna go in and just get my money back. A girl employee walks right by me and goes into the bathroom. The other girl was just wandering around like she was just hanging out and didn't know what to do. I had ordered some mashed potatos and boneless wings (pretty simple), which I saw were in the bin with NO ONE attempting to get the order together at all (mind you there was me and just one other person waiting, not busy). Anyway I got the aimless girls attention and asked for a refund. She didn't know how. She went to ask the guy cooking and he called for the manager. She yells from the back asking if I had a receipt (I did). And then she yells again to just give cash out of the register. He did and I left. The girls working seemed to not care AT ALL. The guy seemed to be doing everything and at least seemed to know how to do things. I mean that location has been going downhill, but this pretty...