Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen — Restaurant in Hyde Park Township

2023: With things going so poorly with KFC recently I decided to try Popeyes again since I saw that they released a spicy blackened chicken sandwich. They got my order out relatively quick. Price wise it's Popeye's so you're not breaking the bank here.

The spicy blackened chicken sandwich looks okay. The blackened chicken sits upon a toasted buttered bun. Popeyes seems to be following the new trend of having the pickles & other condiments such as the generous amounts of mayo on the bottom bun versus the top. It looks similar to a Chick-fil-A sandwich where it's pretty barebone aside from the pickles. As far as taste, the chicken has a very mild spicy burn to it that you don't really feel until it hits your chest. It is also oddly salty which throws everything off. The chicken itself is thinner due to not having much breading as well. It pales in comparison to Popeye's standard chicken sandwich whose spices compliment the buttery bun much better than the blackened seasoning.

The chocolate beignets are the most disappointing of the bunch. It seems like they just dumped half a cup of confectioners’ sugar onto some refried treats and expect people to eat it. Some of the beignets are hard as a brick while others are as flaky as a croissant. Even the chocolate inside is not consistent as some pieces takes like complete garbage (probably due to oil getting inside if they fried them) while others are as chocolatey as you'd expect. There was maybe one out of the whole bunch that was flawlessly executed. When they do it right, it's really good, but when they get it wrong it's terrible.

The one thing I was majorly excited for was the red beans and rice. I had gotten some from this Popeyes before and they were fantastic. And even inspired me to cook my own red beans and rice. What I received was an uninspired, lazily assembled 3/4 full container of your standard dish. Hopefully whoever was preparing it before & possibly spicing it up comes back.

Overall this particular Popeyes has been fairly middle of the road the couple of times I've been here. The one thing that stood out was the red beans & rice, but even that was meh this time around.

3 out of 5 stars

Update 01-11-2025:

I was in the area and ordered some pickup. Had I realized this was the Popeyes that I used to order delivery from then I might've gave it a second thought. Got there around 8:10pm and they had closed the dine-in area, forcing walk-in customers to go through the drive-thru which is always awkward when you're standing in line with cars. I will never understand restaurants closing the entire interior early, but still taking orders. Just rope off the dine-in area since you know you're gonna still be seeing foot traffic (especially since they close at 10PM!)

On top of that, this place is armored like it's ready for war. There's a metal cage on every window and door which is kind of ridiculous, but then you realize why after you experience the service.Even the drive-thru window was some sort of mad Max contraption made of rotating steel and bulletproof glass where you can barely see the attendee. This takes away the entire human element, making everything rather cold & impersonal. It's a rather ridiculous juxtaposition compared to the rest of the businesses in the area that don't go anywhere near these lengths. It felt like I waited 10-12 minutes with 1 car ahead then was kind of annoyed when they handed them a small bag. That long for such a small order?

I walk up, tell them my order number and they hand it to me. It was seemingly correct aside from the large red beans & rice being 3 small containers with one container being 90% rice. I've never seen a Popeyes run out of containers. I'm amazed how a lot of the businesses in this area are so poorly run and it's unfortunate that a lot of them have black managers. When you don't treat your customers like criminals and give proper service as well as respect then the community shows love.

The food itself was ok, but overall standard for Popeyes. The golden BBQ chicken sandwich is a winner

2...

My Service today was AWFUL! I was in the drive through today @ 11:20am. I'm at the menu/intercom system to place my order, when no one responded after 5min I drove up to the window. The young lady told me to go back around to place my order. I explained to her that I was in line already. I thought that the intercom didn't work she said it does work she was busy with another customer and I have to go back around to place my order. I asked her why didn't she at least acknowledge the line and say I'll be with you shortly or something. She said again I was with another customer you have to go back around and get in line. I said again how am I suppose to know that when it was only one car in front of me and she didn't respond. I asked for a manager. Another young lady came to the window telling me I need to go around and get back in line. I asked the lady her name she statedto me kayla. I explained the situation to her as I did In the beginning of this statement. So then Kayla says what's your order then walks away as I was talking. Then this man comes over and angrily say go around ma'am your holding up my line. I asked him his name and he stated that he was the manager so I said sir what's your name and he started Mr. Bates the store manager. I told Mr Bates that Kayla just asked my order his other manager. He started that he's the manager. I still have to go around. I told him I was in line before all these other customers I still didn't place my order because of the poor customer service here. So yeah I'll be calling corporate today. I love popeyes but this below low customer service left a bad taste...

Just left from my neighborhood Popeyes on 103rd and it’s such a shame the service they give. First, they forget part of my order which was two chicken sandwiches. Then when going to get it, the girl making the order drops on. Now, in this case the sandwich did not come out of the bag nor did the bag open to expose anything. My problem is, she saw that I saw what happened and tried to be slick with acting like she was replacing it for a new one. I’ve worked fast food many moons ago and I’m sure nothing has changed, sanitation wise. So when the food falls ok the ground closed or not, you throw it away. I will be reaching out to corporate and letting them know this. Clearly, training needs to be done again because some workers don’t seem to know the rules of fast food. Back to the “nicer” areas I go to get...