Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen — Restaurant in New Haven

I rated this as "okay" not on the food but on service. Sadly, I waited in line for almost a half hour just to order my food. Staff was disappearing like flies (maybe randomly taking breaks?) So one person would just disappear from the register, then the person prepping the meals disappeared, etc.

Complaints I witnessed about food... Lady who had already sat down and opened her meal walked up to counter and said she got the wrong side, they switched it immediately for her and instead of throwing out the side she turned (which she very well could've contaminated,) they PUT IT BACK TO SERVE TO SOMEONE ELSE!!! GROSS. Another woman complained about the wait, told them she needed free fries for the inconvenience and to load 'em up, and they did! She got 'em! So it seemed I viewed the "customer is always right" treatment. But then the guy in front of me asked for another sauce packet, said he'd ordered an extra but the guy forgot to charge him, the woman at the counter said it was $.50 extra and firmly pressed him on it and we'd been waiting foreverrrr. She should've just given it to him since all these other customers get special service (including free fries!!) but this guy has a mess up with a SAUCE PACKET and had to pay? I don't want to make this a race issue, but it seemed like the elder black customers were getting treated with royalty and the young white man got the short end of the stick here.

The kitchen was a hot mess, like the ship was going down. Tons of staff in the kitchen. Not enough chicken sandwiches prepped. Yelling. Drive-thru crew getting mad at interior crew for "stealing" sandwiches like it's a game. Listen everyone's gotta eat.

Okay, my turn to get my food and half my order was missing, the guy tries to fix it, I'm still missing items so I ended up walking him through packing my bag. It was all very sad.

But listen here's my positive, THE FOOD IS GOOD!!!! Popeyes just needs to focus on getting their staff ships...

I did not enjoy my food at this location at all. The chicken was cooked in too much oil, the mashed potatoes were bland, the gravy tastes like flour, the biscuits were hard, and the dirty rice was dry. I think the owner of this franchise should schedule a visit with the managers and their team to the original Popeye's restaurant in New Orleans to be trained on how to cook food New Orleans style because this food is not a good representation of New Orleans style at all. Or even have someone from New Orleans to come up here and show how it's done because this is not it. However, I can say they staff is very friendly and they make sure they food is out in a timely manner but when it comes to the quality of the food, it's a no for me. I don't know why Google listed the Mashed potatoes and Cajun gravy as a recommendation because there's nothing Cajun about that dish at all. Like I stated before, these people who are setting up these Popeye's franchises need to go to New Orleans to take lessons on how to make this food the right way. I don't recommend this Popeye's...

I used to eat here regularly, though their quality has worsen over the past year. This location is convenient and provide easy dine in / drive through. However, their fries and chicken are often over-cooked and leads to old and dry chicken/fries. I have recently ordered the 5 piece chicken + 2 side fries combo deal, splitting it into 2 meals. For the both times I ate the chicken (first time fresh and second time reheated in the oven), I got a bad stomachache the next day. I got the combo deal again, and got the same reactions. 4 seperate days of stomachache + diarrhea, all from eating their chicken the day before.

I know this is fast food, so I am not expecting a lot. However, if possible, please just drive to the location on Boston Post Road. Their fried chicken has not yet disappointed, and at least I don't get an reaction from eating...