Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen — Restaurant in Vista

Shout out to Vivianne V. for putting me on the “fat snack” which I also didn’t consider fat until after I was done crushing it, it’s now my go to when I remember it. Take note yungings and get woke to some fire in ya belly #witness. Popeyes makes me talk like that apparently.

Gotta get 2 biscuits (1 honey for each), gotta get the green beans, gotta get that Cajun rice. Must get mardi gras sauce and Louisiana hot sauce (I think goes by Bayou Buffalo now). Get your chicken spicy or mild, makes no difference the sauce is where it’s at. All their sauces are good though. Spicy is not very spicy at all (certainly no Howlin Ray’s). Get that sweet tea.

Back to business. It’s tiny (like 4 tables and when it’s busy people are on you like a subway), it’s in an area that used to be super hood and now isn’t slightly less so. No bathroom. Parking can be a challenge because it’s on the corner and people fly around the side. Staff is hit or miss, though I suggest knowing what you want, it helps, they’ll prey on the weak. They get slammed a lot, basically every day, yet they never have enough staff or registers open (probably get more orders right if they did) It’s randomly busy. Usually I’ll go around 5 and no line or Sunday, not too busy in the afternoon. Sometimes at 6:30 or 7pm a line out the door. Something I will give KFC over this is they can crank out more chicken, but I’ll wait a few extra minutes to know it’s fresh.

Items to not get, pecan pie(just better to make yourself of buy from a place that bakes, they just don’t get the crust and filling right), holiday cheesecake, basically all of the desserts. I mean come on your already getting like 50mg of sugar from the sweet tea. Mashed potatoes because the gravy is forgettable, mac & cheese is meh and those are usually my 2 staples, just not here. I stay away from the po boys because the bread is wrong and I don’t trust lettuce in a fry joint, skimp on the mayo, rather just slather it in mardi gras sauce. Loaded chicken wrap, just no.

Things I don’t mind, but are not go to items for me. Tenders (what are you 10, you probably eat dinosaur shaped chicken at home?), popcorn shrimp, butterfly shrimp. Occasionally I’ll get Hawaiian punch instead of sweet tea.

Some side notes are that it’s not super cheap or expensive, I consider this fast food. I’ve seen fights, shootings and stabbings here and in the area. I used to come here and bring to eat at Stage Coach or grab a 40 at emerald spirits (bo jangles) and a 8 piece...

One of the worst restaurant experiences in my entire life at your location in Vista, CA unit #1325.

So where do I start.... My wife and I had been waiting for a long time to try your new chicken sandwiches. We decided that tonight was the night we were hoping they were back at your stores. We made the 20 minute drive to your location and were pleasantly surprised that they were available. We placed our order after already waiting in line for about 10-15 minutes. We were ok with that because we really wanted to try the sandwich. Once we placed our order we soon started to realize why things were taking so long....Talk about a disaster with your staff. No leadership present at all. The team was trying but with nobody to lead the team it was a losing battle. After 20 minutes and lots of customers who had ordered after us had gotten their food and already left I was getting irritated. My wife was hungry and getting upset as well. Finally I see someone who looks like they are a Manager. I ask the young man for help. His name was Leo, well he was no help at all....in fact he made the situation worse. All he had to do was grab my food apologize for the wait and everything would have been fine. Well Leo decided to play dumb and have absolutely zero customer service skills. He goes on to tell me my refund will be 3-5 business day. OMG!!!! Realy we just wanted over 20 minutes after paying for our food not counting the 15 minutes we waited in line. I mean management 101 is to get the customer their food. What about satisfying the guest! Oh no not Leo, he rather lose this guest. Well guess what I plan to tell everyone I know just how bad your service is. I will also mention Leo and his lack of management. This reason is why you will lose the chicken war with Chic-fil-a. They value their guests and know with out great customer service they are going to lose business. From now on Chic-fil-a will always receive my business definitely not your crew and Leo. I also plan on posting this review in as many places I can find to do so. So Leo at your Vista store is going to hurt your bottom line. If he were my employee I would definitely make sure to teach him some customer...

I visited 2 Popeyes locations (Oceanside off E. Vista Way and Oceanside off Vandergrift) and both locations lack in customer service, E. Vista Way is the worse by far!!!

The ppl tending the registers lack manners, are stingy with any sauce you request (yes, even honey) and don't bother telling you that what you're ordering might take up to 20min. Oh! And forget about asking for a cup with a lid for water while you wait said 20minutes for what is suppossed to be fast food, they look as you like your dumb for even asking and proceed to try and sell you said cup.

With that kind of treatment in mind and solely because I do like the chicken I tried the Vandergrift location. Well... Not much different. Odered a family meal to go and placed an order for a thanksgiving turkey (about 2 weeks in advance). Where do I start? Oh yeah, my screaming 2 yr old loosing her head after biting into a spicy chicken tender after I clearly and repeatedly requested non spicy everything. Secondly, plans changed for my family and I came back 3 or so days before thanksgiving to cancel our turkey order only to have the manager say they dont do that all while I pointed out the BIG BOLD statement on the receipt I was given when placing the order,

Receipt required for Refunds and Calculations.

And even then with my receipt in hand she said "Not for turkeys but im gonna do it this time because a lot of ppl want our Turkey" "but now you know for next time"

As if there was gonna be a next...