Is Popeye's THAT Good ???

I heard this morning that the one Popeye's here in Topeka has closed. Last time I was there, it was a filthy unorganized craphole, so I'm not surprised.

We've started going to Church's instead for spicy chicken - it's closer and you don't have to wait for half an hour for you order in a dining room filled with trash bags.

I find that Popeyes have a LOT of variation from place to place. When it's clean, the chicken is good, and the rotating specials tend to be better. But, even with the half dozen or so Popeye's in my area (most or all owned by the same guy), there's one dingy one where it appears that "mop" is a forbidden word, several bright and clean ones, and a couple where they seem clean up once a day whether it needs it or not.

I stick to the well-cleaned ones, and wonder why the owner has such a variety of standards.

Bart

bartl


I find that Popeyes have a LOT of variation from place to place. When it's clean, the chicken is good, and the rotating specials tend to be better. But, even with the half dozen or so Popeye's in my area (most or all owned by the same guy), there's one dingy one where it appears that "mop" is a forbidden word, several bright and clean ones, and a couple where they seem clean up once a day whether it needs it or not.

I stick to the well-cleaned ones, and wonder why the owner has such a variety of standards.

Bart

Probably,like so many,the guy is a totally absentee owner who lives in Vegas or Miami or out of the country and could not care about anything but the daily receipts being pumped into an off shore account-------------day to day left to individual managers or "mis-managers" Popeyes near me in Neptune is excellent always clean,chix good and hot and fresh and biscuits really good-----don't bother with sides just go for the goodies!
 
Russ
 

I have 2 Popeye's near me that are like night and day. One is smoothly run, nice staff, good food and always clean. The other has the surliest staff you could ever meet and is a dump. The dump one closed a year ago. How can a company run like that?

Kland
  What you describe is probably a franchise situation (or two). In one the franchise owner is doing as he/she should...Running a business to make a profit and satisfy the customer with a quality product. At the other the 'owner' may indeed be elsewhere...an absentee owner is inviting problems in his/her business. It may be that the two stands have the same owner with that person in attendance at the 'good' store while allowing the second store to languish without leadership.

I have mentioned several times on RF that I like visiting Culvers stands...the food is above average for FF and our local stand has a franchise owner who really cares about his business and it's role in the community. On the other hand there is a Culvers in Louisville that I would not enter for any reason. It is run by an absentee owner who hires folks who just don't care about the business.  That's too bad, because I think the bads hurt the image of the 'chain' more than the 'goods' help it.

Had Popeyes, KFC, and Churches just to name a few....Nope.  Chicken is not worth robbing for regardless!  Interesting and desperate story. 

Honestly, I still like KFC better..... I will get flamed here in NC for those of you in the area.  There is a Bojangles Chicken on every other corner here....http://www.bojangles.com/

The problem is that there was only the one Popeye's here - the other ones are an hour's drive away in KC.  We were excited when the Topeka location opened, since we used ot eat at Popeye's when we lived in Houston. I had never tried Church's until my wife wanted chicked recently, and was pleasantly surprised by their spicy chicken.

there are very few popeye's here in washington state, the closest one to me is in renton (5 miles away) the other one is in south tacoma (35 miles away)......
 
 however, both are spotless and serve excellent food. i imagine that will change if more stores open up, but for now it's my favorite fast-food chicken. i'm also a big fan of the shrimp po' boy :)
 
 there is a church's chicken in federal way (25 miles away) that is also pretty good, i think popeyes is still better but both kick kfc to the curb any day............ kfc around here has become extremely salty and flavorless recently.... and where do they get those tiny chickens? i swear they're using cornish game hens now...:(

Let's just say that I wished I had a Popeye's that was geographically convenient.

Love it.

I have one 3 miles away. Maybe I should give them a try.

Capt Jack-    We had a Popeyes at the Main St Exit on the 15 in Hesperia. It was built into a large Texaco (at the time) Gas Station and Convenience store. They had a LOT of coupons out in all the throwaways (Penneysaver) In fact, I was searching for Popeyes coupons in a Penneysaver one day when I tripped across a Personal Ad that is now taped to my computer. It was Janet's ad that lead to us meeting....and the rest is history !

marzsit


kfc around here has become extremely salty and flavorless recently....

 
We have a Popeye's that is very conveniently located for us, and my wife brought home some the other month.  It tasted like they had a salt-bomb explode in the kitchen.  I am not one to endlessly moan about salty restaurant food, like some around here.  But this was ridiculous.  Even the BISCUITS were salty.
 

 

I drive past the Popeyes and go to Lee's Famous Recipe.  They split the difference between Popeyes Mild and Hot just right for me.  And I love their potato wedges, not overly cooked like KFCs, obviously cut fresh and put in the chicken batter.

In the late 70's Popeye's was great.  Large pieces of chicken with seasoning both beneath the skin and outside.  The sides were also great, but as I remember, limited to dirty rice, fries and bisquits.  The chicken was always fresh, hot & crispy.  As the chain grew the product suffered.  Now, as often as not, I get chicken that has been sitting under a heat lamp for hours, small pieces, and very little spice. The dirty rice is gummy, and almost tasteless.  I guess as the chain expanded the taste may have "evolved" to meet the tastes of people outside of the south, but I don't know.  I've even asked and waited for fresh out of the fryer chicken and have not been wowed.

As a Louisiana born and bred Cajun and having eaten great Popeye's chicken in NO and around our state, it seems that Popeye's has given up quality for quantity.

cy