Nov 15, 20222 min read

Popeyes Chicken (103rd & Lawrence) Review

In the chicken sandwich wars...there's blood everywhere in these streets

With things going so poorly with KFC recently (see their recent cheesy chicken Kristallnacht catastrophe as well as my recent KFC reviews,) I decided to try Popeyes again since I saw that they released a spicy blackened chicken sandwich. I placed an order for a multitude of chicken sandwiches. I wouldn't be surprised if the employees thought they were going to be used in a masochistic ritual later in the day. 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 doesn't stand out much in comparison to it's gigantic counterpart. The 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 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.

It seems like they just dumped half a cup of confectioners’ sugar onto some refried treats and expect people to eat it.

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 as bad as it can get.

The one thing I was probably too 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 a uninspired, lazily assembled 3/4 full container of your standard dish. Hopefully whoever was preparing it before & possibly spicing it up comes back.

"You're either going to love it, hate it or be indifferent."

Overall...it's a Popeyes Chicken. You're either going to love it, hate it or be indifferent. This particular one 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.