American fast food chain Popeye’s launched in Bangalore to feature their iconic chicken sandwiches. Can their Louisiana flavours wow an Indian palette?

Order

Getting popeyes is painful. Currently, only delivering through their own proprietary app, I had to Swiggy Genie the food. Much to my dismay, they do not let genie/dunzo pickup orders and I had to order a takeaway through their app. I ended up ordering a Spicy Chicken Sandwich meal, a Chicken Sandwich meal and Cajun rice with chicken popcorn.

Packaging

Despite making me do a simple takeaway, popeyes not only forgot a second fries, but also replaced my chicken popcorn with a slab of chicken. Disappointing.

Their packaging was interesting. Vibrant orange boxes and their food didn’t leak. It managed to keep the food surprisingly warm as well!

Classic Chicken Sandwich

Deconstructing their sandwich revealed some pretty glaring flaws. The first being price. It’s 338 for a large coke, sandwich and large fries, which is gourmet pricing. The product in itself is bland. The chicken is amazing, super crispy on the outside with a soft, succulent chicken core. The spice mix on the chicken is non-existent. Couple this with a stingy dose of pickles and no sauce. The nice buttery biscuit buns can’t rescue the bland product. Not a fan.

Spicy Chicken Sandwich

For the same cost of the classic, the spicy chicken sandwich is better. The spice quotient is raised, and some flavour comes through. I liked this, but I do think it could be spicier. They forgot the coke with this meal.

Cajun Fries

Cajun Fries were a treat. Although they arrived cold, the flavour profile was amazing. The nice salty and spicy Cajun seasoning complemented the thin and crisp fries (crisp if hot) perfectly. A step up from masala fries.

Spicy Chicken Rice Bowl

I was disappointed when I got a large, unappetizing looking chicken slab over the chicken popcorn I ordered. This chicken was undercooked, and had very little meat, as it was a piece with lots of bone. The flavour of the chicken was good with that signature Cajun seasoning.

The standout was the rice. It was like a layered biryani with light yellow rice at the top, and a rich base of spicy chicken in an interesting paste. This was quite spicy, but jam packed with flavour. I really liked this, but the lack of chicken popcorn was disappointing.

Overall

I think popeyes has promise. The logistics and mistakes with my order are extremely tedious and ruin the experience. The food in of itself is a tad expensive for fast food, and I don’t think Popeyes is gourmet. The bland classic sandwich and unappetizing rice chicken were huge misses, while the Spicy sandwich was nice. The spicy rice and fries were good, but those are just sides at the end of the day. Overall, a meh experience.