I actually had one of these new sandwiches a week ago Sunday. There were lines out of the parking lots of both Popeye's along the main drag here, with parking lots and cars in the drive through. I knew what it meant when I saw it and I resolved to finally go see what the hubbub was about.
I was careful not to cut in line. I was REALLY careful not to cut in line.
It was about 4:00 p.m. and the lines were still long. It was crazy, I tells ya.
The dining room was full of some high school athletes from some area school, and cute boys they were, but I wasn't there for that kind of chicken.
Popeye's had parked a freezer van/cube thing out back, as they seemed to be struggling to not run out this time. There were extra staff behind the counter too, so you could tell they had brought in more people to handle this. There was a stack of cardboard boxes behind the cashier. Not sure of they were fillets on their way to the fryer or what, but it was noticeable and looked like it was some provisional staging.
I ordered the sandwich. It wasn't any bargain, so that wasn't the attraction. It came with pickles and mayonnaise, so I had it as it was promoted. i ate it in the car, as I didn't want those young bucks over at the football table to be ogling me and wanting my meat while I tried to focus on the experience.
The chicken breast was a solid breast piece, not glued together, not reassembled. It was thicker on one end, and still had the muscle arrangement, so was just a bare chicken breast before it was battered. The seasoning was bland and the coating was just meh. It wasn't chicken bouillon tasting like Popeye's tenders are (blech), but it wasn't anything great either. It wasn't as good as their regular crispy chicken pieces.
Now, mind you, Popeye's customer base is largely black and almost every time I'm there they seem to be selling as much spicy as regular, so maybe the spicy variant is somehow different from the regular version, but I don't think heavy handed cayenne or Tabasco is a good thing on fried chicken, nor do I like it with honey on it, so I'm not a typical customer for this chain.
OK, that's all I got. Just reporting in. Sandwich in no way deserves the artificial hype. Not as good as Wendy's chicken sandwiches and certainly poses no threat to Chik-Fil-A's main product.
Kudos to the folks at Popeye's for being able to pull off such a successful marketing stunt. Whereas the sandwich wasn't bad by any means, and was made of good chicken (apparently), it wasn't worth the crowds and hype. Doubt it brought in new customers either, just energized their base, so to speak.
