Oh shoot!
I felt so pressured to keep up blogging on this Seattle series. My memory on this trip is somewhat fading. I had been looking at the screen for the past 5 minutes just thinking of what to share. Sigh … and some of you just gotta say you look forward to this series. Pressure, pressure, pressure! LOL!
We left Richmond kind of late … in the late morning. By the time we got over the border, it was already noon. We drove on and decided to make a stop at Burlington for a quick lunch in a fast food joint. We did not care about what it is except that it should be something we do not have in Canada.
As we drove along the shopping row on S Burlington Blvd looking for a fast food joint we chanced upon the distinctive yellow and red Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits restaurant. Popeyes was one of the places we had on our shortlist of restaurants.
One would have thought that in a place called Popeyes, you would have expected that there will be Popeye (the Sailorman) images all over the restaurant. Nope, there was none at all. Strange.
Anyway, Popeyes is one of the biggest chicken fast food outlets in the US. There is none in Vancouver.
We ordered the 8 pieces Spicy Chicken. It seems like their flagship product just like the Big Mac is to McD’s. It came with some “biscuits”. I still thinks that biscuits means cookies. At least where I grew up, biscuits IS cookies. These US-style “biscuits” should just be simply called bread, or scones.
Anyway, the biscuits were flaky but too dry for my liking. If only I have hot chocolate, I’ll dunk it in. I took a bite and decided I had enough.
Despite being called Spicy Chicken, it is quite mild. We like the crispy skin a lot and the fact that it was not all too greasy. The pieces were quite big too, especially the breasts. I would say they were huge, not only big.
We read the brochure in the store that the chicken are made fresh and hand battered. It is marinated in Louisiana seasonings.
The Cajun Sparkle was really nice with the chicken. It is a mix of salt, garlic, onion and spices. It was so nice, we took a few extra packets with us.
We also got ourselves the Chicken Po’Boy. Po’Boy is a Louisiana subs made of baguette and fried meat. I remembered the first Po’Boy I had in New York’s Oyster Bar last year. That Oyster Po’Boy was great … this one, it tastes just like Mc Chicken if you ask me. Popeyes Po’Boy has the edge over McChicken because of the Cajun Sparkle.
The bill came up to $25.47. The expensive one is the Fried Chicken which works out to be about $2 per piece. For what we had, we felt it was quite expensive.
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Didn’t there used to be a Popeyes on Lougheed in Coquitlam? Was talking to my mom about it months ago and she said it shut down once a priest found a condom or something in his sandwich.
Hi Ben,
Ah, Popeye’s! It brings memories when I was in university in the US (long time ago). You are correct about the biscuits, to an extent. Biscuits in the UK sense would be a cookie; however, since you were in the US and in a US-based restaurant chain, a biscuit would be, as you already realized, a bread of sort. Think muffins, whereas in the UK would be something similar to a bread (McDonald’s Egg McMuffin for example), this side of the pond is almost a cupcake. OK, I am digressing here. Anyway, the biscuits are supposed to be a bit dry and ought to be eaten with something sweet, like honey. Wait, you did see the packs of honey, right?
Based on the receipt, I will have to agree with you (on the price). However, I also think it taste way better than KFC, Church’s and other similar “fast” fried chicken places. Also, I noticed you didn’t order their fries. They are not your regular fries; rather, they are tossed with the cajun spices. (drool) Hmmmm…. I am hungry now!
Said all that, there used to be a Popeye’s near Coquitlam Centre; however, it closed down mid/late 2006. Oh, well.
Finally, if memory serves me right, it is not named after the cartoon character but a character of a movie/book. Don’t remember the movie/book, though.
There definitely used to be one on Lougheed. It was right across from Coquitlam Center.
For fast food, $25.47 is expensive.
Church’s Chicken, which has stores in Vancouver, merged with Popeyes Chicken in 1989 but they are marketed as separate chains. Their menus and tastes are different too. Popeyes is so into that Louisiana Cajun theme. They used to have jambalaya with crawfish in it.
Popeye’s is our favorite fried chicken over KFC for sure. We like the spices. Watching what we eat has limited our trips to Popeye’s. Also, they seem to place Popeye’s in the more, how we say, less desirable locations in the city so we always go through drive-thru to pick up our orders.
“Also, they seem to place Popeye’s in the more, how we say, less desirable locations in the city”
I found it very odd that certain fast food chains have their stores in more remoted cities like Surrey or Coquitlam. You would think they want to have their stores in busier cities like Vancouver or Richmond to make more money. Krispy Kream is in Surrey or Taco Bell, I can’t find Krispy Kream or Taco Bell in Vancouver and Richmond at all.
Ooooh fried chicken, one of my favorite hand-foods.
Yeah I recall seeing Popeye’s at Lougheed Hwy too. Too bad they didn’t stay and expand.
In terms of national chains, I would rate KFC at the bottom. Small, dry and sometimes burnt pieces that are over-salted. Church’s is better, more plump and juicy with very good crispy skin if a bit on the greasy side.
Uncle Willy’s used to have very decent fried chicken, but that chain has more or less faded into oblivion with the last remaining restaurant I believe to be the Metrotown one. But since I haven’t eaten at Uncle Willy’s for about 10 years I don’t know if their chicken is still as good as it used to be.
There was Lee’s on Main at 10th but they’re now gone. And another independent fried chicken restaurant on Kingsway between Nelson and Royal Oak run by Korean proprietors that had pretty ok chicken, but they too have discontinued.
Next time I’m in Burlington I’ll have to stop in at Popeye’s. Then for dessert go on down to Krispy Kreme :-D
Update:
Dadeo’s on Cambie at 17th (I think I mentioned them once here) is a new “Southern” eatery originating in Edmonton. They occupy where the venerable Tomato Fresh Cafe used to be. I tried their fried chicken on their opening night and was quite disappointed. Apparently they’ve tweaked their recipe since then and when I tried it again for the second time last wee, it was much improved. Still a tad dry for my taste but overall not bad at all.
http://www.dadeo.ca/index.html
I have to agree with LotusRapper. The fried chicken at Da De O’s is really bad, their dark meat is as dry as white meat. However, their ribs and sweet potatoe poutine is pretty good.
I had Dadeo’s ribs too. To be honest, they are very mediocre (can you qualify mediocre ?). They seemed to have been boiled in water then basted with sauce. The flavour was as deep (or is that shallow ?) as the sauce, and rest of the rib is pretty much flavorless.
For best ribs, Memphis Blues is still the local reigning Bubba !
I love Popeye’s Chicken. There use to be one in Port Coquitlam and in Maple Ridge. It was quite a drive out there, but well worth it. It is a shame that they closed down. Now, whenever I feel the craving for spicy fried chicken, I head over to L.A. Chicken in Richmond.
Dadeo’s *shrug*
We’ve done a mini-review of their po’boys and they were so-so.
Can’t really give them high points for “authenticity” after perusing their menu.
Yeah, we have photos of Dadeo’s po’ boys in our review (click link above).
They didn’t have anything else on offer for lunch, hence we couldn’t really order anything else and do reviews on other dishes.
Art, do you mean both locations in PoCo and Maple Ridge are now closed ?
L.A. Chicken ….where, where ?!? Inquiring minds (and hungry tummies) want to know !
Oh…Church’s chicken? That’s one of my favorite *naughty* places to visit in California when I go home. YUM. Church’s chicken with my Nana’s calrose rice. Yum.
We were in Burlington a couple of months ago at the outlets, and I really wanted to go have Popeye’s chicken, I haven’t had it in years (my uncles would bring it down from the Bay Area in California bc Monterey does not have a Popeye’s), but we ended up at the Applebee’s. I’ll have to try that Maggie Moo’s place sometime though!
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