I love Popeye’s! We got one here in the Buffalo area a few years ago, but it’s only one location and it’s in the city and I’ve never been to it. At my previous job I was out in the Rochester area a few days a week and they have two locations, and would usually hit one up once a week. All I ever got was their chicken, I don’t eat seafood of any kind, and I loved it. I’m not a big fan of KFC, I’ll eat it if someone else buys or wants to go there, but I’ll never go there just by myself. So of course I think Popeye’s is 100x better than KFC. Their spicy chicken strips are not quite to my level of spicy, but better than similar items at other fast food joints. Also I LOVE their biscuits! When I get a combo meal, I always order an extra biscuit, if I didn’t feel like fries that day I substitute and get a third biscuit.
And yes, the two locations in Rochester were disorganized. Service was generally slow, one time they ran out of chicken, the truck was due 'any minute now' (and this was at like 3 or 4 in the afternoon), twice their credit card terminals were down, resulting in me going else ware since I don’t carry cash. And it seemed like there was always a booth or two that was roped off because the table was broken, or something. In May when I went to Virginia, we had a busy day and didn’t eat dinner until very late, and we stopped at the Popeye’s in Front Royal, and surprisingly there were pretty on the ball, I had to wait a few minutes longer (but not as long as I’m used to) because it was right before close, they had a drive through rush and there was only two, maybe three people working. Gave both my wife and I and extra piece of chicken for the trouble. And I opted for biscuit substitution, but they gave me fries anyhow.
My favorite fast food chicken place is Chick fil a, but I’ve only been there twice. Popeye’s is a close second.