Sherman's Food Adventures: Popeye's Lousiana Kitchen (Port Coquitlam)

Popeye's Lousiana Kitchen (Port Coquitlam)

Lost within all the hype of Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen opening up in PoCo is that this is not its first foray into the Lower Mainland.  There once was a location in Coquitlam's Pinetree Village which closed in 2006.  There may have been many reasons why the place didn't survive, but I remember it being one of my favourites (as I lived nearby).  Sadly, I didn't get another taste of Popeye's until 2013 when I was down in Orlando.  Well, as mentioned, I don't have to wait until another visit to the States as Popeye's has opened up shop in PoCo's Fremont Village.  We headed out there for a taste during the holidays and let's just say everyone else had the same idea.

We decided to share the 8-Piece Bonafide Meal consisting of chicken, 4 biscuits and one large side.  I went for half mild and half spicy.  Basically, this was a whole chicken with 2 wings, 2 drumsticks, 2 thighs and 2 breasts.  For me I enjoyed the spicy more due to the layers of heat and spices combined with the crunchy rendered skin.  Naturally, the dark meat was juicy, but the white meat was equally moist and tender.  I actually preferred that more, especially dunked into the hot sauce.  We got the Cajun Fries as our large side and they were very crunchy and slightly spicy (probably too crunchy though).  I added a small Mac n' Cheese and it was very buttery with overly soft pasta.  As part of my daughter's meal (yes, she had her own), she had the small Mashed Potatoes with Cajun gravy.  I would say the gravy was more spiced than spicy.  Good though.

So my daughter was too good for our fried chicken and had the mild Chicken Tenders Platter with Onion Rings and the aforementioned mashed potatoes.  Honestly, I thought the tenders were only okay because they weren't as juicy as the fried chicken.  However, the batter was crunchy and they weren't greasy.  They were very tasty when dunked into the amped blackened ranch dressing.  We weren't impressed with the onion rings as they were soggy and not crunchy.  Despite this, the fried chicken is as good as I remembered and can be a legit contender in the Lower Mainland.  Think of it as a cross between LA Chicken and Church's, but I would still give them the edge over Popeye's at the moment.

The Good:
- Juicy, tasty and crunchy fried chicken
- Nice spice
- Those dipping sauces are good

The Bad:
- Tenders are "okay"
- Sides need work and the onion rings were terrible

1 comments:

Robert said...

So crispy

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