MY FIRST TRIP TO POPEYE'S

Well, Popeye's had finally opened in Kenmore Square. You could tell by the Popeye's boxes and cups littering the street and the line of illegally parked cars on Brookline Ave. So it was time to make our long planned visit. I had mixed feelings about trying Popeye's. When I told people about it, I got the same response from everyone: "I love Popeye's. It's so greasy!" My little sister had told me that I wouldn't like it, but I tried to be enthusiastic and even invited my staff to join in.

When we arrived at Popeye's, a game had just started at Fenway Park, so most of then fans had cleared out. What we had instead was a lot of students. The space is a tiny little basement space and there was already a long line. Luckily, my employees had already arrived and snagged us one of the few tables. Most people were taking out, and I wouldn't blame them. The space is small, crowded, hot and strangely lit. We immediately got in line and planned what we'd be ordering. As you can see from the pic below, it was a bit hard reading the menu, cause it was blocked by the soda machine. That's how little space they had.There was also an ENORMOUS pile of fried chicken ready to go. They had 2 people taking orders, and the rest were just boxing up the orders. It took us a little while to finally put our orders in and I got a 2 piece meal (which came with a drink and a side). They were super efficient there. I got my food 5 minutes after ordering. If you also look at the pic above, you can see a computer screen. I'm not sure if they do this at all Popeye's, but it's a game. When you place your order, you have the option of rounding your order up to the nearest dollar and you get two choices. The more you spend, the better your options tend to be. One of my employees got to pick two apple pies. But I was presented with the option of 2 extra biscuits, or an extra side of rice. I passed. Here's my meal below.And here's my side of mashed potatoes and gravy.So I gotta say, I liked Popeye's. The chicken that is. But there are qualifiers. First, the night we went, it was crazy busy. It was clear that they were turning all the food pretty quickly, so the chicken didn't have time to sit and get lukewarm and super greasy. The chicken breast I had was crispy on the outside and perfectly moist on the interior. I did enjoy that. I ordered spicy, but it really didn't taste spicy at all, which makes me wonder what the original tastes like. I was not a fan of the biscuit, it was too greasy and I prefer KFC's biscuits. Ditto goes for the mashed potatoes and gravy. The gravy had little chunks of chicken and jalapenos, which, while good in theory, weren't that delicious in practice. It was an enjoyable meal. Certainly not somewhere I'd visit often, but it's nice to have another junk food option in Kenmore Square.