Keep in mind Popeyes is not really fast food. Unless you're ordering fried chicken, everything is cooked to order. They are bound by physics as to how fast they can cook a piece of chicken while keeping it delicious. Add assembly time, and even when it's empty, the cashier will tell you "it'll be 10 minutes" on a sandwich order.

Other things that a non-patron of Popeyes should know:

* There is a daily special (Wednesday is sandwiches in my region, it may be different in yours).

* There are coupons on the web site

* It is more expensive than fast food

* Being slightly mis-treated is part of the Popeyes experience. It's sort of how Chickfila is known for being incredibly nice to all patrons . . . well Popeyes is the opposite. If you don't leave feeling somewhat slighted, you didn't quite get the full experience.

It's been my experience that they do prepare chicken ahead of time. I've always seen trays of cooked chicken sitting under heat lamps. Also, I'm not sure about your last point. I eat at Popeyes about once a month and have never felt that their service was any different from any other fast food establishment.

Every Popeye's experience I've had seems to be a greasy, soggy mess. I keep giving them new shots for some reason, and I keep getting disappointed.

> Unless you're ordering fried chicken, everything is cooked to order.

So all the sides (fries, potatoes, biscuits, rice and beans, etc) are made to order?

The fries are definitely prepared more frequently -- biscuits too -- but the sides are not what I would call the best part of Popeyes because they can be made in bulk and put under heating lamps for longer periods of time than say, chicken.

I don't know how quickly the chicken turns over but it's pretty consistent -- especially if you're ordering something specific (X number of legs, Y thighs, Z breasts), because they need to ensure the proper quantity and that may require breading and then deep-frying the chicken on-demand.

The seafood is probably more "prepared to order" than anything, but I honestly don't know. I've never worked at a fast food restaurant, I'm just a giant and unabashed fan of trash food.

I want to be clear that nothing about the situation was rational -- I understand that. Part of the journey was that it was indeed "a journey" -- and my friends who are also trash food aficionados/pseudo hype-beasts were more than willing/excited to do this stupid stunt with me.

That said, the sandwich was legitimately good in a way I was not expecting. I brought one home for my husband and even coldish, he was extremely impressed.

So yes -- if you're near a Popeyes, once the hysteria has died down, I highly recommend it.

I worked at a fast food place when I was young that served fried chicken. The fried chicken always took longer than everything else. One day I was left by myself for an afternoon shift without really knowing what to do. I'd never worked that shift and the person that was supposed to replace me never showed up. The chicken orders started showing up, I hadn't realized I was supposed to have started cooking chicken about a half hour before then. People were pissed. Most people ended up waiting at least 20 minutes. A few people just straight up left.

I'm in Australia so I can not get the food but it sounds a lot like what happens in Asia. I place will open and become "Instagram famous" (Or WeChat) and the lines will be crazy.

But a few weeks (months??) later the shop is as dead as a nail.

It appears all of the "hottest" places get 15 minutes of fame then dies.

> I love the food in question, fried chicken sandwiches, and I was fairly disappointed with my first Chick-Fil-A sandwich, it was fairly lackluster.

I think this is enough of an indicator that your experience is atypical. perhaps you'd recommend some of these non-chain restaurants with great chicken sandwiches tho? i have yet to have any that are as good per $

> I can't believe that a fast food place has developed a sandwich that would warrant a 30 minute drive let alone a 25 minute wait.

I take it you're not familiar with the craze surrounding In-n-out. In high school, we used to drive 3 hours into the neighboring state to get Animal Style junk food.