Wondering around a city you’re foreign to and being a tourist in the heat sure does make you hungry. There is no better place to have a pit stop than with some quick, greasy food; and yes, you betcha, with none better than American fried chicken and biscuits at Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. Mmmm mmm.
We wander down Hollywood Boulevard, walking along/on the Walk of Fame (the Stars), strolling pass the Dolby Theatre (formerly known as the Kodak Theatre), Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, Madam Tussauds and a whole bunch of other stuff, until we find ourselves dehydrated and hungry so we stop at Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen - a popular American fast food chain.
We were hoping for some air con as it was sweltering hot in Hollywood but to our great sadness, it was a stinking hot old school fast food joint with celling fans that just blew around the hot air and very little ventilation. You will also notice photos were taken on my phone as I was a little scared to bring out my dSLR ………………………. that’s as far as I’ll go with that.
I absolutely love how American fast food stores have unlimited refills on their drinks. Not only is soft drink (or soda to the Americans) available, but there is also lemonade (fresh lemonade that is, but probably a pre mix) and juice. All drinks are rather sweet so you do find yourself still thirsty after a drink, ironically, but I am not complaining as it is complimentary refills anyways.
The boy and I opt for a snack and with our combo we get 3 pieces of spicy (which wasn’t so spicy) Bonafide chicken that has a Southern styled crispy batter, a biscuit (refer to one of my previous posts for explanation), a side and a drink (pictured above).
The chicken is better than any of our fast food chains chicken here in Australia. Hot, fresh, crispy, crunchy and flavoursome is what the fried chicken is. You can hear the crunch as you bite into it from a couple seats away! Absolutely delicious.
The sauces available are not just your average ketchup or BBQ sauce, they have chiili and ranch. Too awesome.
The mash potato and gravy side isn’t anything ordinary like what we get here either – this has depth and flavour! The gravy has great body, and the bacon bits seriously is the icing to a cake.
On another occasion more fried chicken ordered as take away to share whilst having a family dinner at home and watching an American football NFL game. It felt like such an American thing to do.
And we finish off with a tray full of heaven, I mean biscuits. I smashed at least 2-3 of these in one sitting. It’s best eaten fresh as it remains fluffly and steamy and it works so beautifully with the gravy above.
So how does Popeyes rate against Honey’s Kettle Fried Chicken? I definitely think both have the perfect sort of fried chicken with the crunchy batter and juicy meat, however I think Honey’s Kettle reigns supreme with their generous portions and flavoursome batter. Popeyes is still very, very good, if not great still, and is much better than the fried chicken here in Sydney as mentioned earlier. It does help that Popeyes happens to be much more convenient to access with nearly 40 locations in Los Angeles so if you need a quick fix of some good fried chicken, you know where to go!
For deep-fried junk food it really does look pretty good. I think I understand about you not wanting to pull out your DSLR. Aside from being a tourist hotspot, Hollywood really is quite a dingy area of LA that I can only liken to our Kings Cross.
Have to agree with you on that. We went further down Hollywood boulevard and it did begun to look a bit shady….
Oh man, I miss popeyes fried chicken!
Crunch crunch crunch and tasty juicy chicken!
It was the best wasn’t it?
Fried chicken is a staple here in the states. This is the absolute best nationwide chain
And I absolutely agree!
oh tina you are teasing me again with fried chicken! I really want to try a biscuit now.
I think you just need to make your way to America, stat :p
I’ve heard the summer in LA has been extremely hot and even now it hasn’t cooled down much. What a great little find although it must be terrible for the staff to work with not air-con. The chicken does look so much better than what we have here. That does look so much more crispy and crunchy! xx
It’s a chain and can be found quite often. Im not sure how other pop eyes are set up but I think this one was a little unfortunate. We started to stream away from the main streets so that’s probably why it was the way it was ..
I need to go America…stat! It strikes me as kind of lame that we only have one main fried chicken joint being KFC. We need some competition so they’ll up the stakes!
KFC is nothing compared to the fried chicken in the USA!
omg chicken and biscuits! you had me at fried :P
Ohhhhh you must go Helen :p
I’ve heard about Popeye’s and wondered what it was like! Now I feel like fried chicken for dinner :D
I think you’ll need to go so you can try it for yourself Lorraine :)
Dear Tina,
I have a weakness for KFC and this certainly looks good.
Oh no, then you would absolutely LOVE any fried chicken in America
bacon bits in mashed potato.. omg that is genius, why have I not done that before!!!
I hope you try it soon :p
ranch sauce would be so good with the chicken!! mm
Their ranch sauce is much more nicer than here. Don’t know what it is but it sure pairs well with nearly everything!
Ohhh Fried Chicken!! It looks so sinfully good ~ and the biscuits i’m so intrigued because we don’t have anything like that in Australia! Do they taste like our scones?
I wished we had a Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen here too :)
Biscuits taste better. More fluffier. Lighter. But they do taste similar :)
Bacon can only make things better, great looking mash. I always forget how damn sweet their drinks are, even their juices taste like they have had a good couple of tablespoons of sugar added. Chicken looks great.
That is true – everything is super sized and sweetened normally. It’s no wonder why they need big drinks for any meal
lolz. you blogged a Popeyes. Good on you. The rest of us (US restaurant bloggers) will continue to resort to eating this secretly in shame.
Hahah I am a tourist. Nothing wrong with reviewing a chain! Pop eyes is so good!
Major thanks for the blog article. Really Cool.
No worries :)