People Are Calling Out This Restaurant For Selling Popeye's Chicken As Its Own
Fried chicken and biscuits are a staple at most southern restaurants, even those located in California. While plenty of people happily fork over $10 to 15 bucks for the dish (or its cousin, chicken and waffles) at bougie breakfast spots, few would be willing to pay as much at Popeye's.
So when a customer at Sweet Dixie Kitchen in Long Beach realized the restaurant was using Popeyes chicken on its chicken and waffle sandwich, without noting it on the menu, he did what many angry customers have done before him – wrote a Yelp review.
The review has since gone viral, prompting a flurry of angry comments from other patrons of the restaurant, most of whom took issue with the restaurant's "Eat local" message and cost mark-up on the chicken.
The customer, Tyler H., noticed two Popeyes boxes being brought into the kitchen as he waited for a table. He decided to order chicken and waffles to see if Popeyes chicken was used; if you've had Popeyes, you know it has a distinct flavor.
When asked, the waiter told Tyler the chicken was in fact from Popeyes, and his meal was even comped. But that didn't stop him from taking to the internet, and now people are up in arms.
The owner of Sweet Dixie Kitchen, Kimberly Sanchez, responded to the Yelp review and wrote a separate Facebook post defending her restaurant's actions and saying she was not deliberately hiding anything.
"We PROUDLY SERVE Popeyes spicy tenders – the best fried chicken anywhere and from New Orleans – which are delivered twice a day," she wrote back to Tyler.
Sanchez explained that the restaurant doesn't outsource much, and doesn't see a need to explain where products are from when it does.
"We have never claimed we make each and every item," she wrote. "We don't list the ready made Kielbasa or hot links or puff pastry or pie shells or baguette."
While many people agreed this is fine for basic, unbranded ingredients, it did seem a little sketchy given the product is from a popular fast food restaurant. Many Yelpers compared the scenario to ordering a $15 burger and getting a McDonald's patty. While Chicken and Waffles isn't on the permanent menu at Sweet Dixie Kitchen, Chicken and Biscuits is, and it sells for $12.95.
As of now, it doesn't seem like any changes will be made to the menu clarifying where the chicken is from. In a Facebook post, Sanchez wrote: "We will continue our business the same way we have always done – honest that we make nearly all from scratch, saying what we do make from scratch, and when we can't, we will use the second best thing available to us."
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