Food & Drink

Restaurant’s Popeyes secret gets outed on Yelp

A California eatery “proudly” admitted it serves customers Popeyes chicken after a diner outed the restaurant in a Yelp review.

Sweet Dixie Kitchen in Long Beach — which boasted stellar reviews and was a preferred local brunch spot — is now defending its reputation after the reviewer recounted how he witnessed the restaurant carting in grub from the fast-food chain.

“Before my friends and I got seated we saw them quickly bring in two large boxes of Popeyes to the kitchen,” Tyler H. wrote in his Oct. 7 review. “I wanted to believe that this was just a snack for the workers, but alas it was not.”

The reviewer said he ordered “Chicken and Waffles,” which “tasted suspiciously like Popeyes and was also rather stale.”

After inquiring about the food’s source, the reviewer said the worker told him the fried chicken was from a nearby Popeyes.

Sweet Dixie’s owner, Kim Sanchez, posted a response on Yelp to the mini-expose the following day in which she not only confirmed they served Popeyes chicken, but they are proud  of it.

We PROUDLY SERVE Popeyes spicy tenders- the best fried chicken anywhere and from New Orleans- which are delivered twice a day,” Sanchez wrote. 

Sanchez claimed the restaurant’s food is locally sourced — except for the fried chicken.

She continued: “We can’t fry at this location- and it [is] the fried chicken I love so much and I ate a ton of it in the ATL. So I serve it.”

Sanchez later told Fox News that her restaurant started using Popeyes two months ago when it began dishing out the chain’s fried chicken and waffles and its fried chicken sandwich.

“I tried Costco chicken, I tried Restaurant Depot chicken, and then I went to dinner at Popeyes and knew this was the chicken we had to use for the store,” she told Fox. “It’s the best chicken.”

Sanchez said customers should have known where the food was from, citing a board in the restaurant that she said reads: “Imported from Louisiana this week, thank you Popeyes.”

The owner claimed she is waiting to hear back from Popeyes about a potential “partnership,” Fox reported.

Sanchez’s defiant response, which she elaborated on in a Facebook post, only riled up Yelp reviewers, some of whom claim to be long-time Sweet Dixie Kitchen patrons.

“After dining here and seeing the response of the owner or manager, this place is deserving of a one star review,” wrote user Kevin S. “If you are going to sell another restaurants product, inform your guest and don’t try to market it as your own.”

“Always felt this place was fake and now I really know why. This place is not as they present themselves to be,” user James T. penned. “SHUT IT DOWN!”

Yelp’s rating system indicated the restaurant was averaging 2-star reviews for the month of October.

“STAY WOKE!” instructed user Elena R. “If you want Popeyes chicken…go to Popeyes.”