POPEYE the sailor man

At first I thought "POPEYES" was named after the cartoon character of Popeye the sailor man, which I was quite puzzled as I didn't know Popeye loved fried chicken. I thought Popeye loved only spinach!

Well, this Popeyes Chicken & Seafood Restaurant was actually named after the character of Popeye Doyle in the movie "The French Connection". The first outlet was opened in 1972 in Louisiana and since then they have been operating more than 2500 outlets throughout the world.

The first outlet opened not long ago in Malaysia (IIRC) was in TTDI and now the second one a couple of months back in Mid Valley.

Recently I had a chance to check them out at this Mid Valley's outlet for my lunch. They are located at lower level and opposite McDonald's. The place was rather "cram" during lunch hour.

I ordered a 2 piece spicy chicken set...

It was very crispy and the spicy one was not so spicy after all... but it was just right. Not oily as well. I prefer their spicy chicken over KFC spicy chicken. For the original one, KFC will still be my choice albeit a bit oily. The meat was tender and juicy. The size of their chicken was bigger compared to KFC's one.

The coleslaw tasted OK only. The mash potato, I'd say better than the KFC's one where the gravy didn't taste like pepper after all.

The 2-piece chicken set inclusive of coleslaw, mash potato, a piece of "biscuit"(the biscuit was soft but tasted OK. It was more liked a scone to me than biscuit), and soft drink is only RM9.90 nett. (no tax)

Fried chicken without this is just not right!

Wendy's - A Great Mistake!

First impression is very important- like the first time you meet your parents-in-law, whether you are presentable and polite enough to let their daugther marry you. That kind of impression will stay in their memory forever. just like my first encounter with Wendy's many, many years ago when I was in U.S. Their burger was so tasty that I could not forget until today. I kept wondering why this fast food chained restaurant was not opened in Malaysia...

I was delighted that Wendy's opened their first restaurant not too long ago at Sunway Pyramid which was not far from where I stayed. Without doubt the memory was rekindled once again. Their '1/2 Pound Double with Cheese' still tasted the same! The only drawback is, it's pricey! 2 persons dining at Wendy's can cost you RM30.00 or more for a meal. Wendy's pack RM6.99 was rolled out recently and I thought there would be no obstacle for me to enjoy their burger any time, any day, more often.

But to my disappointment, the burger for this RM6.99 pack is not their normal burger offered on their standard menu. They should just follow McDonald's Value Meal RM5.95 where we can have their standard burger.

Anyway there are 4 different packs on offer at Wendy's and I tried their pack 3,- a cheese burger, a small carbonated drink and 3 pieces nuggets. The burger was small, the beef patty was thin and it was the driest burger I had ever tasted. The bread was hard, like it had been left over for 3 days. Well, any Ramli's burger stall sells better burger than this one!

In order to cut cost, they are willing to compromise on their quality of food which I fail to understand. For the first timers who try this Wendy's burger, will just think that Wendy's burgers are lousy.

I would suggest that you save a few more bucks to try their standard burger instead of this RM6.99 pack.

Wendy's currently available at Sunway Pyramid, IOI Mall, Jaya One, Berjaya Times Square, Jalan Sultan Ismail, Giant Kota Damansara, Aeon AU2 and Mont Kiara.

Any time, Any day, Any more? I doubt!