I did it. At 10:33 am on 8/24/2019, I placed an emergency Uber Eats order to the Popeyes on 1426 Fillmore St in San Francisco. Why? Because the internet told me to.  I’d never even tried Popeyes fried chicken and oh, by the way, I wasn’t even hungry and just happened to be two weeks deep into the keto diet…Adios ketosis!

Now, this was not my first attempt at ordering the Popeyes spicy chicken sandwich. Every time I saw it show up on my Instagram feed I checked the Uber Eats and Postmates apps to see if the infamous chicken sandwich was available and it was always sold out. But on 8/24 the day before my 33rd birthday and just three minutes after Popeyes opened up shop, the spicy chicken sandwich was available on the Uber Eats app. It was only available as a Spicy Chicken Sandwich Combo so I went with it and ordered two. I didn’t even look at the drink and side options and hit order as quickly as possible.

$30.08 and thirty minutes later I was the proud owner of two Spicy Chicken Sandwich Combos. Now let’s talk about the drink and side options. This was my major mistake. The Uber Eats app automatically selected unsweet iced tea and cajun fries for you. Did I need two of each? Absolutely not. I would have 100% preferred a fountain soda (to cure my hangover), mashed potatoes, maybe some condiments and a biscuit. Unfortunately, all I got was two iced teas, two orders of cajun fries and two spicy chicken sandwiches.

To be honest, I didn’t really touch the iced teas or the fries. I fired up my camera and had a full-on photo shoot with my spicy chicken sandwiches. I placed them on a piece of marble, I scattered the fries around them and then I stacked them on top of each other and carried them out to the courtyard of my building -> producing the photo above.

About twenty minutes later I was done with my shoot and ready to eat.

The sandwich itself was very basic. It features a slab of crunchy fried chicken breast on brioche with pickles and mayonnaise. It comes in two varieties: the mayonnaise can be either spicy or not. I went with the spicy. The highlights for the sandwich included the brioche (very elevated in my mind for Popeyes) and the pickles (love a thick cut juicy pickle).

Am I glad I tried it? Yes. Do I need to eat it again? Nah dog. We have plenty of premium fried chicken option here in San Francisco and honestly if I am going for a spicy fried chicken sandwich I prefer more of a Nashville hot chicken-style sandwich versus a fried chicken sandwich with ‘spicy’ mayonnaise.

Have you tried it? If your answer is no it looks like you lost your shot (for now). Just two weeks after the launch of the fried chicken sandwich the chain announced yesterday that it’s going to temporarily stop serving it. Bummer for now, but I have a strong hunch that it will be back ASAP.

If you are in the Bay Area here are some of my favorite spots when I’m craving a fried chicken sandwich:

Hotbird – Hot Chicken Sandwich | find them at the Sunday Off the Grid Presidio Picnic and they just secured a permanent home on Market Street

Shake Shack – Chick’n Shack | Marin and Palo Alto

Starbird – Nashville Hotbird | San Francisco, SFO, Foster City, San Jose, and Sunnyvale

Hillstone – Ding’s Crispy Chicken Sandwich | everywhere | the best restaurant in all the land

What spots did I forget? Sound off in the comments.