Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen

I'll admit it, I love Popeye's!  I'm originally from Louisiana, so I've been eating Popeye's for a long time, and they are my favorite fast food fried chicken spot.  I always get the spicy chicken white meat and it's delicious!  The chicken is well cooked, the skin is crispy, and it's a little spicy.  The biscuits are also my favorite!  They're incredibly buttery and rich, so don't eat too many.  My favorite side dish is the Mashed Potatoes with Cajun Gravy.  The gravy is fabulous!  The Dirty Rice is also good (dirty rice is just rice with a little meat in it).

A word about spice.  I don't think Popeye's is that hot, but if you're from the Mid-West, there's a good chance you will find it hot.  Be careful.  Every time I've gone to Popeye's the people have been friendly and the service has been fast, so 4 stars.

Bariola's Pizzeria

First, a little background:

What exactly is Guido's and Bariola's?
Guido's Pizza is a pizzeria that started in Tontitown and spread to Fayetteville, Springdale, and Rogers (not sure of the exact order there). The ones in Fayetteville and Rogers were owned by the same person, and last year he split off from the Guido's brand and became Bariola's. Guido's is still in Tontitown and Springdale.

My reviews
Last year, in early December, I did a comparison of the two pizzas called:  Grudge Match: Guido's vs. Bariola's.  I used the Guido's in Tontitown and the Bariola's in Fayetteville.  I did this because my previous experience at Bariola's was not good.  Shortly afterward I received an e-mail purporting to be from the owner of Bariola's saying that my concerns were correct and he was in the process of fixing them.

Our most recent order
Frank placed the order a little before 5 pm.  He said the order process was okay, but he had to repeat that it was for pick-up a few times.  The girl on the phone said she was new, and sounded like it, but she was friendly, although she tried to sell him some extras too.  He was told 30 minutes for the pizza, which is fairly typical.  They usually say 20 to 25 minutes, unless they're really busy.

When he went to pick it up, he went to the drive-thru and he was home by 5:30 pm.  He said it was pretty dead there.  When we opened the pizza, it was luke-warm.  Usually it's still hot, so I'm assuming they made the pizza immediately and then it sat around until we arrived.  In the past, we've generally had to wait because we showed up when it was supposed to be done, and it wasn't.

Conclusions
The one or two people Frank dealt with were friendly, so that's good.  But there is still no bell at the drive-thru window; the owner said he would change that.  The pizza was good, but not great.  The pepperoni was okay, the crust was okay, but overall, it was nothing special.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad or anything.  But it was a little generic.  So I'll have to say 3-1/2 stars. 

Zaxby's

I'd never heard of Zaxby's until they showed up on 6th Street (MLK) a few years ago. Their commercials looked interesting, and since I try not to eat regular fast food, I thought I'd give them a shot.

I went by after the lunch rush, so there was no one in the drive-thru. The person on the intercom was friendly, as was the person at the window. And they were fast. I guess fresh chicken tenders is their thing, so I got a House Salad with Fried Tenders.

The salad was really good. It was real lettuce, not iceberg. There were tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, and what I'd swear was cornflakes, on it. The tomatoes were a bit hit or miss. Some of them were a bit tasteless, while some were flavorful. Considering how hard it is to find good tomatoes, especially at a fast food place, I thought the tomatoes were good. As for the cucumbers, when was the last time you saw tasty cucumbers on a fast food salad? The cheese was cheese, and if I remember correctly, there were 2 types (orange and white). And yes, every now and then I ate something like a corn flake. It's never occurred to me to put cornflakes on a salad, but now I may do that at home sometimes.

Overall, the salad was really good. The tenders were hot and fresh - trust me, you can't reheat a tender and get it to taste like fresh. The only negative was the salad dressing. It tasted fine, and there were 2 packs of it, which I really liked. But one of the main ingredients was High Fructose Corn Syrup. Since everyone else uses it, I guess I can't really complain too much. I'll save that rant for a different posting ;) The fast food salads I've eaten over the last few years have gotten pretty bad, so I'll have to give Zaxby's 4 stars for theirs.