These 5 Fried Chicken Chains Earn Some Of The Harshest Customer Reviews

In the '50s, when poultry pecked its way onto dinner plates as an alternative to beef, Kentucky Fried Chicken (now KFC) was the first franchise on the scene. Cranking out buckets of classic fried chicken coated with its signature mix of herbs and spices, KFC sets the standard for crispy, golden goodness and paved the way for thousands of ambitious restaurateurs to follow suit.

In the decades since, franchises like Popeyes, Church's, Chick-fil-A, Zaxby's, and Raising Cane's have popped up to give KFC a run for its money, and there are now a lot of chicken joints in the game. Unfortunately, in recent years many of them have fallen far from the standards their founders envisioned, and social media has given disgruntled customers a forum for calling those cluckers out.

Complaints about everything from slow service to bad food to shrinking portion sizes can be found on all corners of the Internet, and Chowhound thought our readers might benefit from knowing which chains ruffle the most feathers and why. To determine the fried chicken giants that earn the harshest customer reviews, Chowhound scoured social media looking for the issues and franchises that got repeated mentions across multiple platforms over the past year.

Stepping up to the fried chicken plate with its first location (under a different name) in 1972, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen gave KFC some spicy competition with its Cajun-inspired menu. In recent days, however, this chain seems to get as much hate as it does love on social media. Particularly for experiences at the drive-thru.

"Waited over half an hour in the drive-thru with just 3 cars in front of me," one dissatisfied customer says on Reddit. Others chime in to detail similar experiences at their local Popeyes, with several claiming to have endured long drive-thru experiences without even getting what they ordered. "Once waited 30-40 minutes to be told they don't have any more chicken," a Redditor recalls.

On Facebook, one of the harshest reviewers says: "Waiting over 30 minutes for some cold burnt up chicken! Then the man who brought it out said it takes a long time to cook, but it's cold!" Along with widespread complaints about shrinking portion sizes, Popeyes customers also lament not being able to get help with their drive-thru issues. "Ordered food at 1206pm, handed food at 1236pm ... Customer support chat is receiving a high volume, so it ends the chat without getting any contact info from me," a frustrated Reddit user claims.

This Georgia-based chain gets its fair share of harsh reviews on social media. Most are related to reduced portion sizes, and complaints span numerous, widespread locations.

"Shrinkflation has hit Zaxby's hard," one Reddit user claims. "The Wings and Things [meal] was pathetic. [The] wings were pigeon-sized, and the fingers were about as big as my index finger." Other social media posts reiterate this complaint, with another Redditor saying: "The 'Big Zax' breaded chicken fingers are basically chicken nugget size."

A Facebook post asking if anyone else has noticed a reduction in the girth of Zaxby's chicken tenders elicited several comments claiming that the product still tastes good, there's just less of it. "The chicken tenders were only half the size they used to be, some maybe even smaller," a disappointed Zaxby's customer said on Facebook. A commenter on the same thread recounts a similar experience, saying: "My son wanted Zaxby's a couple weeks ago and it had been a year or so and we said the exact same thing. They shrunk!"

The founder of this fried chicken chain was jeered by a college professor for his business plan that centered exclusively on chicken tenders, but Raising Cane's happened anyway. With premium ingredients and a closely-guarded marinade recipe that keeps its meat moist, Cane's skyrocketing sales earned it a seat at the fried chicken franchise adult table with a top-three ranking. Unfortunately, in the past year, its flavor has garnered a less-than-zesty reputation on social media.

"It's like plain, dinky (often overcooked) chicken strips, plain fries, plain Texas toast ... Then they serve these 3 plain fried foods in styrofoam to guarantee it's all soggy by the time you eat it," one reviewer says on Reddit. On Facebook Reels, one disappointed Cane's customer said this: "It would have tasted better if you'd have thrown it on the ground and kicked it around for a couple hours before you put it in the grease. At least then it would have had some kind of flavor."

Other reviews make reference to Cane's sauce being the star and the chicken itself being rather basic. On Reddit, one unimpressed Cane's customer calls it "2/10 chicken with 10/10 sauce." Another Redditor shares this sentiment, claiming: "People eat them for the sauce anyways lmao. Without sauce it's just mid."

Though Bojangles has garnered a reputation for serving up biscuits that are better than homemade ones at its 800-plus locations across the U.S., this North Carolina-based chicken chain takes a lot of heat for the quality and preparation of its food. "The chicken was so hard we couldn't pull any skin off or meat off with our fingers; it was just one hard lump of meat and crust that would break a tooth. It looked like a pile of over-cooked gizzards," one Facebook reviewer says. A commenter on another Facebook thread voices a similar review, saying: "Bojangles isn't mid, it's just bad. Like one of the worst fast food chains in America kinda bad."

On Reddit, one harsh reviewer says this: "Bojangles has the worst chicken biscuit in the industry. The Cajun chicken fillet is thin, dry, stringy, and almost flavorless. Just a hint of spice and warmth. It's an insult to chicken biscuits. It's consistently bad." On Reddit, one harsh reviewer claims Bojangles' chicken tenders taste like the frozen ones you throw in an air fryer at home, while another Redditor says: " Bojangles hasn't been good for over a decade now. I just go for the slight flavor of nostalgia when I'm eating that cardboard Cajun fillet on a wheat paste filled with plastic butter pockets biscuit."

Despite having one of the most recognizable brands in the fried chicken game, KFC has had some financial struggles in recent years and gets more than its fair share of complaints from dissatisfied customers. Many of them center on food price increases coupled with a decline in quality.

"I recently tried KFC for the first time in 15 years. It cost the family $80 and was the worst garbage food I've ever had. I can't believe anyone enjoys this slop," one commenter says on Reddit. "The prices now! When did they explode? And the worst part is the chicken was mid!" another Reddit poster gripes.

Customers also lament the size of KFC's chicken pieces, with one calling it "Kentucky fried pigeon" on Facebook. Claiming a 16-piece bucket in their area costs $55 now, one Redditor says: "Every item on the menu just keeps getting more expensive. Who can actually afford this?"

In a YouTube video of customers lamenting the decline of KFC, one former fan sums up the hate by saying: "KFC used to have better meals, better chicken, and better deals, bro."

In our quest to determine the fried chicken chains earning the harshest customer reviews, we took a look at the history of fried chicken and focused on well-known franchises that specialize in traditional, deep fried preparation methods. After conducting broad searches for complaints about fried chicken chains and taking note of which franchises received negative reviews most frequently over the past year, we then zeroed in on which complaints were most prevalent at each location.

Acknowledging that negative reviews might be the result of poor management or a one-time occurrence, we took a deeper dive across popular social media platforms and collected complaints that were consistent and similar in content but diverse in origin and geographic location. In the end, we narrowed the list down to five chains receiving consistent criticism in one or two particular areas.