The famous Louisiana chicken from our childhood is going back in the fryer, as American fast food chain Popeyes has teased its long-awaited return to Indonesia.
Popeyes, famous for its spicy, juicy Cajun-style fried chicken, recently teased the opening of three of its restaurants in Jakarta, Tangerang, and Depok through its newly-launched Instagram and TikTok accounts.
Based on its posts, Popeyes has restaurants under construction and seemingly almost ready to open at the Skyline Building in Central Jakarta’s Jalan M.H. Thamrin; Supermal Karawaci in Tangerang Regency; and Margo City mall in Depok.
Popeyes has yet to announce any opening dates. Meanwhile, Supermal Karawaci has confirmed to us that Popeyes is opening at the mall “soon” but did not give an exact date either.
What’s certain is that Popeyes has been planning an expansion to Indonesia off the back of the chain’s impressive growth globally in recent years.
Whenever they open here, we expect massive hype and long lines as it has been about a decade since we’ve had what is arguably one of the world’s best fried chicken fast food chains on our shores (we love that other fried chicken chain but there’s no harm in variety).
Popeyes first landed in Indonesia in 2000 as “Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits” and had restaurants in several major cities in the country. We still fondly recall munching on drumsticks and cajun fries at Taman Anggrek Mall in West Jakarta and even next to Bandung Indah Plaza (BIP) in the West Java capital.
Popeyes quietly quit Indonesia and closed its last restaurant in West Jakarta’s Puri Indah Mall in 2011. It had a brief and unsuccessful return in 2015 at Surabaya’s Juanda International Airport, but that restaurant closed in 2016.
