The American Fast Food Chain That's Nothing Like It Used To Be, According To Reddit

The Atlanta-based Church's Texas Chicken, after adding Texas to its name in 2019 as a reminder to customers that it started in San Antonio, announced in October 2024 that it was returning to its original chicken recipe. In a press release, head chef Kevin Houston said at the time, "The deep marination and crispy, flaky breading — it's all about flavor!" Accompanying photos of beautifully fried chicken promised a culinary delight. This should have been good news for the restaurant, which we said had the second-worst chain restaurant fried chicken. Soon after, however, folks on Reddit noticed the changes, and they appeared to be smaller portions and worse quality.

In February 2025, a Reddit user asked, "Is it just me or has the quality of church's chicken gone down drastically?" The vast majority of comments agreed that the quality had recently dropped. This wasn't a one-off complaint, either. In a separate Reddit post, someone asked why the chain's crinkle-cut french fries were suddenly straight, "like KFC fries," and said they "weren't good at all." One commenter responded from the front lines, writing, "Sitting here with my large box of fries and so disappointed. They just don't hit the same." And it's not just the quality — according to some customers, you also get less food for your money. As noted in another Reddit thread, the chain's fried chicken is apparently so small that it looks "sad."

It's hard to pinpoint why Church's Texas Chicken is seemingly giving customers smaller portions of lower-quality food, but we do have some idea who — or, rather, what — may be behind the change. High Bluff Capital Partners, a private investment firm, acquired the chain in 2021. Its website claims that it's "driving growth by partnering with management to execute transformational agendas and reinvigorate consumer brands." Unfortunately, it seems the firm's transformational agenda has far from reinvigorated this particular brand.

HBCP isn't the only private equity firm taking on the restaurant space, either. Roark Capital Group alone has acquired nearly 20 food brands since 2000, including Subway, Arby's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dunkin', Jimmy John's, and Carl's Jr. Arguably, typical private equity tactics like leveraged buyouts (in which the firm buys the restaurant with a loan and makes the restaurant pay it back) and sale-leasebacks (in which the firm sells the restaurant's real estate and makes the brand pay rent) contributed to Red Lobster's many shutdowns and TGI Friday's closures. Only time will tell if High Bluff Capital Partners will do anything similar to Church's Texas Chicken.