Recently the hubby and I were invited to attend a Mercy Me Concert with a group of our friends. We decided that instead of eating at the venue and spending a lot of money for less than average food we’d all meet at Raising Canes Chicken Fingers in Ontario California, have a bite to eat and then head over to the concert. I was excited about going to see Mercy Me and looking forward to eating at Raising Canes too. I’d heard good things about this restaurant, one of which was that people take long drives to visit a Raising Cane’s because the Chicken is so good.
While still at home the hubby looked at the menu and he was not a very happy camper. Apparently they had chicken finger’s and chicken fingers, and chicken finger sandwiches. Not much of a selection, especially since he really is not a big fan of chicken.
When we walked in the place was full we had to wrangle up some tables and chairs so our group could sit together. The first thing about the restaurant that I think you should really know is that’s it is NOT a restaurant, it’s really just a fast food joint. That was a misunderstanding on my part, I thought it was a casual little restaurant and the hubby had never heard of it..like never ever. Several of us wondered who chose the place because none of us had ever eaten there. But hey, we decided to make best of it.
I ordered the 3 finger combo meal. It came with 3 chicken fingers, crinkle cut french fries, Texas toast and a 22oz. drink. The hubby ordered 4 piece Box Combo meal mostly because the 4 piece also included coleslaw.
Because we were a group of 10 we had multiple different meals and opinions to compare and we definitely made some observations. I’ll start with our meals; the chicken was pretty good, moist and the breading was not too heavy. I liked it. However, the 3 pieces of chicken fingers were small, I’d say between 4- 5 1/2 inches each. I was a little disappointed and was left wanting more. Thank goodness I had fries because otherwise I would have left there hungry. The Cane sauce (dipping sauce for the chicken) was good. It was a little tangy and I tried to figure out the spicy flavor but nothing came to me, which honestly surprised me because I’m usually pretty good at isolating ingredients in things like that. I liked the Cane sauce.
The fries were nothing to speak of, I would have probably said they were on the not very good side but I was hungry so…you know…I ate ’em. I dipped them in the Cane sauce which made them better.
And lastly, the Texas toast, I was excited about the Texas toast. I am most definitely a bread girl! Well, let me just say…I left it. I tried to give it a chance, because you know…I’m a bread girl. I wanted it to be great, then I wanted it to be good, then I thought, well you’re hungry and it’s bread, but No…I left it! Which is probably why I ate the fries.
I usually order water when we eat out, I like water and I try to get my quota but since the meal came with a drink I chose lemonade. The lemonade was ok, nothing spectacular, just mediocre. If I was comparing to Chick-fil-a lemonade…Chick-fil-a would win, hands down! At Raising Canes, if you want a refill or your lemonade, it is gonna cost you. Someone in our group had to pay .81 cents for their refill and he was a little miffed. Another high five for Chick-fil-a!
I didn’t asked the hubby his opinion of his meal but he volunteered a snarky remark about the coleslaw and everyone who also had coleslaw, laughed a little in agreement. The container of slaw was seriously not much bigger than a small to go, ranch container from one of our go-to burger joints! That was a joke. I think there was all of 3 bites in the container. Everyone who had the slaw noted that this was a disappointment.
To summarize a few additional observations.
- 1 of our group got chicken a la carte …not a combo. He didn’t have sauce when he got to the table. When he went up to the counter and asked for it, he was told that it doesn’t come with chicken only. Only when you order a combo do you get sauce. He had to pay extra…If I remember right it was a dollar. Can you just say…that’s not right!.
- To top off the silliness of no sauce with your chicken, if you didn’t buy the Cane’s sauce you were eating chicken with NO sauce. They didn’t have BBQ or Ranch or ANY other kind of sauce for the chicken. It was either Cane sauce that you purchased…or ketchup…yuck! The ketchup was free.
- Another guest in our, could not have breading, so when ordering, she asked if they had some type of chicken without breading. They did! They called it naked chicken. However, when she received it…it still had a slight amount of breading. It was a different type and less coverage but by no means naked. It shouldn’t have called “naked”, maybe “modest”, but not naked. The “naked Chicken” was dry and not very flavorful She wasn’t able to eat the meal.
On a scale of 1-10 I’d give it a solid 3…just because the chicken was good. Out of 10 of us…not one of us said we’d choose to go back. It wasn’t an awful experience but, once was enough for us. I’m wondering why the place was packed? But then again it is a chicken finger place and there were a lot of children enjoying their meals.
If you’ve eaten at Raising Cane’s leave a comment with your thoughts. I’d love to know what your opinion was?