Raising Cane's - Maplewood, Visited July 2019

It was my pick for lunch and I thought I would pick someplace we had heard that our recently employed son visited quite often, the Raising Cane's location at Big Bend and Manchester in Maplewood. We wanted to see why it was he spent so much of his generous salary on this one establishment.

When we arrived we did not realize we had, in fact, arrived on National Chicken Finger Day, which meant little to us since we were arriving after 11 a.m. when they stopped giving our free chicken fingers. So instead we would have to order and pay for our own chicken fingers. I decided to order the Box Combo so I could try a little of everything.

We were able to grab a corner booth where the five of us could comfortably sit. The dining area seemed clean and well kept, and it did not take long for our food to be prepared so we could go pick it up. My box combination contained a generous helping of fries along with my chicken fingers, texas toast, cole slaw and sauce. The chicken tasted fresh and was tender with a crisp coating without too much flavor to it. The sauce added a lot to the chicken, being a tart, pickle heavy thousand island type sauce. It was a good sauce similar to the Freddy's fry sauce, but the Freddy's Jalapeno sauce definitely tops it. The fries were also pretty good, staying firm and crisp and also went well with the dipping sauce. The toast was not very flavorful so, that's right, I dipped that into the sauce too. The cole slaw was not too bad, with a crisp, tartness that my non-vegetable eating son actually ate. My mother-in-law also ate much of her cole slaw, and when both my son and mother-in-law eat the same thing, it must be pretty good! My wife noticed they only have fountain soft drinks and lemonade for beverage items, and would have preferred iced tea. She was also not impressed with the texas toast.

One of the employees actually came around to ask how everything was, and I had to admit it was not too bad. I am still not sure why my son goes there as often as he does, but for a place specializing in chicken fingers, the food is well prepared and flavorful. They do give you a good variety and volume of food in the Box combo for not too much money. I probably would not go out of my way to go there, but the food is good enough to eat on occasion. I personally would prefer to go just a little further down Big Bend and hit Yummi Tummi instead for sushi, ramen or a sandwich. But Raising Cane's is still a reasonable place to go for a consistent, generously portioned, well prepared and moderately priced meal.

Food Quality, Value, Service, Cleanliness