What's All the Fuss About? (Fast Food Related)

[soccerdad72]

I think all the "favorite" fast food places are really a regional thing. We recently got In-and-out burgers here. Lines for days. We waited for the hubbub to die down. We went.... meh.. burger. Chick-fil-A is here as well and there's always a line. There are some fast foods from the midwest that I miss (we just got a Culvers!)

Mmmmmm, Culver's!

 

[mjkacmom]

I’ve never had it (a new one oped 5 minutes away, the next closest is 15 and im not going that far for fast food which I very rarely eat). I recently tried Popeyes, not bad. Never tried Taco Bell.

 

[Christine]

I think all the "favorite" fast food places are really a regional thing. We recently got In-and-out burgers here. Lines for days. We waited for the hubbub to die down. We went.... meh.. burger. Chick-fil-A is here as well and there's always a line. There are some fast foods from the midwest that I miss (we just got a Culvers!)

I'm from the East Coast so no In-N-Out here. I have gone twice on my trips to California and don't get the craze. I mean it's not bad and surely, I find they have good prices, but meh.

 

[tvguy]

We have a few Korean Fried Chicken places nearby. Since trying it I don’t like regular fast food fried chicken as much. I will get Popeyes on occasion as I work almost next door to one. We also get chicken at a small local place as they have a gluten free one and DH has a gluten sensitivity.

Like I said, I am not a chicken fan, but we have a Von's Korean Chicken restaurant less than a mile from our house and their chicken is amazing.

 

[tvguy]

I like the texas toast at Raising Cane's but yeah...their chicken was flavorless. According to my husband it's really only decent if you use the sauce but I'm not a fan.

LOL. Canes is known for being the spiciest chicken you can buy. But yes, I hear the sauce is what it all about there. My son loves spicy food and their hot sauce brought tears to his eyes.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Cane's is spicy?! I just had the chicken fingers and there was basically no spice at all, from what I can recall. It's been a few years though. I'll have to look the next time my husband gets them. Though he typically brings them home, add spices, and pops them in the oven for a bit. So I really don't think they are spicy. Unless there are specifically spicy ones listed on the menu. If so, I definitely didn't get those. I don't actually like spicy things. But I do like the breading to have some kind of seasonings.

 

[Stargazer65]

I'm really not a chicken sandwich person, or a nugget person for that matter

That's why you don't see the fuss IMO. They make a pretty good original and spicy fried chicken sandwich and nuggets. If you don't really like those two things, I don't recommend it. I only go there for those two things myself and don't really consider the other menu items as being anything special. I don't think waffle fries are any better than French fries. (Albeit my wife likes the frosted coffee and would go there just for that)

They other thing that they have is friendlier customer service and nicer dining rooms than the lower tier fast food joints (which are like going to a prison cafeteria).

 

[brockash]

OK, so I've just had my first-ever taste of Chick-Fil-A. They are slowly opening a few stores in Canada; ours took almost 2 years to actually launch. They opened about a month ago and DH decided to give it a go today for lunch. The drive-thru line was down the block and it took him 45 minutes to get through. He chose a mixed-bag of grilled chicken club sandwich, regular nuggets, spicy chicken strips and waffle fries. Very, very underwhelming. Not sure what I expected but there's absolutely nothing about that food that's rave-worthy. It's fine, but just. I can't see us going out of our way to go back.

What am I missing about this iconic place?

We generally choose Chickfila over any other fast food chain. - The food almost always tastes fresh (unlike many other places we go to), but honestly above all else for me is the customer service. I have almost never had anything other than at least good customer service from them which is way more than I can say for a lot of other places. Honestly it gives me a little taste of the Disney customer services. The older I get, the more I appreciate and have way less tolerance for anything but at least good/courteous customer service.

 

[Christine]

We generally choose Chickfila over any other fast food chain. - The food is almost always fresh (unlike many other places we go to), but honestly above all else for me is the customer service. I have almost never had anything other than at least good customer service from them which is way more than I can say for a lot of other places. Honestly it gives me a little taste of the Disney customer services.

As I said upthread, my son used to work there. Jokingly he's say that they pretty much beat them into being friendly and they were all coached on how to respond and treat customrs. Nothing wrong with that. It is all very rehearsed.

Second, and I don't know if it's true, but much of the food is cooked ahead of time and not to order BUT the chicken strips are the one thing that not cooked until ordered.

 

[MGMmjl]

My late uncle worked at the Chick-fil-A corporate headquarters, and retired pretty high up a few years back. Growing up, we got quite a few free chicken sandwiches and nuggets!

Lately, we haven't eaten at Chick-fil-A much. The town we live in doesn't have one. We do plan on going to a neighboring town's Chick-fil-A in December one night when Santa is there. The last thing we ate there was the limited-time honey pepper pimento chicken sandwich. We really liked it! It looks like it is back for a limited time, and hopefully they will still have it next month when we eat there.

 

[dizneegirl]

LOL. Canes is known for being the spiciest chicken you can buy. But yes, I hear the sauce is what it all about there. My son loves spicy food and their hot sauce brought tears to his eyes.

Raising Cane's isn't spicy, and only has one sauce. Definitely NOT spicy.

Now, Zaxby's wins for me as far as chicken "fingers" (strips) and sauces.

 

[tvguy]

Raising Cane's isn't spicy, and only has one sauce. Definitely NOT spicy.

Now, Zaxby's wins for me as far as chicken "fingers" (strips) and sauces.

Never been but their website says they offer the following sauce options.
1) Canes Sauce
2) Honey Mustard
3) Hot Sauce

All are said to be made fresh daily in store.

 

[dizneegirl]

This page? https://www.raisingcanes.com/full-menu/

Maybe you have something different in California. I've never seen anything but the Cane's sauce that's listed on the page above at any of the Cane's I've eaten at.

 

[Moliphino]

I am surrounded by three Popeye's and I never go. I used to go all the time but the restaurants now seem so poorly run, dirty, and the employees are horrible, I just don't. We had a new one open last year and I wanted to try it again but went back in and couldn't even get waited on. Not sure what the deal is here.

There's one Popeyes near my work that has been a ****show every time I've been there. The food was still good, but it was always slow. I did an online order once, showed up and they had no record of it at all and everyone seemed confused. I showed them the order on my phone and they did get it all for me, but I had to wait a while. I've avoided that one since then. Been to three others in the area with no issues yet.

 

[prairie_girl]

Mmmmmm, Culver's!

Man, Culver’s is so good! There’s a zero percent chance it crosses the border and comes to my province, but it would be insanely popular if it did.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Man, Culver’s is so good! There’s a zero percent chance it crosses the border and comes to my province, but it would be insanely popular if it did.

I just had Culver's for the first time recently and really liked the burger and onion rings. It might become my new guilty pleasure instead of Runza. Ha!

 

[brockash]

As I said upthread, my son used to work there. Jokingly he's say that they pretty much beat them into being friendly and they were all coached on how to respond and treat customrs. Nothing wrong with that. It is all very rehearsed.

Second, and I don't know if it's true, but much of the food is cooked ahead of time and not to order BUT the chicken strips are the one thing that not cooked until ordered.

I changed it to tastes fresh since I haven't worked there so I really don't know if they have everything cooked and sitting out before you order. What I can say is that 100% of the time it tastes much "fresher" than any of our other fast food places.

As far as the customer service, yes like I said gives me a lil taste of Disney customer service...all very rehearsed and trained to be that way which is what I appreciate.

 

[jdb in AZ]

The only time I bother to go to Chick-fil-a is when they have their peach shakes. That's worth a trip, but their chicken sandwiches are just meh.

Raising Cane's is popular around here and their chicken is juicy but I don't care for the sauce, and their cole slaw is nasty.

 

[DodgerGirl]

Back in the 80's our mall in our city had Chick-Fil-A and my family and I ate there when I was little but recently Chick-Fil-A returned to our mall and when they first opened Mom and I tried Chick-Fil-A and we couldn't figure out what the big deal was about it. But our Chick-Fil-A always seems to have long lines and how they remain number one i'll never figure out. But they seem to be bigger than McDonald's and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen

 

[sasywtch]

What I like and most people I know is the chicken isn't a pressed together patty but real chicken. (sandwich). In and Out to me isn't so special but it does taste fresh. I would have loved something like this when my kids were little. Nothing like going to a fast food place with little kids and them having 50 items to choose from.