Food review | Laurel Street Special: Raising Cane’s more passionate about chicken tenders than you will ever be
“Raising Cane’s has one love: quality chicken finger meals. It’s our one love.”
The three-piece chicken sandwich combo is one of two Meal Exchange Plan options offered at Raising Cane’s in the Laurel Street Dining Center.
Nick Bonadies
Spectrum Editor
Bob Marley might have been proud of Raising Cane’s, whose employees sport brightly colored visors with “ONE LOVE” stamped on the front.
Exactly how much pride Mr. Marley, as a vegetarian, could have invested in an establishment that almost exclusively deals in chicken tenders is debatable, but let that pass.
Raising Cane’s stakes out unique territory among its Laurel Street – IHOP Express and Croutons, Salads & Wraps – before swipes or foodstuffs ever change hands by its mission statement, displayed with humble orange pride to the left of the register.
“Raising Cane’s,” it reads, “has one love: quality chicken finger meals. It’s our one love.”
Whether toward school, money, love, family or, yes, chicken fingers, ours is a society that admires a strong sense of priority. And Raising Cane’s doesn’t just proclaim its priorities on a – it shows it, too, in its food.
The processed chicken parts and sliced potatoes served here are unpackaged, thawed and by some means reheated with as great a conviction as you’ll find anywhere on VCU Dining Services’ Meal Exchange Plan.
In both of the meal swipe options (one involves Texas toast, fries and three tenders; the other involves fries and three tenders in sandwich form) the fries are tucked snugly into the smaller styrofoam tray partition, while the tenders are arranged – perhaps – in the larger.
For added delights, either request extra ketchup or get your own from the IHOP Express station; be aware, however, that perhaps no number of ketchup packets could ever measure up to a single vat of Raising Cane’s “Special Sauce.”
Insider’s tip: You can, in fact, refill your Raising Cane’s soda at IHOP Express.
This Commonwealth Times food review is the last of three courses in the Laurel Street Special – extensive review and commentary of the new dining options in VCU’s Laurel Street Dining Center, served up by the most qualified and discerning of CT gourmands. Appetizing as these reviews have been, the CT staff advises you save your swipes for finals week and eat with your family this Thanksgiving.
Photos by Chris Conway
