Raising Cane’s (Grove City)
1944 Stringtown RoadOne last meal before heading home.
My co-worker and I had a pretty long day of work in Columbus a couple of weeks ago. We got moving around 7:00 AM and it was bout 7:00 PM that we were packing up for the day and heading home.
She had a job in Detroit before meeting me in Columbus so we had separate cars. It didn’t make sense for us to drive around in two cars all day so we left her car back at the hotel in Grove City. Once we were done for the day, we headed back that way to get her car and go our separate ways home.
I dropped her off around 7:30, got gas from a nearby Speedway and saw a restaurant across the street for dinner. We don’t have many Raising Cane’s in Michigan (there is one in East Lansing) so I jumped across five lanes of traffic to get some chicken fingers.
Raising Cane’s restaurants are all over the Columbus metro area. The one I stopped near the corner of Stringtown Road and Gantz Road in Grove City just to the west of the I-71 interchange. The area is very heavily commercial with a number of chain restaurants and big box store shopping.
I’ve only been to a Raising Cane’s one other time. It was when my in-laws still lived in the Chicago suburbs. We grabbed lunch from the store in Oak Lawn one afternoon. There’s not many Raising Cane’s around us so that was the one and only time I’ve actually eaten their chicken.
I was kind of in a hurry so I was a little annoyed to see the drive thru line wrapping around the building. I decided to just park and go in hoping it would be faster.
Raising Cane’s isn’t any different from any other fast food restaurant. You order at the counter and wait for your name/number to be called.
The dining room is also pretty typical and like most fast food places nowadays, not really used for anything more than waiting for your order.
There was one person in front of me when I walked in so I quickly made a decision ordering the Caniac Combo. It costs right around $15. I went to fill up my drink at the Coke machine and I thought I heard my name called pretty much immediately. I wasn’t sure but another person waiting said they thought the order sitting on the counter was mine. I looked at the ticket, saw my name and sure enough, it was. I was in and out of the restaurant in about five minutes.
The Caniac Combo is quite a bit of food. There are six chicken fingers, fries, Texas toast and coleslaw.
The fries were kind of on top of everything so I started in with them as I returned a phone call to my mom while sitting in the parking lot. The fries are simple, run of the mill crinkle cut fries. They were fine. Nothing wrong with them but nothing special about them either.
I still didn’t go for the chicken next. I was still on the phone so I grabbed the Texas Toast. This simple piece of thick cut bread was actually really good. It was just toast but it was good toast.
I finally got to the chicken and it’s not hard to see why people love Raising Cane’s. It’s really good chicken. It’s not really anything unique. It’s, for the most part, breaded chicken tenderloins but they’re really juicy, really tender and that breading is crispy and delicious. The chicken pieces are very big. Each one is maybe two bites but they pack a lot of deliciousness in to those two bites. There is a tangy dipping sauce that comes with the meal but I don’t think you really need it unless you really like the sauce. The chicken is super tasty on it’s own.
With the expansion to East Lansing, the hope is we’ll start seeing more Raising Cane’s around Michigan soon…at least that’s my hope.
Fast food chicken has become all the rage the last few years. There are a lot of places that do sandwiches well. There are places that do nuggets well. I would love a spot that does strips like this…and I’m sure my kids would too.
SW Michigan Dining 