Fine Dining - Raising Cane's: Reviewing the Whole Menu, the Insane Drive-Thru, & No Knives!

Episode Date: July 15, 2026

🐔🍟 Raising Cane's Review: Amazing Sauce, Terrible Sandwich, and Where Are the Knives?! 🍟🐔 This week, D'Angelo Reyes and I finally put Raising Cane's to the Chili's Test. We order literally everything on the menu, from the famous chicken fingers to the sandwich, fries, slaw, Texas toast, and naturally it comes with the yummy yummy Cane's Sauce. Some items deliver...while one leaves behind the most unpleasant aftertaste I think I've ever encountered from simple produce. 🍗 We Try the Entire Raising Cane's Menu 🥣 Bury Me in a Vat of Cane's Sauce 🍟 Crinkle-Cut Fries Are Pretty Solid 🥬 Lettuce So Prominent, You Don't Even Need to Eat it to Taste It 🧂 The Chicken Fingers Are Good, But Imagine Them with Seasoning 🚗 One of the Worst Drive-Thru Designs We've Ever Seen 🖼️ The Quirky Decor Keeps Things Interesting 🔪 How Does a Restaurant Sell Sandwiches Without a Single Plastic Knife?! 🎢 D'Angelo's Best Meal Ever Comes from a Theme Park While His Worst Features Transparent Sushi 💬 COMMENT BELOW: Is Cane's Sauce enough to make up for the lack of seasoning on the chicken? 📢 SUPPORT THE SHOW & JOIN THE COMMUNITY: 🎉 Patreon (Bonus episodes, extended Yelp segments & more): patreon.com/finediningpodcast 💬 Discord (Food talk, memes, cursed Yelp): discord.gg/6a2YqrtWV4 🎥 Watch full episodes: youtube.com/channel/UCLbraNhL6KhDPkdSWt2yiuw 🔗 All links: linktree.com/finediningpodcast 🎤 Guest: D'Angelo Reyes | IG: @dangelo1260 Patreon Producers:Sue Ornelas, Joyce Van, & Robert McLaughlin Patreon Subscribers:David Ornelas, Kellie Baldwin, Jeremy Horwitz, Herbert Amaya, Simone Davalos, Scott Bennett, Amy Reinhart, Josef Castaneda-Liles, Travis Langley, Jewell Hermann, & Michelle Elmer Free Patreon Followers:Joe Warszalek, Lauren Cummings, Grace Krainak, Keri Estes, Robert Duran, Patrick Elliott, Dave Plummer, Nicholas Volney, Michael Gerard, Tracy Molino, Phuong Duong, Tyler Robinson, Brandon Gully, Mason Cruz, Michael Milito, Mez, Aaron Hubbard, Steff, Renae Michael, Crystal C., NiZ, Science Broe, & Jahid Ahmed 👉 NEXT WEEK: I dive into the history of Five Guys with Seif Rahoumi. 🍔🏆

Is Raising Cain's the best chicken chain around? The cane sauce is so addictive, I'd take the tax penalty to cash out my 401k if it meant I could have more of it, but their drive-thru looked like an MC Escher pattern. The sweet tea is so good it feels like a hug from your mother, but the bathroom is so bad, it feels like a hug from your father. The disco balls on the ceiling set a mood of, we like to have fun here, but their chicken sandwich had the most prominent lettuce taste I've ever encountered. I've often said that the smaller the menu, the higher my expectations.

Does Raising Cains live up to that principle, or are they going to find themselves in the doghouse? Let's find out together, this is the Fine Dining Podcast. Hello there, welcome to Fine Dining. I'm your host, Michael Ornellis, and this is the podcast that you're uses Chili's, the most mediocre restaurant in America, as a point of comparison to measure a restaurant's quality. Worse than Chili's? Not a good place. Better than Chili's, objectively good. By the end of this episode, we'll answer the question everyone was wondering when the Undertaker's K-Faib brother tore the door off the hell in the cell at Bad Blood 1997, is Raising Canes better than Chili's? Today, we're going to tell you everything that was good, not good,

and just there about our meal at Raising Cain's before we give it a score. And joining me today to discuss Raising Cain's is an incredibly talented friend and performer who can be seen performing at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles as part of the show Sing Out Louise. He's got the voice of an angel, a love of theme parks, and the look of someone who smokes cigars all the way down to the nub. It's DiAngelo Reyes. Yeah, see, that's correct. Very correct explanation. I feel like I only picture you with a fictional cigar in your mouth at all times. I very much appreciate that and that I have been working for years to build that reputation.

So thank you so much, Michael. Thank you so much. Like a pinstripe suit, a bowler hat and cigar. Like you give Chicago mobster vibes. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do. Yeah. Eating a chicken. That was going into a, mm, yeah.

Thanks for coming on. Yeah, thanks for having me. We picked this place because, uh, one fateful night, it was both of our meal of choice. And I was like, we should do this together for a podcast. And we did. And we had a very enjoyable meal. Absolutely.

I spent more time with you at Canes than I've spent at like actual sit down experience. We hung out for like three hours. Yeah. Which is very nice. Yeah, we talked shop. Talked a lot of fun stuff. A lot of fun hot goss. The hot goss at the Raising Cains in Burbank is Pinnacle.

The amount of fascinating conversations I've had not about chicken there are uncountable and are wonderful. Genuinely crazy if you're going there just to talk about chicken. Never. Yeah, you're not going to there to talk about the food. You're eating the food as a gateway to do something else. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Amazing. Well, that was one of the good elements.

Why don't we just dive into talking solely about all the things that we liked at this Raising Cain's? Everything that was good. The atmosphere was an element that I liked. I had never been inside of a raising cane. Oh, I didn't know that. Or at least I hadn't been in one since the one I went to probably 10 years ago in Austin. And I don't really. I remember that one took over an old Taco Bell.

So it was kind of soulless. I don't even remember a disco ball in there. Yeah, I want to be surprised. I mean, a lot of the newer locations are a lot nicer. started kind of doing that, being very consistent. So that might have been a weird little anomaly. Yeah. But it's a weird, like, Raising Keynes is such drive food, like drive it, not driving, but

drive through food. Like, drive through, eating your car when you're sad food. That whenever I actually get the opportunity to be inside. What do you eat in your car when you're happy? Or do you not eat in your car when you're happy? I don't eat in my car when I'm happy. I'm usually sitting down or with people or cooking. Sure.

When I'm happy, I'm cooking and I don't cook that much. Oh, no. So there's not much opportunity I usually get to sit in Raising Cane, so it's always fun to do that. And it's kind of weird. It's a little weird. Yeah. What, inside? Yeah.

Yeah. Like there's like Charlie Brown and Snoopy-esque drawings of the founder with Raising Kane, his dog. Yeah. Shout out to Canes 1 through 3. Raising Canes 1 through 3. It still bothers me so much to have a verb in the name of your dog. They also abbreviated on the portrait, too. They call the portrait Kane 3.

Yeah. So I'm like, okay. Like it's okay for you to do it, but we have to call him by his full name. Yeah. Unbelievable. Her. Yeah. Kane's two and three.

I know we're girls. I don't know if the first one is. Yeah. She, her dog. Yeah. But it's got a fun, like, weird, eclectic Super Bowl vibe to it that is so off putting, but when you're there, you get it. This was also decked out in like soccer promos.

Yeah. Because the World Cup's going on, right? now outside there was like a cardboard standee of one of the team USA players wearing like a canes jersey and then inside they sell cane's soccer ball can't jersey like they're going all in on world cup stuff that's actually crazy because i didn't notice a single like i didn't notice the merch they were selling and i kind of wish i got one yeah because that's really funny i mean i i mostly remember from their their super bowl ads and they're whenever the super bowl comes around they make it all you know, football themed.

Yeah. And then sometimes when they have their artist collaborations, it suddenly turns into that. And it's they keep up to date with their theme. They're like rethems and their brand promotion. But at the same time, it's still very came. I mean, that's kind of a cool shout out to their marketing department. But they did a good job. There's one other thing that I didn't go into in the eat deeds last week.

And I didn't see one in the restaurant yesterday. It doesn't mean it wasn't there. I just didn't see it. they occasionally do charity releases of plush raising cane. Oh, cute. And they're always like different. And they're fundraisers for like animal shelters and stuff. Oh, that's lovely.

I wish I had one. And then the Elvis. Yes, painting huge in this location. Like if the original one was to cover up a hole in the wall, there must have been an entire wall missing for how big this Elvis sign was. Yeah, it is in it's not just like a little. like, I don't know, 12 by 18.

It's like a full portrait. It is very overpowering. Yeah. Yeah. Much like Elvis himself. A home home chicken. You get. And apparently the founder was like a huge Elvis fan.

So that's why Elvis specifically. If I had a restaurant, the equivalent would be, I'd probably have like a Freddie Mercury. Fun. Yeah. That'd be very fun. Yeah. And then there's also like plaques on the wall that like tell the company's story. You noticed one right behind me that told the story of the original.

bakery sign that was found behind the wall that they then used to inform how their logo looked. Yeah, there's, Keynes's decor has a little bit of a kitch to it, which I do like. And not like, they love their gallery walls and their little, you know, fun fact signs. And I think that's very, it's entertaining and it's very unique. Like, I'm not seeing that at McDonald's. I'm not seeing that at Taco Bell. Not anymore. Yeah.

Again, I want like a big PVC grimace. Yeah. Bring back the play structure. for adults. Yeah. McDonald's after dark. I want a tunnel in a ball pit of a very disgusting ball pit. I know.

When you think about like what communicable diseases you can encounter in that playplace. Can I talk food and offerings now? So funny enough, my first thought whenever I am either thinking about raising canes or thinking about it lovingly, I love their sweet. sweet tea. Their sweet ice tea is like it is the most sugary thing in the world, but it is so good. And just like, that when it's 90 degrees in the summertime is and they're like their little crushed ice. Yeah. It's incredible. It is a solid out of 10, like a solid nine out of 10 for me. I have never had ice tea.

Wait, really? Yeah. I have only had like hot black or green tea ever. I first had iced tea at a Disney World at a chicken restaurant somewhere in like Disney Springs, their version of downtown Disney. And it was so good. And I was like, okay, great, I'll never get anything better than this. Then I went to Keynes for the first time and it was better. Yeah, I liked it better. I'll say this. I'm not a big like tea person in general.

I don't love like the tea flavor. I accidentally, all right. A thing that can ruin a food or a drink for me is when I expect it to be something else. I genuinely really enjoy Sprite and I also really enjoy water. There have been many times at a restaurant where I have both in front of me and I go to sip one expecting that it's going to be the other. And I'm like, yuck! That's awful. And I think the expectation.

So I had a can of brisk once a sip when I was in like elementary school and I was expecting a soda. because it was a canned beverage. And because it tasted so different from my expectation, it ruined the idea of being excited about iced tea for me ever again. Okay. So is it less hate and more just like, I'm not interested? Yeah, kind of. And like, here's the thing. I would. I've just never been like, it's just never caught my eye.

But I would absolutely have iced tea. Yeah. I just don't want ice tea. Absolutely. I think there's a special. time and place for a southern sweet tea. And I think they do a relatively good job. And I'll say this is having had actual southern sweet tea.

It is a lot better than Raisin Crens of Sweet Tea. But if you're in California and they don't have good sweet tea, I think it's one of the better sweet teas out there. Okay. So it's worth it. Again, if it's super hot. And it really works when the weather is so disgusting. And you just need like something that isn't just water, but it's a little like, oh, I have a headache. Maybe I need some sugar.

And it's great. It's great. I also feel like if I'm trusting, like if I'm going to have sweet tea or iced tea for quote unquote the first time, I'm going to a place that sells Southern Fried Chicken. Very, very fair. To me, that just feels like the place that would have it the best. I would probably go to Gus's.

Oh, yeah, I got to try that. Which you have not had, but they seem like the type of place that would just crush it with ice. I'm probably sure they can sell it there. Yeah. So for me, Honestly, almost all of the food made it into the good category for me. Same here.

Kane sauce. The thing that I avoided the first time I went to Keynes and was like, you know, about the whole experience, this was the best part of the experience, I thought. The downside to it is there are so few foods on your plate that everything ends up tasting like the sauce. Yeah. So it's very powerful, but you dip the fries in it, you dip the bread in it, you dip the chicken tenders in it, coleslaw, you take a bite of and you throw it away. I don't get the coleslaw. I replace it with either fries or toast. You do double fries.

But like I got the slah just to literally get everything. Like we had everything on the menu. Yeah. And it's six things. It's sauce, bread, fries, slaw, chicken tender, chicken sandwich. Their menu also is just variations of how many you can get. Yeah. And those variations, I can get to later, but they can determine my mood of when I buy it. What's also funny to me is like the Utah Post Malone Raising Canes location, you can get it like Post-Sway or whatever.

Oh. And all it is is just the number, like their combos are just how many chicken tenders come in that. Like, you know, you go to Wendy's and it's like Baconator. single chicken sandwich. It's like each number on the menu corresponds to a different item. And this is the same item in different amounts. And to get it post Malone's way is like two pieces of toast, fries, no slaw, four tenders. That's what I get.

I am post Malone. And it's like, oh, and an extra cane sauce. Yeah. This is what I get. Yeah. And so it's just like it's not that creative. Yeah. I guess to be like, this is a secret menu.

thing or what you know but honestly if it's that good then it works yeah you know what I'm saying the cane sauce uh zesty is the word I would use to describe it yes and I have been called zesty in my life as well um but yeah I agree I'll say it's a nine out of ten sauce yeah that's I it's a very good sauce I and again as as we have both come to know as former sauce haters or I honestly still hate a lot of sauce one of the few sauces I actually I'm averse not a hate but like I'm a hater yeah Full hater. But like I actually like cane sauce.

Yeah. I would drink it. Okay. I would never drink a sauce. Oh, yeah. I got on a honey mustard recently, too. Honey mustard has been my, like, latest obsession. I love a honey mustard.

Cain sauce and then honey mustard for chicken tenders. Oh, my God. Yeah. I'm seeing God. Yeah. Bread fries and chicken tenders are all in the good for me. Does that ring true to you? I agree.

And I want to hear about your. Do you have them specifically ranked? Are they all in the same? They are all so similar in score. I thought of those three, the fries are the best part yesterday. I thought they were too salty. My fries are at the bottom for my three of these. Yeah.

But they're crinkle cut fries. There's an interesting oily after taste. And one of the Yelp reviews I saw was basically like, are you trying to kill people? Everything here is done in peanut oil. Peanuts are a thing that, like, you got to advertise. that it's in because people can die. And I do think that's fair. That's fair.

But I do think that that is kind of the uniting, interesting flavor that you taste across the tenders and the fries. But these have gone up. Every time I have cane's fries, I'm like, these are solid. Yeah, absolutely. And I like them enough to say they're a seven and a half. I'm not like raving about these fries. Yeah. But they're consistently an enjoyable part of the experience to where I'm like, I could not imagine not getting the fries if I'm at Keynes.

Yeah, I definitely am in your same boat. Like you mentioned, though, I think specifically when we tried it, my fries are very salty. And I've had varying levels of how good their fries can be so that I place it at a solid, like, blocked seven. Because I think they're better than a lot of other fries out there at other fast food or chain restaurants. specifically they're good they're so the best when you order it in the restaurant to go not to go not to go right right right when you eat it dine in yeah that's when it's great it lowers and gets worse when you leave it in the box for too long and it gets soggy not great and that's kind of the case across all fries exactly what name a fry that survives that and i i don't think i can maybe

mcdonalds but no macdonalds get soggy on their own yeah they get floppy they don't even need to be in a steam bag. I will say maybe I'm just a freak who can enjoy a McDonald's soggy fry. A little freak. I know. A little bit. But the variation of salt levels, so the raisin canes fries, does keep me a little on the lower side,

especially when I get them too salty, but then they'll sometimes I'll just be having a bad day and I get to order this and they're perfect. Yeah. Mmm, they're so good. I've also realized that sweet and salty are two things where my tolerance is higher than other people. Oh, sure.

where like a thing where people are like, that's too sweet or too salty, usually I'm like, this is the sweet spot, baby. Like, this is where I want it. Yeah, absolutely. Which is not good for me, I guess. Hey, you got to have some joys in life. But I like it. Yeah.

I'm not going to shame you for that, Michael. Thank you. Of course. The bread. A take on Texas toast. Maybe it's not real Texas toast, but it's a take. It's very buttery. Yeah.

And I mean that from a, not like, greasy standpoint, but from like literally the flavor is like hit you in the mouth with butter. Yeah, you can see the layer on top when it's like, and it looks so beautiful. Which you always should. Yeah, it's a beautiful gold. It's like that's, that's a color you can color pick right there. Yeah. Right amount of crisp.

Yeah. They always toast it, uh, literally perfectly. Yeah. Uh, this would kill with garlic on it. Oh my God. Ah. Ah. I haven't even thought about that.

How? What? To me, all it does is makes me think of garlic bread. but like inferior. Oh, I want that so bad now. Oh, my God. If this was a garlic bread, this is like the best thing in fast food. Oh, that would be incredible as garlic bread.

But they don't do it. Yeah. But it's a shame not at some. What a damn shame. But it's, yeah, it's so pretty good. So I went seven out of ten on the bread. Yeah, I agree. I put it a little higher at like a 7.4.

Okay. But yeah, around there. You can't commit to a 7.5. I can't commit to a 7.5. 7.5 feels too divine. In good conscience, I could not. Yeah, because I do like the chicken over the bread. Yeah.

Yeah. And so then speaking of the chicken, look, their one thing is that they are consistent with these chicken tenders. Yeah. I, the amount of variance of all the times I've ever been to Keynes, their chicken tenders are, I know what to expect. And it pretty much always delivers at that. Yeah. They're consistent. They're a little flaky.

I wrote, burns the roof of my. mouth in a chemical reaction way. Again, I think that's the peanut oil. Because it's not a spice thing. It's not a heat thing because I waited a little too long to start eating it. But it just felt like it feels like I have like a 1% peanut allergy. I'm a little concerned about that. And the roof of my mouth is just like letting me know.

Yeah, I will say at least for me whenever I want to order it to go, it is so hot. So hot. Which is it's hard to eat when you get it in the box. But when you get it dined in, I guess it just cools off. I mean, maybe it's... Because it's an opening air. Yeah. Yeah.

I wish it was seasoned. Yeah, I do too. There's some part of me that enjoys, because it's like it's the paired with the sauce that really makes it. But then I'm like, what if we just add it a little more? Well, because like, Dave's hot chicken, seasoned, and they have Dave sauce. Oh, that sounds great. A little extra seasoning would really go a long way and really... Extra season.

Any seasoning. Any, yeah. There's none. There's zero seasoning on this. This is the most, like, a white person made this food. Yeah. I was going to touch on that because I'm like, whenever I tell friends about raising cancer, I was like, oh yeah, it's so bland.

And I'm like, yeah, it is. But sometimes I'm just looking at like shovel something. And it's easy to do that with. The fries are good. Like to me, to me, this is a good like, yes, so what kind of meal. It is. And I say that and give it a good rating. It is also like he said very, it is like gentrified soul food.

Like, that's essentially what it is. Yeah. And like for being. California. I'm like, okay, whatever. Cool. Right. Anyways. That's, I'm not going to get the theory.

If that's what reaches me here, I'll have it. Yeah. And I'm sure if I just opened my eye, it looked, like, turned to my head, I can find something better. To be fair, chicken tenders are pretty universal. Yeah. Chicken tenders are very universal, but seven out of ten. And that's seven out of ten on the thing that they've like, this is what we do. Yeah.

And I think, if you really want to, like, cross over into that. next tier of restaurant, you got to be hidden at like eight, eight and a half on like the thing, the thing that your restaurant is about. My rating for the chicken itself isn't that much higher than the bread. It's like a seven point seven because sevens look like chicken. And I don't feel good about putting it at eight. I know. I truly don't.

Eight is too high. I feel like a chicken looks like a one. Seven has a beak. Is one with a beak? If I found a beak in this food, I would be mortified. I would be surprised. You could find a beacon in chicken nuggets. Yeah.

Not in chicken tenders. Do you have anything else that you want to mention in the good? I think that the guy serving us, like the cashier, very friendly. Oh, yeah. A service there is always pretty good. Like, as good as it can be with underpaid like 20-somethings who live in Los Angeles. And they do good job. And I feel so bad for them when it's like deep in the summertime and it's 90 degrees and they have to stand outside because it's so busy.

I know. And they just have like one fan. It's inhumane. And it's also like you have an intercom. You have a window. Yeah. Why are we doing this? I don't care if I have to wait a few extra hours, hours.

Quote unquote, quote, quote hours. So someone doesn't pass out by heat exhaustion because they had to get my chicken order on time. Yeah. Like is fast food not fast enough? Yeah, like I can stand that and I want to be in my car. It's okay. Turn on your radio and listen to one song. You'll be fine. Yeah, I can listen to all of Hamilton in the racing game line.

It takes the entire show. Act one, act two. And you take a real-time intermission. Full three hours, a full three hours. You're like, you're waiting for your chicken and they do the thing where they like blink the lights to be like, hey, act two starting in three minutes. I'm going to get back to my front seat in my car. It was in the back. Yeah, but there's services.

the rest of the service. Exactly, yeah. Their service is always good though. And I really, I can never find, like fault them for that. Yeah. It's just very friendly. I like to find. Sometimes it gets too busy and I can tell they're freaked out and I sometimes get a wrong order. But I'm like, I'm not the kind of guy to be like, okay. Hold on. How do you get a wrong order at Keynes? I know. Even the wrong order is the right order. I know. They have so few things. By wrong order, I mean, I got my usual. They gave you slaw instead of double fries. Yes. Yes. I've gotten a lemonade other than a speech. two once and I literally went, I have to go back. I went back in the drive-thru line. I wasn't too busy, but I waited. You wouldn't park and walk inside? And then I, no, I fully went back in the drive. Diva. I went to the person that was taking orders and was like, oh, no, I just need to return

this. I got the wrong drink. And they were like, okay. I kept going around. And then I got up to the window. And I was just like, can I, I ordered a sweet tea. Here's the receipt. have a lemonade. Can I give this back? They're like, well, we can't take it back. So we'll give

you a sweet tea. So I just had a full lemonade and a sweet tea. I don't really drink a lemonade. And by this point, you've listened to all of Hamilton and all of dear Evan Hanson. Yeah, it's all gone through. And I'm fully just doubling two drinks. And that was that. And I did. Did you mix them? Did you are an old palm it? I did. Yeah. And it was really good. Did you do it to get the right quantity? You put a straw in each and you just, I wish I did that. That's a very funny and I probably would have tasted better. But I just, I mixed it in a separate cup that I owned.

Like a 7-Eleven big gulp that you brought home? Yeah. I do love one of those. All right, well, that's all the good elements for me. That's all of them for you? Yeah, pretty good overall. All right. Well, now it's time to complain. Let's talk about everything that was not good about this raising cane.

This is not so good. I'm not quite sure about. It could have done without it. Something brings down the moon. I think we have the same opinion about what the worst thing here was, the chicken sandwich. Which is like, is it a chicken sandwich or did you stick a couple tenders on some bread? And lettuce. Yeah.

This is just tender's lettuce sauce and bun. Evil. Bun was decent. It was a different bread from their Texas toast. I didn't hate the bun. But you can't offer a sandwich on your menu and not have plastic knives in your restaurant. Yeah, it was wild. So I'm like, hey, I want to cut this sandwich in half.

And they're like, here's a plastic fork. And I'm just like stabbing, stabbing, stabbing, stabbing, stabbing, stabbing. Jamming it in like a patient. Like a patient. You'd be a terrible doctor. And that's why I am not. And so I like carve this thing in half. It looks terrible.

I give you the kind of the more presentable half. I appreciate it that. Thank you. Realize when I bite it, I got none of the lettuce. The only ingredient here that's different. and the other things. I got no lettuce in my little wrapped up bite. Yeah. And yet, the strongest taste in my sandwich was the lettuce. Yeah, absolutely. It was bizarre. How? How? And the aftertaste was lettuce. I didn't eat lettuce. Lettuce just touched the bread and chicken that I ate. Yeah.

That shocked me because I did eat the lettuce and was like, yeah, very lettuce forward. I'm genetically different now. Something that I was under the assumption that you had it because I had so much and I was like, this is weird. And I like, and there was chicken in there. I did bite chicken. Yeah. Barely tasted it. How?

How is this lettuce so prominent? Yeah. In like insane on a scientific level. I don't understand how, but unenjoyable. Yeah. It falls into a category of sandwich. or burger that really, really rubs me the wrong way that I like to call soggy sandwich. Yeah.

And we actually had a debate that I'm sure we can not debate, but a conversation about soggy versus wet. Yes. Listen. You love a wet food. I love a wet food. You're like a cat. I like a cat.

I love a wet food. I'm like a dog and a cat where I love a wet food because at least you can like eat it. You can at least eat it and it's relatively easy to digest. wet is different than soggy wet knows what it is and doesn't need to retain shape soggy is something that should retain a shape and should be solid

and is failing the job and is failing it's so gross the sandwich was like soggy with the sauce and listen again love the sauce but it was just it was all sauce and all lettuce

and I'm like it's disgusting it had like an oil on the outside of the bun yeah so I don't know if it was that peanut oil or whatever it was, but it was shiny. It like, it dripped, like, you could do that. And it could all just like, like, come out.

It was like a, like a pubescent teenager's face. Yeah. It was oily in that kind of way. Oily like a placenta. It was a gross sandwich and especially because like a chicken sandwich to be a patty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. Was that normal to think?

No, I think that's absolutely the proper expectation. Yeah. And it's not a patty than like a really relatively flatter like piece of fried chicken. three and a half out of ten on the sandwich for me. Yeah. I would honestly. Not like terrible, but like definitely a disappointment. Yeah.

I'm also a big hater of like sandwich buns so that it brought me down to like a solid like 2.3. We didn't do it yesterday, but the drive-through experience. Yeah. I felt nervous from my parking spot while I was waiting for you to get there. I was like backed into a spot. Terrifying. And I was close enough to the drive-through that I was just watching. Like, the fact that the outer ring is for the people that are continuing on, and the inner ring is where you pick up the food.

And then when you leave, you have to cut through the outer ring. Everyone has one exit. It's like a, it's like the letter Q. Yeah. It is so fascinatingly disturbing and honestly, incredibly dangerous. Yeah. The amount of times I've seen people like either get hit, almost get hit, or run over pedestrians. It's so weirdly designed.

I don't know if it's bad. It's just bizarre. Yeah. I mean, I think it's a definitively not good thing. Yeah. Yeah, you can do anything else. Yeah. You can do anything else.

Describe the bathroom. Hmm. Because you said, I'm going to use the restroom real quick. Then you came back four seconds later. I want. Having given up. Listen closely. And if you're listening to just to an audio version of this, listen to the sound.

to the sound of my voice. You just ate a huge chicken meal, and you're full of carbs. You walk to the bathroom. A man is in front of you already, walking into the bathroom. You open the door. It is 10 square feet with a urinal and one stall, and someone is washing their hands. Someone is using the urinal. Someone is using the stall, and the man that was in front of you is waiting for the

stall. I look inside, and there's a lock coat on the door. So I look inside and go, I'll go at home. Here's the thing. My game plan is 100% of the time I'll go at home. Yeah. I do not trust a public bathroom.

Absolutely not. And no like business is putting any care into the brand or durability of toilet paper that they're letting you work with. Yeah. So it's just like, what do I want? Half-ply toilet paper. It was a frighteningly tiny bathroom and I've been to bathrooms in New York City. And, like, those are tiny, but, like, you get it. This was, like, you're raising canes, get bigger, get bigger.

Honestly, I'm sure the women's bathroom was nicer. Like, which is you, like, you gave post-Malona restaurant, and I can't even shit with dignity here. Yeah, just make it, honestly, I have another hat take. I think every bathroom should be all stalls. Like, I hate urinals. Yeah. Like, unless, unless it's, like, I'm pissing with my friends. Don't make me pissing next to strangers.

Pissing with the boys. If I'm not pissing with the boys that I know, don't make me piss with strangers. Give me a stall. Give me a stall. Give me an extra big stall. Give us a handicapped stalls for our disabled friends. And then we're good. And give us multiple.

Or just make bathrooms genderless. It doesn't matter. Anyways. I don't think I like the bathroom. Yeah. I'm gathering that. Yeah. And I didn't experience it.

So I cannot corroborate any. You could have lied to me. It was just like a medieval fun. Oh yeah, and it wasn't themed to the dungeon either. It didn't have like a drawbridge to enter. That sounds fun. I will say, though, a very, very quick note. The city walk Raising Keynes bathroom is pretty good.

Yeah, it's normal. Cool. And big. That's all I have to complain about. Is there anything else negative for you? Yeah, I will be so wanting Raisin Cains, and it'll be so good eating it. And then by the time I finish it, I will feel like absolute garbage.

And is it worth it? Yes. But do I immediately have to either go to the bathroom, take a nap, or like run? Yes. Because it does something to my body where I literally like, I feel like, like, it's awful. Yeah. It feels so awful after I eat it. But it's like, it's like it was worth it.

It was worth it for the drink. Sure. So. Okay. That's what my rating plummetes because of the like, Hangover. There's a Raising Keynes hangover, truly. And I very truly and luckily am not as affected. Good.

But I think it's because, and this is terrible. Oh, no. I think my baseline is so bad that my body doesn't know what it's like to feel good. Oh, my God. So it's just like, oh, I had canes. and I feel like I always do, which is for me, normal, therefore fine. Yeah, I mean, there was a moment in maybe like two or three years ago where I was eating canes a lot more than I am now. Yeah.

And I'm glad I stopped and I brought it down. I brought down my like, let me treat myself to canes to the three one. Yeah. The three finger combo because I always used to get a box combo and that honestly helped me feel a little bit better after you. Have you ever gotten a caniac? There have been times when I have. And that's how you know when it's like, ooh, he needs it. Or if I like I didn't eat all day, it's like Korean barbecue, where you just kind of not eat all day.

It's what, six fingers? Six. Is that two pieces of toast? You get two sauces with it. Oh, okay. And you get one toast and a bunch of fries. I reserve the Kaniak combo for like tech week of a play. Or it's like, I'm in it for something and I need like, I need the energy.

Need is not the ever the. Yeah, I mean. You do not need six chicken. That's the thing. You want it. You're trying to treat yourself. An alcoholic needs a drink and it's not good for them. I need raisin canes and that's not good for me.

Great. So that's, I don't know if that's a great comparison, but you know what I mean. All right. Well, that's all the elements that are not good for you. Yeah, I would say that and then just like the variation of like types of, let me get, let me get to you so quick. The very, the various types of like, um, restaurant quality. Sometimes they're really gross and like really busy. But like this one.

Yeah, this one specifically is such a mid-tier location. It was pretty low traffic when we walked in and then by the end, pretty busy. Yeah, the Burbank Raising Cains is either populated by sad film bros or a bunch of high schoolers. Yeah. And there's no in between. Yeah. It's very, very strange. It feels like you're not on earth when you're there.

And is that a good thing or a bad thing? I'd argue it's a bad thing, which is what I'm talking about it. But like, sometimes you've been looking for a weird time. Okay. All right. Well, that'll do it for everything that's not good. Yeah. Let's go to lastly the things that were just there.

This is a weird one. I sure what to say about it. The stuff that is just. The coleslaw. Slaw is Slaw. A Yelp review said it last week. I've said it before. I think Kohl Slaw is just a food that could never in its wildest dreams score more than like a six out of ten.

I have never liked Kohl Slaw. I've never eaten Kohl Sla. and that is the extent of my opinion on it. I have become fine with coal slaw. This slaw was slaw, five out of ten. The only slaw I've ever had on an Ike sandwich. I don't mind slaw in a sandwich. In a pulled pork sandwich or something like that, I am totally fine with slaw.

But that's it as a piece of a larger entity. Agreed. On its own, it's whatever. Slaw is slah, slah, slah. Slaw. Is there anything that was just there that you want to talk about? or is that everything. They had chairs.

Okay. We need to put all of this together into a score and rate raising canes. But before we can do that, I've been doing this a long time. I've gone to so many spots. I'm calibrated. You are not. Nope. So we're going to get you there as we jump into this week's calibration station.

Calibration Station. Comparing this meal to the best. The best calibrations Sting done Chuggah chugga chugging chugging chuggy chuggy choochoochoochoochoo ch-choo-choo-choo-choo. DeAngelo, uh, the best, the worst. A 10, a zero. The best restaurant experience you've ever had,

the worst restaurant experience you've ever had. You can start with whichever one you like. The best restaurant experience I've ever had was at a restaurant called Atlantic, which is a theme park restaurant at Epic Universe in Florida, Universal Studios, Florida, is their new theme park Epic Universe. It's a beautifully themed, like, turn-of-the-century seafood restaurant. It kind of looks like the Titanic, but then the ceiling has a bunch of, like, mechanical fish that swim around. Like in a steampunky way? Steam-punky, yeah, steampunky. And then everything's very wood-paneled, and there's huge windows

that overlook the entire center of the park on a beautiful waterfront. So the environment, that was one My favorite place is to dine ever. And I say this too because the food was so good. What did you have? I had the greatest lobster roll I have ever had in my life. And this live at theme park friend group that stands by this, it is so good. It melts. It's on a very, the text, it's in kind of like a cold lobster roll.

Hot lobster roll. So butter. Yes. Okay. Melty butter. Yeah. Oh, God. Not a mayo fan.

No, no, no, no. Cold lobster roll. I was in Maine a week and a half ago. Oh, yes. Yeah, because they do both types. There's like the traditional and then there's the classic, which are like two variations of the same word. But there's a hot lobster roll, which is like Connecticut style with hot butter. And then there's like the main style, which is cold with like a little bit of mayo.

It shouldn't be a ton. I just realized. And I had the best lobster roll. I've ever had at a place called Beals in Acadia National Park. Oh, yeah. Or just that sounds really good. And it was incredible. Anyways, I had a really good cold lobster roll on Fisherman's Wharf.

in San Francisco. And I mean, I'm from that area, so it was like I finally tried one. And I had a bird shit on me afterwards. And that was like, yeah. But I stand by this Atlantic restaurant's lobster roll. It was so good. And especially for theme park, food, you're like, okay, what am I going to get? It was, I can't even like, it rivals some, like, really fancy restaurants that I've gone to.

And it was just delicious. And just the right amount, the bread was kind of a borderline Texas toast that it was in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that what the Connecticut style is? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It was delicious. And it had a nice little side of the melted butter.

And it was in this really cute octopus metal stand. Love that. And I think about that. I had that last year and I can't stop thinking about it. All right. Delicious. And then your worst? The worst restaurant experience I've had also a little more recent, maybe about two years ago.

I went to an Asian fusion restaurant, which already not a big fan of Asian fusion. I'm like, pick one. Pick something. You're doing Asian fusion because you're not good at any other. them. They don't be like, dick it. Commit. It was an Asian fusion restaurant in Irvine, California that I went with my mom.

And my mom and I love to get sushi together. We love, I credit my mom for being, my mom's a little bit of a foodie. I'm not the biggest foodie, but she loves going over like really nice restaurants, spending money on that stuff. And we love going to Japanese food together. She and I go to this Asian fusion restaurant because a lot of things are closed and we're like, what's open? We kind of have a sushi craving, but it mentioned yourself is closed now.

It's kind of late night, maybe 11. 10 or 11 is late in Irvine. And we go to this restaurant and it's very like Vegas. But with like, like Vegas meets Oriental. And I'm like, okay, whatever. This is already kind of a weird place. And I'm like, whatever. And I order sashimi.

The best sushi I've had in any normal Japanese restaurant or a normal sushi place, it's like maybe about two or three inches thick of like salmon. And it's so good. And it's juicy, can be buttery sometimes. But like, it's good. Sashimi. I order Sashimi here and it is like a translucent like dollar bill thin sushi is the type of food where if the color is off, I'm not touching it. It looked weird and I'm like, it can't be that bad. One of the worst meals I've ever had. That and then like I ordered a shrimp

tempore. Everyone kind of knows what shrimp tempora is. I get popcorn shrimp, fried popcorn shrimp on my plate. And it's like trying to be like half tempore shrimp, half like the shrimp that's on a povoi. And I'm like, what are we doing? What are we doing? And it tasted so bland and so bad. And that double combo of popcorn shrimp and thin as paper, transparent, not even translucent, transparent, flat sashimi. Away, close it. Yeah.

Get rid of it. Burn it. how dare you how dare you stand where he once stood it? It no longer does. You burnt it down? I burnt it to the ground. It has mayor. All right.

Well, somewhere between a cute octopus squirting butter on your sandwich and salmon so thin you could make it rain. Yeah. With a stack of them lies yesterday's meal at raising canes. Yes. So we are going to put it to the chili. test. This meal isn't the worst, is it the best. Let's put it to the Chili's test.

This meal yesterday was, I'll say, a step up from the walk-up window that I have to experience, which isn't like a knock on it or anything. But like dining inside of this canes, the atmosphere, which I take exception to the fact that several Yelp reviews were like, it's fast food. has no atmosphere. No, they actually put some level of vision into what it must be like to dine in this restaurant.

Yeah, they have it there for a reason. It was relatively clean. It was like, you know, nice wood, which I'm a wood boy. You know,

I like good wood. Absolutely. And disco balls? What? Style. Style. I just, I like that thought

had been put into it. And even if it, it's homogenous to all the other raising canes. I like that there was thought. The food itself has been like a go-to for me. So I knew what I was getting. I wasn't expecting any variation. And then lettuce.

Mm-hmm. A giant mark against this meal from what could have been a very solid fast food place that has no misses on the menu. Maybe some like underwhelming, but like nothing that like misses. to like one thing where I was just like, I'm never getting that again. And it's a chicken sandwich and it's a chicken place. Yeah.

That should not be missing that hard. Yeah. The sauce is the star. And for people who have never been to raising Keynes or have been and haven't tried the sauce, go again and get it with the sauce. That is what the place is about. If you don't like it then, then your opinion is accurate and true to you that, Yeah, maybe, maybe Keynes isn't for you.

Keynes is becoming more and more for me. I think it is better than an average fast food restaurant or even just restaurant in general. If Chili's is the bar, chilies can be a very stressful environment where all ingredients are the same just shaped differently. Canes is a simpler version of that and sometimes simplicity is better. I'm not so far as to call it good, but it's on the high end of average. Raising Cains for me, 5.84. Raisin Cains is like, it's like America. It has so, so many fundamental problems.

And yet there's so much joy if you really look for it. And there's so much fun and innovation. and just an industry there's so much good that can come from it and also we can leave you feeling real bad so I think it falls

delightfully in sort of a middling area where I think it can be good and there's so much potential where it can be and it just chooses not to do any of that and you know what if it works for it it's fine and fine doesn't mean good but it also doesn't mean bad it's just fine

The restaurant experience is a lot better than their drive-thru. Their drive-thru is a horror show equivalent to the backrooms. And I don't wish that upon anyone, but if I need to do it, I will do it. The food itself, not the worst. Like I said, is a lot higher than my overall rating is going to be. And yet it leaves me feeling so awful that it will lower this overall rating. And I stand by that that kind of, for me, makes it at a much higher 6.23, which is wild with some of the other. ratings you have on here. But I stand by that. I stand by my rating. This is your show. And you can

rate. You can rate these however you want. It is crazy to me. All of these are a democracy. All of these are the average of two people's opinions. Like I can't fathom raising canes. My rating are raising canes being higher than the Olive Garden because I truly do love the Olive Garden. But I have to live with that. I have to live with that. So 6.23 is my rating. You also have to keep in mind that each restaurant gets one shot. And if there's a mishap, you're not speaking for every raising canes you've ever had. You're speaking for yesterday's raising canes that you had. And look, the best way to get ready is to stay ready.

That is so true. So if you have an off day, that speaks for your brand. And if that's the day that I went, your score is lower, maybe than others feel it should be, but you should have stepped up. And that's happened to some of the places that maybe have scored lower than people think. Beautifully said. But when you put your score together with my score, Raising Cains goes up on the

Chotchkey of mediocrity at a 6.04. That feels so good. That's great. Yeah. Which means it is officially. Better than Chili's.

Better than Chili's. I need to go somewhere next week. Oh, I'm going to reach into You must bowl. That's there the entire time. I was wondering what that was. And we're going to see next week on Fine Dining. I will be going to...

Five Guys, Burgers, and Fries. Thanks so much for joining me. It's been a delight having you on. Absolutely. Tell people where they can follow you on socials. Yeah, you can find me at at DeAngelo, 1-260 on Instagram. Do a lot of improv around L.A., so check us out. Do a lot of theaters.

so I'm around. I'm, yeah. You can find me in the greater San Fernando Valley. Yeah. Just pissing. Pissing with the boys. All right. And you can follow this show on Instagram and TikTok at Fine Dining Podcast.

You can join the Discord server if you want to chat with me or tell me how you felt about DiAngelo. I want to know. Yeah. How do you really feel? And with that feeling, vote for me as mayor of L.A. America and the world. And maybe the galaxy.

Ooh, I should think bigger. You should think bigger. The galaxy is good. Yeah. Because they always say change starts not locally, but on a very macro scale. On a galactic level. Amazing. And then if you want to support the show, I do have a Patreon.

I give you an exclusive episode every month. Extended Yelp from Strangers segments. You can download the songs from my Olive Garden musical, my cracker barrel wrap, my chilies wrap, all of that stuff. And every dollar supports the show. I appreciate and love every single one of you. That's another one in the books. Thank you so much for listening.

I'll see you next week. Have a fine day. Well, there's another one in the folks. We judge the service up to the cooks. And while we may have gotten a couple of dirty love, never stop that from the bottom down to the top things on life. And that's because chilies to be. I'll be charged

folks and we will see you next a week and next a week, baby. Have a fine day.