There is a new chicken spot in town! Some may know that Shaquille O’neal has opened up a chicken spot here in SCV called Big Chicken. The restaurant is located on Magic Mountain Parkway near Target and offers dine in, takeout, and local delivery. The menu includes a variety of chicken sandwiches, unique sides, a number of desserts, and etc. Instead of just reviewing the meal, I thought it would be best to have it a competition between the very popular Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers. 

Firstly, I tried the famous chicken finger at Canes. I’ve already had Canes and one thing I must note is the small menu options. Customers can only choose from chicken fingers, fries, sandwiches, and Texas toast. While this may be a problem to some, I found it beneficial to the flow of the drive through and the dining experience as it is easy to order and obtain your meal due to the lack of options. The initial taste test was amazing as always and their special sauce really added to the overall taste of the fingers. I enjoyed how fresh the chicken tasted and the yummy buttery toast. The environment was clean and inviting and the restaurant itself was fast paced. It is clear to me as to why Canes is so popular and I would recommend it to everyone. 

Picture credit: Wikipedia.com 

I visited Big Chicken yesterday and ate while tracking my honest review of the meal. I ordered the classic sandwich “M.D.E” and fries just to keep it simple and tried a little bit of every sauce. The sauces included: Shaq Sauce (which is also on the bread of each sandwich), Smoky Memphis BBQ, Spicy Chipotle BBQ, and Carolina Mustard. My initial reaction was the size of the sandwich compared to the price. My meal was about $15 and the sandwich and amount of fries was pretty small. The taste of the chicken was good and was seasoned well but, I just couldn’t overlook how much the meal was for the amount of food I got. Like come on it’s called Big Chicken!  The fries were also pretty disappointing as they were super thin and flat, luckily  everything dipped in the sauces made it much more enjoyable. I wasn’t able to try any of the desserts but they also sell huge cookies and exotic shakes and desserts that I would go back and try. The restaurant itself is very cozy and open for anyone who wishes to dine-in. Overall, the food was tasty and I would definitely give it another try to taste test the other menu options. I would give it a try if you haven’t already and who knows maybe you’ll get a chance to meet shaq first hand! 

All in all, the silent competition between various chicken spots has always been evident, in my opinion I have to give this competition to Raising Canes. The Scroll asked some students around campus their favorite between the two and the consensus was Canes over Big Chicken by a longshot with 90% of students choosing Raising Canes. It is also my favorite by far and has notable differences from Big Chicken. While Big Chicken was great, the overall experience and quality could not trump the great taste of Canes. Now it’s your turn, try the spots and give The Scroll your best review!