Tenders: 1/20/13

For my second visit in the hunt to find the best chicken tenders in Charlotte I decided to go Tenders, a restaurant that is technically in Cornelius, NC (but it's close enough to be considered in Charlotte). I mean, I could not do a comprehensive study on chicken tenders and leave out a restaurant known for it's chicken tenders solely because the location does not have a Charlotte address. This time I went on my adventure with my friend Alex (who by the way has a blog of his own...http://readerdude.blogspot.com/) who had come up for the long weekend. I told him about my quest and he wanted to join in, so off we went to Tenders!

The outside of Tenders...I never would have guessed this place even served food.

Tenders is a local business that seems like it is family owned and operated. I found this rather large and unassuming restaurant (at least to me when Alex and I were passing by it) because my good friend and coworker Carolena recommended it to me. After Alex and I got over our surprise of the outside look of the restaurant we went in to find a simply decorated business establishment. You could tell that the owners of Tenders do not care about having fancy decor or an flashy outside...they care only about cooking chicken tenders (and a few other dishes...but chicken tenders is obviously the restaurant's forte. After we placed our orders, we found a table in a quiet corner and took in our surroundings. Tenders has a very family friendly atmosphere with very affordable prices...too bad it is not located in a college town because it would easily be the place to go for a quick bite to eat. We were sitting for about 5 minutes before a member of the staff (who were all very pleasant and attractive) called my name over the loud speaker. Luckily Alex has really good hearing because while the restaurant itself is not loud, the speaker does not seem to work that well. Anyways, now it's on to the review.

 My dinner for the night.

Batter and crispiness: B+
-I thoroughly enjoyed the batter on these chicken tenders. It was crispy, flavorful, and the amount did not overpower the chicken. My only complaint was that the chicken did not taste like it was seasoned before the batter was applied, so therefore the chicken did not have much flavor (I feel like if the batter was tweaked then the chicken would have had flavor). However, the chicken tenders were still quite tasty.

Tenderness/juiciness of chicken: A

-The chicken in the chicken tenders was very tender and juicy. I had no complaints about this aspect of my meal.

Portion size/presentation: A

-One of the first things I noticed and liked about the menu is that for your dinner you can order a 3 piece, 4 piece, or 5 piece chicken tender meal. Not only that, but one of the side items is another chicken tender (each one costs $1.35 extra each). I really liked the variety in meal sizes and the fact that you could make your meal as big as you would like (a big plus if considering taking some back for another meal later). Also, I really liked the presentation of the chicken tender dinner being in a basket with the chicken tenders on the top and a lot of fries on the bottom.

Options for side items: B

-The options for side items were pretty varied in nature, which I liked. The options are fresh cut fries, fresh blueberry slaw, and apple slices and dip. So kudos for including sides that are salty, sweet, and healthy. The reason I gave the side items a B was because I know that some people would rather have chips or onion rings with their chicken tenders.

Reheating: B

-The chicken tenders from Tenders reheated pretty well, but the fries did not heat up as well. The tenders tasted almost exactly like they did when I first had them (except not as juicy, which I expected), but the fries were no longer crispy which left them almost soggy.

Description on menu: 
-Fresh Tenders Meal...Crispy chicken tenders with choice of homemade sauce, fresh cut fries or coleslaw and beverage. $6.99 for 3, $7.99 for 4, or $8.99 for 5 chicken tenders

Side item: 
-For my side I chose the classic french fries (how can you go wrong with the combination of chicken tenders and fries) with a side of homemade ranch. The ranch was very good and you could tell from the use of spices and the consistency that it was homemade. However, I was not a big fan of the fries. When Alex brought our dinners to our table we noticed that some of them were a little cold. Also, some were crispy while others were placid and a too smushy. When it came to the seasoning it did not seem like typical french fry seasoning because it was too sweet. The pluses for the fries were the various sizes so you could tell they were homemade (which Alex really appreciated) and I liked how some of the fries had the skin on them. If I go back to Tenders then I might try a different side.

Overall, I would give Tenders a grade that one of my favorite teachers at Elon University, Tom Nelson, loved to give his students, a B+/A-. As he would say (and I'm paraphrasing here) it wasn't quite A- work, but it is better than a B. The batter was flavorful and the chicken was juicy, both very important aspects of good chicken tenders, but the chicken just did not have much flavor. Also, I have heard raving reviews for the restaurant, so I think my grade reflects on that as well. However, Tenders gets points for never freezing its ingredients, having pleasant employees, and using high quality ingredients (hormone free chicken products and whole potatoes for the fries). For a restaurant that prides itself on chicken tenders, I felt like they could have been better. I will most likely go back to Tenders, but seeing as it is over an hour away from where I live, this will probably not be a regular stop to satisfy my chicken tender craving.

And now ends another review. Thanks for reading and until next week....

LB