Hello everybody! I am so sorry that it has been sort of quiet here on the tender front. In case anybody was wondering, I do have other things going on in my life besides eating chicken tenders. I have been rather busy and haven't gotten a chance to post here lately. But alas, here I am and I am finally ready to give my thoughts on some chicken tenders.
A week ago today I was able to try the chicken tenders at Olive Garden. I was out of town in Manhattan, Kansas, so I wasn't in full Double Tender mode. I did take some notes of my findings though. It is because of this that my review of OG's tenders will be a mini review. I didn't take any pictures either, so please bare with my mind. I will try my best to extricate my thoughts from a week ago.
As I am sure most of you are aware, Olive Garden is not known for it's chicken tenders. They deal mainly with Italian foods and such. That did not stop me from searching high and low on their menu looking for signs of tenders. Thankfully though someone very dear to me who works there gave me some tips. She told me that there are chicken tenders in the appetizer section. Excited, and ready to put my mouth on OG's tenders, I ordered the 3-choice appetizer. I chose calamari, fried zucchini, and chicken tenders. This put a dent of $10.75 in my wallet (pre-tax/tip).
Once I received my platter the first thing that I noticed was that there were only 3 chicken tenders on my plate. I didn't expect very much since this was an appetizer plate, but only 3?! What if I wanted to share my tenders with other people? I would have to split them like 10 different ways. In addition to the tenders, there were my other two choices and marinara and peppercorn ranch sauce.
True to my methods, I tried eating the tenders without any sauce. I was very wary because these tenders looked like they had been frozen in an igloo and then set outside in the sun to thaw. They were light brown with some tiny speckalage. My teeth broke through what looked like a dead fish wrapped in a tiny brown coat, except that the fish had no tail. The white meat was tender, but it did not taste that great at all. I knew without a doubt that if these tenders had any hope, it would be with the sauce. I first tried dipping a tender in the red marinara sauce. The taste improved but my satisfaction level did not. I tried the peppercorn ranch dip as well, and this only slightly helped. Even with a name like peppercorn, these tenders could not be eaten with much enjoyment.
As I said before, Olive Garden is not known for its tenders, but I still decided to give them a try to see if they are even worth getting. My final answer? Do not get these chicken tenders. If you do get the appetizer plate, get anything but the chicken tenders. You can get better chicken tenders in the frozen food aisle at any grocery story. I would only get these tenders if there were no options at all anywhere in the vicinity. But even I, Double Tender, would rather order something else than ruin my mouth with these tenders. Even though this is a mini review, I give these tenders a final score of 1. Only 1.0.
Olive Garden, if you ever want Double Tender to enjoy your tenders, you will need to put WAY more effort into making them instead of buying them from Jewel Osco. I know that sounds harsh, but it is reality. I want for you to have delicious tenders. I want for them to be so crispy and succulent and a joy to gnash upon. I want tenders everywhere to taste amazing, but that will never happen. That is why I have taken it upon myself to discover where the best tenders are hidden. That is my mission.
I was able to try Red Robin's chicken tenders last Friday, so I will be posting a full review of them very soon. Stay tuned for that, and thank you for sharing in my love of chicken tenders. I hope that you have a crisptastic afternoon. It is beautiful outside here in tendertown, and I hope that it is nice near you. Tenderize!
Wow, thanks for the warning!!
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