Raising Canes is a fast food restaurant that has just recently moved to New York, and my friends and I decided we had to try it. Hailing from the great state of Louisiana, Raising Canes is best known for its legendary sauce, the “Cane’s Sauce,” and frankly, not much else. According to Twitter users, the sauce is “undefeated” or “addictive.” As a professional judgy eater, I was sure that I could provide a comprehensive review (with the help of my friends Hana and Abi) for all of you New Yorkers who may be curious to try it.

The store itself has a welcoming exterior lit up with red neon lights, which is very attention-grabbing and slightly unusual in the middle of Astor Place (the location we visited). The inside reflected the same vibe, complete with a disco ball. We went inside and ordered the “3 Finger Combo,” which is a box with three chicken fingers (the restaurant’s only form of chicken), one piece of Texas Toast, fries, a fountain drink, and one container of the renowned Cane’s Sauce. To cover all of our bases we also ordered a Chicken Sandwich and an extra container of sauce.

The total came out to approximately $23, which we thought was on the expensive side for a fast food restaurant. After we ordered, I barely had time to fill up our fountain drink before the food was ready, but we went around 4 pm so we can’t promise the service will be as fast at any time of day.

Finally, it was time to get into the food. Since Abi is a vegetarian, Hana and I dove into the chicken fingers. We thought they were a little soggy and would benefit from that extra crispiness, but we also agreed that the quality of the chicken itself was better than we had expected, as it was moist and tender. As for flavor, the chicken finger as a whole was basic (it’s not heavily seasoned) but was not necessarily lacking taste. The crinkle fries were nothing special; not particularly crispy either but at least they were well salted. As a french fry connoisseur they neither disappointed nor garnered particular attention. The Texas Toast tasted just like any other brioche bread but was not as buttery as we would have liked it. And to get into the worst thing we tried by far, the sandwich. Our first bite was incredibly dry and bland, and all I could taste was the bun that was definitely not toasted. The sandwich consists of three chicken fingers, a few leaves of lettuce, some more sauce, and the bun. The only thing in the sandwich to help you not choke on the dryness was the sauce, which unfortunately was pretty scarce.

After one bite Hana adamantly declared “mid” to which I fervently agreed. All the ingredients combined were just a recipe for dryness. We proceeded to remove the chicken from inside the sandwich and eat it by itself.

And finally, our opinions on the legendary sauce? We’re sorry to break it to you but not so legendary, and certainly not worthy of being submerged into, as another Twitter user claimed. We all agreed that we liked the sauce, nothing bad about it, but nothing extremely special either. It’s a little sweeter than we expected but could benefit from some spice. In a nutshell, not mind-blowing, and definitely not worth the hype.

As for our favorite thing we tried (which we give a 10/10) the soda and ice are a must. The soda fountain machine had a sublime pebble ice where each pebble was lightly pressed together, leaving you with a snow-like sensation when you bit into it.

So, will we be going again? Probably not often… Although, you should probably take everything we say with a grain of salt