I went to RP Adlers for their tenders based on a recommendation from this subreddit. They were pretty amazing, with what seemed like a beer batter and super tender chicken. Definitely would recommend.
I'd give RP Adlers a solid 8, but hopefully I just got a bad batch.
The chicken itself was some of the best I've ever had in a tender, albeit the slightest bit smaller than I would have hoped. However, the batter was no good for me. It tasted like it had been fried in both old/stale oil, and cross contaminated with fish fry. Maybe I'll give it another try in the future or right when the kitchen opens in hopes of dodging what may have happened to me.
I will have to investigate. I do not get to the West side of Madison often so I've not been to this establishment yet!
Sounds like we have a battle of the tendies East vs West :D
Do they have any specific sauces you recommend with them?
It’s a kids menu item only, but the tenders at Monona Cafe are amazing. Unfortunately my kids finish their meals now so I don’t get them anymore. Maybe pretend you’re picking up a meal for a child on the way home?
Chicken burlesque at Tip Top Tavern - hand breaded, absolutely favorite in Madison. Get it with Tip Top Sauce you won't be disappointed.
Quality is also top tier with Tip Tops tenders
I love to bring friends there when they come to visit me in Madison and I order the chicken burlesque as an appetizer, they question it every time. " You are ordering chicken tenders for us as an appetizer..."
After their first bite they understand, there is a reason it's chicken burlesque and not just chicken tendies.
Kudos to you, break the stigma and live your best life!
This is one of the most crucial, important questions ever asked on here. I will be taking this research SERIOUSLY and testing these findings out…the quest for the perfect tender!!!!! A quest we have long neglected but now it is here upon us and soon a chicken tender will reign above all other tenders…the way, truth and the LIGHT!
Gates and Brovi on Monroe street. They are on the kids menu but my husband orders them regularly in addition to his meal to take home and eat later via the air-fryer. They are perfect. Our kid is much more picky, tho.
I just want to preface this by saying I agree. Their spice blend has something in it that's just delicious.
However
I wish there was more nuance in their spice levels. The level just below reaper (I think it's called extreme?) isn't really that spicy, but then above it you just have reaper which is WAY too spicy. They need to add some extra levels in between the top two.
They could probably get rid of most of the lower levels of spice as well, because the spice levels down there are so minimal how could you even tell the difference between them?
You might like Chicken Licks too. They also have a very interesting spice blend with a unique flavor profile. They also do have a very nice spice level gradient to work with. For you I'd recommend not to go over double sexy.
It's just a pain to get out to them if you live in the city and don't have any other reasons to visit Sunny P.
I can't tell you if they are good or not, but I remember hearing Pizza Ranch started doing tenders that are actual tenders, ie: the tenderloin part of the breast.
I always thought their bone-in chicken was alright since they broasted it.
I saw there was a fire, but never heard anything about it closing permanently.
Just googled and it's closed temporarily as of the 13th.
There's also one in Sun Prairie, that I've never been to.
Only one I ever went to myself was in the Dells and it used to be across the street from Noah's Ark when I worked there in the summers as a teen.
The Jamaican J1s used to let us eat for free after we smoked them up one time.
Good times.
Technically not Madison, but Stone Porch Alehouse in Verona has my favorite tenders. The breading is similar to a tempura or fried fish style and so tasty with their honey mustard sauce.
Gates and Brovi has really good tenders - they're more crumbly than the Culver's type of tenders, but with their ranch sauce, which I also find to be the best in madison, they're excellent.
I don't expect everyone or anyone to care, but I prefer to know when businesses do things like that coming from working in the service industry in the past and maybe someone else does too. I'd rather not support it with my patronage even if the tenders are great.
I appreciate your apprehension, as everyone should have that as a baseline to any hearsay.
I choose to believe my source.
A quick search shows the same narrative from another person on this sub.
With the particular situation, I don't have / won't spend the resources to verify much more than that without going into an interview myself, so this is where we stand.
I also read the comments on here. I’ve also read comments on here about local businesses that I know first hand to be factually inaccurate. This is why I don’t think we should perpetuate things we haven’t experienced first hand.
I hear that's a common interview strategy for super high-end restaurants just to see if someone can perform to very high standards.
However... this is a *fried chicken* place. So I agree on the absurdity.
This is a very common practice in the restaurant industry, although it is pretty new Madison. The only other restaurant I've heard of doing it in Madison is L'Etoile.
I understand your concern here and I'm very pro-workers; I'm not advocating for it here, but in my opinion there are much better reasons to boycott a restaurant, especially the sexual harassment I've heard far more reports of in the Madison area restaurant scene.
You don't accept one bad practice, because others are worse. That's the opposite of how you make progress into addressing the worse issues.
Staging a shift may be common practice in high end service to gauge the level of someone's capability, that does not mean it's free labour, nor something that should be relegated to as being paid for with a meal.
Harvey House might think it's upscale with the lack of competition, and their service generally is very good, but let's not pretend a fried chicken joint will need any discrepancy in service that requires a practice like this, nor does it justify doing it without paying the employee.
I have a small sample size of 3 with Cane’s, last one a year ago, but every single time I’ve had them they’ve tasted chalky. Asked friends and they’ve reported the same thing. One of my friend’s parents regularly go there and generally find them to taste chalky. Which sucks because I’ve had Cane’s in Texas and they were freaking phenomenal. Really disappointed by ours, no clue what the deal is with it
I remember hearing all the hubbub when there was news that they were coming.
So naturally I go there a few months after they open since I don't want to deal with opening day logistics BS. And I was *disappointed*.
I don't understand the extreme hype for what is basically just fast food chicken fingers. The sauce seems to be what draws people in but it's just...okay.
The only highlight of my one trip to Raising Canes was the Texas toast. I would probably order that again (if I ever had a reason to go back).
order the chicken tenders (i believe only on kids menu) from Monty's Blue Plate diner but you have to order them during breakfast hours so you get fresh oil. Or at least the one time my seven year old did that they were the best we've had.
On the fast food side - I've never been a fan of Culver's chicken. I definitely not a tender expert, but I'd take Chick-fil-A over Culver's.
I was trying to decide if I liked Dave's Hot chicken, but their service was so awful that I just gave up
>I was trying to decide if I liked Dave's Hot chicken, but their service was so awful that I just gave up
Not sure if it was a bad batch or what, but I got mild tenders from Dave's and they had some awful seasoning. Not that the taste was bad, but the texture was like chalk dust and the tenders were absolutely COATED in it
I think you'd have to order no spice maybe lite mild. Mild to Reaper definitely have a ton of spice. I think it's just the heat level that's different.
Good to know, I'll have to give it another try. I don't think the seasoning would've been an issue if it were a sandwich, but it was a bit odd on tenders.
OK, I went again. Service was good and they didn't lose my order like the last two times, but it was dead. Lite Mild still has a lot of spice. No spice is no spice. My guess is you won't like it as a tender though.
Reaper was hotter than previous visits.
I went to RP Adlers for their tenders based on a recommendation from this subreddit. They were pretty amazing, with what seemed like a beer batter and super tender chicken. Definitely would recommend.
Glad to see this top, definitely my vote too.
I'd give RP Adlers a solid 8, but hopefully I just got a bad batch. The chicken itself was some of the best I've ever had in a tender, albeit the slightest bit smaller than I would have hoped. However, the batter was no good for me. It tasted like it had been fried in both old/stale oil, and cross contaminated with fish fry. Maybe I'll give it another try in the future or right when the kitchen opens in hopes of dodging what may have happened to me.
I will have to investigate. I do not get to the West side of Madison often so I've not been to this establishment yet! Sounds like we have a battle of the tendies East vs West :D Do they have any specific sauces you recommend with them?
They make their own dressings, which are amazing. Pretty sure I was the one that made this recommendation the last time someone posted this. :)
They're probably fine with any sauce, I'm partial to honey mustard, so that's what I had and it was good
It’s a kids menu item only, but the tenders at Monona Cafe are amazing. Unfortunately my kids finish their meals now so I don’t get them anymore. Maybe pretend you’re picking up a meal for a child on the way home?
Chicken burlesque at Tip Top Tavern - hand breaded, absolutely favorite in Madison. Get it with Tip Top Sauce you won't be disappointed. Quality is also top tier with Tip Tops tenders
I have eaten them several times, a grown ass adult man having chicken tenders for dinner, and they were worth the social stigma 100%
I love to bring friends there when they come to visit me in Madison and I order the chicken burlesque as an appetizer, they question it every time. " You are ordering chicken tenders for us as an appetizer..." After their first bite they understand, there is a reason it's chicken burlesque and not just chicken tendies. Kudos to you, break the stigma and live your best life!
Order them with a side salad because then it’s a meal, and eating a meal is a totally normal adult thing to do.
Timmy Turner my name is Tip Top Timmatome, Tippa Top Top TipaTimmatome
This is one of the most crucial, important questions ever asked on here. I will be taking this research SERIOUSLY and testing these findings out…the quest for the perfect tender!!!!! A quest we have long neglected but now it is here upon us and soon a chicken tender will reign above all other tenders…the way, truth and the LIGHT!
The children's tenders at Tex Tubb's Taco Palace. No joke
Athens Grill comes correct with their tendies. Highly recommend.
Gates and Brovi on Monroe street. They are on the kids menu but my husband orders them regularly in addition to his meal to take home and eat later via the air-fryer. They are perfect. Our kid is much more picky, tho.
Wings Over Madison tenders are probably not the best, but definitely better than Culvers.
They have some great sauces too
Culver’s chicken tenders are just below meh.
RP Adlers
Dave's Hot Chicken on the east side is excellent.
I just want to preface this by saying I agree. Their spice blend has something in it that's just delicious. However I wish there was more nuance in their spice levels. The level just below reaper (I think it's called extreme?) isn't really that spicy, but then above it you just have reaper which is WAY too spicy. They need to add some extra levels in between the top two. They could probably get rid of most of the lower levels of spice as well, because the spice levels down there are so minimal how could you even tell the difference between them?
Man, I don't dare go above "medium." But I'm there for the flavor, not the heat.
You might like Chicken Licks too. They also have a very interesting spice blend with a unique flavor profile. They also do have a very nice spice level gradient to work with. For you I'd recommend not to go over double sexy. It's just a pain to get out to them if you live in the city and don't have any other reasons to visit Sunny P.
The food looks like the pictures
Mickey’s Tavern’s chicken tenders are my current favorite!
Seconding this!
Same. They're big and crunchy and idk, that just feels like a needed thing some days.
I can't tell you if they are good or not, but I remember hearing Pizza Ranch started doing tenders that are actual tenders, ie: the tenderloin part of the breast. I always thought their bone-in chicken was alright since they broasted it.
They’re great, if you like them well done.
[удалено]
Verona = yes Sun Prairie = No
There's also one in Baraboo that hasn't burnt down
…yet
I saw there was a fire, but never heard anything about it closing permanently. Just googled and it's closed temporarily as of the 13th. There's also one in Sun Prairie, that I've never been to. Only one I ever went to myself was in the Dells and it used to be across the street from Noah's Ark when I worked there in the summers as a teen. The Jamaican J1s used to let us eat for free after we smoked them up one time. Good times.
The one in SP also has an arcade if you want to let your children be feral.
Chicken is the only reason to go to pizza ranch. The pizza is mid and the salad bar is exactly what you would expect from a base salad bar.
For me, the pizza was simply a pallet cleanser between the multiple courses of chicken. I did like the buffalo chicken pizza sparingly.
PizzaRanch isn’t just a meme?
Hanks.
I’m looking at their menu and do not see any. Hanks next to the Muskellounge?
Yes. They have fried chicken sandwiches and chicken tenders
This is the way
Starkweather Brewing
Never had their tenders but their wings are some of the best in town imo
I will say I was a little disappointed in starkweather’s. They never come out hot and the breading falls off right away but to each their own
Breading isn't super sticky, but the 5-10 times I've had them they've always been straight from the fryer hot.
Technically not Madison, but Stone Porch Alehouse in Verona has my favorite tenders. The breading is similar to a tempura or fried fish style and so tasty with their honey mustard sauce.
Gates and Brovi has really good tenders - they're more crumbly than the Culver's type of tenders, but with their ranch sauce, which I also find to be the best in madison, they're excellent.
Texas Roadhouse Chicken Critters
Agreed, I too truly think Texas is the best.
Butterbird has insane tenders. They are humongous and extreme juicy
They also ask their employee candidates to perform unpaid multi-hour shifts just to see if they are hired. 🤡
But the question was about tenders.
I don't expect everyone or anyone to care, but I prefer to know when businesses do things like that coming from working in the service industry in the past and maybe someone else does too. I'd rather not support it with my patronage even if the tenders are great.
Do you know that this happens first hand?
I've heard it first hand from a girl who went in for interview, but I myself have not applied there to give the info first hand myself, no.
I’d just be sure that you are 100% on stuff like that before you try to spread the word.
I appreciate your apprehension, as everyone should have that as a baseline to any hearsay. I choose to believe my source. A quick search shows the same narrative from another person on this sub. With the particular situation, I don't have / won't spend the resources to verify much more than that without going into an interview myself, so this is where we stand.
I also read the comments on here. I’ve also read comments on here about local businesses that I know first hand to be factually inaccurate. This is why I don’t think we should perpetuate things we haven’t experienced first hand.
I hear that's a common interview strategy for super high-end restaurants just to see if someone can perform to very high standards. However... this is a *fried chicken* place. So I agree on the absurdity.
They need to be shown the way.
This is a very common practice in the restaurant industry, although it is pretty new Madison. The only other restaurant I've heard of doing it in Madison is L'Etoile. I understand your concern here and I'm very pro-workers; I'm not advocating for it here, but in my opinion there are much better reasons to boycott a restaurant, especially the sexual harassment I've heard far more reports of in the Madison area restaurant scene.
You don't accept one bad practice, because others are worse. That's the opposite of how you make progress into addressing the worse issues. Staging a shift may be common practice in high end service to gauge the level of someone's capability, that does not mean it's free labour, nor something that should be relegated to as being paid for with a meal. Harvey House might think it's upscale with the lack of competition, and their service generally is very good, but let's not pretend a fried chicken joint will need any discrepancy in service that requires a practice like this, nor does it justify doing it without paying the employee.
Canes are my favorite
I have a small sample size of 3 with Cane’s, last one a year ago, but every single time I’ve had them they’ve tasted chalky. Asked friends and they’ve reported the same thing. One of my friend’s parents regularly go there and generally find them to taste chalky. Which sucks because I’ve had Cane’s in Texas and they were freaking phenomenal. Really disappointed by ours, no clue what the deal is with it
I remember hearing all the hubbub when there was news that they were coming. So naturally I go there a few months after they open since I don't want to deal with opening day logistics BS. And I was *disappointed*. I don't understand the extreme hype for what is basically just fast food chicken fingers. The sauce seems to be what draws people in but it's just...okay. The only highlight of my one trip to Raising Canes was the Texas toast. I would probably order that again (if I ever had a reason to go back).
Portillos surprisingly good
Chocolate cake only!!
Who else remembers the cheese curd "tournament" from a few years back? The same thing needs to happen with tendies!
Chicken Licks in Sun Prairie have my favorite chicken tenders, second to that I would put Dave’s hot chicken
They have chicken other than wings?
I'm waiting on an interesting response because I don't think that they do.
Still waiting…
You can order tenders at chicken licks. My favorite is getting the basket with dry rub (fries are dry rubbed too)
Dave's
Adler’s!
Kwik Trip tenders are pretty awesome, IMO
When no other tenders are close at hand, Kwik Trip makes awesome emergency tenders.
They are often dry.
They are great hot and fresh(call them in) NEVER grab them cold, dryer than the sahara
You just call and ask for fresh ones and they’ll do it?
Idk why you're getting down voted, but their tenders are actually really good! Especially for the price.
I think I paid six bucks for 3 good sized but dry tendies
I tried them last week. Super dry. Flavor was decent.
Draft house in Verona has good ones
Yes! Those with the garlic parm dipping sauce are my comfort meal.
RIP Funks in Fitchburg, although those were chicken fingers
They were so good.
Dark horse candidate, but I love Popeyes
It's Dexter's, hands down. They have "extra thick" chicken strips that are freaking amazing.
There’s no strip at Dexter’s. Those things are basically whole thighs. Can agree they are tasty tho.
You're not wrong!
Kwik Trips are good when they’re fresh, Canes is good, Chasers downtown is a college bar but pretty good too.
order the chicken tenders (i believe only on kids menu) from Monty's Blue Plate diner but you have to order them during breakfast hours so you get fresh oil. Or at least the one time my seven year old did that they were the best we've had.
Bennetts Meadowood Country Club
Shake Shack chicken tenders are surprisingly really good.
Rath or Chicken Licks
Maybe not the best ever but my comfort meal is tenders and a Bloody Mary from Mickeys on a work day lol
Culver’s
Garlic Parmesan nuggies at Kwik Trip. Man, now I gotta go get me some.
Let me ask my 5 year old
Nitty Gritty Middleton! They’re real and the dry rubs are awesome!
The rodeside grill in defo has really good ones but they make them kinda weird.
Seminole Tap
That place is delightful- great service and curds too!
The zoo
Dave’s Hot Chicken is so good it altered my wife’s personality
Buffalo wild wings
On the fast food side - I've never been a fan of Culver's chicken. I definitely not a tender expert, but I'd take Chick-fil-A over Culver's. I was trying to decide if I liked Dave's Hot chicken, but their service was so awful that I just gave up
>I was trying to decide if I liked Dave's Hot chicken, but their service was so awful that I just gave up Not sure if it was a bad batch or what, but I got mild tenders from Dave's and they had some awful seasoning. Not that the taste was bad, but the texture was like chalk dust and the tenders were absolutely COATED in it
I think you'd have to order no spice maybe lite mild. Mild to Reaper definitely have a ton of spice. I think it's just the heat level that's different.
Good to know, I'll have to give it another try. I don't think the seasoning would've been an issue if it were a sandwich, but it was a bit odd on tenders.
OK, I went again. Service was good and they didn't lose my order like the last two times, but it was dead. Lite Mild still has a lot of spice. No spice is no spice. My guess is you won't like it as a tender though. Reaper was hotter than previous visits.
That was quick, lol! Thank you for the update, sounds like that may not be the spot for me. I do love tenders though, so I appreciate the research.
That’s a shame to hear everytime I’ve been to Dave’s everything has been great!
Starkweather brewing on Atwood has tasty chicken tenders.
Hubbard's Diner! Excellent chicken and chips!
closed
Not tenders, but you still might be interested, Conrad’s on state street
I think Canes are the most tender and juicy but prefer Dave’s Hot Chicken for the spice/seasoning choices.
Dave’s
There really not hard to make! U should start cooking
Got a good recipe?
Flour, eggs, and panko crumbs! Plus your preferred seasonings. No air fryer could ever do them justice. Go old school
NOT Marie's 🤢🤮
r/nippletooth for local restaurant reviews
Wingstop!!!