Unless you’ve been under a pile of rocks with earmuffs on, you’ve no doubt heard that Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers opened up over by the mall on Sterling. Hundreds of kooks…I mean hundreds of people showed up for the opening of this fast food place that specializes in chicken fingers to celebrate the opening last week.

Now, don ’t get me wrong, it’s nice to see a business opening up and employing people and getting a nice reception here in Peoria, but I wish some of the local places around Peoria could get a portion of this excitement from the media and the people too.

I mean Weaver’s Restaurant has featured their chicken fingers as a signature dish since the day they opened and they’ve never received this kind of publicity. So, I’ve decided to do a Fowl Finger Battle of chicken fingers between Weaver’s and Raising Canes.

I was going to do this on Saturday night, but due to that horrific snowstorm, I got snowed in on Saturday and I’m doing this on Sunday. So let’s go and start this fowl showdown between Weaver’s and Raising Cain’s on this Sunday afternoon! Cluck yeah!

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Weaver’s Fresh Food & Drink

Here we are at the first challenger in the chicken finger fight, Weaver’s Fresh Food & Drink on Radnor Road just off of Willow Knolls Road. And there’s some of that snow I just told you about! Let’s go inside and get warmed up!

There’s a big crowd in here, as you can see in the main dining room and at the bar. We managed to squeeze into a table though.

My brother Tom joined me on this afternoon trip to Weaver’s and there’s the Chicken Fingers on the menu.

Both Weaver’s and Raising Cane’s offer a three piece combo meal with Texas toast and French Fries, so that’s what we’ll be ordering for this day’s chicken finger challenge.

JD was our friendly server and he took our order for this first part of the challenge. Normally I’d take a bunch of photos here, but since this is a two part post, I won’t be doing that. Check out this appetizer post from Weaver’s a couple months ago for more photos in here.

And before you know it, our food has arrived. Tom kept in the spirit of the Chicken Finger day by ordering a combo plate of their grilled and blackened unbreaded chicken fingers along with an order of their housemade cole slaw. Tom loved the chicken fingers and said that their cole slaw was one of his favorites in town.

Okay, on to round one in this Fowl Finger Battle!

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Weaver’s Three Chicken Finger Combo

Wow, that’s a basket filled with some amazing looking food! Let’s dig in!

The Texas Toast is tasty and the French Fries are hand cut and made fresh here in-house. They’re also seasoned nicely and very tasty. We’re off to a great start here!

Here’s the Tyler Sauce that they serve to compliment the chicken fingers at Weaver’s. It’s a house-made sauce and it’s made especially to compliment the chicken fingers.

And here’s the chicken fingers on a plate with a nice serving of the Tyler’s sauce for dipping.

These are large chicken fingers and the breading is crispy and seasoned to perfection.The chicken is so tasty and juicy inside and these are delightful chicken fingers and the Tyler sauce compliments them perfectly!

Now these are front page news, Raising Cane’s has quite the challenge on their hands!

They were nice enough to throw in a complimentary Skillet Cookie dessert and this was such a sweet and tasty treat for the end of this delicious chicken finger meal!

Thanks to Tom for joining me and now it’s on to part two of this Fowl Finger Challenge!

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Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers

Okay, it’s a few hours later and here we are at Raising Cane’s near the Northwoods Mall. It’s absolutely freezing out here, let’s get inside and try and get warm!

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the winter time on here? Oh…I have…never mind!

Wow, there’s a line all the way back to the door. It seems that people sure are curious about this place!

There’s the menu and they have a three piece combo meal identical to Weaver’s, perfect for comparison!

Here’s the dining room, they have some fun kitschy art and photos in here and mirrored disco balls hang from the ceiling.

I have to say that for all the traffic that’s come through here, it’s very clean in here and that’s impressive.

Now on to part two of this fowl fight!

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Raising Cane’s Three Finger Combo

Here’s their three piece chicken combo basket, let’s dig in!

The Texas Toast was okay, but pretty bland.

The French fries were crinkle cut and were cooked from a frozen batch. They were also bland and had no seasoning except for a hint of salt. There was a severe lack of flavor in both of these sides.

Here’s the Cane’s sauce they serve with their chicken fingers. It’s a pretty small portion.

Speaking of small, here’s the trio of chicken fingers, they’re definitely not up to the size of the Weaver’s chicken fingers. Oh well, let’s take a taste.

Like the Texas toast and the French fries, these were really bland, even after dipping them into the Cane’s sauce.

They weren’t horrible, but they just didn’t have a lot of flavor. The breading wasn’t crispy at all and it’s easy to see who the winner is in this Fowl Finger Fight…

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The Winner And Recipient Of The The Fowl Flying Finger Of Fate Award…

Chad Wallace suggested we give the winner the old Laugh-In Flying Fickle Finger of Fate award, but we’re giving Weaver’s Fresh Food & Drink this Fowl Flying Finger Of Fate Award for what we believe are Peoria’s best chicken fingers!

Congratulations to Weaver’s Fresh Food & Drink for the win and for the delicious chicken fingers and skillet cookie lunch!

Check out the new guys in town, but in the long run, support our local restaurants and businesses when you can!

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Weaver’s Fresh Food & Drink

7301 N. Radnor Road

Peoria

309-839-2725

facecrack page

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Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers

4200 N. Sterling Avenue

Peoria