Raising Cane’s has some new competition down Route 59: Zaxby’s. Zaxby’s is another large chain fast food restaurant expanding to new states, including its new Plainfield location. Its menu consists of southern-style chicken, similar to Cane’s. Price, taste, menu variety, and customer service are huge factors in deciding which spot to go and enjoy. Here’s how we compared them. 

Price

The “Big Zax Snak Meal” from Zaxby’s includes three hand-breaded chicken fingers with Zax Sauce. It is served with Texas toast, crinkle fries, and a small drink. It costs $9.49. An extra Zax sauce costs $0.25.

The “3 Finger Combo” from Cane’s also includes three chicken fingers with Cane’s sauce. It is served with Texas toast, crinkle fries, and a fountain drink/tea. It costs $10.49. An extra Cane’s sauce costs $0.39.

Taste

Zaxby’s fries come with Zaxby’s seasoning salt on them, but Cane’s fries are lightly salted. The big difference between these meals is the different taste of the fries.

A big similarity we saw between these meals was the Cane’s sauce and Zax sauce. Both these sauces have the same exact ingredients of mayonnaise, ketchup, garlic powder, worcestershire sauce, and a significant amount of coarse black pepper.

The chicken was also very similar. Both are breaded fried chicken, but Cane’s marinates their chicken for 24 hours while Zaxby’s marinates its chicken for 12 hours. Both tasted very similar, especially dipped in the sauces.

Menu Variety

The difference is the variety of food they have on their menus. 

Cane’s only has a couple of items on its menu. This consists of three types of chicken tender combos and one chicken sandwich combo. The combos come with however many chicken tenders, fries, Texas toast, and possibly coleslaw if you get a box combo and above.

Zaxby’s menu includes several items. They have four different Zalads (Salads), four different tender and wing meals, and five sandwich options. A couple other interesting factors of Zaxby’s meals is that they allow customers to add wing sauce on their tenders and they serve grilled cheeses.

Customer Service

The main difference between the two restaurants was the timeliness of receiving our order. The drive-thru time for Zaxby’s took about 15 minutes, while Cane’s took less than five minutes.

Time of day definitely could play a role in the wait time, so if you’re planning to go to Zaxby’s at night on a weekend, be prepared for a 20+ minute wait. 

Cane’s has rhyming, branded lines to greet customers in the drive-thru, while Zaxby’s just has typical greetings.

Overall Rating

After trying both these new locations and weighing in all the factors, Zaxby’s is the better option especially if you’re looking to try something new. The fry seasoning and wide variety on the menu set it apart from Cane’s. While Cane’s is a solid choice as well, it’s been in our area for a long time and the new edition of Zaxby’s should not be passed up. 

Written by seniors Kayli Pembroke and Ava Karg. Edited by staff writers for Oswego East’s online news magazine The Howl.