Chick-fil-A: Perfect, except for the order

Thursday, June 09, 2005

I tried to go to Chick-fil-A, 1766 Campbell Lane, on my 12:30 p.m. lunch break Tuesday, but the line at the drive-through was backed up all the way through the parking lot to the road.

Being a rather impatient person, I decided to come back Wednesday. I meant to come earlier, but one thing led to another and I found myself and a coworker in line at the drive-through at 12:20 p.m. There were about 10 cars in front of us and at least two behind, but the line moved quickly and in five minutes time, we were at the ordering microphone.

A cheerful employee greeted us warmly; no drive-through speaker static crackle here. She took our order chargrilled chicken sandwich with no pickles, chicken caesar wrap, small carrot and raisin salad and small fruit salad and asked if wed like any sauce, then clearly repeated our order back to us. It came to $9.90-something, but I dont know for sure since we didnt get a receipt.

We reached the window in what seemed like no time at all, where another smiling employee took our money and handed over a paper bag. She wished us a good day and we were off from order to pickup, a 2:26 wait. (Thats an approximate time. I forgot a stopwatch, so I was mumbling One-one thousand, two-one thousand, the whole time we were in line.)

A search of the bag turned up everything we ordered, plus six napkins and two plastic forks. The sandwich was neatly made on a wheat bun no wayward lettuce and tomato slices sliding every which way and came with a packet of sauce.

My chicken caesar wrap, however, wasnt what I expected it to be. In preparation for the review, I visited www.chickfila.com to look at the menu because Id never been to a Chick-fil-A before. The online menu lists the chicken caesar wraps ingredients as romaine lettuce, chicken and Parmesan cheese, which sounded delicious. The wrap I got looked more like the spicy chicken wrap: mixed lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, red cabbage, carrots and spicy chicken strips. It wasnt terrible, but I would have preferred the caesar wrap.

As for dessert, the carrot and raisin salad was good, my coworker reported, as was the fruit salad, which contained apples, pineapple and oranges. The apples were a little mushy, but the pineapple was tangy and the oranges sweet.

Chick-fil-A prides itself on providing healthy, delicious food: There are salads and other healthy alternatives to its Potato Waffle Fries, a selection of low-fat and fat-free salad dressings, and a low-fat ice cream dessert to boot.

Although the order wasnt perfect, the employees were far more cheerful than one expects to see at a gridlocked drive-through window. The service was efficient, and kept the line of hungry travelers moving quickly. So do as the cow says, and Eat Mor Chikin.

Our anonymous restaurant reviewer had a wicked steering-wheel drum solo in the drive-through line. Send comments to Managing Editor Mike Alexieff at 783-3235. New restaurants will be given at least an eight-week grace period.  Daily News ·813 College St. ·PO Box 90012 ·Bowling Green, KY ·42102 ·270-781-1700