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| - I'd heard a little bit about PDQ before from articles online, but since I've never travelled to anywhere even remotely close to one, I never really expected to try it. But on my way to work a couple months ago, I noticed some construction going on for a new restaurant and after finding out it was a PDQ, I found out their opening date to post on Yelp and awaited my chance to check them out. I drive by this location every day 5 times a week, and it was neat to see how quickly they got it built up. So after finishing up a fun 5k this past weekend just down the street, I figured no better time to check them out.
The location itself is actually pretty dang big for a fast food joint. They have plenty of seating, a nicely organized drink/condiment station, and an unusual but very cool hand washing station just outside of the bathrooms. And if you happen to enter or exit on the side where the drive thru is, you can even play a couple games of cornhole on their custom PDQ boards. Pretty cool!
But what exactly does a place called People Dedicated to Quality serve? Chicken, and lots of it of course. Their main menu items are grilled or fried chicken tenders. But they also offer sandwiches, including a turkey sandwich, salads, and a variety of sides. For those original to their areas, you might be glad to see they serve up Cheerwine here alongside their new fancy Coke machines.
Since this was our first time, we decided to get a few different things to try and kind of share with each other. For whatever reason, they don't let you mix and match what type of fingers you want with your combo, so if you want a variety of grilled and fried, you'll have to order a meal and then add fingers a la carte. Pricing isn't terrible, but the fingers are a little on the small side, and a 5 piece combo will set you back a little under $10. They do include a side and drink with it though.
Neither the grilled or fried chicken fingers were great, but they aren't bad either. Since Raising Cane's is really the only other large fast food joint dedicated to fingers, it's hard not to make comparisons. I'm not not a huge Cane's fan, mainly because they are almost always just unbelievably greasy, so it was nice to see the ones here at PDQ are much lighter in the grease department. And while both types of fingers were tender, I was surprised to see how soggy and not so crispy the fried ones are. The flavor of the chicken itself is decent, but there's really nothing special about them on their own.
To go with the chicken, we ordered a couple different dipping sauces from their variety. Unfortunately, they completely mixed it up and we only ended up with Creamy Garlic and Buffalo. The buffalo was almost inedible, unless you like eating sticks of butter. But the garlic was decent and didn't overpower the chicken. Had they not got flooded with a line of people after we got our food, I probably would have went back up and got our order right, but hey it's just sauces. Even though the Chipotle & Sweet Heat sounded pretty intriguing.
We also sampled all three sides, and again everything was okay, but nothing stood out. The fries are on par with several fast food joints, but have a slight edge since they are also very light on the grease. The blueberry coleslaw was decent, but it's just basic coleslaw with a couple blueberries thrown in. Add some salt to it and thank me later. And while the toffee dip that comes with the apples is good, the apples came in a cup that was filled halfway with liquid that made them way too soggy.
Overall, PDQ is a hugely welcome addition to an area where there just really isn't many choices. They also got some of the best "service" you're going to find in a fast food spot. But the food itself doesn't stand out from any other similar chicken joints, and doesn't come anywhere near the local favorite that Strip-n-Dip has become. I won't be rushing back, but if I was in the area and needed something quick, I wouldn't turn down a couple strips and a game of cornhole!
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