Unfortunately, our nearest Chick-fil-A restaurant is in Folsom at 2679 East Bidwell Street, in front of Home Depot. However, since a lot of people go to Costco and Sam’s Club, you might like to give them a try.
Chick-fil-A was started as Dwarf Café in Hapeville, Georgia in 1946 and has grown to over 1800 restaurants since. Their speciality is chicken, chicken and chicken, as you can tell from their name and clever advertisements.
Russ Salazar, who is solidly on his Weight Watchers diet, thought it might be a good place to try, since they have a number of low calorie items on the menu. I was a bit surprised, since he is really not as big fan of chicken as I am.
We dropped in around 1 p.m. and it was busy -very busy (lots of families). There were only two empty tables, so after ordering at the counter, we took one near the window.
Our order consisted of, for Russ: Hearty Breast of Chicken (noodle) Soup (140 cal., 2.5 g fat, 1040 mg sodium) and 8 Grilled Nuggets (140 cal., 6 g fat, 530 mg sodium). For me: Chicken Tortilla Soup (260 cal., 2.5 g fat, 960 mg sodium) and 3 Chick-N-Strips (360 cal., 18 g fat, 990 mg sodium). We both had diet soda.
I was a bit surprised at the amount of salt in the food. I had heard that they were trying to reduce that, which they confirmed later by email.
I ate most of my order and he ate most of his, but we shared tastes.
Both of us strongly agreed that the chicken was moist and delicious, whether grilled or pressure cooked in 100% refined peanut oil.
(For you with an allergy to peanuts, they claim and document, that with the peanut protein removed from the oil, the chance of an allergic reaction is effectively zero).
The soups came it little plastic containers with lids that needed to be removed carefully to avoid spilling any liquid. An employee told me that this was a new design and that the old design was worse. Well, be careful opening them.
The Hearty Breast of Chicken Soup was very nice and full of vegetables, the Chicken Tortilla Soup was, as Russ aptly put it, “More like a delicious stew,” after I added the tortilla strips. I really liked it and almost licked the dish.
I thought the Grilled Nuggets were a bit small, but very good, especially with a bit of hot sauce, rather than their dipping sauces, which vary from 10 to 140 calories each.
The Chicken Strips had a light, crunchy coating and were the best I have eaten. As I mentioned before, delicious and very moist. I’m actually glad we didn’t have a dipping sauce with them so we could enjoy the flavor.
All in all, it was a very good dining experience for both of us. We talked about it much of the way home.
The Chick-fil-A menu features several of their classic and famous chicken sandwiches, some of which are grilled and some pressure cooked in peanut oil, along with a chicken salad sandwich and a chicken “cool wrap.” Then there are the salads and a number of side items, such as Waffle Fries, a fruit cup, yogurt parfaits, “Superfood” (raw veggies) and the soups. Then there are the desserts, such as milkshakes, “IceDream,” a Chocolate Chunk Cookie, Frosted Lemonade and more. We were good, we neither needed nor had dessert.
They also serve breakfast, and the menu for that is quite large. It starts with a plain biscuit, then a chicken biscuit, bacon egg and cheese biscuit, spicy chicken biscuit, breakfast burritos, cinnamon cluster, hash browns, oatmeal and more. Not all items are available at all stores, so check first.
The Folsom Chick-fil-A is open from 6:30 until 10, Monday through Saturday. They are closed on Sunday. Amenities include a drive thru, kids playground, outside seating if the weather permits and WiFi. For more information, call them at (916) 817-2697 or visit Chick-fil-A online at www.chick-fil-a.com where you will find their menu, nutritional information and even a meal calculator to which you add items and it calculates the nutrition of you meal for you.
Yes, they do cater.