Golden Tenders — Restaurant in Hamilton

I would suspect that most of these positive reviews are paid for or incentivized in some way because they swayed me enough to try this place out, but none of the reviews matched up with the experience. First, this place is way overpriced. The reviews lied to me several times by saying its worth the price.

The fries are the exact same fries you get at any shawarma place (or highschool cafeteria). The tenders are small. Like absurdly so. They gave me 5 instead of 4 I guess to compensate for the size, but $20 for 4-5 tiny tenders, bad fries, and a pepsi, is highway robbery. A box of tenders is $30! Thirty dollars for several pieces of battered chicken. Small pieces. That is literally insane.

The tenders tasted ok but nothing to rave about. And definitely not worth the price. Carrot cake was dry and weirdly bland. As someone who adores carrot cake, this was particularly offensive. Cream cheese frosting can mask most cake offenses but it wasn't able to save it in this case.

All my food was cold but good news! The drink was at least warm. I have no idea why this place has so many good reviews or who is crazy enough to think these prices are fair. My worry is that this place is some kind of money laundering front. It would explain a lot, and make more sense than $20 for this nonsense.

This rabbit hole gets even crazier the further you go down. Their website says their tenders are "healthy" because the ingredients are local and the tenders are hand-battered. Sorry but those claims and hi-res photos of chickens running free, don't make deep-fried food magically healthy.

Do better. Unless it is actually a money laundering front, then keep doing exactly this (and sorry for spilling your secret if that...

I'm writing this review in the middle of eating. The food is SO GOOD that I couldn't wait to run here and sing my praises. This place only hits and NEVER misses.

Firstly, the chicken tenders are on another level; nothing else will ever measure up. I watched the FRESH chicken get battered and fried right in front of me. The result was a juicy, tender, and crispy yet light tender. I didn't know they could be THIS good- perfection.

Next up, the fries. They’re battered which results in the perfect crunch! A side that can still shine next to the amazing tenders is hard to imagine but, these really do! Try the gravy which is a delicious addition to these mouthwatering spuds!

I went for the buttermilk biscuit as well, at this point I’d already tried my tenders, fries, and gravy; all SPECTACULAR. So what are the odds this would have me salivating too? Apparently, pretty good. The biscuit was flaky, buttery, and soft. Absolutely delectable.

The atmosphere was lovely! My boyfriend and I loved looking at the pictures of Hamilton back when. It was so nice to look at all the products from local vendors from sauces to peanuts. The restaurant was impeccably clean. It was an absolute pleasure to be there.

Finally, the service. I can’t express enough how friendly the staff are here. We chatted about the photos on the wall and the ingredients used. We felt so welcomed even though we popped in 20 minutes before closing.

I can’t recommend Golden Tenders enough. I’m completely in awe at just how perfect my experience and food was. I’m a repeat customer...

TL;DR Great flavour, decent size, you need the BBQ sauce but more quantity. Speed of service was good and nicely designed setting.

Food: I purchased the 3 piece tenders with fries and BBQ sauce ($15.71 inc. tax). The tenders have a mix of a KFC tender and Publix tender but less subtle pepper taste. The chicken was very soft and great crisp on the outside. The size was about 2.5 inch long and 1 to 1.5 inch wide. The chicken was moist, despite the breading. Only found one small chunk of fat, the rest was very clean and soft.

The fries were super crispy and probably a medium size in most fast food restaurants. It has a bit of a Burger King taste/Costco fries. I even taste a slight of a yuca flavour.

The BBQ sauce is a great compliment, as its very sweet and the tenders are mostly salty and pepper based. The consistency of the BBQ sauce has a bit of tomato marinara feel. I think you would need slightly a bit more BBQ sauce to eat the fries and 3 tenders.

Service: The staff was kind and easy going through the whole interaction. They accepted Visa, Mastercard, AMEX and cash.

Setting: The location was in a small strip mall with quite a bit of parking. The restaurant was designed like a clean farmers marking with a couple of dining spots but I didn't stay to eat there.

All around, the food was good and filling just to the...