We’ve all had time to mourn the Golden Bear Cafe’s regrettable decision to stop serving their legendary chicken tenders. But all is not lost, chicken fanatics everywhere can rejoice because True Blue Burgers — a Lower Sproul food vendor — sells chicken tenders! But how do they measure up? All I have is my memory, but I have attempted to compare the two chicken tenders nonetheless.

That sure is a mighty fine looking chicken tender. I walked up to True Blue Burgers and was a tad wary when I discovered that the chicken tenders were already made and waiting on a warming rack. However, that didn’t stop me from continuing my journey to compare the tastes between GBC and this new establishment.

Inside the unassuming brown box were four tenders, uniform in size and color. The first bite exceeded my expectations — it tasted just like chicken! In all seriousness, the tender tasted exactly like what a chicken tender should taste like. The outside breading didn’t offer a lot in the way of flavor but it also wasn’t ridiculously crumby or greasy.

Comparatively, however, the GBC chicken tenders had a flavor palette that cannot be described in words. After a few bites, I began to realize that the True Blue Burgers tenders’ texture was a bit too spongy. Each bite began to feel like I was biting into a sponge as opposed to the distinct texture of a piece of chicken. The GBC tenders, along with tasting like chicken magic, had a great texture — not too chewy, not too spongy.

That being said, the tenders from True Blue Burgers are pretty good. They’ll never be GBC level awesome, but they will cover any chicken tender cravings you have while on campus. And in time, the GBC tenders will fade from our collective consciousness and the True Blue Burgers tenders won’t be relegated as second best.