Maniac’s

I love this place! They have the best chicken fingers. You can choose all different sauces, freshly made and be careful some are really spicy. I stick with the yummy honey mustard but they have habanero for you spicy lovers! The staff is always extremely nice. It’s never overly crowded either and it’s in cool springs! The price is really reasonable, about $ 6 – 10 for a meal, and you totally don’t leave still hungry. The Maniac salad is really good!

I frequent this place and I love the food, it’s always been very good. The staff however have been very rude on more than one occasion. When I complained to the manager regarding being treated rudely, the manager /​owner made excuses for the rude treatment from his employee. He told me she was having a rough day, wasn’t trained fully yet, etc. At no point did he take accountability for his staff, or apologize for my experience. The worst part is that this has happened more than once. I will no longer spend money there, no matter how good the food when the employers won’t treat the customers with basic manners.

I tried this place out twice to make sure my opinion was valid.
The batter is hype. It’s like pancake batter. It isn’t crunchy. It’s just kind of soft and weird. The sauce isn’t that great. Some of the people that work there are really nice. But one time I went in for a to go and they forgot the drink that I paid for.
Would I go again? Maybe. If I friend was like, «Hey, let’s go to Maniacs!» I’d go. But not by myself, nor would I recommend it.

Last night was my first time here, and it was great! Unilocal actually recommended this place as it was near me and thank goodness for the find. We will be back again sometime this week. I recommended trying several of their sauces– the avocado, bang bang and ranch are my favorite. Also, the chicken tenders are a good size, so 3 tenders should fill you up– 4 if your pretty hungry. It’s a little hidden, but just gps. It’s across the road from Costco.

Mellow atmosphere with great service and delicious food. 23 $ for the two of us. I just need to remember the affects their boom boom sauce has with my stomach: P

A little pricier than I would have liked. But the batter they use on the tenders is great! The sauces are a little weak.

The smoked wings were great. The Texas egg rolls were off the chain good. I will be back.

Awesome fries and the «Cajun Love» sandwich rules. They should make tenders using the «spicy batter» they use for the sandwich.
The sauce selection is also good. Huge fan of the H2.

Always a hit! Great service and fantastic chicken and fries. The cajun love sandwich is fantastic. Super busy at lunch time.

My wife and I ate at Maniacs last night. We had the fried chicken tenders, the broiled chicken tenders and a side of chicken wings. The fried chicken tenders are very good, but they’re very different from the normal fried chicken tenders. These have a very heavy breading and the texture of a funnel cake. If you don’t like heavy breaded tenders or funnel cakes, don’t try these. The broiled are also very good and moist. My wife mentioned that they were the best she has ever eaten.
The wings were not our favorite. They weren’t seasoned very well and the smoke flavor was too strong.
We sampled most of their sauces and they were all very delicious.
All in all we really enjoyed our meal at Maniacs.

The fries are good and the chicken fingers (breaded) are very good. It is a long wait, but everything is hot and cooked right then… no hot plates. Sauce choices are numerous and good (I like the bang bang).

This place has horrible slow incompetent service … Really bad and annoying. Avoid this nasty place or you will feel sick after eating there. Needs new ownership and the staff need training or replacing. The health inspector needs to check this filth out.

Today was my first time at Maniac’s. Some other guys from the office were going, so I went along.
I tried the Cajun Love Sandwich with Coyote Sauce instead of the default horse-​radish stuff. Very reasonably priced and crazy flavorful. I was surprised that it came with an order of fries. Most similar restaurants overcharge for the main dish and then another slight up charge for a side. For $ 8, I got a delicious broiled chicken sandwich and a decent amount of their unique fries.
The service was great too! The cashier was friendly and easy to talk to. She even cut up a little bit. They were quick to grab the finished dishes off the table, so we had more elbow room.
I would definitely recommend Maniac’s if you’re in the area and you’re looking for some new flavors to test drive! :)

Love you some thick, heavy, pancake-​battered, deep-​fried chicken tenders? Nah? Me either. But, if that’s your thing, Maniacs may be the place for you! Fried or broiled are the options. Maybe I’ll try broiled next time.
Fresh fries were GREAT. Coleslaw was certainly different. The Coyote sauce was interesting, but my hankering was for chicken. Fried chicken. Crisp, light breading that dances on your tongue and crunches at each bite without hiding the meat in a greased rain slicker.
I picked up the first golden tender and sank my teeth in. The slicker ripped apart and spewed steamy naked chicken like Alien spawn. It bounced a time or two on the plate and came to rest upon the fresh fries. Steam from the rain slicker left in my hand scalded my finger tips. I dropped the useless batter.
The ordeal was unappealing, but the meat was good and the people were nice. Surveying the wreckage of my plate I found the remains of oily, pancake-​thick, poultry rain gear each like the last: useless. And the alien chicken gone. I survived multiple assaults by chicken in raincoats. Not doing that again. The tenders weren’t a winner for me, but I’ll come back once more to try the wings.

The best chicken fingers I’ve ever had. They fry them in a batter that’s similar to that used in a funnel cake! I know that sounds strange, but it’s magical. Not sweet at all, just crispy, light, and keeps the chicken super juicy.
The fries are heavenly. I’d suggest doing double fries rather than coleslaw.
There are multiple sauces, but I’d stick with the ranch and super spicy one (I cant remember the name of it). The semi spicy one wasn’t spicy at all and was waaaay too sweet from the molasses they use. Also steer clear from the lemon oil type sauce… all I tasted was olive oil. Those are my only criticisms!
If I lived in the area I’d come here way too often, so often that they’d know my name and probably name a sauce in honor of me for my patronage. Go now and try it!!!

Jonesing for fried chicken after a failed attempt at lunchtime. Staying in Brentwood, and reluctant to drive back into a Nashville that turns out to be eleventy billion times bigger than I imagined. The Lovely A. says she found someplace, so in the car we go.
On the way I learn more. It’s fast casual. It’s not really a fried chicken place, more of a wings and tenders place. But she thinks I’ll like it. I try to keep an open mind, A. has been on an incredible hot streak, but visions of dried out chicken like objects that fell off the back of a Sysco truck are dancing in my head.
We get there and the place is nearly empty at 7:30. Not a good sign. I mourn the passing of The Streak and steel myself for the first bad meal I’ve had in 10 days.
I’m going to cut to the chase — I’ve had Thomas Keller’s fried chicken, and what I was served at Maniac’s is just as juicy and even more tender. The place is aptly named, because the food is friggin’ insane.
The batter is similar to what you get on good fish and chips. Light, crispy, and delicious. The sauces are awesome — you can taste the olive oil finish with the lemon shallot sauce, the Coyote sauce is spicy *and* delicious, the honey mustard was perfect. The salad was made with fresh greens that probably never saw the inside of a plastic bag. The fries were great, but overshadowed by that amazing chicken.
If I hadn’t run out of food I would still be eating.
We looked over into the kitchen and saw what appeared to be high school students. Found out that they close at 8PM (why they were so empty). So a bunch of high school kids gave me some of the best chicken I’ve ever had half an hour before closing at a fast food place. Nothing is ever going to surprise me again.

This is my daughter’s favorite chicken place and my wife’s favorite salad place. they would rated higher than I do only because I wish they had beer and I always have a hard time reading their menu.
The food is good if you choose the correct sauce, so try getting more than one sauce to be sure.
Unfortunately the dining room has an echo that is distracting to me. I sure do wish they sold beer.

I decided to try Manics after a Costco run. I was craving some fried chicken covered in sauce and this place seemed to fit the bill. We dinned in on a somewhat busy Saturday afternoon. The boy taking our order was friendly, however when I ordered the 4 tender tossed in the bang bang sauce (very spicy the menu board says), he said «ummm, that’s going to be really hot.» I felt like he was saying that people don’t usually order that & therefore I shouldn’t get it because it would be hot. After a moment of silence I said that I’d take it with the coyote sauce, a sauce that is spicy as the menu board says.
I ordered the 4 tenders meal tossed in coyote with just fries. I’d read the reviews on hear about the coleslaw not being very good. I also ordered a side of blue cheese to dip my chicken in. I waited for a second at the counter after the transaction was over because I thought I was going to be given a cup, but one of the food runner ladies told me the cups were by the fountain machine.
It didn’t take us very long to get our food. The food runner lady/​server was nice, but a little curt. I was impressed with the fries, they were salt-​and-​pepper and have a light seasoning on them. I also really enjoyed their blue cheese, I’m not for sure if they make it at the restaurant or not but it was great. The chicken was good, but I had an issue with the breading. It’s a light tempura type of batter and it kept coming off. It wouldn’t stay on the chicken at all. You’d have to cut off a piece & then get the chicken on the fork & then follow it up with the breading. I also wasn’t crazy about the coyote sauce, it wasn’t spicy at all. I wished I’d gotten the bang bang sauce.
Overall I love the fries & the chicken was good. A little bit of a hassle to eat though, maybe if I are the tenders with my hands it would’ve been fine, but the breading falling off was a pain.
One last note, the online menu has its prices off. It has the 5 piece tenders as $ 8.25 online and in store its $ 9.25. A lot of other pricing errors.

I just finished my fourth visit. I keep forgetting to only order the broiled strips. Don’t get me wrong, they have amazing fried strips, but they leave me feeling that fried food blues feeling. The salad is good needs a little more kick in the dressing.
The egg rolls have a mild kick with excellent avocado dip.

Ok so let me qualify the 4 rating by saying the food was awesome, the service was great, but the price was slightly on the steep side. If my meal had been about $ 2.00 less I would have give this place 5s. I know that night seem petty but people work hard for a dollar these days and there are chicken places out there that are just as good and cheaper. That being said.
The chicken was service quickly and was hot and fresh. I liked the twist on the batter, instead of being breaded, the tenders are tempura battered and fried. MMMMMM! This causes the sauces to cling better and increases the flavor. Also the tenders are marinated so they have a good flavor even without the breading.
I only had one side and it was the fries. Shoestring fries are not everyone’s cup of tea but they were tasty and hot. I find most people in the south prefer steak fries but I’m not that picky as long as the taste good.
So in concluding I would come back, but I can’t make this place one of my regular haunts just because of the price, but it is by far the best chicken tender place near coolsprings, Franklin, Brentwood area. Hope this review is helpful and enjoy eating. Later.