Since Dave’s Hot Chicken first opened in 2017, it has immediately gained popularity and is now a top contender for chicken restaurants, competing with other popular chains such as Wingstop, Chick-fil-A, and Raising Canes. I went on a mission to try every spice level available at Dave’s and to compare their chicken to Wingstop, which I am also a frequent visitor of.
Dave’s Hot Chicken features a seemingly wide variety of 6 spice levels, from “No Spice” all the way up to “Reaper. However, when I tried all of the spice levels, I found that “No Spice,” “Lite Mild,” and “Mild” were not spicy at all, and the remaining spice levels were barely different from each other. “Reaper” the supposedly spiciest level on their menu, was not that spicy, incomparable to the Buldak-level spice I was hoping for. Though the spice was lacking, the chicken is extremely tender and juicy, and the batter coating is seasoned, although lightly, so even if there is no spice, the tenders still have some flavor. Not only is the chicken more juicy than Wingstop’s tenders, but it is also fried to be perfectly crispy without being too hard and crunchy, whereas with the flavor coating on Wingstop’s makes their wings and tenders soggier more quickly.
When paired with Dave’s special sauce, the tenders are quite literally perfection. Personally, I’m not a fan of ketchup, which many specialty sauces contain, but Dave’s sauce didn’t have the zingy flavor that ketchup brings. It was smoother than I expected, and was quite creamy in contrast with the crispy batter. However, they only give you one small container per meal. Each order also comes with fries, which are crinkle cut and crispy with a soft, fluffy interior. While they are on the whole underseasoned compared to Wingstop’s fries, they’re much lighter and pair well with the sauce.
The menu consists primarily of tenders or sliders, but does include other side options such as cheese fries and mac & cheese. A meal with 2 tenders, fries, bread, pickles, and sauce is $13.99, a very reasonable price point for the massive tenders. However, the bread that comes with the tender meals is just plain, untoasted sandwich bread, which is a disappointment. I prefer the meal with the sliders rather than the tenders because the buns on the sliders are much better than the bread in the tender meal. The quality of the chicken in the sliders at Dave’s is leaps and bounds above the chicken in Wingstop’s Chicken Sandwich, and the buns at Dave’s Hot Chicken are much fluffier and less dry.
However, because Dave’s nearest locations are in Union City, Santa Clara, and San Jose, it is much more convenient to go to Wingstop if you’re craving chicken. Admittedly, Wingstop has many different flavors to choose from and their ranch is unbeatable, but sometimes, you just have a fried chicken craving you can’t get rid of.
