Dave's Hot Chicken Fries Review: A High Heat Competitor

Recently founded in 2017, Dave's Hot Chicken (DHC) started in the West Coast of the US - a parking lot in East Hollywood - and has now grown into hot stuff if you love spicy chicken. With over 348 locations in the US locations and a handful global outposts like Candana, UAE, UK, and the Middle East, they are going through an explosive phase of grwoth. They may be known for their Nashville-style hot chicken, but do their fries stack up? Can Dave’s Hot Chicken keep up the heat as we compare their fries against various other contenders? Here is our review of their crinkle cut fries.

Dave's Hote Chicken in Sunnyvale, CA.

As a young brand, their story is proudly displayed in the store.

Texture (7/10)

There is an evident crisp on the exterior of the fry, especially on the tips, and you can get a guaranteed crunch on every single bite. To back it up further, their interior is nice and soft, but not too mushy as to overpower the pleasant exterior skin, which creates a very good balance difficult to find in such thick fries. One aspect holding it back however, is that the ridges are not as crispy as the rest of the fry. We believe that is a must-have criteria to hit the pinnacle of a crinkle cut fry. But again, the texture is solid.

Crinkle fries with a decently golden texture. It is difficult to get the texture right for fries of such thickness and DHC pulls it off well.

Flavor (6/10)

The fries were nicely seasoned, evident with the bold orange and red dust particles spread lightly all over the fries. We appreciated the fact that the seasoning was sprinkled evenly and consistently across all the sticks. The seasoning itself was a combination of what tastes like pepper, paprika, and garlic. However, it was a bit disappointing that the density of the seasoning was sparse as it left larges patches of blandness on a given stick. Also, these were not natural cut fries but rather crinkled fries made with ground potatoes, which often then is seasoned in the innards as well. However, the potato pulp was absolutely bland, making it feel like the flavor was not engraved into the soul of the fry. We could see what Dave's Hot Chicken was going for, but it felt emotionless. Good approach, but it lacked passion.

Shape (5/10)

These crinkle cut fries are not naturally cut to create their ridges. This is fine, however, the ridges fail to do the job they are supposed to, which is to make a crispier surface and make a larger surface area to put the seasoning in for. These ridges do not contribute to either of those purposes, making them just a visual tease. On the other hand, the shapes were straight and consistent, as with any pulp-based fries should be but due to the manufacturing method, we cannot give bonus scores there. Giving a score of 3 here could be a bit harsh but considering that they could have molded perfect shapes, we are considering this as somewhat being negligent.

The shape isn't too bad. But given the method to mold and create, they get a bit of a penalty.

Presentation (3/10)

The presentation was nothing special, and almost disappointing yet we understand the pragmatism. Typically, when you to a takeout, you get fries in the regular container (carton or cup) in a brown bag. As for Dave's Hot Chicken, it came in a black to-go box which was placed in a regular plastic bag. There were no logos, no ads, no special meaning to any of this. Now, when we judge the presentation, we like the flare of the restaurant to be embedded into a visually pleasing package. But there was literally zero of that. We do praise the pragamatism as to the fries were easily accessible from all around the table. Also, they were visually verifiable in their color and degree of seasoning. And perhaps the black to-go box accentuated the orange hue of the fries. But this is literally a "random" box containing fries that we may not have known where it came from. The chain seriously needs some work here.

The black to-go box container surprised us. Never have we seen anything like this in a fast-food chain.

Experience (5/10)

The experience was mediocre, even as fries itself was quite good and they did give a lot of fries for their single-sized option, which was priced around $5.49 and we thought it was a great deal. The reason for mediocrity comes from the fact that the chain boasts a lot of character, whether it is their founding story, their funky looking chicken logo, and their colorful brand theme and interior, yet the entire fries munching experience was vanilla at best. We think they could have made the entire fries experience into something more unique and special. And perhaps that's what they do for their chicken. Unfortunately, the fries experience was forgettable.

Texture	7
Flavor	6
Shape	5
Presentation	3
Experience	5
Overall	5.2 / 10

There's a lot of character in the brand. This is one of the walls in the Sunnyvale, CA store.

Conclusion

Overall, the fries, which seem good on paper due to their nice texture and flavor, do not succeed in the main goal of the fry which is to create a better experience for the consumer and enhance the brand. It had poor presentation, and a mediocre experience, as it forgot to treat these fries as a main subject and highlight of the restaurant identity and chain. Dave's Hot Chicken is a funky and exciting brand that is going through explosive growth. We believe the core substance of their fries is there. They just need to pay a bit more attention in placing their fries in a way that is in tune with the rest of their "heat" and we think we will have something special here.

We love the psychedelic vibe of the brand. This is the visualization for their heat.