16 Dave's Hot Chicken Menu Items, Ranked Worst To Best

Fast food is always in flux. What started at the White Castle restaurant counter in Wichita, Kansas, in 1921 has grown to a worldwide industry worth just under $730 billion last year and projected to reach over by the early 2030s. One trend is the rise of chicken as a fast food protein. Whether you are a grizzled veteran of the chicken sandwich wars or a Taco Bell patron noticing the recent move to crispy chicken on the menu, this cluckolding of the fast food paradigm is impossible to ignore. In addition to KFC, Popeye's, and Raising Cane's, there is a relative newcomer to the game, Dave's Hot Chicken.

Dave's Hot Chicken began with $900 and a parking lot, serving Nashville Hot chicken fingers off a cart back in 2017. Word of mouth and an Eater Los Angeles review helped Dave's turn into a success, with an initial brick and mortar location becoming 329 locations nationally by 2025. Late to the henhouse compared to its competition, it makes up for it with a success story everyone can relate to and a laser-like focus on the chicken finger as a meal-builder. It also has a cauliflower alternative, some side dishes, shakes, and frozen drinks in the mix. Here is a ranking of the lion's (or rooster's) share of its menu items, from slightly "afowl" to "best bang for your cluck."

Among its beverage options, Dave's Hot Chicken offers standard fountain drinks along with frozen beverages known as Slushers. Slushers come in a variety of flavors tied into specific brand partners, like Powerade Mountain Berry Blast, Hi-C Orange Lavaburst and Flashin Fruit Punch, and Minute Maid Strawberry Lemonade. For those in need of a point of reference, think of the Slusher as being along the lines of 7-11 Slurpee or an ICEE.

The Minute Maid Strawberry Lemonade Slusher delivers a frosty punch of sweet and tart expected in a strawberry-lemon flavor combo, with a slightly artificial flavor tang in its aftertaste that didn't do it any favors. It can best be described as what you'd imagine an Otter Pop would be like if it were reimagined as a frozen beverage. However, hats off to the texture of the ice granules for being a darn sight better than your typical Otter Pop.

There is so much potential in the thought of a good order of cheese fries. Dave's crinkle cut fries has an opening in coming out ahead of similarly cut fast food fries that don't offer this as an option. Sadly, this seems to be an opportunity wasted, as the cheese sauce Dave's offers simply doesn't meet the grade. This cheese stands alone, or rather sinks to the bottom of the basket, and leaves the fries wanting.

It isn't just the consistency of the sauce, but also the flavor. Mildly flavorless, the entire package is reminiscent of the nacho cheese you could dispense onto your chips in your school cafeteria. The sauce fares better in Dave's Top Loaded Fries, but only because there's so much else going on with that item that you'll be hard pressed to single out the cheese sauce as either a positive or a negative factor.

Nothing says Southern comfort food like good ol' mac and cheese, which is why most fried chicken purveyors offer it as an accompaniment to their main feature. There's a lot of fast food mac out there, and some folks have even suggested that Dave's iteration is the best fast food mac and cheese you can find. However, that's in comparison to other macs, and it doesn't achieve the same lofty heights when compared to everything else on the menu.

To be clear, Dave's mac and cheese is a better than average mac and cheese. Those flying the "Dave's mac and cheese is awesome" flag have speculated on exactly why it is especially fantastic, chalking it up to bechamel sauce, a combination of cheeses, and black pepper. In this ranking, however, it is up against a slider featuring pickles and kale slaw and a milk shake covered in Oreo crumbles, so... meh.

Kudos to Dave's for considering vegetarians and providing alternatives for them. Big swings like that and the various dressing up the fries puts them ahead of other fast food chains that specialize in chicken fingers. This big swing ends up being kind of a miss, however, when stacked up against its poultry brethren. The fault in these flowers comes down to an odd quirk in texture.

A well prepared cauliflower steak is a thing of beauty, and the Dave's Cauliflower Tender aspires to be a smaller version of it, but as with all big hunks of cauliflower, there comes a point in your chew where the solid food matter collapses into a fluid feel with the oddest "anti-flavor" quality — "anti" in the sense that it works against the desired yum vibe, but flavor in the sense that it is detectable. However, it's subtle and can best be described as plant milky.

Considering the detractions leveled against the cauliflower tender, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the slider version of this veggie option doesn't rank alongside the chicken version. It should be noted that there is an additional issue with the crust and how it interacts with the surface of the cauliflower. Fried crust can separate from its base due to air getting trapped in the process, especially as the item cools. This stands out with cauliflower.

Now to the positives. The restaurant dresses this hunka hunka burnin' cruciferous in all the feels (as in, whichever level of heat you're willing to withstand), Dave's signature sauce kale slaw, and pickles a plenty. You may or may not be able to put lipstick on the proverbial pig, but Dave's certainly gets points for being able to gussy up this cauli tender into something more than just water-filled fiber and making it enjoyable.

Another Southern comfort staple that seems to always accompany fried chicken is cole slaw. Dave's Hot Chicken has a slightly healthier and more colorful twist on the traditional slaw, perhaps in line with its Southern California roots. Kale slaw works pretty well as a light and fruity palette cleanser in between bites of spicy fried food. It's too bad that once again, it's not going to rank very high when up against the menu's heavy hitters.

The light and fruity aspect has to do with a couple of factors. First, although mayonnaise is a part of the recipe, Dave's doesn't try to drown its slaw in it like many fast food cole slaws. Second, that fruitiness comes from the inclusion of apple cider vinegar, which is odd — without knowing the source, you might identify the sour note as citrus. The kale makes for a good crunch, too.

Working up the rankings, it's time for one more appearance by Dave's go-to veggie option, cauliflower. In this case, the diminutive nature of this menu item works to its benefit. That's because the smaller size means that the fry on the cauliflower is just a little crispier and the base is cooked just a little more thoroughly. There is even less opportunity per bite for that plant milk finish described earlier.

Since there will be no more discussion of vegetarian items in this ranking moving forward, maybe this is a good place to commend Dave's Hot Chicken for diversifying the menu and make a suggestion. As long as they're doing fried veggies, how about a little fried okra? You're not going to get a tender or a slider out of it, but okra would make for the perfect Tender Bite — or perhaps some of these best vegetables for making tempura?

When you combine hot and spicy with fried food, you're going to need the right reinforcements to cool it all off and help it go down smoothly. Consider the concept of the shake here as a sweet and frosty stomach buffer, not unlike an epicurean Pepto-Bismol to be taken prior to the potential indigestion. Dave's shakes are delicious and effective at balancing out and neutralizing all of the different flavor profiles you have coming at you in, say, a super hot chicken slider with extra Dave's sauce.

The strawberry shake is always a good indicator of overall fast food shake quality. Nailing the strawberry flavor without getting too much in the way of an artificial, man-made aftertaste is a lot harder to accomplish than with the vanilla or chocolate options. Thankfully, and unlike the Minute Maid Strawberry Lemonade Slusher, Dave's strawberry shake tastes just strawberry enough without becoming cloying.

As previously mentioned, Dave's Hot Chicken's french fries come in a crinkle cut variety not unlike other fast food chicken finger purveyors. Two things that stand out when comparing them to those other brands is that: a.) they have a dusting of spice that sufficiently flavors them without overtaking the general french fry taste; b.) they just seem to hold up better in crunchiness over a short period of time than other similar fries.

One other factor that may not really seem apparent but makes all the difference is the cut itself. Crinkle cut fries create additional surface area that is better for dipping while also striking a Zen-like balance between outer crisp and inner lusciousness. Astoundingly, Dave's fries were not included in our recent ranking of fast food fries, but here's to not giving up hope that they will be included in crucial french fry rankings moving forward.

Not for nothing, but Dave's slider bun is second to none. It's perfectly cooked yet still moist and chewy, ideal for absorbing all the heat, sauce, and pickle juice a slider will throw at you. Sure, you get a slice of white bread with your tender, which allows you to make your own slider hack by folding the tender into the slice, but it isn't quite the same. That's one of the reasons the mini slider doesn't rank higher, there's less of everything, including that well done bun.

While the less is more aspect works with Dave's Tender Bites generally, the whole mini slider concept seems a novelty at best and a strike at the heart of true value at worst. Sliders are already on the small side to begin with, so let's just make them even smaller? The better option is the slider as the good owner Dave intended.

Now this is what'll get folks talking: Dave's Hot Chicken Sliders have everything (within DHC world, that is) under the bun — pickle, kale slaw, Dave's signature sauce, and your preferred level of heat worked into a perfectly fried tender. When you are looking for more flavor, more texture, and certainly more mess, it's hard to find it all in one package, unless you consider Dave's Top Loaded Fries (more on those in a bit).

It's a shame that Dave's slider kind of falls into a gray area of fast food chicken sandwiches. It is a tender on a bun typically Nashville Hot style (for this ranking, all items were baseline prepared with no heat, as heat enjoyment will vary too much for each diner). For this reason, it wasn't included in our recent ranking of fast food chicken sandwiches without heat, nor as a slider, as it's considered a proper spicy chicken sandwich.

As discussed previously, Dave's Minute Maid Strawberry Lemonade Slusher ranking on this list was not the hit that one would have hoped for. Slusher fans should not be discouraged, however, as the Orange Cream Slusher is a marked improvement. Still frosty and sweet, the flavor profile is much more appealing than the stand alone slusher. More than likely, it's a matter of its mimicking successfully the experience of a Creamscicle as a frozen beverage.

The Orange Cream Slusher is able to accomplish this by incorporating a dairy-based layer on top of the slusher that tastes and reacts very much like whatever they are using to make its shakes. It helps that the Hi-C orange flavor doesn't have the same tartness with an almost artificial aspect that the strawberry lemonade has. With its blend of textures and flavor combination, this should be the hit fast food frozen beverage of the summer.

As noted above, Dave's Hot Chicken's fries are a crinkle cut above many of its fast food competitors. Unfortunately, the cheese sauce upgrade provided by Dave's Cheese Fries takes the side dish in the wrong direction, making for a soggy mess lacking in both flavor and texture. Although the fries themselves may suffer under the weight of Tender Bites, Dave's signature sauce, kale slaw, and pickles, at least it isn't lacking in textures and flavors.

It's simply an example of more being more. That may not be to everyone's liking, but if you're looking to have your Dave's Hot Chicken slider components combined with their fantastic fries, then voila! The fries are truly loaded — the only thing missing from Dave's menu is maybe some Lucky Charms. Then again, you may want to load your fries as you see fit at home, and in doing so, skip the oven.

It's the tender that started it all for Dave's Hot Chicken, and it deserves all the respect it can get. The meat is tender and juicy, the outer coating is perfectly fried and then combined perfectly with the desired heat. Add a small bounty of pickle slices and white bread to round out what had people originally lining up at the food cart in an East Hollywood parking lot all those years ago.

Even with the aforementioned accompaniments, the tender, and much of the items on Dave's menu, wouldn't be complete without Dave's signature sauce. Don't confuse it with In n Out's spread, which is more of a Thousand Island dressing, nor Raising Cane's Worcestershire, and black pepper. Dave's sauce is a chipotle mayo with a little kick all its own that actually brings its own heat, although in small measure. Dunk that tender!

How do you take a perfectly enjoyable (but not necessarily mind-blowing) shake and transform it into an item you are willing to fight family members over because you've only ordered one for sampling purposes? You add Oreos (or other yummy, crunchy stuff like Lucky Charms and M&Ms) on top! It's that simple, and it's that delicious that the cool, creamy shake gets taken to a whole new level of flavor and texture with each crunchy spoonful.

Think about everything already written here about Dave's shakes. Now, consider this little adjustment, and broaden your palette and expectations to a dessert experience on par with the best that Dairy Queen or McDonald's can offer. As a bonus, you don't even really need a spoon, as it's a shake you can drink. This summer, it may just be that folks will come to Dave's for the chicken, but stay for the Top Loaded Shakes.

As good as the original Dave's Chicken Tender is, the Tender Bites beat it in this competition for the same reasons that made the Cauli Tender Bites the best of the cauliflower options. The smaller portions allowed for the coating to be fried more thoroughly, the chicken to be exquisitely cooked, and the bite size allowed for less work and more enjoyment. It may just be the best way to enjoy Dave's Hot Chicken as a stand-alone protein without any of the other accoutrements.

As with its crinkle cut fries and its not-quite-a-sandwich-but-still-spicy slider, Dave's Hot Chicken's Tender Bites gets no love in our definitive ranking of fast food chicken nuggets and tenders. Consider the gauntlet thrown down — no longer shall Dave's Hot Chicken be sidelined in these important discussions of fast food history in the making.

In sampling all of the preceding menu items, they each were measured by three main factors — taste, texture, and appearance. The items that did well in one but less in the other two tended to fall lower on the list; items that satisfied two criteria did better, and those achieving notability in all three were ranked highest. As previously stated, all applicable items were sampled with no heat as a baseline, as tolerance and enjoyment of that component is completely subjective.

Naturally, this is only a single hands-on ranking according to taste, and tastes will differ. Hopefully, a well-reasoned and well-intentioned thought process has been laid out to better inform the reader when they go to try Dave's Hot Chicken for themselves. The good news is that its food cart days — storied as they may be — are a thing of the past, and availability is greater than ever.