I went to the viral US chicken shop with epic queues and a security guard – but was it any good?

I’ll admit I was intimidated by the prospect of visiting Dave’s Hot Chicken. The ludicrously viral, US-imported fast food outlet opened on Shaftesbury Avenue last autumn, and was immediately besieged by hordes of hungry fans. There were chaotic reports of queues four hours long, line-jumpers annoying everyone who had waited patiently for their dinner and a security guard on the door. Your suburban branch of Wimpy, this was not.  

The first UK branch of Dave’s – there are apparently plans to open 60 more across the country over the year – was a big deal. Not least because Dave’s is a relative baby in the US fast food scene. Whereas the likes of In-N-Out Burger, Taco Bell, and McDonald's have been around for over 60 years, Dave’s Hot Chicken was only born in 2017. 

Dave’s also has serious kitchen credentials. The titular Dave – Dave Kopushyan - worked at Californian three-Michelin-star restaurant The French Laundry before teaming up with some pals to serve spicy fried chicken in an East Hollywood carpark. 

Wildly and swiftly successful, in less than a decade they’ve gone from street food stall to scaling the fried chicken supremacy. Dave’s Hot Chicken are one of the fastest growing fast food chains in the world. KFC, watch your back.

But enough of the global domination chat. What does Dave’s Hot Chicken actually taste like, and is worth all the hype?

I go along at 6pm on a Thursday and the queue isn’t actually too bad. Sure, you’ll have to wait a bit for your supper (20 minutes or so), but it definitely isn’t the four hour line I was promised.

The menu is brief and made up of various meal deals that circle around different combinations of chicken tenders and sliders, with fries, mac and cheese and slaw on the side. The main event is inspired by Nashville hot chicken, a notoriously potent Tennessee-born take on fried poultry, where hilariously spicy fried chicken is served on a slice of plain white bread. I’ve tried it in Nashville, making a memorable trip to the legendary Prince’s Hot Chicken, which dates back to 1945 and has been raising the blood pressure of residents ever since. 

Prince’s Hot Chicken was so spicy as to almost be inedible – it was certainly a struggle to finish it – but that’s kind of the point. At Dave’s you can order a variety of heat levels, from no spice at all to ‘extra hot’, with an extreme ‘reaper’ level for which you have to sign a waver that lists ‘vomiting and/or diarrhoea’ and ‘heart attack and stroke’ as possible adverse effects. Lovely. 

It’s a little stunt-y and also quite terrifying, so for that reason we decide to swerve the reaper and instead order a ‘medium’ slider, as well as ‘hot’ and ‘extra hot’ chicken tenders. The chicken itself is actually really very good, with a crunchy, quality batter and soft, well-cooked meat inside. It tastes a lot juicier than other high street chicken joints, but there’s just one issue; it’s not that hot. And if you’re calling yourself Dave’s Hot Chicken, well, you’d expect everything to be hot, wouldn’t you?

Medium barely has any heat at all, and even extra hot, though definitely spicy, doesn’t linger in the way you’d expect their second highest heat level to do. A swig of super thick Oreo milkshake and any lingering tingle is gone, and by the time we nibble our mac and cheese any fiery face blast has been well and truly muffled. (The mac and cheese, by the way, is pretty standard, but the fries are decent, especially when slathered with their creamy plastic-cheese sauce. Though it’s clear that the people eating in the basement dining area aren’t here for the sides, they’re here for the chook.)  

Can we really be regretting not ordering the vomit-inducing ‘reaper’ level? Weirdly, yes. Only one thing for it. We’ll have to go back. 

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