8 Dave's Hot Chicken Menu Items To Order And 6 To Skip Completely

If you're not familiar with Nashville hot chicken, you might wonder: What's the big deal about spicy chicken? Well, while buffalo-style has largely dominated the spicy chicken market in the U.S. for longer than any of us can remember, there's a new fiery, Nashville-born bird in town. And we have Dave's Hot Chicken to thank, in part, for its surge in popularity.

Dave's Hot Chicken began as a humble pop-up in East Hollywood, California in 2017, started by a few 20-somethings putting their heart, soul, and all the money they could scrape together into their passion. Less than a decade later, the chain has restaurants all over the U.S., as well as in Canada, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai. As one of 2025's fastest-growing restaurant chains, Dave's is opening new locations all the time, including one in my neck of the woods. Of course, this meant I had to stop in and see what the buzz is about the only way I know how: Sampling almost everything on the menu.

After trying — and objectively judging — its many menu items, I've turned my hot chicken feast into a roadmap for your next Dave's experience. Whether it's drinks, sides, or chicken at varying heat levels (including the infamous item that you have to sign a waiver for), here's what to order and what to avoid from Dave's Hot Chicken.

Sometimes, water just doesn't cut it when you're trying to tame the heat from spicy food. Sugary drinks offer a little more relief, and if said beverage also checks a nostalgia box, that's a huge bonus. In that sense, the Frozen Hi-C Flashin' Fruit Punch is like a refreshing time warp back to childhood.

Unlike Dave's Hot Chicken's Fruity Pebbles Top Loaded Shake, the Hi-C frozen punch is sufficiently frosty. It stayed ice cold, and did an excellent job of cooling down my mouth after getting shocked with spice (more on that later). It's sweet enough to be a dessert, but not so sweet that it's hard to enjoy alongside a savory meal.

But the best part of this fun, fruity, frozen drink was its likeness to the real deal. I haven't enjoyed a Hi-C in probably 20 years, and this slushie washed me in a wave of nostalgia. With the Hi-C Frozen Flashin' Fruit Punch, Dave's is proving we can bring back the snacks from Gen X kid's lunch boxes and give them a contemporary spin that doesn't feel old or out of place at modern chains.

A cool, creamy shake and a spicy chicken sandwich are a match made in heaven. Consequently, the top loaded shakes at Dave's Hot Chicken are meant to be a tasty dessert, something sweet and milky to cool down your taste buds if you accidentally ordered your spicy chicken a heat level too high (it happens). The Fruity Pebbles Top Loaded Shake is Dave's newest shake creation as of this writing, and as much as I love the idea of mixing ice cream and sugary breakfast cereal, it just doesn't work on any level.

When you order a Top-Loaded Shake from Dave's, you get to choose your ice cream flavor — vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry. I opted for vanilla with the Fruity Pebbles shake, which did a nice job of letting the candy-like flavors in the cereal pop. However, the cereal sitting on top gets soggy incredibly fast. If you start eating the shake immediately, you'll be able to savor some creamy ice cream with some crunch; after about 90 seconds, though, your dessert is doomed.

Believe it or not, the soggy, mushy cereal isn't even the biggest downfall. As soon as I got mine, I could see that it was almost completely liquid. It's hard to say if it had melted before I got it or if Dave's shakes are always like this. Either way, it was very disappointing.

I'm not a big Powerade fan in general, but there's something about the beverage with a spicy meal. It's cooling, refreshing, sweet, and doesn't scorch your taste buds after you've eaten hot pepper seasoning the way carbonated drinks do. I love the idea of a frozen slushie with spicy food, too, and it's worth ordering the chain's Frozen Powerade Mountain Berry Blast Slusher.

For starters, it didn't get warm when it started to melt — it just tasted like slightly-watered-down Powerade. Plus, it didn't get weirdly syrupy the way a lot of slushies do when they start to melt. While the berry flavor in the frozen Powerade is far from that of genuine fruit (as any regular Powerade consumer will tell you), the artificial flavor works in slushie form. In fact, it's expected, and therefore less of a shock to the senses. Instead of a candy-like berry flavor, it was more subtle and tangy, making the drink even more thirst-quenching.

I want to preface this by saying that the Oreo Top Loaded Shake is significantly better than the Fruity Pebbles version, which was downright horrible. But I'd still recommend avoiding it.

Since most of us have likely enjoyed an Oreo shake once (or seven times) in our lives, you may already know that the cookie pieces can get a bit soggy. Yet it wasn't completely unappealing in this shake, like with the cereal. I chose chocolate ice cream for this shake, but I think vanilla would have been a better choice.

Still, regardless of the ice cream flavor you choose, much like the other shake? The Oreo Top-Loaded Shake was basically all liquid when I picked it up at the counter. Ironically, it comes with a spoon and not a straw, which felt a little like a cruel joke at the time.

Even though I'd rather have more hot chicken as a side with my hot chicken, fries are the next best option. While I believe many types of fast food fries fall somewhere between lackluster and downright nauseating, Dave's Hot Chicken managed to create a spud worthy of a place next to its namesake poultry.

For starters, I love the crinkle-cut texture of these fries. They lean more substantial than delicate, and the crinkly texture means that they don't get sad and floppy as easily. They have a slight crunch on the outside and a soft, melt-in-your-mouth interior — two qualities of an excellent french fry.

Perhaps the best thing about these fries isn't their hefty size and excellent texture, but its seasoning. The dusting of spices on the fries is a little herby, a little spicy, and a lot delicious. Plenty of chains forgo seasoning on fries, probably to appeal to a wider audience. Dave's fries, on the other hand, are seasoned enough to add flavor without making fans of blander foods shy away.

You can't have greasy fast food without a side of cheese fries as an option. After all, something about creamy, melty cheese sauce — even though it has a reputation for being of questionable quality — simultaneously scratches both the nostalgia and comfort food itch. Of course, it's also a great choice for taming the heat in a spicy sandwich, and Dave's cheese sauce scored in the flavor department. But it was also too thin and watery, turning the fries into a soggy mess almost immediately.

While the sauce had just the right amount of salty and tangy with a moderately sharp bite, it didn't have that mouth-coating richness that I was hoping for. Even though they landed high on our chain restaurant cheese fries rankings, I just didn't feel the gooey spuds compared to its other menu items, including its regular fries. The potato-to-sauce ratio was way off — it'd say about 60% of the fries were completely dry — but I ultimately kind of preferred that. After all, the dry fries didn't disintegrate under the weight of the wet sauce.

Some folks aren't sandwich people, and there's no shame in that. Thankfully, if you're looking to try all that Dave's Hot Chicken has to offer sans bun, the Top-Loaded Fries are a solid option. It comes as a hearty pile of spuds topped with chunks of chicken in your choice of heat level, slaw, pickles, cheese sauce, and a light drizzle of Dave's famous sauce (which can be improved with honey). You can get them in a small, regular, or large size, and they're worth ordering.

There's a lot going on in the Top-Loaded Fries that makes them both a worthy meal and extra extravagant side. There's no shortage of chicken, and it's just as juicy and delicious as the chicken used in the sliders. Pickles often fall flat at chains, but the pickles at Dave's are almost as good as the meat itself, so they make a great zesty, crunchy topping on the fries.

Additionally, the slaw isn't so abundant that it makes the fries wet, but (like the pickles) adds plenty of zest and crunch. And yes, I know there's cheese sauce on the Top-Loaded Fries, and it's just as watery as the sauce in the plain old cheese fries. But with everything else going on in this item from Dave's, it's hardly noticeable.

It's probably pretty self explanatory, but a sandwich of unseasoned meat at a hot chicken place isn't a great choice. What makes Nashville hot chicken unique is its eclectic blend of herbs and spices coating the exterior of the meat, which is much different from saucy buffalo-style. As a result, Dave's chicken without the spice is like a song without a chorus: Boring, bland, and missing the hook that keeps you coming back for more.

Without the seasoning, Dave's chicken tastes a little bit more dry than when it's dressed to the nines with spice. It tastes obvious that the meat is still brined beforehand, but there may be something missing in the process of making chicken sans spice that leads to a drier texture. If you find yourself at a Dave's Hot Chicken and you absolutely can't handle any spice, at least order your seasoning-free slider with plenty of comeback sauce to moisten it up and add some much-needed flavor.

As much as I love spicy food, I'm well aware that some folks out there either can't take the heat, or don't like the taste of hot pepper-infused foods. No judgments here, of course, and it's certainly not for everyone. With that in mind, spice-averse people can still get a tasty meal at Dave's Hot Chicken in the form of its mild slider.

Unlike the chicken with zero seasoning whatsoever and the lite mild, the mild chicken offers plenty of flavor with very, very little heat. Instead of fiery peppers being at the forefront of your taste buds, the mild slider brings earthy, savory, and sweet flavors to the party. The zest in the brine isn't drowned out by too much seasoning, and the layers of flavor that the hot chicken is famous for stand front and center. I'll always opt for something spicy over something with a gentler flavor, but Dave's mild slider has enough going for it that I'd consider turning down the heat for once.

There's pretty minimal difference between Dave's lite mild slider and the zero-spice slider. While there's noticeably more flavor on the lite mild than the chicken sans any seasoning whatsoever, it's not enough to make it stand out against any old fried chicken, so you should skip it. After all, even those who don't appreciate spicy food still deserve some flavor.

The only saving grace about this slider is the pickles and slaw, which come on every sandwich and on the Top-Loaded Fries. The pickles add extra briny flavor and the slaw adds some creaminess and crunch to otherwise bland and boring pieces of fried chicken. Now, like the zero-spice slider, this sandwich can use a little extra Dave's comeback sauce. In fact, a light drizzle of it transforms the sandwich, adding tang, subtle heat, and a hint of sweetness that instantly makes each bite more interesting. Without it, the slider feels incomplete, and certainly not like a genuine piece of Nashville hot chicken.

For those that prefer a comfortable middle, Dave's Hot Chicken offers a medium slider, and it's one of the best things on its menu. Objectively, the medium slider may be the best of all the various heat levels. Spice preference comes down to personal taste, but the medium-level chicken offers a solid amount of heat that isn't enough to scorch the taste buds, but lets all the other flavors in the seasoning shine. Spicy cayenne and paprika play beautifully against savory garlic and sweet brown sugar, and the medium level chicken offers the perfect balance between these ingredients.

Obviously, the medium-level chicken isn't going to blow you away with its heat, but I was actually pretty surprised to find that it packed a decent punch. The spicier versions hit the tongue like a fiery burst, but the medium-level heat is sneakier and more warming — you can feel it more in your belly than in your mouth. I also noticed more black pepper flavor in the medium chicken, which gave the seasoning a nice earthiness.

If you were looking for a quintessential example of Nashville hot chicken, Dave's hot-level slider would be it. To be honest, it really surprised me with the heat level. I've come to learn that most things deemed "hot" from a fast food restaurant are far from it, at least according to those with a high spice tolerance. But the hot-level hot chicken slider at Dave's was hot enough to satisfy a spicy food fan. It was also mild enough to be nothing more than a sufficiently spicy experience rather than a night-ruining meal for someone who prefers their fast food on the tamer side.

The heat level in this slider played well against the comeback sauce, which is more cool and creamy than fiery. The heat was still plenty noticeable, but the creamy sauce melded with it for a nice blend of flavor profiles. The pickles added a pop of acidity that helped cut through the richness of the fried chicken, so each bite was balanced. Altogether, it's the kind of sandwich that keeps you reaching for another bite for more tingle-inducing heat, along with all the famously vivid, nuanced flavors in the most iconic dish from the state of Tennessee.

At Dave's, you have to sign a waiver before you can order the Reaper hot sauce. I laughed when learning this, thinking it must be for show (because it couldn't be that hot, right?) But the Reaper humbled me — and if it's listening, I'd like it to know that I learned my lesson and am sorry for my arrogance.

This sauce contains extract from the Carolina Reaper, which was once deemed the hottest pepper in the world. And while the sandwich has the same pickles, slaw, and sauce as the others, they do nothing to quell the Reaper's fury. It took a minute for the heat to hit after my first (and only) bite, but when it did, it was almost an emergency. It's the kind of heat that doesn't have flavor or warming qualities — just mouth-scorching suffering. I ended up bringing the rest of the slider home, but I felt its ominous presence in my fridge — like the refrigerator ghost in "Ghostbusters" — so I threw it away.

While I'm sad that I couldn't handle it, it's nice to know that there's some actually-spicy fast food out there. Then again, even if you're sure you can take the heat, the Reaper isn't a great choice. Some Reaper-eaters have reported moderate to severe gastrointestinal distress the following day, which no sandwich is worth.

I had a feeling the extra hot slider would be my personal favorite, and I wasn't wrong. Although I thought the medium heat level offered the most balanced flavors and best taste overall, the extra hot slider really satisfied the spice fiend in me. This chicken was hot — and I mean hot. Since I thought the hot-level chicken was quite spicy, I wasn't surprised to find the extra hot sauce was just about my limit for spice.

Now, this chicken may not be ideal for the faint of heart, but it's a great choice for those used to spicy foods. I felt the heat in the seasoning more in my mouth rather than warming my entire body, the way the medium-level heat did. It was definitely necessary for me to have a cold drink nearby, but a more seasoned spice fan might think otherwise.

Despite the high heat level, the pickles and comeback sauce aren't drowned out either, although the mild flavor of the slaw was all but nonexistent. It's worth buying, though if you really want the zest and creaminess of the slaw on this sandwich, I suggest asking for a little extra.

To put together this list of what to buy and what to skip at Dave's Hot Chicken, I sampled a wide range of items representing every corner of the menu: Shakes, slushies, sides, and, of course, chicken. I skipped the tenders since they use the same chicken as the sliders, so reviewing the various heat levels of both would have been redundant.

I judged everything based on objective factors like quality, flavor, nuance, balance, and texture. The items in the "avoid" category either lacked flavor, were poorly executed, or simply didn't measure up to menu's better options. The items labeled "buy" were well-prepared, hit the right flavor notes, and felt like great picks for a first-time Dave's customer. Just keep in mind that chain locations vary, so your experience at your local Dave's may differ from mine.