Dave's Hot Chicken is good, crunchy, but spicy hot? Here's how it went.
El Paso's first Dave's Hot Chicken opens Friday, Feb. 9 and the excitement to try it is heating up.
We got to check out the new restaurant at the Eastlake Marketplace shopping center, 12261 Eastlake Blvd., Feb. 7 and are ready to give you all the details.
The franchise, founded in Los Angeles in 2017, has quickly grown to more than 100 locations in four countries since 2022. And of note is that rapper Drake was such a fan that he became an investor in the chain.
The menu offers four main options, so everybody has something similar: either tenders or sliders. For the vegetarians, you can order the Dave's Not Chicken Cauliflower Bites, which I hear were added to the menu earlier this year.
On the smaller side of the tender menu, you can get the No. 4, which is a slider with fries for $9.99. If you need more sustenance, you can order the No. 3, which gives you both a slider and a tender and fries for $12.99. The combos come with three pickle slices and a side of Dave's sauce. The tenders are served on a slice of white bread and the sliders get a drizzle of Dave's sauce and a tasty kale slaw.
From there, you can order the chicken in a range of heat, from no spice, lite mild, medium, mild, hot, extra hot and reaper.
We taste-tested Dave's Hot Chicken
Everyone has their measure of what is hot. In my world, Tabasco, Hot Cheetos hot or a raw jalapeňo add a little flavor to any meal that needs something. And some chile is usually on my plate unless it's like cereal. Even my salad always has a few Pepperoncini peppers thrown in.
I had no idea what "medium" heat would entail, but I figured it was a good place to start. We ordered No. 3 and No. 4, as well as the cauliflower bites.
The chicken tenders are plump, bigger than the average fast-food tenders, juicy inside and crunchy outside. The dark orange color of the chicken is deceiving, however. I didn't taste the heat. And then I tried dipping it in the sauce, thinking I might find it there, but it was only a creamy, chipotle-mayonnaise combo. It's tasty but not hot.
My regular eating companion stayed home because she is not a fan of heat. And to her, I say, Michelle, you missed out, especially since they have no spicey chicken. To my fellow Latinos who grew up eating Hot Cheetos as preschoolers, I say go straight to the top.
When I go back, I'll start with hot and see if that tingles the tongue. If you're unhappy unless you're enchilado (we're talking sweat and panting), I say order the Reaper. If it's what it says it is, you have the white bread and crinkle fries to dull any pain.
More: Best El Paso-area restaurants to grab romantic Valentine's Day lunch, dinner
María Cortés González may be reached at 915-546-6150; [email protected], @EPTMaria on Twitter; eptmariacg on TikTok.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: We taste-tested El Paso's first Dave's Hot Chicken: Here's how it went
