Name: Daves Hot Chicken
Date Visited: July 5, 2025
Food Type: American, Chicken Strips
Address: 15021 Detroit Ave, Lakewood, OH 44107
Website: https://daveshotchicken.com/
Value for your money: Meh. Overpriced.
Overall Recommendation: Would not go back.
We decided to stop in at Dave’s Hot Chicken for lunch because we’ve heard the hype and several people raved about how good the chicken was.
We ordered 3 combos. One of the 2 tender combos with fries. No drink. 12 dollars. Yeesh that’s pricy. We also got 2 of the single tender and a slider combos with fries. Those were 13 dollars. If you get 2 sliders, it’s 14 dollars. So even though they give you bread for free, you’re paying a dollar more, per slider, for them to drizzle on some of their Dave’s Sauce and some kind of coleslaw. We also got a single tender to try the Reaper level of heat. That was 5 dollars. So right off the rip, I was expecting amazing things for the cost. Total spent was almost 60 dollars with tip.
We got several levels of heat. We got light heat, which is one level above no heat. A medium, a hot, and the single reaper on the side.
So we’ll start with the good:
The chicken was crispy, it was juicy. The cook was perfect. The fries were crispy and tasty. The heat levels were good. The reaper definitely lit my face on fire. The hot had a decent level of heat to it. Enough that eating a whole one I could feel, but not enough to make it uncomfortable. My son said the medium wasn’t very spicy at all. I started with hot, so I couldn’t judge.
The bad:
While the chicken had a good spread of heat and being well done… whatever oversalted nonsense they put on them for flavor was not very tasty. It reminded me of what a sweet bbq potato chip would have on it for flavor, but saltier. They used the same seasoning on the fries but there was enough there to give the fries flavor, the tenders were just smothered in it. It was not very good past the first tender. Even that one was a struggle to get through.
The tenders came with “Dave’s Sauce”. If the dollar store made a Raising Cane’s Sauce clone, but took all the flavor out of it but the Mayo, that’s what Dave’s Sauce tasted like. So much mayo, so little anything else.
Overall:
I would not go back of my own accord. If I was with a group of people and they suggested there, I would try to get plain chicken tenders with some heat and avoid the seasoning. I wouldn’t be happy with the price, but if we’re all going whatever.
Otherwise, I have no intention on going back.