Dave’s Hot Chicken in Dubai does the famous Nashville Chicken, which is my favourite style of fried chicken. Quite possibly due to its infamous spice. The spice kick just elevates the box standard fried chicken to the next level. Such style of fried chicken, often referred to as hot chicken too, is absolutely booming in America, and that is understandable considering it is the home of the Nashville Chicken. Unfortunately, London is actually quite far behind in this regard. This trend hasn’t really spread far and wide in London, but Dubai is quite different. There are a number of Nashville style hot chicken spots that have popped up in the country and it seems to be really trendy at the moment and in fact has been for the past few years. With Jailbird and in particular Pickl leading the way. As a matter of fact, as I’ve mentioned in numerous other places, Pickl is my favourite fried chicken spot period (read more). And now none other than American legends from LA, Dave’s Hot Chicken, have landed on the scene to really test the waters.
Drake and LA’s favourite hot chicken
So, who are Dave’s? It is an eatery that was started by four friends (including Dave) in a car park in LA and it literally took the city and country by storm almost overnight. Their flavours and the heat of the chicken was on point and became an instant hit with the people. Despite it not being the first Nashville Chicken place in LA, it certainly played a big part if not the biggest part of making it so popular in the city. And that is why within a few years they managed to expand out from a car park to numerous states in the country and beyond: Canada, Dubai and Qatar. This success is just a testament to their quality. And the icing on the cake is the fact that it is supposedly Drake’s favourite chicken place. He loves it so much that he bought a share in the business!
7 heat levels
Dave’s menu is fairly straight forward. Fried chicken burgers, tenders, fries and drinks. What distinguishes them from the rest and something their quite famous (or notorious) for is the different heat levels for the chicken. Seven in total! With the highest/most spiciest level being reaper and the lowest, no spice. So, whether you’re a spice freak or not, you’ll find something appropriate for your level. The reaper level is notoriously hot and it is more of a challenge spice level as opposed to something you eat to enjoy. We ended up getting HOT, which is the third from top level. Read below to find out what we thought.
Our experience
They have a couple of branches in Dubai; we visited the main one on the JBR beach. A big spacious restaurant with two floors, which is appropriate to its status, but to our surprise it was empty when we visited. We were literally the only ones there the whole time we were there. Nonetheless, the staff were all very welcoming, jovial and attentive. We went for meal 3, which is 1 tender, 1 slider and fries. As mentioned above, we chose the HOT heat level. The tender comes with sliced bread, pickles and a special sauce. And the slider is served with kale slaw, pickles and that special sauce. They also give you an optional small sachet of honey. All of this set us back 56 AED.
How was the taste? Well, first of all the spice. It sure was spicy! And we’re used to and able to handle spice. So, if we say it’s spicy, it is spicy! So, I can only imagine how spicy the reaper level would be. BUT unfortunately, it just tasted like it was being spicy just for the sake of being spicy. It was lacking in terms of flavour and substance beyond the in your face spice. This is quite the contrast to our favourite spot, Pickl, which is arguably as hot, but it has immense flavour to go with it. This one just felt like a lot of spicy seasoning was sprayed on the fried chicken and there was a hope for success. What I did like was the addition of the optional honey. If you pour the honey over the spicy chicken, it creates a wonderful contrast that was quite unique. I really liked and enjoyed that touch. Other than that, I was not impressed and I’m definitely sticking to Pickl when in Dubai.
Getting there:
Google Maps Location link: click here
