The Dave's Hot Chicken Side Dish That Gives Us Mixed Emotions - Tasting Table

"The eponymous Dave of Dave's Hot Chicken trained under Chef Thomas Keller...so maybe our expectations were too high going in? We need to talk about the cheese fries. In Tasting Table's roundup of the Dave's Hot Chicken menu items to order and the ones to skip completely, we wrote the chain's cheese fries off as a skip. However, in our ranking of the 10 best restaurant cheese fries, we gave Dave's cheese fries the illustrious number two spot out of 10 (surpassed only by Wingstop). Why do the results of our taste-tests vary so drastically? After some soul (and stomach, and internet) searching, the answer seems to be that Dave's cheese fries vary pretty drastically, too."

"As we mentioned in our "skip" piece, while the cheese sauce "scored in the flavor department," delivering "just the right amount of salty and tangy with a moderately sharp bite," it was a textural turnoff, arriving thin and watery. A total letdown. However, in the same piece, we praise Dave's regular fries (sans cheese sauce) for their crinkle-cut texture: "They have a slight crunch on the outside and a soft, melt-in-your-mouth interior - two qualities of an excellent french fry." We also raved about the fry seasoning, which is "a little herby, a little spicy, and a lot delicious," setting Dave's crinkle-cut beauties apart from other popular fast food fries."

Dave's Hot Chicken delivers crinkle-cut fries with a slight exterior crunch, a soft interior, and a distinctive herby, slightly spicy seasoning that many reviewers praise. The chain's cheese sauce scores well for flavor, offering a salty, tangy profile with a moderately sharp bite. The major criticism centers on texture: the cheese sauce can arrive thin and watery, undermining the overall cheese-fries experience. Opinions and taste-test outcomes vary across locations and visits, leading to radically different rankings depending on sauce consistency and individual expectations.

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