Heaterz — Restaurant in Alton

I'm always excited to find great fried chicken. Heaterz in Alton had their soft open near the end of March 2022, but I'd heard they had been busy the whole week long, so my wife and I decided to go by after church one Sunday. We got there pretty close after opening, and ordered 2 of the 3-tender meals. She got plain, I ordered Nashville Hot, and both tasted amazing. The Nashville Hot wasn't as stinging-hot as some famous chicken chain's version is, but it's a nice simmering heat that keeps lingering the more you eat it.

The sides offered a nice balance to the heat, as well. Sidewinder fries are crispy and meaty, the cole slaw has a classic creamy crunch, the street corn (on the cob) tastes absolutely wonderful, and the loaded potato salad is to die for.

For the price, the taste is fantastic. The chicken, however, was overcooked. It took about 15 minutes for us to get our food, and frankly, if the chicken had been cooked 1 or 2 minutes less, it might have been perfect. It was a tad on the dry side, and when you're working with white meat, that's not what you want. However, the flavors and the service of the staff made up for the dryness of the chicken, so I'm prepared to go back. We want to give it a few weeks so that they can work out any kinks in their process, but we are definitely looking forward to going back!

EDIT: Since first posting the review, I've gone back twice in about a month's time. And yes, the chicken is better than it was the first time! The drumsticks are large and plentiful, and the tenders are as tender and juicy as you'd imagine really good ones to be. Their service time has gotten faster, as well, and every time I've gone back, they've been busy. No dry chicken here, folks, only flavor out the wazoo. So bring your wazoo, 'cause you'll need a spare. 5...

I wish I could give Heaterz a 3.5 but overall I believe Heaterz is a great addition to the Alton restaurant scene. The interior of the restaurant is small but the ordering process is very easy through their self serve kiosk system. I ordered a 3 piece Nashville hot tender meal with their sidewinder fries and Nashville street corn, which came out fairly quickly. The tenders are made of fresh chicken breast which were juicy with a crunchy breading on the outside. The tenders were not spicy at all which was disappointing but the flavor was still great. The sidewinder fries had a great flavor and were fluffy on the inside. The corn was honestly inedible not in terms of flavor but rather the corn was obviously old, but I would imagine it is hard to get fresh corn right now with it not being an in season vegetable. So I would recommend choosing another side other than the Nashville street corn. Overall a good restaurant and would recommend...

I gave 4 stars because this is one of our GoTo places, and they always forget the extra ranch, even though I pay for it. We support locally owned restaurants, we don't have very many to choose from, so when the food comes out cold and no extra ranch, I'm not happy. The last time was about a month ago and it just was really bad. I wanted to go back & take my food back because Heaterz is better than this. Always great food, always great customer service. We love this place. But for some reason our last time eating here was horrible. Don't let my review discourage you, Go, eat, & enjoy. But make sure you get what you've paid for. Heaterz owes me 5 ranch cups, 2 HOT corns, and 6 chicken strips that are the flavor I asked for, & hot twisters. Only because they ALWAYS forget extra ranch & my food was super cold. Not just mildly cold, like sitting in the fridge cold. Again great place to eat, probably just had a bad night for the...