Joella's Hot Chicken - Crescent Springs — Restaurant in Crescent Springs

I don’t normally rate restaurants ever, but this one couldn’t be let go.

I ordered through UberEats. I saw it listed as a neighborhood favorite and thought I’d give it a try. I love spicy food — everything I eat, I make it spicy. I normally eat Citybird and Wendy’s for my hot chicken fix, so I was hyped to find a new hot chicken place.

First disappointment was the time it took for them to make the order. I won’t fault them for delivery speed because that was on the driver, but I saw that they took forever to actually make the food. Already wasn’t impressed.

Food arrives and I open everything up. I get the tiniest containers I have ever seen. Um…. great? This didn’t bode well. I got the 12 piece chicken meal. UberEats was offering a BOGO deal for this item, and in retrospect, I should’ve bought the second meal. These were the tiniest pieces of chicken I have EVER seen. I’m 5’10”, 170 lbs, and this didn’t even leave me partially satisfied. I could have maybe fed my cat with these.

To make things worse, the spice level was simply pathetic. I got their ghost pepper sauce on the chicken, which was their second hottest option. I barely felt a tingle. I also got their pimento ranchero dipping sauce. It was the only sauce that said it had a kick — it was more like someone accidentally bumping my arm with their leg as they walked by than a kick. Their hottest sauce was labelled “waiver-worthy.” What’s on that waiver? “You can’t sue us if you die from boredom”? I know this is a chain restaurant, but ghost pepper sauce this was not, and I expect more from a place that puts “hot chicken” in its name.

The sides didn’t make up for anything. The mac and cheese portion was abysmal — it might have fed half a child — and it was flavorless. The fries were so skinny that they could have met the criteria for having an eating disorder. The garlic parmensan was somehow on the fries but providing zero flavor.

All in all, I was not impressed and have no plans to order again. For the same price I paid here ($16.70 for just the food), I could’ve gotten a 6 piece spicy nugget, a Son of Baconator, and a medium fry from Wendy’s and still have gotten more food than this. Unless you only need 500 calories a day or pass away if you taste anything hotter than pepper, you will not be impressed...

Ordered food for myself through Door dash around 350pm today. This was for pickup not delivery. Three tenders, Parm fries, Mac/cheese and banana pudding. Arrived before quoted ready time. Opened my order when I got home and discovered there were no fries with my order. Called the store and was told they will put me on the list for a VIP fry credit. My first thought, if I was VIP I would have received a complete order in the first place. I thought, ok cool I can live with that. Moving on with my meal, the breading on the tenders was very soggy and the piece of bread underneath was like mush with hot sauce. The chicken itself...not too bad but the again the breading was dreadful. Maybe a little dramatic but that's the only word I can think of. On to the Mac and Cheese, opened the lid and it was as dry as can be. No cheese. Just some noodles with some crumb topping. Strike 3 at this point. The banana pudding was decent but not great. As for my fry credit I think if rather have a refund at least for the fries because at the end of the day I still ate. However, I'll probably won't return...

Let me start by saying I order Joella’s a lot. On the weekends I typically get the bogo sandwich and a pie in a jar. Food is decent and I don’t always have problems. There have been a handful of times that stuff has been missing and I let it go. Not today. My bill was $55. I ordered two sandwiches, parm fries, green beans, chicken tenders and waffles with spiked honey and a pie in a jar. I got two sandwiches with burnt bread and the smallest pieces of chicken I’ve ever seen on a sandwich. My fries were missing. My pie in a jar was missing. My green beans were missing. I got three chicken tenders and mashed potatoes instead of the chicken and waffles. I was able to get DoorDash to refund most of my order and my bag was properly labeled so this isn’t on the dasher. I’m almost positive they just threw whatever in my bag. For the price paid, this is absolutely ridiculous. I gave two stars because I don’t think one is fair since I do eat here often enough but I’m pretty salty about this mess. No bueno. I mean how do you get more items wrong than right and the correct items are burnt and...