Dave's Hot Chicken — Restaurant in Saugus

Okay please save your money and go to a better chicken place. Its not even that the food from here is bad, its just that its simply waaaaay to overpriced for the value. I was expecting chicken that was going be top dollar. A single tender here is $5 and a chicken slider is over $7. But when I had it a couple times, it was never anything out of this world. The quality of the chicken itself seemed to be no better than any other local chicken spots, if not it was slightly below. And the seasoning didn't taste like anything crazy that i could've of made at home myself. Also to be honest I felt that the chicken was also over seasoned, but that could just be my opinion. This let me down as someone who really loves spicy food, and also fried chicken. I was looking forward to this place when it was being built. I would give the place 2 stars if not for the staff, they all seemed friendly and you can see are really hard working. That extra star 3rd is solely because of the staff. Also Lastly Don't Charge over $7 for a milkshake that is basically just soft serve ice cream with a pile of broken m and m's at the bottom. That might've actually been one of the worst milkshake I've ever had in my life, but paid the most I've ever paid for a milkshake. (Excluding Frappes) I'd recommend going somewhere like "Flip the Bird" or "Chicken and the Pig". Both have better food for better prices, also even though they're located in towns with higher property tax, than Dave's Hot Chicken is. They're also locally owned businesses versus Dave's, which is a nation wide franchised chain with less control over their business decisions. If I was to recommend this place anything, it would be to lower prices first off. And then expand your menu. You could even add more value meal/combos to kill two birds with one stone. But if they refuse to make prices more reasonable, then I'd strongly suggest to go somewhere else...

I went to try it out & noticed the top hotness level was reaper. I grew Carolina Reaper hot peppers which are the hottest in the world. I had to sign a waiver. I thought it was a gimmick. I got my sandwich, and my finger touched to chicken, so I liked my finger. It was spicey as hell. There was more chicken than I could fit on the bread. I knew it was going to be painfull, so I tried eating it fast. As soon as my lip touched the chicken it was like biting into a hot poker in a fire place. I took 2 huge bites. I put the sandwich down & tears started flowing, my lips felt like in a vise, and my eye's were wide open signaling for help. For the next 10 minutes I ate bread & drank trying to quench the heat. I took the rest in a to go box. I went home & got right into bed. Woke up in escrusiating pain & severe sweats. The next two days I been passing blood. I went into the gas chamber for the Iraq war in the Army in 1991, and I must say I prefer the gas chamber over eating that sandwich! I've been maced by 2 cans by police & chose that over that sandwich. I would equal that sandwich over chemical warfare in 1935 mustard gas. This that being said the employees were friendly & upbeat. It was a rememberable expierance I'll...

Andre at the front counter had an amazing positive attitude when I was there on 02-02-25. He had an amazing energy which radiated throughout the whole restaurant, as people came in he was very attentive, friendly and quick to address their wants by asking customers if it was their first time and that he would be happy to help in anyway. As customers were leaving he also made sure to ask if they had a great experience and if they enjoyed how the food was prepared, overall you could really see the effort and passion behind his positive attitude toward the kitchen staff and the customers coming in and out it was really refreshing to have this type of customer service which is very rare to see. He is definitely a strong representative of the brand/image that Dave’s Chicken promotes which was cool to experience in person, it definitely makes it easier to want to come back and have another meal here again. I also wanted to give a mini shoutout to the Dominican lady in the kitchen making the food, because my combo came...