If you like hot chicken, but you’re wondering if you’ll like Al’s Hot Chicken, keep reading our Al’s Hot Chicken Review. But, spoiler alert: It’s hot. I mean, the chain chicken restaurant’s logo is a chicken spitting out fire. So, you’ve been warned.
For more reviews, be sure to check out all our restaurant reviews.
Let’s get this out of the way at the start: I love fried chicken and I love spicy food. That’s my go to anytime we go out. I won’t make fried chicken at home, so I very often order a fried chicken sandwich when we go out for dinner.
In fact, the Nashville Hot Chicken sandwich at Vagabond, one of Excalibur’s in house restaurants, is on my list of Reasons To Stay At Excalibur Las Vegas. It’s so good.
So when I was visiting Tacoma, Washington on a hosted blog trip, and my friend mentioned that Al’s Hot Chicken had opened its first restaurant outside of California — and it was in Tacoma — I knew we had to go there for lunch.
If you’re thinking about going, find out more about the hot chicken chain in our Al’s Hot Chicken review.
For more hot chicken chain reviews, check out our Dave’s Hot Chicken review.
Al’s Hot Chicken Review
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Al’s Hot Chicken Menu
Most chicken-only restaurants (like Dave’s Hot Chicken or Raising Canes) stick to chicken tenders. That’s it. You can get chicken tenders on bread or chicken tenders as a slider, but that’s it. Lots of sides, but no other chicken options.
So I was super excited that Al’s Hot Chicken menu was more diverse.
But … we went to Al’s Hot Chicken in Tacoma (2102 Mildred St W) too early. The restaurant was then (and still now, since we went earlier this month) only serving tenders.
The Al’s Hot Chicken locations in California (Venice Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks, and El Monte). Those locations sell a quarter chicken (breast and wing or leg and thigh), a half chicken, boneless wings, and jumbo wings.
What I love, and what I haven’t seen at other hot chicken chains, is there’s also a Vegetarian Chicken Substitution.
What also sets Al’s Hot Chicken apart is that in addition to being able to order the tenders alone (which come with a slice of bread) or as a slider, you can also order it with waffles.
Chicken and waffles, you guys.
There are a couple options for sides: fries, coleslaw, mac and cheese, curly fries, and fried pickles (Tacoma doesn’t have the latter two yet).
Al’s Hot Chicken comes in six spice levels: Country (which is its original fried chicken, without heat), Mild, Medium, Hot, X Hot, and LA’s Hottest (which, like Dave’s Hot Chicken’s reaper, you need to sign a waiver to eat).
Al’s Hot Chicken Spice Level Reviews
When we went to review Dave’s Hot Chicken, we tried a tender from all seven levels of heat. But, in that case, I was able to try a bite of each and then bring the rest home for Pete. We didn’t have that option in this case since we were having it for lunch and then traveling for the rest of the day (with no access to a fridge until that evening), so we couldn’t take anything to go.
So, to try to maximize our bites, we ordered the Country, the Mild, and the Hot (so levels 1, 2, and 4). For comparison, my favorite Dave’s Hot Chicken order is level 6 (of 7) as a slider.
As far as I can tell, all of the chicken starts as Country and then is dipped in hot sauce.
And, quick side note: If you order a combo meal (a sandwich and a tender, for example) you can mix and match the heat levels.
Country
Country is advertised as “original fried chicken,” so we were expecting it to be a traditional chicken tender (like KFC, Dairy Queen, Raisin’ Canes, etc.), which is to say plain, just dropped in the fryer, chicken tenders.
These are not. Like, not even close.
They’re covered in spices. And when I say covered, and you think covered, that’s exactly what it is. So sure, they’re not hot, but they’re seasoned.
And we are big fans of seasoning. Pete’s famous line is, “Season every step of the way.” He would season his seasoning if that made sense.
But this … this is … not it.
Let’s saying you’re running errands with your kids and you want to pick them up chicken tenders. If you stop here, your kids (most likely) won’t eat it. Because it’s not plain. And the chicken almost has a gritty taste to it because of all the spices. So the texture isn’t great. Which is a shame, honestly, because it’s a good piece of chicken, the breading is delicious, and it’s fried well. But the seasoning makes it unappealing to people who are expecting plain chicken.
Mild
The mild, which is described as “gentle spicy,” is delicious as a slider. With coleslaw and pickles under it, plus bread around it, this is a great bite of food. The chicken is cooked well, the breading is great, and there’s enough spice to make you feel like you’re eating a hot chicken without any pain.
Order this. This is Al’s Hot Chicken’s sweet spot. But keep in mind that it’s hot. Like really hot. This is level 2 at Al’s Hot Chicken (level 1 being the aforementioned country) and it’s easily equal to level 5 or 6 (of 7) at Dave’s Hot Chicken.
Hot
The hot is so hot. Like equal to the highest level at Dave’s Hot Chicken. And this is level 4 at Al’s Hot Chicken, so I can’t even imagine what 5 and 6 are like.
It’s too hot, honestly, for lunch. Like, it’s fun for a dare. It’s fun to take home to create your own Hot Ones Challenge. But, just for a meal, it’s unnecessarily hot. Al’s Hot Chicken does describe it as “burning spicy,” and it’s not wrong.
The heat does tone down quickly. Like a few bites of coleslaw and you’re ready to go back for it. But, it’s too hot. Really. And I like hot. Like I said. My go to is the level 6 (of 7) at Dave’s Hot Chicken and this is hotter than that. Even with the bread and coleslaw and pickles, this was — I’m not gonna say inedible, but it was unenjoyable.
Al’s Hot Chicken Sides Reviews
Coleslaw
Al’s Hot Chicken coleslaw is so good. It’s really crisp, lightly dressed, and an absolutely necessary companion to the hot chicken. It comes on the sandwich, but you should order extra. It’s that good.
Fries
The fries are really seasoned in the same manner as the Country chicken. So if you wanted to order them as a break from the spice, you can’t. Go with extra coleslaw instead.
However, a quick look at the online ordering menu shows that you can order the fries without spice. This wasn’t told to us when we ordered, and I really wish it was because that’s how we would have ordered them.
Waffles
The waffles at Al’s Hot Chicken are great. They’re light, fluffy, toasted perfectly, and come with butter and powdered sugar.
Can you order waffles alone without any chicken? Yes. Should you? Well … also yes.
Al’s Hot Chicken: Frequently Asked Questions
It’s really spicy. And this is coming from someone who enjoys spicy food. This is really, really hot. Consider yourself warned.
Al’s Hot Chicken was started by Los Angeles-based Almasri Abdal. Not much is online about Al (who is also referred to as Abdal Almasri online).
We do know that he owned at least the first two locations and that the Tacoma-based restaurant is a franchise.
If you don’t want Al’s secret sauce, or you want something in addition to it, you can order white sauce, hot sauce, honey sauce, or barbecue sauce.
Order Al’s Hot Chicken Online:
You can order Al’s Hot Chicken online through Al’s Hot Chicken’s website, for pickup or delivery. You can also order online with the following delivery services:
That’s if you’re local to an Al’s Hot Chicken website. For now, we don’t see the option to order Al’s Hot Chicken nationwide via Goldbelly, but if that changes, we’ll be sure to update this.
Want More Fast Food Chicken Reviews?
We are huge fans of fried chicken here at Drugstore Divas (it’s definitely my go to treat dinner). So, it makes sense that this isn’t our only fast food chicken review.
For more, check out:
- Royal Farms World Famous Chicken Review
- McDonald’s Southern Chicken Select Tenders Review
- The Best Fast Food Chicken Sandwich Rankings
- Dave’s Hot Chicken Review
More Chain Restaurant Reviews:
We are big supporters of local restaurants, but we do love when a chain comes to our area. That means more local jobs (since locals are working there), more revenue in the local economy, and more options for residents. So we appreciate chains and we’ve reviewed some of those on Drugstore Divas too.
For those, check out:
- Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill Review
- Moe’s Original BBQ Review
- Rib Country BBQ Review
- Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom Review
- Blaze Pizza Review
- Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen Review
After reading this Al’s Hot Chicken review, which spice level do you think you’d order? Let us know in the comments.