Hot Chicken Takeover Review
This is the Hot Chicken Takeover logo. (Photo: Hot Chicken Takeover).
Hot Chicken Takeover is a Nashville Hot Chicken Restaurant on the corner of Grandview Ave and Fifth Ave in Columbus, Ohio. The restaurant opened in late 2022 and it was Hot Chicken Takeover’s 8th location. The hours are 11 AM - 9 PM every day. All locations are located in Columbus except for one, which is in Cleveland. There is also a location at Lower.com Field where the Columbus Crew play. That location does have a limited menu though.
Hot Chicken Takeover is not really fast food but also isn’t a real sit down restaurant, it is somewhere in between. Most Hot Chicken Takeovers have nuggets, tenders, wings, sandwiches, and drumsticks. They also have sides like mac and cheese and waffle fries. They have one dessert, which is banana pudding. When you order a main dish, you get to pick from 6 spice levels. From lowest to highest it goes, Southern, Mild, Warm, Hot, Holy, Unholy. I don’t really like spice, so I will probaby get the mild spice level.
This is where you order at Hot Chicken Takeover.
I will be going there and rating the experience out of a total of 25 points. 5 points for service, 5 for speed, 5 for presentation, and 10 for taste. When I got there, there were a couple of groups sitting, but there was no line to order. You could either order with someone, or order on the screen. I chose to order on the screen. There was a worker right behind the counter to provide assistance if needed. I ordered the mild chicken sandwich with no pickles and a side mac and cheese. The total came to be around $14, which is kind of expensive, but the sandwich is really, really big.
This is the food I got from Hot Chicken Takeover.
The food took just five minutes to come out, but they did forget to leave out the pickles (they gave 11 pickles!). I’ll give the service a 4/5 because of the pickles and the speed a 5/5. The sandwich looked pretty good, but the mac and cheese looked a little bit weird. Presentation - 4/5. Taste wise, the mac and cheese was actually really good. The sandwich was also really good, especially with the housemaid ranch. The sandwich also has coleslaw on it which provides a lighter flavor. The only thing I would say is that with all the bread, some bites felt like mostly bread and a little bit of chicken. I would give an 8/10 for the taste.
Overall, the total comes out to be 21/25, which I feel like is pretty accurate. Everything was really good, but not perfect. Next time, I probably would like to try their chicken tenders and their banana pudding, which people have said is very good. I also want to test their waffle fries. I think that this Hot Chicken Takeover is better than the one at Lower.com Field (Columbus Crew Stadium), because of the extended menu and the overall taste. Hot Chicken Takeover isn’t like Wendys or McDonalds, but it definitely isn’t a sit down and order restaurant. It is definitely higher quality than fast food, but much more expensive.