Drake Invests in New Dave’s Hot Chicken in Leslieville

A new Dave’s Hot Chicken has opened in Leslieville. With existing locations in California and two other locations in Toronto, Dave’s Hot Chicken Leslieville will be the third franchise location in Canada. Hometown boy Drake, who is known to create a buzz wherever he goes, is one of the largest investors in the franchise, having proclaimed the chicken, “the best he’s ever had.” Torontonicity was invited to taste this spicy chicken at the Leslieville location’s soft opening on September 30, 2021.

The interior of Dave’s Hot Chicken Leslieville is hip, modern and spacious, decked out in red, black and white decor. This is a fast-food restaurant with style. There is an upper level with more tables and a patio running along the side of the building on Bertmount Avenue.



The menu at Dave’s Hot Chicken Leslieville is fairly simple: There are three combos you can order:

Combo #1 comes with two chicken tenders, fries, sliced bread, pickles and a side of Dave’s sauce for $13.95;

Combo #2 comes with two chicken sliders, fries, kale slaw, pickles and Dave’s sauce for $13.95 while

Combo #3 comes with one chicken tender, one chicken slider, fries, kale slaw, pickles, a slice of bread and Dave’s sauce for $15.95.

There are seven gradations of spice levels: None, Lite Mild, Mild, Medium, Hot, Extra Hot and Reaper.

Sides include Mac & Cheese, Cheese Fries (which came highly recommended), Fries, Kale Slaw, Single Slider and Single Tender.

My dining partner (my mom) and I both ordered Combo #3. She upgraded her fries to Cheese Fries while I ordered a side of Kale Slaw. My mom wisely chose a spice level of Lite Mild while I was daring and ordered the Medium spice.

First, I want to say that the chicken tender, slider, and spices were delicious! It is unlike other chicken I have tasted. The spices, which I’m going to guess included paprika and chili, really elevated the flavour of the chicken! But the medium spice level was hot! I do enjoy spicy food up to a point. I did enjoy this chicken, but I was glad that I had some bottled water handy to deal with the burn lol. So if you are like me and enjoy some spice in your food, I would recommend ordering the mild spice level. I did take home the remainder of my chicken to eat for dinner and I found it a little less spicy after it had been in the fridge for about five hours…which was good!

My dining partner also enjoyed her chicken tender and slider and found the Lite Mild spice was just enough spice for her. I tried a bite of her chicken and yes, there was indeed some spice to her chicken.

Now for the fries: My combo came with the regular fries, which are a crinkle-cut-style and they were still crispy after 20 minutes, which is unusual. Often, fries have to be eaten within a few minutes, otherwise, they taste like cold, mushy cardboard. Not the case with Dave’s Hot Chicken’s fries! In fact, I heated some of them up for dinner, and they still had flavour!

My mom reports that her cheese fries were great and not too cheesy, which was good since it gave her room to enjoy her chicken.

I loved my Kale Slaw Salad and was glad I ordered it to provide some cooling balance to this spicy meal. This salad has a light dressing, sparingly added, which I prefer as I don’t like coleslaw that is dripping in dressing. I would have liked a bit more kale in the slaw, which had a cabbage base, but the flavour was superb.

I will definitely be going back to Dave’s Hot Chicken! Their chicken is addictive! I hope you get a chance to stop by!

Dave’s Hot Chicken, 1130 Queen Street East (at Bermount Avenue), Toronto, 416-792-3283

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