Frederick’s newest chicken restaurant has opened for business.

This rapidly growing Nashville-style chicken franchise is known as Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken. The owners strive to offer “the best chicken sandwich in town” and create an experience that customers will not soon forget.

The owners of Hangry Joe’s, Derek Cha and Mike Kim, visited countless Nashville-style restaurants to help them refine their perfect chicken recipe. They have also created other successful brands in the region, which includes Sweet Frog Frozen Yogurt. 

Cha and Kim have selected the highest quality ingredients for Hangry Joe’s and ensured all of their chicken is Halal-certified.      

Their menu options range anywhere from hot chicken sandwiches and chicken waffles to chicken wings and nuggets. The success of the restaurant does not solely depend on the food; great customer service and a welcoming environment have been key to their success. Even when the restaurant was kept busy throughout the day, their customer service was still on point. 

Local resident Natasha King was one of Hangry Joe’s many happy customers. She explained how the chicken restaurants in the area did not live up to the glory of Hangry Joe’s. 

“[The food was] very very good!” King said. “I’ve been trying all the chicken places in the area, and this is best by far. The chicken is huge, and the [cole]slaw and special sauce was seasoned perfectly. They were super busy but still provided excellent service. It is highly recommended.” 

On the other hand, another customer Mark V did not have a pleasant experience at Hangry Joe’s. He expressed his opinion online and described it as overhyped and said Popeyes was a much better option. 

“It was the worst chicken sandwich [I’ve] ever eaten,” Mark V said. “The bread was hard, [the] chicken [was] cold, and the slaw tasted funny. Be aware [sic] of the hype! Go to Popeyes if you want a better chicken sandwich.” 

The Lance reporters Emily Rice and Cara Morgan, who first heard about Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken from word-of-mouth, went to the Frederick location to check out the hype for themselves and test the restaurant’s wares.

Overall, we deemed it an excellent experience. The staff was very polite and friendly, and the food came out within an average wait time, similar to that of surrounding restaurants. During this visit, few people were dining in; instead, many were placing takeout orders. Despite not having a need on this particular evening, there was plenty of seating available for customers. 

All together, the restaurant had a clean environment, although the level of cleanliness in the bathroom left much to be desired. The floors were sticky, and the corners of the walls were very dirty. 

Among the countless items on the menu, we decided to try Combo 2, which consisted of four chicken tenders, french fries and a fountain drink and an order of Hangry Joe’s six-piece buffalo wings.

Fortunately for us, Hangry Joe’s fountain drinks can be substituted with another signature beverage or one of their variety bubble teas. Alongside our meals, we selected two of their signature bubble teas, Milk Tea and Taro Lover. The amount of food in each portion is quite filling, and the prices reflect that. Each meal provided a substantial amount of food, which led to their prices being higher than one would expect. For example, the Combo 2 cost $14.95 , while the buffalo wings were $13.95.

Both meals came out hot and well-cooked. Each chicken tender had a decent amount of seasoning. While it tasted good, this gave the chicken tenders a powdery mouth-feel, and they seemed a bit dry. Overall, the tenders tasted very fresh and had a great flavor.

Additionally, the buffalo wings we sampled had the ideal amount of spice, but in our opinion, they did not stand out against other competitors. 

 We considered the fries perfection. The fries were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Although the sauce containers were underfilled, the fries dipped in the Hangry Joe’s sauces were remarkable. Sauce lovers will appreciate the variety of sauces available. Each meal comes with the restaurant’s house-made honey mustard, sriracha mayo and ranch dressings. 

With our orders, we substituted the fountain drinks for a tea from their large boba menu. As boba lovers, we expected more from these drinks, but overall, they were pretty good. The Milk Tea was very creamy and had a good flavor; the tapioca bubbles came as expected. Similarly, the Taro Lover was made well but had its faults. The tapioca pearls were very small with very little tapioca flavor. On the other hand, the tea itself was flavorful and sweet. 

In our opinion, when compared to other restaurants such as Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Hangry Joe’s ranks higher. They use higher quality ingredients and produce more unique menu items. At Popeyes, the menu is more simple. Hangry Joe’s gives their menu items variety, something that other fast food restaurants do not typically provide. The different levels of heat on their menu is an example of the variation Hangry Joe’s has put together for their customers.  

Ultimately, our experience at Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken was more than satisfactory and exceeded our expectations.