"Chili's Should Sue Them" — Man Tries Dave's Hot Chicken's Mozzarella Sticks, Folks Say they Look Familiar
"Fake news I was there last night."
Published March 6 2026, 2:41 p.m. ET
If you're a fan of spicy, deep-fried food, then you've probably visited, or at least heard of, Dave's Hot Chicken. The chain started as a pop-up friend chicken stand in an East Hollywood parking lot in 2017 between four friends, and has since grown to be a nationwide franchise with 390 locations across 44 different states and territories.
In late 2025, popular food influencer Yigit (@eatwithyigit) showed off the franchise's new menu item, hot mozzarella sticks, and gave a glowing review. Numerous folks who saw his clip not only remarked that they thought the food looked great and wanted to try it themselves, but that they also felt like they'd seen the same type of sticks elsewhere.
"Today I'm trying the new Dave's Hot Chicken mozzarella sticks," he says into the camera, holding two trays of food up to the camera. The food looks different from the typical deep-fried cheese sticks folks would normally find in their supermarket's freezer aisle or restaurant appetizer platter.
They look more like a wad of cheese submerged in deep-fried batter. In both of the black plastic to-go containers Yigit shows up to the lens, it looks like Dave's Hot Chicken has opted to take a wad of cheese, which was subsequently submerged in batter and placed in fry oil.
One of the fried cheese rectangles is placed on a slice of white bread, which is accompanied by a sauce container and several pickle chips. In the other container, the fried mozzarella was placed inside a sandwich slathered in sauce on some lettuce and pickles.
Beside it is a cardboard basket of French fries that is also adorned with some pickle slices. Yigit goes on to explain these distinctions in his clip: "They got it by piece, and they got it with sliders," he says, displaying the options to his viewers.
"I got the slider combo, it was $9.99. And the piece was $2.99." Additionally, he showed off one of the sauce containers, which has a purple label and is emblazoned with the chain's trademark fire-breathing rubber chicken mascot.
"I also got the new Reaper Ranch [and] I asked the workers, they just came up with this yesterday or something, so I'm one of the first ones to try it," he tells his audience.
Following this, he shows up the single purchase mozzarella stick to the camera, speaking about the wedge of fried dairy in a positive tone.
"Look at that," he says, before placing a pickle on top of the stick and adorning it with some of the Reaper Ranch sauce, to ready the food for its first bite. After chomping down on the massive stick, it's evident that it's packed with cheese, which extends to Ninja Turtles '90s movie pizza proportions as he does so.
He goes on to say that the sticks are available with varying spice level coatings, before going on to try the stick in the chain's signature sauce. After finishing the mozzarella stick, he goes on to eat the slider and seems to thoroughly enjoy both of them.
After nearly finishing all of the food, he tells his followers, "If you haven't tried the hot mozzarella sticks yet, you're missing out." At the end of his review, he concludes that the sticks received a 9/10 rating by his measure.
Several folks who watched his video highlighted how Dave's Hot Chicken's mozzarella sticks bear a striking resemblance to another chain restaurant's own offering: Chili's.
One commenter who replied to Yigit's video declared their fealty toward Chili's sticks, speculating that Dave's would never be able to best the appetizer from the Tex-Mex-inspired chain. "They could never compete with Chili's." Whereas someone else was a bit more open-minded, asking, "Does it go toe to toe with Chili's mozzys?"
At the time Yigit posted his video, which was Nov. 28, 2025, he says that the mozzarella sticks weren't available at every Dave's restaurant. "Yes guys, I know, I guess they don't have it in every location. I got this from the Koreatown location in Los Angeles," he told TikTok users.
Distractify confirmed that various menu items with Dave's hot mozzarella sticks are offered in various locations, including a Rt.4, Paramus, N.J., eatery. The food, which is technically called a mozzarella "plank" by the franchise, comes as a single piece, 3 pieces, 5 pieces, a slider, or a $45 "Hot Mozz Hot Box" which comes with 20 of the "golden fried, mozzarella planks."