Belle’s Hot Chicken is a franchise with restaurant locations across Sydney and Melbourne. There are now 2 in Sydney and we went to the one at Tramsheds Forest Lodge, or better known as the Glebe area.
By now we were entering the final stages of our food safari day of eating. My brother and I had been joined by 3 other of my mates for dinner and this restaurant was a word of mouth recommendation by one of them. It was once again a place we were looking forward to.
I must admit I was a little confused by their menu. For one, I had seen Burgers on their instagram account but couldn’t see them on the menu. I later found out that their “Sandwiches” are in fact burgers. I blame America for this confusion.
The other confusing thing was it’s one of those restaurants where you build your meal. You order the type of meat you want, the heat of the spice that you want, what sides, and what sauce you would like. The way their menu is set out I didn’t find this clear, but I am willing to accept the fact that it may just be my simple mind that finds it hard.
So first you choose the type of meat you want:
- Tenders
- Drumsticks
- Wings
- Fish (GF)
- Mushrooms (GF) – not actually a meat but I’ll let it slide
Then you choose how hot you want the marinade on the meat:
- Southern
- Medium
- Hot
- Really Hot
- Really F**kin Hot
I’m not sure what letter’s are missing from that last one as I have an innocent mind…
Then you choose a side dish, one of which is included in the price listed next to the meats:
- Mac and Cheese
- Coleslaw
- Pickled Vegetables
- Roast Yam Salad
- Almost Arnold Beans
- Old Bay Fries
Then you can add a dipping sauce at an extra cost:
- Mississippi Comeback
- Belles Ranch Dressing
- Belles Blue Cheese
- House Made Ketchup
- Peach BBQ Sauce
And again can add extras at a cost:
- Pickle
- Tender
- Wing
- Mushroom
While I’m at it I may as well tell you the sandwiches:
- Belles Chicken Sandwich
- Hot Mushroom Sandwich
The Belle’s Hot Chicken menu doesn’t mention what comes on them.
You can also get Chicken & Waffles on a weekend at lunch time from this site, but not their other Sydney store at Barangaroo.
Then there is their “Baller Bucket” which for $65 includes 16 wings, 4 sides and sauces. This is what my brother and another friend decided to share amongst the 3 of us. Even though I had eaten most of the day I wondered if this was enough food for 3. The answer I found out was yes, yes this was enough for the 3 of us.
We were in the mood to go a little spicy so decided on the “Really Hot” wings. This was after having discussed it with the guy that had been there once before. He said he orders Hot and you know the spice is there but it’s not really that hot at all. It’s more that the heat is not overly present, not burning at all, but just more of a flavour. Most people would be totally fine with the heat level.
That led us to decide to go for the Really Hot as we wanted to taste the spice, but didn’t want to die hence not going for Really F**kin Hot.
Sides were hard to decide on but we went with 2 servings of the Old Bay Fries, a Coleslaw, and I had to try the Mac and Cheese. Mac and Cheese is not something I grew up with and was always something I thought you only found in America. I’ve never really been interested in it either. But these days I see it around a bit, even on cooking shows and the like. So now I want to taste it more, to see if anyone can make it extremely appealing to me.
I still haven’t had it much. This one from Belle’s Hot Chicken was good, but I still haven’t been won over, it’s not something I’d eat as a meal.
The coleslaw was coleslaw. Made well, nothing to complain about, nothing to write home about either.
So how was the Chicken?
I’m glad you asked.
It was hot. Like it was very spicy. It was tasty too, what I could taste under the heat. It was juicy, cooked well, had great skin, I’d definitely eat there again.
I’m not usually a pickle man but they too were good.
One of the guys had a great idea, he asked if they could put just one Really F**kin Hot piece of chicken in the bucket. It would be like a fun game of Russian Roulette, the 3 of us just waiting to see who got it. Then off course they would be obligated to eat the whole piece. We all loved the idea but unfortunately the waiter informed us the best he could do was a half and half bucket. We opted against this, the game wouldn’t be as fun.
Our friend that had been there before ordered the tenders with just the Hot spice but we gave him one of ours to try. He hadn’t had the Really Hot before and he commented that the step up from Hot to Really Hot was quite large. They were a lot hotter.
That’s a bit of a pity. It would be good if the Hot were hot and the Really Hot were as they currently are. Rather than Hot being as described earlier. I’d then order the Hot in the future knowing that I was getting a decent spice whilst still being able to taste the full flavour of the chicken.
The last guy with us got the drumsticks in a standard meal and enjoyed it.
Overall I like this place. They do good chicken and I look forward to returning and trying the Belle’s Chicken Sandwich but also their Chicken & Waffles.
I’m giving them 7 burning mouths out of 10.
Belle’s Hot Chicken
Sun-Thurs 12pm to 10pm
Fri-Sat 12pm to 11pm
Tramsheds Harold Park,
1 Dalgal Way, Forest Lodge
(02) 8355 7890
belleshotchicken.com
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