Our visit to Indianapolis wasn’t complete without a visit to Joella’s Hot Chicken. This restaurant is incredible with delicious hot chicken at a great price. We can’t wait for one to come to Columbus!
Whenever we visit a new city or town (heck even in our hometown), we want to eat like the locals eat! When we took our crew to Indianapolis for a few days, we knew we wanted to visit Joella’s Hot Chicken.
The story of Joella’s Hot Chicken.
I love the story of this restaurant. “Back in the late 70’s the parents of Tony Palombino, Joella’s Founder & CEO, owned a restaurant that specialized in southern fried chicken. The chicken was made daily by two long time employees, Joe and Ms. Ella, and watching how hard they worked every day made a huge impression on him as a young boy and so he has brought them back to life, in spirit, to honor them.” I just love that story so much.
I know I said to eat like the locals eat and technically Joella’s is from Kentucky and the food is from Nashville, but they don’t have this place in Columbus so it meets our guidelines. I loved their decor and their menu offerings and seriously wish they had one in Columbus! A girl can hope.
Is Joella’s Hot Chicken kid friendly?
Absolutely! While it’s a Nashville hot chicken joint, they have options for those of us adults and kids who need a break from the heat.
They have the “Lil’ Chicks” ($4.99) for kids 10 and under which offers 1 chicken tender, a side, and a drink. We opted for the creamy mac and cheese but they have a ton of other side options like kale salad, red skin potato salad, sweet vinegar slaw, green beans and broccoli slaw.
If you are a side lover, you can even just get 4 sides for $7.29. She devoured the mac and cheese, I barely had time to steal some of it.
How spicy is it?
I opted for one of their sammies and oh my lord, it was so good! I had the Dixie Chick’n Sammie ($9) which comes with tenders, slaw, garlic aioli, on a potato bun. You can choose from six heat levels, southern, spiked honey, ella’s fave, tweener, hot, or fire-in da-hole.
I chose the tweener and it was perfectly balanced. Next time I might go for the hot to get a little hotter.
Their other sammie option is a chick’n and pimento ($9) featuring currants, tenders, house-made pimento cheese and pickles which also sounded delicious.
If you are looking for something a little lighter, you can even get a salad ($7.50) with grilled fried or vegan tenders (+$2.50)! I love that they have so many options for everyone.
How good is the fried chicken?
It’s SO.GOOD. I seriously dream about this place.
The Beard ordered their Big Wings option ($8.75) which comes with 3 large chicken wings, a side and a dipping sauce.
He got the hot level and it was perfectly warm but not overwhelming for him. He got the garlic parm fries with his chicken and a side of the BBQ sauce. Both were amazing choices.
If you don’t want wings, there are loads of other platter options to try like quarter white, quarter dark, half bird or jumbo tenders. You can also add extras for an additional cost like another tender, wing, waffle, dippin’ sauce, pickles or bread! I always want to try all the sauces so I was pretty tempted to add those on there.
We didn’t save room for dessert but I wish we would have because they have fried nutella poppers – yum! There wasn’t anything I didn’t like about Joella’s. They were so friendly, had delicious food, great options and a comfortable atmosphere.
Where are the Joella’s Hot Chicken locations?
Joella’s Hot Chicken has 16 locations (according to their website) in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. Unfortunately, not one in Columbus! But, hopefully soon.
You better believe next time we’re around one, we will definitely be stopping by to get some fried chicken and a Boylan’s soda to go!
