Tokyo Hot Chicken

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Tokyo Hot Chicken is a new pop-up restaurant that combines trendy Nashville hot chicken with Japanese-style fried chicken. The eatery is by Chef Michael Mina (International Smoke) and operates inside the kitchen of International Smoke. It is only open for take-out or delivery.

One of the biggest food trends this year has been Nashville-style hot chicken. I was intrigued by the recent opening of Tokyo Hot Chicken since it offers a different twist. In addition, we’ve had some good meals at International Smoke.

8 Piece Bucket

For the fried chicken options they offer mixed buckets or chicken tenders. We ordered an 8-piece bucket which also comes with two scoops of furikake rice.

The chicken pieces were coated in a very thick and crunchy batter. The chicken is also dusted with togarashi seasoning, a Japanese spicy seasoning blend that added a little heat to the chicken. To be honest, it didn’t really remind me of karaage batter, but I did enjoy the crunchiness of it.

The chicken also comes with one choice of dipping sauce. There are six to choose from. The first one is free and it’s $.95 for each additional sauce. We opted for Chuka Tare (soy, sesame, chili). The sauce was quite spicy and dipping the chicken in the sauce definitely makes the chicken much spicier.