Food Review: Dempsey's Biscuit Co

I am a sucker for fried chicken.  I am also a sucker for spicy food.  When Dempsey's Biscuit Co opened up just a short jaunt away serving Nashville Hot Chicken, I was ecstatic.  My wife is not a fan of spicy food, but they have Chicken and Waffles on the menu so its normally not difficult to convince her that we need to make the trip.

Dempsey's is a good sized space with a large patio seating area outside.  In warmer weather we always try to sit out there, and despite the proximity to a fairly busy road the traffic sound is never bothersome.  However, this week's trip saw the temps starting to dip so we opted for indoors.  The restaurant used to do walk up ordering at the counter, but now does table service which I think ends up being a little bit better for dinner.  They have a full selection of sodas and an excellent Beer and Cocktail menu.

I have always ordered a biscuit sandwich while there, which amounts to a nice chicken breast served open faced on one of their home made "Batch 7" Biscuits.  The biscuits are always light and fluffy with a slightly sweet flavor that is a nice touch.  The biscuits are large as well.  The chicken comes in three level of heat: Hot that is a little spicy and sweet, Hot Hot that has a good kick, and Reaper, that is extremely hot. The first time we visited, I ordered a Central, but asked them to top it with a Hot Chicken since it normally was just a fried egg sandwich.  The egg was very well cooked with the yolk wonderfully runny, and the bacon was nice and crisp.  I had ordered the Reaper sauce then, and it was hot but not the fiery inferno I had been lead to believe.  On the side was a perfect compliment of 'slaw that was heavy on the vinegar (the purple stuff in the picture).  It acted as a great cooling agent and was still good and crisp on its own.

The Central, With a Chicken

Our next visit I forgot to document, but that might be a good thing.  I opted that time for the standard Hillside, again with the Reaper sauce.  I don't know if the first time they just had not given me the real stuff, but this time I felt the fire.  I like spicy food, and this was hot enough to make me sweat bullets.  It was not the most enjoyable heat though, because it basically blanked my mouth on the first bite.  I resolved then not to order Reaper again, having already now trodden down that path twice.

This last visit was probably my favorite sandwich so far, the Clifton.  Sausage gravy over fried hot chicken with bacon is basically an artery clogging dream.  The gravy like the biscuits had a slightly sweet flavor that I think went very well with the hot sauce of the chicken.  The  only complaint I have is the gravy is just a tad too thin, and I wish it was a little thicker to really stick to the chicken.  The chicken like the previous two visits had a nice crisp and was super tender and juicy in the middle.

The Clifton, sans excellent 'slaw

The one true downside to this trip was that when ordering the 'slaw, instead of the delectable puple cabbage version that previously enticed me was a rather bland out of the bag style side.  Its a big downgrade to the meal overall to miss out on the other.  I know they still make it, since another person in our party had their sandwich topped with it. But both my wife and I got the boring stuff to accompany our meals.  I hope this was more of a stock issue than a full time change, and next time I'll make sure to just ask for the purple stuff to start with.

The Wife's favorite Chicken and Waffles

I rate Dempsey's Biscuit Co. pretty highly in terms of places to visit in Wichita for a meal.  The value ratio is excellent since the food is so good, and the price is pretty standard.  You get a lot of food as well.  The service tends to be good, although it varies on your server.  It also is never too long of a wait from order to getting your food.  The only downside would be if they've stopped serving the purple 'slaw as standard, but even then the chicken is just too good to stay away for long.