SIDES BY THE SIDEMEN OPENS IN SINGAPORE: CUSTOMISABLE FRIED CHICKEN, 9 DIFFERENT SAUCES & SIDES FROM $4!

The highly anticipated SIDES by The Sidemen is finally opening in Singapore on 5th June 2025. For the uninitiated, SIDES is founded by the 7-member UK YouTube collective, The Sidemen; and celebrity association aside, the brand itself has gained quite the cult-following, especially for their Nashville-style fried chicken.

Nashville Tenders, $10.50

But wait, before you race to join the queue for SIDES on opening day, here’s a sneak peek at the menu, and our no-hold-barred honest review of their famous fried chicken offerings. Starting with one of their most raved items, the Nashville Tenders ($10.50): these hefty pieces of chicken are double-dipped in batter and fried till golden crisp. While not the most juicy piece of chicken, the Nashville-style batter itself is pretty well seasoned and flavourful, and the accompanying sauces further add to the flavour. That said, while the tenders themselves are definitely not mind-blowing by any means, we’d probably get this again if we ever came back to SIDES.

Nashville Chicken Wings, from $10.50

Among the fried chicken offerings, surprisingly the Nashville Chicken Wings (from $10.50) stole the show. Though the wings were pretty small in size, they made up for it in flavour and juiciness. These were some of the most tender that we tried across the board, and you could really savour the flavour of the batter best. The seasoning on the fried chicken wings really shone here, and we felt that no additional sauces were necessary.

Classic Burger, $12.50

Ultimate Nashville Cheeseburger, $14.50

Another item that SIDES is known for are their burgers, each sandwiched with a massive hunk of fried chicken. We tried the Classic Burger ($12.50) and the Ultimate Nashville Cheeseburger ($14.50); both of which are pretty similar with fried chicken breast patties, the only notable difference ist that the Classic has lettuce and tomatoes, while the Cheeseburger doesn’t. Unfortunately, the burgers fell pretty flat for us: perhaps because the chicken breast patties were a little too thick, the interior was pretty dry and lacked flavour and marination.

Mozzarella Sticks, $4

Mac & Cheese, $4

Waffle Fries, $5.50

We had pretty high hopes for the rest of their sides (especially given their name), and out of the sides we tried, the Mozzarella Sticks ($4) were our favourite. You can’t go wrong with some deep fried cheese, and SIDES’ Mozzarella Sticks were pretty solid—super cheesy and stretchy, as long as you eat them hot. Cheese lovers might also like their Mac & Cheese ($4), but we felt that the cheese sauce tasted a little too artificial for our liking. As for the Waffle Fries ($5.50), they were pretty standard waffle-cut fries, and we’d recommend going for the Nashville Waffle Fries ($5.90) instead of the plain ones for more flavour.

Chocolate Brownie; Vanilla Marshmallow Milkshakes, $9.90 each

For drinks, they’ve got the standard self-serve fountain drinks, or a selection of 3 different milkshakes ($9.90): Salted Caramel, Vanilla Marshmallow and Chocolate Brownie. These milkshakes are definitely made for the sweet tooth, no matter which flavour you get. Unless you’re a huge fan of sugary and rich drinks, we’d probably skip this.

Now, on to the sauces: SIDES is known for their selection of 9 different sauce options (7 of which represent the 7 Sidemen members), and while we appreciate the variety, sadly not all of them were hits with us. The 9 sauce options include: XIX Buffalo, Garlic Mayo, Chipotle, Classic BBQ, Nashville Cheese Sauce, Buttermilk Ranch, Chocolate BBQ, Louisiana and Secret Sauce. Of the 9, we’d only reach for a couple: the Louisiana or Chipotle sauces for extra flavour, or the Buttermilk Ranch and Garlic Mayo to help with the spice. While they had some pretty interesting sauces like the Chocolate BBQ, which lent the BBQ a slight chocolatey and bitter flavour, it’s not something we’d be double-dipping into.

One unique thing about SIDES is that you’re able to customise the spice level for your fried chicken. They’ve got 4 levels on the Heatscale: Classic, Mild, Medium, Hot; and we’re told there’s also a “hidden” spice level that’s the hottest of them all, IYKYK. If you’d like to eat comfortably but still want a bit of spice, we’d recommend sticking to either the Mild or Medium levels. The Hot spice level is still bearable and isn’t too hot by Singaporean standards, but the heat does creep up on you the more you eat.

So is SIDES really worth all the hype? Perhaps not. While they do serve some decent fried chicken, especially since Nashville-style chicken isn’t that commonly found in Singapore, we’d say it’s still worth a try, and we’d probably give it another shot—as long as we don’t have to queue for it. Price-wise, we’d say SIDES Singapore’s prices are comparable to most other fast food joints: sides start from $4 each, fried chicken from $9.90 and meals from $15.90—though we’re told that prices here are slightly cheaper than in the UK. We still expect to see massive queues for SIDES Singapore’s opening, especially from the younger crowd, so if you’re willing to wait, we’d probably give it a couple months for the hype to die down before giving it another try.