Toronto restaurant’s twist on viral Chili’s dish is drawing huge lineups
People in Toronto have been lining up for hours to get a bite of the city’s latest viral sensation, but it beats a trip across the border.
If you’ve been on the internet — TikTok specifically — any time in the past three months, there’s a very good chance that U.S. chain Chili’s viral Triple Dipper has graced your For You Page.
A gluttonous monstrosity featuring sliders, chicken tenders, and enormous mozzarella sticks, all priced at around US$17.99, the platter has been tried, reviewed, and obsessed over by thousands of social media users to date. However, Torontonians eager to try the concoction have been left with only three options: head to one of the chain’s handful of locations in Alberta, cross the border for it, or get comfortable with the reality that you’ll never experience that epic cheese pull for yourself.
Those were the only three options, rather, until Scarborough’s Slider Station decided to take matters into its own deep fryers.
It all started with those all-important rectangular mozzarella sticks, which Slider Station co-owner Bilal told Dished Toronto he first began noticing on a trip abroad.
“I saw [these mozzarella sticks] all over the internet across the world, in the Middle East and stuff like that, and I kind of wanted to do it, so when I got back, I got to planning with my chef,” Bilal said.
Dozens of prototypes were made to achieve the perfect crispy outside and cheese-pull-worthy inside until the victor finally emerged, and foodies across the GTA immediately took notice. Within a week of adding deep-fried cheese sticks to the menu in February, Slider Station had gone completely viral.
“So February is when it’s usually dead, right? When the mozzarella sticks came out, it was just insane lineups for that,” says Bilal.
People began requesting that Slider Station offer the mozzarella sticks in different flavours, so the restaurant developed Tennessee Hot, Garlic Parmesan, Honey Garlic, and Buffalo coatings, in addition to the original flavour. The hype only grew.
A few months later, Slider Station struck gold again when, south of the border, the Triple Dipper at Chili’s became a viral food sensation of Dubai chocolate proportions. Back in Scarborough, Bilal realized that the restaurant already had all the ingredients to make their own.
“Coincidentally, we also do sliders. We have the tenders, and then we add the mozzarella sticks, and we put it at a price where it’s cheaper for you to get the box, and more value and more variety,” Bilal explains.
“So I thought, you know what, let me just try this out, so I put it out there,” says Bilal. “Within the first day we put it out, it just kind of took the internet by storm.”
Ever since releasing the box, which the restaurant has dubbed the Triple-Double, in April, the restaurant has been seeing lineups out the door, which even prompted Bilal to post an apology note on Slider Station’s Instagram to the customers frustrated with the wait, which, at times, can take up to two hours, despite the restaurant’s commitment to speedy service.
The best part of all? No passport is required, and the boxes, priced at C$24.99, shake out to be around the same price as those at Chili’s, with none of the airfare.
That doesn’t mean that people haven’t been travelling far and wide to try out the deep-fried delicacy, though. Bilal told Dished Toronto that he’s had patrons drive in from as far as Ottawa, Montreal, and Niagara to get their hands on the Triple-Double and, he says, they’ve all told him the trip was worth it.
If you’re not willing to make the trek out to Scarborough, but still want to sample the Triple-Double for yourself, you’re out of luck for now: it, and the mozzarella sticks on their own, are only available in-store, a decision that, Bilal says, all comes down to the cheese pull.
“When you order a pizza and you take a slice out right away, it’s going to be really cheesy, really stringy,” Bilal explains. “Within 15 minutes, when you try to do that, and take out a slice, it’s going to settle right, right?”
The case is the same, unsurprisingly, for mozzarella sticks, so, in order to maintain the utmost cheesy experience, he opted to remove them from the restaurant’s online ordering altogether. There’s something to be said for the satisfaction at the end of travelling, waiting in line, and finally sinking your teeth into the fruits of your labours, anyway.
As Bilal says, “Toronto loves a line.”
There’s some relief on the way for Slider Station fans, though; the restaurant will soon be opening a second location in Mississauga, giving those in the west end and folks travelling in from places like Kitchener-Waterloo and Guelph a far shorter journey to acquire their treasured Triple-Double boxes.
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While Slider Station has yet to reveal the precise address of the new location, Bilal promises that it’s optimally located and unmissable for those trying to find it, and it’s an eat-in location, so you won’t have to take your order on the road.
While all the hype surrounding Slider Station has, admittedly, been overwhelming, Bilal says he’s still grateful that what began as a viral food offering has been able to shine a light on the Toronto food scene.
“People are coming from everywhere for it, and they realize that, hey, you can, you don’t have to cross the border for a good product anymore,” Bilal explains. “I’ve noticed the food scene in the city has changed drastically, and now, even in our comment section, we have people from the States asking us to open there, when it always used to be the other way around.”
Slider Station
Address: 80 Ellesmere Rd., Toronto
Phone: 647-249-7990
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