Hey Chick! is opening its first fast casual restaurant in Botanic next month

The 30-seater fast casual restaurant in Botanic is in the final stages of a fit out and will soon be ready to start serving Hey Chick!’s famous fried chicken and junk food to diners.

Hey Chick!, which began life as a pop-up hatch serving fried chicken burgers at Belfast’s Botanic Inn in 2021, now operates two hugely successful locations at Common Market in Cathedral Quarter and the new Trademarket venue on the Dublin Road.

The popularity of Hey Chick!’s products has inspired the team behind the brand to secure a site for its first ever restaurant.

One of Hey Chick!’s key aims is to make junk food available for everyone.

Half of Hey Chick!’s menu is vegan-friendly, and its chicken is gluten-free.

The Botanic menu will be similar to the dishes currently available from Hey Chick!, which also features vegan Chick Sticks, Junk Fries and burgers.

The brains behind Hey Chick! are local directors Mark Craig, Joe Goudie, Michael McKeown and Oisin Montgomery.

All four directors come from hospitality and drinks industry backgrounds and turned their shared love of fried chicken into an idea to try creating products for themselves.

Less than a year after frying their first burger, the team’s products became an underground hit and demand from the public saw Hey Chick! open its first purpose-built location in the popular Common Market.

Earlier this year, as demand soared, a second location opened in Trademarket.

Joe Goudie, Hey Chick! director, said: “This is such an exciting announcement for us, and we can’t wait to welcome diners to Hey Chick! in Botanic when it opens in September. The success of our other locations in Belfast has been beyond our wildest dreams and it’s because of the support of our loyal customers that we’re able to open our first restaurant here in the city.

“Botanic is a fantastic area and while we’re focused on satisfying the cravings of fried chicken fans with our tasty products, we’ll also be looking to join forces with other local businesses to make sure we have a positive impact on the area. We’ll share more details about this, and some special plans we have to celebrate our opening, very soon.”