Dave's Hot Chicken opens 17th UK site at Newcastle's Metrocentre
The Los Angeles chain's second Newcastle restaurant lands inside the Metrocentre's Qube food hall, taking its UK count to 17 under an Azzurri deal that now covers ten European countries.
Dave's Hot Chicken opens its second Newcastle restaurant this month, taking a unit inside the Metrocentre's Qube food hall and pushing the Nashville-style chain's UK count to 17.
The Gateshead opening follows a fast run of launches: a second Manchester site took the tally to 16 at the Trafford Centre in late October, and Newcastle's first restaurant opened earlier this year. The Metrocentre unit sits inside The Qube, the shopping centre's dedicated food hall, alongside the brand's existing stores in London and Manchester.
Dave's Hot Chicken is run in the UK by Azzurri Group, the hospitality group behind Zizzi and ASK Italian, under a franchise deal signed in 2024 that originally covered up to 60 restaurants. By September 2025, the agreement had widened into a licence for 180 restaurants across ten European countries, a scale that puts a single Gateshead shopping-centre unit inside a much longer rollout.
Two openings in a fortnight say more about the franchise deal than about Newcastle's appetite.
The chain's UK debut, on London's Shaftesbury Avenue, became the highest-grossing site Azzurri Group had ever launched, the company has said. That number helps explain the pace since: four further restaurants in just over a year, spread across London, Newcastle and Manchester.
Reaper heat comes with a waiver
The menu centres on breaded chicken tenders and sliders, served across a seven-level heat scale running from "Not Hot" to "Reaper." Ordering at the top of that scale requires signing a waiver before the kitchen will serve it. Sides include mac and cheese, kale slaw and loaded fries, alongside a newer addition, "saucy bites," plus milkshakes and slushers.
Dave's Hot Chicken keeps the UK rollout moving
"We're turning up the heat with another location," said Keyana Mohammadi, director of marketing at Dave's Hot Chicken UK, of the Newcastle opening. Ben Cox, asset director at the Metrocentre, called the brand a "cult favourite" bringing "high-energy street food" to The Qube.
Dave's Hot Chicken was named One to Watch at the 2025 R200 Awards, the UK restaurant growth ranking. Two openings within a fortnight, in Manchester and now Newcastle, suggest Azzurri intends to use that momentum before it finds out whether demand for Nashville heat holds up once the novelty of a new shopping-centre unit wears off.
Related coverage: the chain's Manchester opening and how Krispy Kreme's UK franchise math compares.
