When it comes to fast food in the UK, we’ve got all the big staples — from McDonald’s to KFC, Pizza Hut, and Burger King.
There are also a few places that burger fans might have forgotten about, like Wimpy, which is still going strong on the UK high street after 70 years.
But the fast food scene has been changing over the last few months, with US favourites like Wendy’s, Popeyes, and Wingstop expanding its offering here, opening new locations and announcing more to come.
And that’s not all, as several cult brands from over the pond have also revealed plans to launch in the UK soon and fans are excited to see what they’ll offer.
Here’s a closer look at all of the major fast food chains coming to the UK, or opening more restaurants and drive-thrus in 2024 and 2025…
Dave’s Hot Chicken recently signed an agreement with Azzurri Group in the UK to open 60 sites across the country. The full list of Dave’s UK locations haven’t been confirmed yet, but the first branch is set to open in in early 2025.
The cult US fast food chain started in East Hollywood in 2017, when four friends who loved chicken tenders scraped together enough money ($900) to buy a fryer and launch a pop-up business in a car park.
They began serving Nashville-style hot chicken and soon people were flocking to get a taste, with Drake, Samuel L. Jackson, and Usher all being counted amongst the brand’s biggest fans, and investing in the company. The business was recently named America’s Fastest growing Restaurant chain, as it now has 200 restaurants across America.
Interestingly, there are just two chicken items on the menu — tenders and sliders (sandwiches) — as well as a range of sides including fries, cheese fries, mac & cheese, and kale slaw. You can also order combinations of these to make for a bigger meal.
Customers can personalise their order by selecting a spice level for the dish, from no heat at all, through to the ‘Reaper’ which is so hot you have to sign a waiver before you’re allowed to eat it.
Fans online have praised the food, with users on X (formerly Twitter) hailing it as ‘unreal’, ‘insane’, ‘amazing’ and a 10/10.
@steakshapiro posted: ‘Just found the most insane chicken sandwich. I had heard rumours about it. Can’t even believe it. Dave’s Hot Chicken. UNREAL!!’
While @RevCiancio said: ‘Dave’s Hot Chicken has some of the best hot chicken fingers and sandwiches ever. They are super tasty, extra crispy and extremely spicy.’
And @vveoko was quick to proclaim it the ‘best fast food chicken out there’, saying: ‘There’s no competition, fries are also hella good.’
This Californian burger chain is known for its ‘charbroiled’ burgers, which are cooked over hot coals. The menu includes teriyaki burgers, guacamole bacon burgers, chicken tenders, chicken stars, wraps, and milkshakes.
The biggest fan favourite, however, is the El Diablo burger. The fiery meal is made up of a potato bun, charbroiled beef, habanero sauce, bacon, Jalapeños, pepperjack cheese and jalapeño popper bites.
The item was originally launched in 2018 but made a permanent return to the Carl’s Jr menu last summer, following a fan petition.
It’s not been confirmed exactly when and where the stores will be opened – or how many of them will be launching in the UK – but the brand has said it has ‘ambitious’ plans, with nearly 100 restaurants already across Europe.
Tim Lowther, general manager for Europe and Russia, told ‘opening one or two restaurants is not a successful launch for us.’
He continued: ‘Carl’s has huge ambitions; we have doubled our international footprint in the last six years to 1000 restaurants internationally and plan on doubling it again in the next five years. So far we on target to do that.
‘People in the UK don’t know who Carl’s Jr is at the moment. but they certainly will’.
Chick-fil-A is an American institution when it comes to fast food, being one of the most beloved chains over in the US.
The chicken chain, famed for its sandwiches, nuggets, and waffle fries, is set to open five new restaurants across the UK, kicking off with the first one in 2025.
The site locations have not been confirmed, but will come five years after the company’s first foray into the UK fast food scene.
Chick-fil-A previously opened a restaurant in The Oracle shopping centre in Reading in 2019. However, the site closed after a sixth month trial period following customer backlash over donations made to anti-LGBT groups.
Fans are hoping when it returns to the UK, it will bring its breakfast menu, which in the US features savoury biscuits (similar to a scone) filled with chicken, as well as hash brown scrambles, plus wraps and muffins.
Not a US chain, but a Canadian one, MB Chicken, also known as Mary Brown’s Chicken, has been going strong in Canada since 1969 and three UK and Ireland locations have recently been confirmed.
The chicken joint, best known for its Big Mary chicken sandwich, opened for the very first time in Lisburn in on February 21, with branches in Belfast and Leicester following.
The Big Mary has been dubbed Canada’s ‘favourite chicken sandwich’ and it features a chicken breast breaded in Mary Brown’s signature recipe, cooked until it’s golden brown and served on a sesame seed bun with mayo and lettuce, plus a pickle on top.
Other popular items on the menu include Taters, which look very similar to potato wedges, all sorts of signature chicken options and combos, from a 2-piece meal to an 18-piece feast, Chicken Pop-Ins, Chicken Tenders, a spicy version of Big Mary, and flaky buttermilk biscuits.
They also sell Tater Poutine, which is a traditional Canadian dish featuring french fries and cheese curds, topped with gravy. We’re certainly intrigued to try it!
For dessert, the menu is pretty limited, with a Strawberry Cream Cheese pie that looks a lot like. Alternatively there’s Banana Pudding, or a Chocolate Caramel Cup.
As well as these classics, the UK menu will also feature several new items that aren’t available in Canada, including MB Soft-Serve Ice Cream, Shakes and Halloumi Fries.
Wendy’s has been a staple of American fast food since November 1969 when Dave Thomas opened his very first restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. It’s gone on to become one of the top five biggest chains in the States.
The burger giant is well known for its unique square-shaped beef patties, and the iconic Frosty dessert, which is somewhere between an ice cream and a milkshake.
There are currently more than 30 branches of Wendy’s across the UK, as the chain has been expanding since re-launching here in 2021.
Restaurants and delivery-only kitchens have already opened in areas such as Camden, Guildford, Peterborough, Colchester, and Reading — and this was only just the beginning.
Michael Clarke, the managing director of Wendy’s UK and Europe recently told that they had a ‘really strong pipeline’ of locations coming over the next few years.
He said: ‘We think there are loads of opportunities across the whole of the UK for us to open drive-through restaurants. In terms of accessibility, it’s actually great for the customer.
‘We want to open as many restaurants as we can.
‘Our plan is, how do we get Wendy’s to as many people as possible across the UK? We will open anywhere and everywhere that our customers want us to.’
Other upcoming locations include Middlesbrough, Liverpool, Sheffield, Wood Green, Southend-on-Sea, Colchester, and Hull. Some of these will be second restaurants in those areas.
Popeyes is another popular US chicken chain, which is already established in the UK. Its iconic Louisiana chicken sandwich broke the internet when it was released, and we recently claimed (somewhat controversially) that the breakfast menu was better than McDoanld’s.
The brand first touched down in the , opening its doors in Westfield’s food court in Stratford, . It has since launched 38 other sites across the UK and they’re not stopping any time soon, as they announced plans to double their restaurants, drive-thrus, and delivery kitchens in 2024.
The new restaurants will be located in areas such as Glasgow, Swansea, Birmingham, Bishop Auckland, Manchester, London, Aberdeen, Nottingham, and Exeter, with more to be announced soon.
Tom Byng, chief development officer at Popeyes, said: ‘We’re excited to be giving even more people their first taste of New Orleans as we double our estate in 2024.
‘We’re particularly proud of our geographical spread of expansion, including our first ever travel hub restaurant in Waterloo station, which will be fuelling hungry travellers with great food and a dose of the famous New Orleans spirit.’
When it comes to chicken, KFC has become the go-to fast food chain of choice for many in the UK – but that could be about to change thanks to Wingstop. The popular US chicken shop previously announced plans to open 15 new stores across the country in 2024.
Wingstop has been hailed by fans as being ‘better than KFC’, with social media users branding their chicken wings and fries ‘unreal’. And it’s well known to have garnered the seal of approval of celebs like Stormzy, Central Cee, Rick Ross, Lil Nas X, and AJ Tracey.
The Dallas-born chicken company first arrived in the UK in 2018 and as of November 2023 had launched in 39 places.
The new restaurants will see the chain’s customer base grow in areas such as Essex, Hertfordshire, and Yorkshire. Many of the new locations will also be based across London.
As well as chicken wings, the chain’s menu also includes chicken tenders, boneless chicken, burgers, churros, loaded fries, combos, and platters.
And for each chicken option, there’s a choice of flavours — Ranch, Blue Cheese, Lemon Pepper, Mango Habanero, Louisiana Rub, Atomic, Brazilian Citrus Pepper, Hickory Smoked BBQ, Hawaiian, Garlic Parmesean, Spicy Korean Q, or Honey-Mustard.
But what do people think of the food? On X (formerly Twitter), a user named proclaimed: ‘@wingstop chicken sandwiches 10x better than @ChickfilA @Popeyes @McDonalds @Zaxbys @kfc and whoever else make em.’
While said: ‘Wingstop the best literally.’ And posted: ‘Oh my god I love Wingstop so much it’s unreal.’
added: ‘Wingstop is amazing for wings.’
Over on Instagram, @official_taste_buds wrote: ‘Absolutely love the food at Wingstop! We need one closer to us in the midlands area though!’
Similarly, @abbiemyerscough thought Wingstop’s chicken tenders were the ‘best thing ever’.
Five Guys is another US chain that’s been making waves in the UK ever since opening here in 2013.
There are already more than 150 Five Guys locations across the UK, but the chain revealed at the end of 2023 that they’d be opening more sites.
Chief executive John Eckbert said they were only about halfway done with the UK expansion and 140 more sites were still to come.
Another popular US burger chain is going to be adding locations to its growing list of UK restaurants.
Right now, Shake Shack has fifteen main locations in the UK, spanning from London, to Oxford, and even Essex and Cardiff.
Its 16th location is coming to London’s St Pancras station, the home of Eurostar and a stone’s throw away from the Harry Potter shop. This will be the brand’s very first train station restaurant in the UK, and it’s set to open this summer.
This isn’t the first time a Shake Shake has been opened at a travel hotspot, with the fast food joint having a spot in airport, but now, those travelling by rail and air will be able to enjoy some of the most-loved menu items.
You can expect crinkle cut fries, the ShackMeister, and (obviously) milkshakes in abundance.
Taco Bell, a Mexican-inspired quick service brand, has a cult following in the US for its tacos, burritos and quesadillas.
The chain first came to the UK 1986, but shut down in the 90s before launching once more in the 2010s. The first re-launched London restaurant opened in 2018 and there are now more than 130 branches across the country.
And it seems more sites could potentially be in the works, as the chain, which has locations all over the UK in areas such as London, Guildford, York, Poole, Doncaster, Cardiff, and Aberdeen, has also applied to Norwich City Council to open a branch in the city centre. A drive-thru restaurant is also set to open in Ipswich.Fans on social media have hailed it as ‘better than McDonald’s’, with some proclaiming it the ‘perfect drunk food’, and saying it’s ‘phenomenal’.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.