Dave’s Hot Chicken is a Los Angeles-born fast-casual chain that sells Nashville-style fried chicken as tenders or sliders (small chicken sandwiches), each ordered at one of seven heat levels from No Spice up to the Reaper. It began as a parking lot stand in East Hollywood in 2017 and now operates across the US, Canada, the Middle East and the UK, where the first restaurant opened on London’s Shaftesbury Avenue in December 2024. This guide covers the menu, how the spice scale works, how the company grew, and what is still uncertain about its UK future.
What Dave’s Hot Chicken serves
The menu is deliberately short. According to Restaurant Online’s report on the UK launch, the UK menu centres on jumbo hot chicken sliders and tenders, with house-made kale slaw, mac and cheese and seasoned fries on the side. Newer UK openings have also listed loaded fries, according to local coverage of the Westfield Stratford opening. Milkshakes are on offer too, as a Sheffield opening report mentions.
Tenders come with white bread, pickles and the house “Dave’s Sauce”. Sliders come on a bun with kale slaw and pickles. Whichever you pick, you also choose a heat level.
The seven levels are No Spice, Lite Mild, Mild, Medium, Hot, Extra Hot and Reaper. If you are unsure, the middle of the scale is the safer place to start. Prices differ by country and restaurant and change over time, so check the current menu on the UK site or the US app before you go.
The Reaper and the waiver
The top level is built around the Carolina Reaper pepper, which The Star puts at around 2 million Scoville heat units (the standard measure of chilli heat). Customers must sign a waiver before ordering it. The waiver that reporter was shown lists possible effects including sweating, indigestion, vomiting and, at the extreme end, chest pain and heart palpitations.
Dave’s UK managing director Jim Attwood has said plainly that the Reaper is extremely hot. The US chain had been unsure about bringing it to Britain after test tastings left diners in tears, but it was added at launch after fan demand, per Restaurant Online.
Heat tolerance varies a lot between people. If you have a medical condition that spicy food aggravates, or you are unsure how you will react, skip the Reaper and speak to a doctor if in doubt.
From a $900 parking lot stand to a billion-dollar deal
The company’s origin story is well documented. In a CNBC report carried by NBC Los Angeles, co-founder Arman Oganesyan, then 24 and working as a stand-up comedian, pitched the idea to childhood friends Dave Kopushyan and Tommy Rubenyan. They pooled $900, took inspiration from Los Angeles restaurant Howlin’ Ray’s, and spent months testing recipes. One lasting discovery came by accident: tossing leftover chicken into a nearly empty pickle jar led them to brine with pickle juice.
They could not afford a food truck, so they set up in an East Hollywood parking lot with a $150 fryer, a heat lamp and tables borrowed from their parents. The first night brought in $40. Five days later, a then-Eater Los Angeles critic, Farley Elliott, picked up on the stand through word of mouth. A year on, Rubenyan’s brother Gary joined and the team opened its first storefront.
Kopushyan, the “Dave” in the name, is a trained chef. Reports agree he worked in the orbit of chef Thomas Keller, but they differ on the restaurant: Tasting Table says Bouchon, while The Caterer says The French Laundry.
Franchising began after an investor group bought a stake in 2019. Per CNBC, the group included current CEO Bill Phelps, Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Strahan. Drake is also a minority investor, according to Yahoo Finance’s coverage of a later Bloomberg report. On 2 June 2025, private equity firm Roark Capital took a majority stake in a deal Phelps described as “pretty close” to $1 billion. The founders and Phelps kept minority stakes.
The growth figures are striking. CNBC reports that Dave’s US system-wide sales passed $600 million in 2024, up 57% on the year before. Unit counts went from two in early 2020 to 118 in March 2023 and 250 by December 2024, per Restaurant Dive. By mid-2025 Azzurri’s chief executive was citing around 350 restaurants worldwide, MCA reported.
Dave’s Hot Chicken in the UK
The UK and Ireland rights belong to Azzurri Group, the company behind Zizzi, ASK Italian and Coco di Mama. The 60-restaurant deal was announced in July 2024, according to Restaurant Business. The first site, a two-floor, 90-seat restaurant, opened on 7 December 2024 and was also the chain’s 250th worldwide.
Demand has been heavy. Time Out described queues around the block at the London launch. The Caterer reported that the Shaftesbury Avenue site became the highest-grossing opening Azzurri had ever run. A national free-slider day in October 2025 drew crowds large enough that police briefly closed some sites, Azzurri’s chief executive told MCA, although the outlet’s own report is inconsistent about which cities were affected.
Since then the chain has spread beyond London. Birmingham, Manchester, Stevenage, Leicester, Westfield White City and Croydon opened through 2025, according to Time Out. Westfield Stratford followed on 2 July 2026, and a Sheffield restaurant opened in the first week of October 2026. A Bristol opening was announced in February 2026, but there is no reliable public confirmation of its address or opening date.
In September 2025 Azzurri signed a deal to open at least 180 restaurants across 10 European countries, including France, Spain, Portugal and Germany, The Caterer reported. Computer Weekly said earlier this year that around 14 UK and Irish sites were expected by the end of 2026, well short of the headline target of 60, so the rollout is moving more slowly than the original ambition suggests.
One live promotion: the UK chain says it will give free food to anyone named Dave (or a recognised variant) on Tuesday 13 October 2026, as The Star reports. Check the app for terms.
What reviewers say
Opinions are mixed in a useful way. Time Out’s London reviewer found the batter crunchy and the meat juicier than at typical high-street chicken shops. US reviewers have been more divided: a food writer at the Augusta Press found the chicken itself fairly mild beneath the heat, while Uproxx called the fries the most polarising item on the menu and described the Reaper as hot but oddly sweet. The honest summary is that people go for the heat scale and the crisp coating more than for subtle flavour.
What is still unclear
Ownership of the UK business may change. Bloomberg reported in March 2026 that Azzurri was exploring a sale of its UK and European Dave’s franchise rights, and The Caterer said a sale of Azzurri itself by owner TowerBrook was also possible. I found no confirmed deal. Neither company has publicly confirmed a halal policy for UK restaurants, so anyone who needs that should ask the restaurant directly.
you may also read about : How to Make Banana Chips at Home: Dehydrator, Oven or Fryer
