Popular Belfast chicken spot set to open its first bricks and mortar restaurant

It comes as Banh Boy closed in the same location at the start of the year

A popular chicken restaurant has announced it is set to open its first bricks and mortar restaurant in East Belfast.

Fowl Play have announced on their Instagram page that they are opening a new restaurant in Ballyhackamore. Their post said ‘Ballyhack has a new spot’.

The chicken restaurant will take over the recently vacated unit on the Upper Newtownards Road from Banh Boy. The Asian restaurant announced that it was closing its doors on January 4, stating that ‘with hospitality going through a strange and shifting time, we feel it’s important to move with it’.

The fried chicken spot is set to offer tenders, wings, sandwiches, and sides like skin on fries. There will also be a full vegan/ vegetarian menu as well as ‘cocktails, local beers, juicy wines and boozy shakes’.

They opened their very first location in HALT at Weavers Cross in July 2025. Since then it has gone viral on social media several times with food reviewers flocking to try it out.

One video which amassed 730,000 views on TikTok raved about the fried chicken on offer in Fowl Play. The creator thought it was ‘the best chicken burger in Belfast’ and possibly ‘the best chicken burger in the world’.

The menu offering doesn’t stop at chicken and you can pick up a dessert while you’re there. You can choose between a hot fudge sundae and an ice cream sandwich to round off your meal.

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