Slim Chickens cooks up Festival Place opening

Slim Chickens has opened a new location at Festival Place, with the American fried chicken restaurant making its debut in Basingstoke.

Taking a 3,503 sq ft unit on the scheme’s ground floor, Slim Chickens sits within the F&B-focused mall opposite the Festival Square entrance and is in close proximity to Five Guys and Côte Brasserie.

The restaurant – which is operated by Boporan Restaurant Group – has space for over 85 diners and offers a range of cooked-to-order chicken.

Slim Chickens joins Mexican-inspired concept, El Bigote, and local street-food operator, Festival Street Kitchen, both of which have recently opened at Festival Place. The impact of the new operators can already be seen across the destination, with total F&B sales up 4.3% in the year-to-date, compared to the same period in 2023.

Poppy Radford, asset manager at Sovereign Centros from CBRE, said: “Festival Place’s F&B is going from strength to strength, evidenced by the sales growth across our line-up of dining brands. The opening of Slim Chickens is geared towards taking this further, as we continue to evolve the destination, providing more reasons to visit and more experiences to encourage longer stays. Festival Place continues to assert itself as a hospitality hotspot in the region because of that, and the entrance of an international brand like Slim Chickens adds a dynamic and delicious dining offer that takes us one step closer to hitting the balance of retail, F&B, and leisure the destination needs.”

Slim Chickens joins a range of popular F&B brands at Festival Place, including Wagamama, Pizza Express, and Cosy Club.

Lunson Mitchenall and GCW represent Festival Place.