Chicken in London is having a moment, so Harden’s thought it was time to lay out some of the capital’s top poultry places…
LE COQ N1
£40
Owned by sisters Sanja (a founder of the Salt Yard Group) and Anna Morris, LE COQ serves up a weekly-changing menu with influences from around the world. The one thing that doesn’t change? The main ingredient – Sutton Hoo chicken, cooked on the rôtisserie. Can it be long before this particular COQ escapes its Islington confines?
Chicken Shop (Group)
£36
The menu may read something like your average Nandos – chicken, chips, coleslaw, salad – but this chain comes with the assurance of the Soho House stable. With branches in Kentish Town and Tooting, Chicken Shop serves up free-range birds from Banham’s Farm in Norfolk. They are marinated overnight, steamed, and then cooked over charcoal on a special rôtisserie.
The Tramshed EC2
£56
The place that launched Mark Hix’s ‘chicken and steak to share’ idea (which has now spawned the rapidly growing Hixter restaurant concept). Plus you get to gawp at Damien Hirst’s cow and chicken in formaldehyde, suspended above you in the main dining room.
Clockjack Oven W1
£33
Another new addition to the Soho dining scene. Clockjack oven serves up rôtisserie chicken with various different marinades and sauces of your choice. You can share the whole chicken with friends or just have a couple of pieces to yourself.
Whyte & Brown W1
£36
Tucked away in Kingly Court off Carnaby Street, this place describes itself as a ‘chicken and egg’ restaurant. The menu does indeed have quite a few ‘specialist’ dishes, but decent fish and seafood options too.
Le Café Anglais W2
£58
Rotisserie-cooked chicken is still a central feature at this spacious French brasserie which occupies the top floor of Whiteley’s. Rowley Leigh, formerly of Kensington Place, opened Le Café Anglais back in 2008, and the Label Anglais poulet is still a big pull for diners.
Bones E2
£46
The fare here is defined by owners Joff and Simeon Goodman as ‘any meat on any bone’. Diners can choose from wings to tear and share or Label Anglais free-range rôtisserie chicken – the star of the show, enjoyed whole, halved or quartered. The brothers also own The Grocery next door.
Nandos (Group)
£30
The chain our reporters are “embarrassed to admit they like”! The peri-peri chicken formula is quick, cheap and reliable, and the kids will probably enjoy their visit too.
Watch (for) the birdie
Fire & Feathers
This new Portuguese piri piri chicken restaurant, Fire and Feathers, will open in Chelsea in mid-May. Founded by first-time restaurateur Harry Deighton, this is London’s latest pop-up-goes-perm (following a temporary residency last year at the Earl of Portobello, Westbourne Park).
Wing Ting
A pop-up which claims to ‘take the humble chicken wing to a whole new level’. Wing Ting has been setting up shop for short stints all over London, most recently in Shoreditch’s Monikers. Check out the website for their next incarnation.
Spit & Roast
A roving street-food van – called Bessie, since you ask – specialising in rôtisserie chicken and buttermilk fried chicken, which you could come across anywhere in town. The chicken bap comes with an apple and celeriac slaw and Korean-style hot sauce.
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