Adding to the wave of focused menu offerings within the restaurant sector popping up all around London is the newly opened Chicken Shop in Kentish Town, North London - a venture executed by the Soho House group. If in doubt of who they are - remember Geri Halliwell's cameo in the Sex and the City film where she talks of going to Soho in NYC for cocktails, yep, well that's them! Just after their first week of opening I popped in for a bite to eat ...........
walking north from Kentish town station up Highgate Road with it’s blocks of industrial style buildings and scattered run down shops, which for the most part seemed only to be ventured up by myself and an ex-colleague and good friend , I anticipated turning a corner momentarily, upon which would be a newly redeveloped section of street with a selection of cool bars and restaurants serving the local, albeit very hidden, residence. Alas no; a lone restaurant on the far corner drew near, with it’s al fresco dining and large awning, like a mirage in the desert, which on closer focus was Pizza East. Through quick memory shuffle the dots joined and I thought it odd to have two restaurant of the same company so close, in such an apparently barren part of town.
How close I didn’t realise until I caught the most indiscrete signage for the Chicken Shop, on a planter outside the most rustic set of open doors just left of Pizza East itself. Nothing else to draw your attention to it and had it not been my mission, the entrance and restaurant itself would easily have fallen by the waist side.
This rustic feel continued down the stair case with ceiling tiles reminiscent of an old student house with leak staines and rust encrusted. But there was a warm feeling to it as the anticipation grew to see what lay beyond the corner at the bottom of the stairwell. As we turned and entered it felt as though we had just stepped out of Marty McFly’s time travel machine arriving at some time in the 50’s, possibly somewhere mid State.
A warm welcome greeted us at the foot of the stairs, from the waiting maitre’d, with a back drop to tightly placed, off white lacquered, diner style tables and leather padded chairs and an open plan kitchen - now when I say open I mean open. A ‘Churrascaria” style rotisserie, housing up to 25 chucks, adorned the back wall, with solid fuel flames bitting at the rotating rows of birds, filling the room with the most mouth watering, home cooking aroma.
Dividing the diner seating area and the open kitchen was the most magnificently large farm house kitchen table; with it’s multi functionality, it did it’s craftsmen proud - though I failed to see the tie between essentially the american diner seating area and the almost european country style kitchen table. Serving as the main work station for the open kitchen at the centre, a bar a one end and a service station at the other and both theatrically and purposefully utilised as additional seating, kitchen facing.
Dim lighting, low ceilings and dark interiors, coupled with being in a basement gave merit to it’s opening hours of 5pm to midnight, 1am at weekends.
With chefs chopping up steaming hot, fresh from the fire chicken and apple pies sporadically placed in front, the kitchen table seating instilled fond memories of family meals at my grandparents house, deep in the heart of the Irish country side.
Service was friendly and attentive, though with a 50 seat restaurant and 12 waiting staff anything less would be shameful. The menu, set on a wall at an eligible angel, was delivered verbally by our waitress. As a virgin customer, though expressed with confidence, the service lack direction and clarification and took longer than usual to order, albeit, on a second visit it would be a much faster process due to the simplification of the menu offering. Of which consisted of chicken, sold in 1/4, 1/2 or whole though served in pieces of 3, 6 and 12 in mirrored price banding of £4, £8 and £14.50, respectively. Four sides were on offer, corn on the cob, ‘slaw, crinkled chips and a salad, all at £3 a go with the disappointing exception of the salad at £4.
We ordered a 1/2 chicken to share and one of each sides, 1/2 pint of draft beer and a glass of wine. Bottled, both still and sparkle were offer though the adequate thames water label was ordered. Each table is supplied with Chicken Shops own brand condiments, a hot sauce and a smoky sauce. Ketchup and aioli were brought separately with our food.
Though the visual implications are that of being served rotisserie cooked chicken the reality is far from. Marinated for 24hrs in 3 differing paprikas and oregano with the addition of a secret something the chicken is then steam cooked before being finished on the open fire: a very theatrical finishing touch, creating this mouth water aroma which touches the most intimate of senses though personally fails on delivering a finish that on feasting is as appetising. As I bite though the burnt skin and though outer meat, my mouth filled with charred skin, found memories of good ole home cooking disappear, quickly replaced with those of burnt dinners prepared by a younger sibling through their student days. The corn was on the tough side, the crinkly chips reminiscent of adverts for McCanns oven chips, were about all that, and the salad, at £4 a plate, consisting of whole layered lettuce leaves with cubed avocado drenched in a mustard dressing, seemed excessively plain both for a salad offering and the price.
Camping bowls, or jail bowls as my friend referred them to, though I have no knowledge of her experience of the such, were quirky alternatives to serving dishes, though lean towards the cheap side. The apple pies, constantly in view on the kitchen table in front of us, kept my "sweet tooth alert" on high throughout our meal and when it came to the desert offer, it was in addition to chocolate brownie or cheese cake. My friend opted for the chocolate brownie whilst I ordered the apple pie. “would you like vanilla ice-cream with this” my waitress asked, “what choices do I have” I replied to her in my cheekiest tone, on which she picked up on and replied back in form, as though competing for the driest humour, “with or without”. With ice-cream it was to be as we shared in her celebration of winning the competition with laughter that filled half the kitchen table, unbeknownst to her she had also won best waitress award.
With the highlight of a 3 cover turn day within it’s first week, chucking out 130 birds - 2 diners sharing a whole chicken with 3 sides was not out of the norm and what you don’t finish, on request, can be packed up for take away - it had caught the attention of local media and residence. Arriving at 6.30pm the restaurant had equal amount of customers to diners and the ambience lacked, though it filled up quickly and maintained momentum throughout our visit, which lasted until 8.30pm, with a constantly flow of chicken rotating, chopping and plating going on in impressively timed execution.
A launch party on it’s second night of 300 guests, coupled with visits from the likes of John Torode to Richard Bacon and Jamie Teakson, it was more shoreditch hype infiltrates north west london than quality local eater.
All in all, service was spot on, relax, informal yet efficient, the ambience was alive when full and though the menu was focused in terms of simplicity it lack in quality.
Would I return? Probably not, mainly due to it's location not being en route to other destinations, e.g. a cinema, and the food not qualifying the restaurant as a destination feature - unless of course you want to join the celebrity watch
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