Clockjack Oven is a new rotisserie chicken restaurant tucked away behind the heart of tourist central, Piccadilly Circus. I love a bit of chicken so I got a group of friends together and went for dinner.

The restaurant was fairly small but had a really buzzy atmosphere with a family friendly feel to it. Staff were very enthusiastic and amiable. Behind the bar, chickens with their legs splayed rotated vertically on the spit and filled the air with the glorious aroma of roast chicken. Yum.

The menu was simple (and cheap) so we decided to order a whole chicken which is 10 pieces (£17.95) to share between 4 of us and an extra 3 pieces (£6.95) because I’m greedy! The chicken was perfect; consistently moist and succulent and nothing was dry or stringy. It totally surpassed the quality and cooking of other chicken chains such as Nando’s.

The weak link however was the sauces. Four on offer; the chilli lacked a smack of heat, the ranch and caesar tasted fairly similar and the barbecue lacked smokiness and was far too watery.

Double cooked chips (£2.95) were lovely. So many places claim double or triple cooked chips but they are often substandard – not here. These were really crunchy and perfectly salted.

We also ordered some crispy chicken bites (£4.95). These had a KFC-like coating which was divine yet they weren’t greasy. I really liked these.

In an attempt to be healthy we ordered two salads. The tomato and red onion salad (£3.45) was delicious. It came as stated and was simply but perfectly done. The house salad (£3.95) was lettuce with apple which also came with three sage and onion stuffing balls which was a bit odd. I would have preferred to stick with the freshness of the apple and not had the stuffing.

So there we have it, Clockjack Oven didn’t seem to be competing with other trendy chicken joints like Chicken Shop or Tramshed, it had a Nando’s feel to it – only better. It’s their first restaurant and if all goes well they plan to open more and I think that sounds like a jolly good idea. Quick, cheap and tasty. What more could I want?

8/10