Our visit to the original Chicken Shop in Kentish Town (a venture by the Soho Group which serves only rotisserie chicken) was a hugely successful one – we loved it. Feeling a little bored one Sunday afternoon we decided to make the schlep to Tooting to visit their second restaurant (they plan to open a whole load more apparently).
It was a really tiny restaurant which looked ever so quaint and pretty from the outside. We could have sat on stool seats at the counter in the entrance area which overlooked the plump chicks rotating above an open charcoal pit (the smell was great). Instead we chose to sit in the small dining room out the back which was a 20 minute or so wait for a table. It was a little bit cramped but charmingly manageable.
We opted for whole chicken (£14.50) with a side of crinkle cut chips and butter lettuce and avocado salad (£4 each) which all arrived very quickly – handy, ’cause you only have your table for an hour! The chickens are pre-steamed at their Kentish Town restaurant and then finished off on the rotisserie here for half an hour or so.
The chicken was absolutely delightful with moist and plentiful flesh which had loads of flavour and a really crisp skin. Because it was so dark, I couldn’t really see what I was shoving in my mouth, meaning I kept getting mouthfuls of bone which was a tad annoying. But it was worth the faff, it really was. The crisp salad with tangy dressing brought some light relief to the richness of it all and the crinkle cut fries (don’t see them often do you?) were really good.
For dessert, we decided to share the apple pie (£5) which was served with cream or ice cream – we asked for both naturally. I can honestly say I’ve never eaten an apple pie as good as this one. It might have looked a fright but in terms of flavour, it was a pudding masterpiece and one which everybody should try once in their life.
If you’re after a great bit of chicken then you can’t really go wrong with Chicken Shop. The staff are so friendly too; our American waitress couldn’t have done more to look after us and make us feel at home. That apple pie alone was worth going all the way to Tooting for – and that’s saying something.
9/10
