North London Food & Culture

More on Chicken Shop, Kentish Town


Right, Soho House-watchers, the Chicken Shop/Pizza East behemoth on Highgate Road is now set to open in September (thanks to reader Joel Smith for pinging over this little cut from the latest Soho House members’ magazine).

Incidentally, it’s funny how chicken is suddenly everyone’s meat du jour. Yes, it’s never exactly ‘gone away,’ but we think it’s officially a ‘trend’ after reading about several new poultry-centred openings including Mark Hix’s Tramshed on Rivington Street, with its focus on whole birds claws-and-all served heads down, tails up (its website domain name? Not Tramshed at all but simply chickenandsteak.co.uk)

NW5’s own posh Chicken Shop will seat 40 and offer takeaway too. Note the 1950s look, with red-and-white chequerboard floor and brightly coloured furniture to contrast the more elegant austerity of Pizza East upstairs. We also like the retro logo combining upper and lower case fonts.


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And the meat? ‘Using free-range birds from Banham’s farm in Norfolk,’ reads the article, ‘the chicken is marinated overnight, steamed to lock in the flavour and then transferred to the specially developed rotisserie to be cooked over charcoal and wood. Order a quarter, half or whole chicken, along with simple sides of triple cooked chips, creamy coleslaw, corn on the cob and salad.’

Sounds mouth-watering. Oh, and Chicken Shop will have a separate entrance from Pizza East, which will stylishly dish up more of what we have experienced at the Shoreditch flagship.

In the meantime, let’s have a mass debate. Who in the manor currently serves up the most finger-lickin chicken?


17 thoughts on “More on Chicken Shop, Kentish Town”

  1. Kentishtowner fact: we have never been into the Nando’s on Kentish Town Road. Not through snobbery. Just because we haven’t. And Lahore is directly opposite.

  2. Why is that when the Golden Arched One dare cook his fries in “beef inspired” oil, he gets vilified as the merchant of death? Yet no-one seems to bat an eyelid at these “Triple Cooked Chips”, stalwart of the gastropub, a recipe that appears to have been devised by the devil himself for maximum fat uptake: cracked potatoes bathed in oil and then refried in rendered beef fat. Still, my stomach’s a-rumblin’ just thinking about them. Yum yum.

  3. Got to agree with Big Bad Al.
    Lahore’s tandoori chicken is the business.
    Their chicken tikka is pretty great too.

    Still, I’m also partial to the odd Nando’s now and then (the wife doesn’t like tandoori spices)

  4. LMH is clearly superior food-wise to Nandos, but until other chicken places offer unlimited re-fills you can use to top up the bottle of whiskey, there’s no better place to start a fill up for a dirty night out. Not that I’ve ever done that. I’ve just heard a rumour, from a friend, who’s now abroad etc etc

  5. Phoenicia has to be the best cooked chickens in kentish town i think. The wine cellar’s grilled chicken with melted mozzarella on top is also pretty good in a sandwich or with salad. Abbeys jerk chicken went downhill and nando’s……well nando’s is just nando’s, every area has them.

  6. Sam’s chicken? Really?

    The two times I have drunkenly stumbled into Sam’s in the small hours I have been quickly sobered up the pink middle to their chicken burgers.

    Once may have been unlucky but twice?

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17 thoughts on “More on Chicken Shop, Kentish Town”

  1. Kentishtowner fact: we have never been into the Nando’s on Kentish Town Road. Not through snobbery. Just because we haven’t. And Lahore is directly opposite.

  2. Why is that when the Golden Arched One dare cook his fries in “beef inspired” oil, he gets vilified as the merchant of death? Yet no-one seems to bat an eyelid at these “Triple Cooked Chips”, stalwart of the gastropub, a recipe that appears to have been devised by the devil himself for maximum fat uptake: cracked potatoes bathed in oil and then refried in rendered beef fat. Still, my stomach’s a-rumblin’ just thinking about them. Yum yum.

  3. Got to agree with Big Bad Al.
    Lahore’s tandoori chicken is the business.
    Their chicken tikka is pretty great too.

    Still, I’m also partial to the odd Nando’s now and then (the wife doesn’t like tandoori spices)

  4. LMH is clearly superior food-wise to Nandos, but until other chicken places offer unlimited re-fills you can use to top up the bottle of whiskey, there’s no better place to start a fill up for a dirty night out. Not that I’ve ever done that. I’ve just heard a rumour, from a friend, who’s now abroad etc etc

  5. Phoenicia has to be the best cooked chickens in kentish town i think. The wine cellar’s grilled chicken with melted mozzarella on top is also pretty good in a sandwich or with salad. Abbeys jerk chicken went downhill and nando’s……well nando’s is just nando’s, every area has them.

  6. Sam’s chicken? Really?

    The two times I have drunkenly stumbled into Sam’s in the small hours I have been quickly sobered up the pink middle to their chicken burgers.

    Once may have been unlucky but twice?

Leave a Comment

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