Chicken Shop

The Soho House Group. Hmmm now there's a quandary. I quite LIKE Shoreditch House. And I've had so so food in both Soho and Shoreditch House. But the reality is that their 'houses' along with their restaurants are more hype than substance and in some ways sum up the growing trend of non-bookable long queues places to eat in the capital. Chicken Shop was a disappointment. Initially I was impressed - the place itself has a lovely vibe to it. It's dark, cosy, comfortable and buzzing without being intrusive. Contrary to other reviews we found the service to be poor. Orders were missed and they have this poor bloke serving the food who barely understood what we were saying and is actually apparently powerless to take orders?! Anyway the food. The chicken was so so - it's all a bit messy for my liking and whilst the char is a nice taste this is of course really only all over the chicken skin. So the main 'event' - i.e. the chicken was ok but nothing spectacular. I've had far better roast chickens in pubs! The corn was great but expensive, the chips very good and the local pale ale very pleasant. What I found unforgivable is the sauces seems to be brought in and were not homemade, clearly showing that they contained preservatives! I HATE preservatives and this seemed totally bizarre. Provide special homemade fresh sauce, not outsourced bought in junk! After wolfing down the chicken, slaw (pretty good too) and everything else I then tried the Apple Pie. Which was pretty good. So basically Chicken Shop is a nice enough place but it's not cheap and ultimately the main draw, i.e. the chicken was just not good enough to warrant a second visit. Chicken Shop like so many other 'new' places in town relies heavily on sides and hype (And sauces) to dress itself up.

High quality is starting to slip...

*Correct rating

The venue and atmosphere is really unique and trendy. It's like a bar/club/farm/restaurant. I would go just to look at the place. BUT the food esp the chicken is very average. Maybe I just had a bad peice or something. My chicken was chewy and dry. Also it lacks flavour. It shouldn't be the case that you have to drown your chicken in sauces for it to have any taste, but that's what I ended up doing. It's such a shame because the style is amazing but the substance really needs to step up and match it.

great chicken in a cool venue