When you see a name of a restaurant you can usually get an idea of what type of restaurant it is, and Absurd Bird sums this quirky restaurant up perfectly, as the bird (the chicken) you get is absurdly good.
Nesting behind the well-known main streets of Soho, this Absurd Bird is truly a hidden gem (I know this comment is over-used, but here it is valid), and it is testament to the quality of the food and the buzz that has been created, that even early on a Wednesday evening in October, the restaurant was full, as unless you knew it was there it is not a place you would walk past and go in.
The company kicked off its chicken-focused takeover of London in March by launching two outlets, one in Spitalfields, and the one my family visited in Soho, and they seem to have already built up a dedicated following - will they be called Absurders?!
The great thing about their offering is its pure simplicity. There are a few gimmicks, which I think are designed to attract people initially to their restaurant, but once you visit, it will be the food that will keep you coming back. The simplicity is top quality chicken combined with American deep south cooking, and that quality is based upon a link up with Fosse Meadows Farm where they have bought every single one of their chickens whilst still in the egg, all 14,000 of them. Fosse Meadows Farm birds are additive and hormone free, fed on maize and bred for half as long again as the average free range chicken, and this makes their chicken succulent and incredibly tasty.
As I said, this restaurant is not easy to find, but the effort is worth it, and once you enter the small upstairs and pass the open kitchen you descend to the main seating area. The downstairs is cosy and is dominated by an old school saloon bar and has the feel of an illegal drinking den, which is fitting, as no Southern den should come without its own moonshine which is brewed exclusively for Absurd Bird by Signature Brewery in Leyton.
On taking our seats, and whilst my daughter scanned the menu after selecting a diet coke, I had the much harder choice of selecting one of the array of cocktails on offer from specialist mixologists Soulshakers (does anyone else think this sounds like a music group from the 70’s?). There are many twists on old favourites, but being adventurous, I selected the Cock Shot which combined a shot of Moonshine with a shot of chicken consomme´, which sounds a bizarre combination, but is actually a must-try.
I picked up the menu and immediately got a warm feeling about the food we were going to eat, as the selection is large enough to satisfy everyone’s tastes, but small enough to ensure that everything is done well. The menu fits on one page and is split into 5 sections. The first has the smallish plates which are perfect to have with your drinks. The Jalapeno Cheese Biscuits with apple butter (£5.20) have lovely warmth, and the Spinach and Artichoke Dip with Fried Tortilla Chips (£6) is very moreish. For those more healthy than me, and that is probably more than it should be!, there are 4 exotic salads under the Greenish Plates heading offering Quinoa and Mango (£8.50) or a Baby Kale salad with roasted pumpkin and dried cranberries (£8), but my eyes were drawn to the next section ‘From the Wingshack’. Absurd Bird are famous for these and it isn’t hard to see why. These wings are not the usual wings you find in supermarkets or other restaurants, these are super wings and are enormous, and your next dilemma is to work out what flavour you want as there are a large number of different choices. I used to work in Boston a number of years ago, and when there I tasted some of the best Buffalo wings, so I am overjoyed that I have found a place in England that serves wings of a similar standard. The sauce is perfect with just enough spice to give you that zing when eating, and Buffalo wings just have to be accompanied by a blue cheese dip which was rich and creamy. My daughter and wife also ordered some Crispy Fried Buttermilk Wings where the succulent chicken contrasted well with the light and crispy outer shell. Other choices are Smoked Garlic Parmesan and Lemon Wings, Smoked Chicken Wings and BBQ Wings, and the final dilemma is the number you want, as you can choose from 4 to 24 (£6 - £24), and although absolutely delicious, be careful, as these wings are big, so factor that in when ordering as these are probably the largest wings in the UK.
Having gorged on wings we all turned our attention to the main course, and my daughter and wife selected the Crispy Fried Chicken Burger with BBQ sauce and coleslaw (£9.80). The bun was light and surrounded the largest piece of chicken I have ever seen. My daughter usually picks at her food, but this time there was a marvellous silence as she devoured her burger and delighted in her chips served in a copper flagon. My wife was equally silent and they both declared that this was the best chicken burger they had ever had.
After my wingfest, I chose a small portion of Big Mama’s Favourite, which was succulent Southern style smoked chicken served with a sweet gravy (1/4 £7) as I needed to save some room for dessert! Again the chicken was melt in your mouth and as a true chicken lover, I was in heaven.
This heavenly experience continued into dessert, where my daughter picked the Choc Chip Cookies (£4.50), and my wife and I chose the Crack Pie (£4.80). The cookies were crunchy and came with some milk, and the crack pie is a sweet toothed persons dream, as it is a glorious explosion of caramel and sugar and is probably as addictive as its namesake!
Absurd Bird is a welcome addition to the UK food scene and has 2 restaurants in London, one in Exeter and one in Bath, and I for one will be coming back again and again for their wings, and one of these days I will get them to give me their Buffalo sauce recipe as it is not only amazing, but takes me back to my youth.
Go once and I will bet you will return again and again, as this is soul warming comfort food with roots in the London Street food scene all wrapped up in a bohemian styled restaurant, and although you may feel these styles shouldn’t go, the bizarre thing is that they do. I for one am now an Absurder, and if you go I think you will be one too.
25 Peter Street, London W1F 0AH
Telephone: 020 3198 8444
Website: www.absurdbird.com