BIRD
I remember seeing photos of fried chicken and waffles on Instagram and thinking how on earth was this an acceptable pairing of foods as I’ve always associated waffles with being sweet. You can imagine my surprise when the photos kept popping up on Instagram and so I gathered it must’ve been a successful pairing. However, I think all of these photos were posted by people from the States so I didn’t think it was anything I’d be trying soon seeing as I was in the UK. My friend on Instagram posted a photo of her chicken and waffles from Stax Diner and that was when I realised the chicken has crossed the pond and was getting closer to home. Why did the chicken cross the pond? To get to the UK.
Since I’ve gotten back from uni, I was invited on a catch up/lunch date kinda thing at the BIRD restaurant in Shoreditch.
I went in around lunch time on 29.06.15 and there weren’t many people eating inside. However business did pick up a little as we were getting ready to leave. The restaurant was everything I expected an American style restaurant to look like completed with a donut stand! How very cool.
We both ordered the massively hyped chicken and waffles and drifting away from the usual sides, we also ordered the deep fried pickles to share. Water was bought to the table without asking for, which was kind of them. The waiter who served us was really nice even when I cancelled my order of fries. The food arrived quickly.
Two pieces of fried chicken on top of cheddar and onion waffles with a Canadian maple syrup (£10). The batter that coated the chicken looked crispy and was an inviting golden brown colour and it did not look greasy. Whilst the chicken was cooked well, I just felt that it was missing the flavour. The whole dish was very bland. The supposed flavours from the waffles weren’t as apparent, I couldn’t make out the cheddar however I did get bits of the green onion and the flavour of that did come out a little bit. I did appreciate the fact that the taste of onion did not overpower the whole dish however with regards to my friend, the cheese and onion seemed to have gone amiss as she did not even realise they were in the waffles. I poured the syrup over the chicken and waffles, I’m not sure they entirely went well together but I think it did save the dish a little bit, the crispiness of the batter tasted better with the sweet syrup all mopped up with some waffle.
The deep fried pickles (£3.50) were something that was of an interest to my friend and I. Sure, we’ve heard of pickles, but deep fried? How new and exciting. It remained crispy for the entirety of the meal and the pickles were the right amount of tart. I think after having tried these, I prefer pickles without being deep fried.
All in all, I don’t think I’ll be rushing to come back anytime soon, but if I did, I definitely would not order what I did again.
You can visit their website and view their menu here.
WINNIEMACARONI 