db Eats: Bird

First it was burgers. The arrival of MeatLiquor in the capital sparked a burger revolution and a McDonald’s double cheeseburger no longer cut the proverbial mustard. Suddenly everyone wanted to pimp their patties, spawning the likes of the Dead Hippie and Ari Gold.

Quickly earning a cult following, said burgers would be lovingly Instagrammed before being voraciously devoured. They became burgers to seek out and tick off, inspiring 1am Google image searches and a serious case of meat envy from the uninitiated.

More recently, the capital has gone clucking mad for fried chicken in all its guises. The ultimate guilty pleasure, a desire to indulge in the finger licking joys of a KFC bargain bucket without the shame led to the opening of Wishbone in Brixton.

Priding itself on serving swish Sours with its Korean wings, Wishbone has since been snapped up by MeatLiquor and is enjoying a second life as ChickenLiquor. Others soon followed, from Clockjack Oven in Soho and Chicken Shop in Kentish Town to Clutch in Shoreditch.

Buffalo wings

The latest fledgling venue to sell its winged wares is Bird in Shoreditch. Aiming to do for chicken what Byron has done for burgers, Bird is the brainchild of Canadian husband and wife duo Paul Hemings and Cara Ceppetelli.

Having worked in mergers and acquisitions for Credit Suisse, inspired by the chicken restaurants he encountered in Chicago, Philadelphia and Brooklyn, Hemings decided to embark on a radical career change, enlisting his Cordon Bleu-trained wife to oversee all aspects of the food at the good ship Bird.

The 120-seater restaurant opened on the Kingsland Road this summer with a thumping late-90s RnB soundtrack and bold primary-coloured interiors that recall a children’s nursery, perhaps not entirely unintentionally as the couple have four young children of their own.

Leather banquettes are finished in royal blue, while wooden tabletops are a vivid lime green and childlike chairs fire engine red. The result is a riot of colour that gives the place an infantile feel, though open brickwork, low-hung orange light fixtures and exposed piping offer licks of industrial chic.

Fried chicken pieces

Bird’s USP is that it uses 100% free-range chicken sourced from farms in North Yorkshire and Wales. With the restaurant ploughing through over 100 chickens a night, the birds currently arrive butchered though there are plans to receive them fully feathered.

Rather than going down the predictable Southern fried route, Bird instead takes its inspiration from Korean fried chicken. The result, according to Hemings, is a lighter, drier batter than the often heavy Southern version.

The menu is refreshingly simple, with the option of wings in varying numbers; dark, white or mixed chicken pieces and a “whole bird” formed of eight pieces of chicken and four wings.

All of the above can be glazed with buffalo, hot and sweet or honey ginger sauce, with dipping sauces including ranch, sweet plum and hickory barbecue. Main dishes include chicken & waffles, served with maple syrup in a hat tip to the owners’ Canadian roots, and a fried chicken sandwich that owes much to MeatLiquor’s heart-stoppingly good buffalo chicken burger.

Fried chicken sandwich

On the drinks front, cocktails are a better bet than wine, though I had to ask for my cherry sour to be made with Bourbon rather than its suggested vodka base.

Garnished with a glacier cherry, the drink was smooth, sharp and sweet, and contained the all-important frothy egg white head. A blood orange margarita meanwhile, was equally delicious and artfully crafted.

My feast kicked off with a generous portion of gargantuan deep fried pickles that threatened to floor my appetite in one fell swoop. I abstained after a pitiful performance, managing just two.

Round two was a portion of buffalo wings, the glistening crunchy critters boasting a pleasingly fiery coating and moist meat beneath. Trumping the wings were the larger chicken chunks, the Korean-style batter lighter on its feet, the buffalo sauce more generously slathered and the meat within juicy and pillow-soft.

Sides such as Korean cucumbers with rice vinegar and sesame seeds; and house slaw with cider a vinegar dressing shone in their Asian accented simplicity and provided a much needed refreshment amid the onslaught of fiery batter.

Ice cream sundae

The most disappointing dish of the night was the recommended Mu Shu crispy fried chicken served in a similar way to Chinese duck with pancakes, cucumber, scallions and tonkatsu sauce, which gave desperately needed moisture to the bone dry chicken strips.

Desserts were deadly in their outrageously liberal use of whipped cream and reminded me of something Elvis might order for his least meal.

With the salted caramel donuts sadly off the menu, I had to make do with the honeycomb sundae, which was barely visible beneath a cloud of whipped cream erupting from the sundae glass with more force than Eyjafjallajökull. I managed a mouthful before admitting defeat.

Bird is buzzing, casual, and incredibly fun. It’s not trying to be ironic and doesn’t take itself too seriously. For fried chicken fanatics it has much to recommend it, though there are still a few creases to be ironed out. The crispy chicken could be juicer and the pickles less on the greasy side, while the pastry chef shouldn’t be allowed in the same room as a can of whipped cream.

With plans to spread their wings to Soho, these teething problems will have to be addressed in order for the brand to survive in this cutthroat post code. Bird’s heart is in the right place and I hope they not only survive but thrive both in Soho and at the Shoreditch original. Bird is the word.

Bird: 42-44 Kingsland Road, London E2 8DA; Tel: +44 (0)20 7613 5168