The 2018 Michelin stars were awarded last week. Many of the top end places have a focus on non-meat and season vegetables.However, for all you meat lovers, below is a list of Michelin Starred Restaurants that can offer food Halal Meat. Most of them an Indian in cuisine, but there are a couple that offers other options.
At the time of writing, I’ve been to 13 restaurants with at least one Michelin Star. Please double check when you make a reservation as status can change.
I’ve been to 1 to 9 the photos are mine.
1. Jamavar
The latest addition to the list and my personal favourite. The stone bass tika is a MUST.
Taking halal food to the next level. This is what a lamb dish looks like when cooked by an award winning 2 star Michelin chef. I ate at the chef’s table, this dish was exclusive to the chef’s table.
British, Knightsbridge, Lamb is halal, Chicken can be pre-ordered.
It’s been a great year so far in my food journey, I have been trying to visit a broader range of restaurants and explore different types of places and try dishes that I normally wouldn’t go for. This includes restaurants that don’t offer halal options, so allows me to check out seafood and veg dishes.
Below is a rundown of some of my most memorable, best tasting and favourite things I’ve eaten this year. It’s in reverse chronological order.
1. Amazing fluffy pancakes with turkey rashers, Brioche Burger, £7.95
I loved the odd combination of the sweetness from the pancakes and maple syrup with the taste of the turkey rashers. It reminded me of the maple glazed beef bacon from Stax. The flavour mix of the fat from the turkey and sweet maple was one of delight for my taste buds. They are soo filling as well.
They don’t have any halal meat or chicken options, but you don’t need it when you have this dish. If you like the taste of a rich, sweet creamy butter chicken sauce you will love this. The pumpkin was soft and the texture of this dish was great. Highly recommended.
These lamb chops from @jamavarlondon were something else. Just on another level. At a (pricey) £8 per chop, it’s hard to find a better lamb chop out there.
I had a lot of nice food from Skewd when I visited, but my first time trying goat cheese and honey was a memorable one. Just loved the way the flavours worked together. Read the full review here
Honey-Glazed Goats’ Cheese
6. Pretty much everything from The Great Chase
Everything I ate was great. The Chicken was so soft and tender, how they managed this with chicken breast really baffled me, this is what you get when you use Free-range, corn-fed chicken it gives a notable mark of quality. The same goes for the Duck breast.
It’s so rare to see a restaurant that offers up halal eaters a chance experience this type of cuisine. The food here is different and might be a first time for some readers. I really want to urge you to go.
Before eating this, I’ve actually never had crab, the Singapore Chilli Crab pictured had a sweet and chill flavour and it’s not even made with coconut milk. No idea how the chef got that taste. The crab meat is sweet and really tasty, better than lobster in my opinion. Be warned, the price is this dish is £34.50 alone. (I got it for half price during a soft launch)
I can tell you the these braised lamb ribs were amazing. Super soft and tender the feel off the bone. Marinated in star anise, cloves, cinnamon and coated in BBQ sauce. I’m telling you these are a must try.
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11. Lamb Burger from Baba G’s
I was at the Alchemy festival at Southbank. 27 food stalls, most have halal food. I tried a few things but I loved this burger from Baba G’s. Tasted so good! You can find out more here https://www.bhangraburger.com/
12. Perfectly cooked Scallops from the quirky TWID
I was asked to check out a quirky new restaurant that features a live opera singer while you eat. However, there were no halal meat options on the menu so I was a bit reluctant to visit. Despite this, it turned out to have the best non-meat based dishes I’ve had.
Since having Scallops for the first time I can say I’ve now had it at 7 different places including Gordon Ramsey’s 3 star, but these stand out for me.
My most visited restaurant, at the time of writing – I’ve been 10 times! On each visit, the food has been great. The lamb chops are just so good – and a lot cheaper than the ones above from Jamavar.
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14. Pulled beef from Humus Lina
So I’m not a big fan of Hummus so I really wasn’t expecting much but wow, @hummuslina you really make some amazing food. I got the salted beef hummus with salad and chilli as well as a grilled mushroom one for a friend. Absolutely delicious food. The slow-cooked beef was just amazing and it went perfectly with the grilled pita bread.
I visited this café in Barking right at the start of the Year and tried this Grilled lamb dish. Pictured is a piece of lamb from the mix steak grill with chips and onion gravy with salad for £7.50. I was not expecting much but I was pretty much blown away with how GOOD THE LAMB IS. The taste of the grill and the marinated lamb was out of this world. Very very impressed. So tender and soft.
I have to include the Lamb Box from Pilau on my list, they normally run out by lunch, so if you find yourself around Oxford St at lunch pop in and make sure you get one!
The popular fast food burger joint that you love in Dubai is now doing a halal chicken burger in London restaurants.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t like the burger I had in Dubai, and that was the beef one, though, I did eat around 18 different burgers in 5 days. You can read about that here.
But when word went out that there is a halal chicken burger on the scene I thought I’d check what the hype’s about.
So, first things first, I first tried the chicken burger at the Stratford branch, on inserts date here. And let me tell you – it was bad. Like really bad. Here’s the post..
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So bad that my little rant got the attention of Shake Shack who wanted me to give them another go so they sent me a voucher for £25. Anyway, this voucher remained in my wallet for months until it was National Burger Day. I wasn’t planning on going out however I had a plan to get the most for nothing, so I applied for a 20% code and went to Shake Shack in Tottenham Court Road and managed to get
All for pretty much a quid after the discount and voucher. Result.
Right, down to it.
Chick’n Shack
First of all the chicken burger, definitely an improvement to what I had the first time. The bun is nice and fluffy, the chicken was actually decent and there was a better texture and taste to the breading and the chicken. My gripe is the burger or fried chicken sandwich costs over £6. Apart from the nicer bun, I don’t see why you would choose this over a Chicken Cottage burger or the Zinger burger from KFC. So despite this being an improvement on the first time I had this, it’s still for me a burger that’s just about average, especially at the price.
I heard a lot of good things about the ‘Shroom burger so I gave that a go and I was truly impressed. I never thought a mushroom based burger would crush the taste of a chicken burger. It must have been that yummy thick melted cheese and the flavours of the mushroom patty. I highly recommend this over the chicken burger.
I also got a special menu item made by renowned pastry chef Dominique Ansel, ‘The Banoffee’ which featured fresh, hand-spun vanilla custard blended with caramelised bananas, Dulce de Leche, Speculoos biscuits and a hint of sea salt, topped with Chantilly cream and Speculoos crumbles. This was brilliant, a very rich in taste and texture milkshake. I think it was limited for August, however. Sorry.
If you are looking to recreate your foodie memories of Dubai then you will be disappointed. The chicken burger is mediocre in my opinion. If you are in Tottenham Court Road, then just walk 5 minutes up the road to KFC and get a Zinger Burger. I think the ‘Shroom burger is a winner! – get that instead.
The Halal certificate is displayed on the wall, left of the tills.
One of my weekly activities is researching new places to eat and within that research comes the important question I ask is, “Hi, do you have any halal options on the menu?” I was actually looking if any of Gordon Ramsay’s Michelin starred restaurants did halal and found out that they didn’t, however, in my discovery, I found that a few restaurants part of the Gordon Ramsey group do halal, summarised in this extract from an email I received
Maze Grill Royal Hospital Road – they have daily halal baby chicken, buffalo fried chicken, lamb and wagyu
Maze Grill Park Walk – with 2-3 days’ notice they can arrange for halal lamb and chicken
Maze Grill Mayfair – they have daily halal chicken and lamb and with 72hrs notice, they can arrange for beef
Maze – with 48hrs notice they can arrange for halal lamb only
The Savoy Grill – they have daily halal chicken, with 48hrs notice they can arrange lamb or beef
Bread Street Kitchen – with 48hrs notice they can arrange for halal chicken wings
Email from Petrus, April
So this got me interested and I decided to look into Maze. Now, the Maze Grill Mayfair is a hotel restaurant that is part of the Gordon Ramsey empire which offers up food like steaks, sushi and modern grill fare with Asian influences. It also turns out that they do a Sunday lunch, with unlimited sides for only £27.
So I decided to check it out.
Menus
Menu
It’s located in Grosvenor Square, a few minutes walk from Bond Street Station, and as it’s a hotel restaurant you can enter via the hotel or main entrance., Once you enter the venue you feel the relaxed and chilled atmosphere for a Sunday in a modern clean design.
We were welcomed by the maître d or manager (I think) and shown to a table. Just a note on this chap, very welcoming and he knew about my pre-order of halal for the Sunday roast.
Start with bread
Now on the menu, it says Roast beef, however, once we sat down we were told that we have been pre-ordered with a steak cut of rib eye. The reason behind this is that you need at least 4 people for the roast beef joint, due to what I believe is portion size and costs. Fair enough. I was really expecting and looking forward to a roast beef lunch, but at least I was getting some type of red meat!
Sadly, the halal Sunday lunch does not come with the bone marrow and gravy as stated on the menu as they not halal.
Also on the menu are potatoes which are made with the natural fat from wagyu, the wagyu is not halal either. However, they replaced these for some thick, soft fluffy chips.
The Sides
On the day we also got some honey glazed baby carrots, tender stem Broccoli and a simple but really nice tomato, onion and red radish salad. We also got a giant Yorkshire pudding as well.
Oh, the sides are also UNLIMITED!!! More chips, please!
We got 2 steaks medium rare and both arrived on a wooden board with some greens. The steaks were a proper medium rare, loads of pink in the middle, a bit too much pink in the middle for my dining companion so we had to send that back to get it done a bit more – it came back medium. For me, it tasted better medium than my medium rare. The size of the steak was a little thin but the amount was just right, It was also heavily seasoned with a little too much salt for my liking.
It didn’t feel like a “Sunday Roast”, but for £27 for halal steak in central London with loads of sides, I think it’s a winner. Just remember to call ahead and book halal in advance. If you want a roast, make sure you book for at least 4 and confirm that you will get a roast and not a steak.
They also charged an unexpected cover charge of £2 per person, which I asked to be removed, I’ve found a few places doing this now, charging for bread.
The Key Ring
Quick secret tip! Ask about a keyring, it gives you 50% on Mondays!
I had a nice time here, service, decor, atmosphere and of course food were all nice.
I’m always on the lookout for new places to eat and if I come across a place that looks good and does food that I have not tried before then it draws me in… oh and if they are offering 50% off as it’s a new restaurant and it’s during its soft launch then yes please, I’m there
Fancy Crab is a new restaurant located just behind Selfridges on Wigmore Street. The venue is split over 2 floors, the top floor is spacious and has a large display of king crab towards the rear. My party of 6 was seated downstairs, at a good sized table with booth seating.
I wanted to take advantage of the 50% off and maybe ordered a bit too much..The prices listed below are the FULL menu price.
MENUS
Crispy King Crab Bites £3
Crispy King Crab Bite
A bit of crab on a nacho. Simple, creamy.. not much to say.
Scallop Ceviche, £9
I loved this dish, I’ve never tried ceviche before, but the flavours of the lime and other ingredients really worked well. It’s basically raw scallops but cured, it was mixed with lime which gave it zingy citrus notes but also had a light kick from fresh chillies.
For me this was a standout dish. I love the flavours that reminded me of a red curry. The flavours were sweet, maybe a little bit too sweet, but overall i tasted depth in flavour and there was heat from fresh chillies mixed into the dish.
The crab also had a natural sweetness to it and the crab meat had a really nice texture to it. I could taste coconut milk, but the chef swears that the dish is made without any coconut milk! My first proper taste of a juicy bit of crab and i liked it. However, at nearly £35 it’s a very expensive dish and if i’m honest, no way I would have ordered this if it wasn’t 50% off, and it’s not enough to share between two.
This dish is so you can try and experience pure crab that’s been carved out of the shell so no messy work required. However, it’s a small amount of meat for the money. Nevertheless, i really like the taste of crab and definitely prefer it to lobster, crab is softer and sweeter, so naturally, with my sweet tooth, i’m gonna like it.
Not a bad dessert, but to tell you the truth I can’t recall how it tasted… this is why I should write my review straight away and not after a month! – Sorry
I won’t review the service as it was a soft launch and there were naturally a few hiccups with orders (none affected me), but it was okay, in fact on another note, one of the chefs actually came out of the kitchen and sat with us and explained a few things to us about crabs and the menu in general so that was good.
My half of the bill was £60 inc service, I was planning to share and split cost the Singapore crab and grilled merus but once we saw the portion size we ordered more.
As I mentioned I only came here because of the discount. Would I come back here and pay full price? No sorry.
The Bill
Oh, the chef also said that the chicken is halal. Also, the steaks come from New Zealand, which means that there’s a high chance of the steaks being halal, but not certified. But why would you come to a Crab restaurant and order chicken or a steak?
Most of the places I visit are located around either Central or East London, however, I jumped in my car and make a quick 30 min trip to Cockfosters which is at the end of the Piccadilly line and landed at Skewd Kitchen, a modern Turkish restaurant.
Skewd Kitchen recently appointed a new head chef who has experience working alongside top chefs in Michelin starred restaurants – I was keen to see if Skewed Kitchen was another run of the mill Turkish, or was it offering something new and different…
I arrived at 8pm on a Friday night, parked up directly outside and got a table for 4.
The place was busier than I had expected and had a nice buzzing atmosphere.
Menu
Specials
Drinks
We got a couple, I went with the virgin Mojito and it was a good drink – they got the balance of mint and sweetness just to my liking.
After a long study of the menu we all decided on a few starters to share for the table
Starters
Pachanga £4.90
Filo pastry filled with mixed bell peppers, chestnut mushrooms, kashar cheese, cured beef and parsley.
Pachanga
A different take on the popular and classic vegetarian Spinach and Feta Cheese Börek. This was a really nice starter, light and crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and the flavours of the peppers and cheese worked well with the beef.
Honey-glazed goats’ cheese served with Bertha roasted beetroot, caramelised shallots and walnuts, drizzled with 8 years’ aged balsamic.
Honey-Glazed Goats’ Cheese
This dish puts a smile on my face when I think about it, my friend ordered this and I would not have ordered this if it was not for him. I absolutely loved it. The taste of the goat’s cheese worked so amazingly with the honey, it was a new flavour experience for me, I thought this dish was just brilliant. I didn’t really understand the need for the beetroot.
Main Course time and this is where things got interesting. There was the main menu, and from that, we got 2 meaty options and there was also a specials menu that was a creation from Tim the new head chef, someone who is trying infuse a bit of French cooking on a Turkish menu.
So, from the regular menu
Mixed Kebab £20.90
Lamb shish, chicken shish, adana shish, lamb chop, lamb ribs
A big platter of good quality meats cooked over a charcoal grill. I had a little sample, meat was juicy and tender.
The steak is USDA Prime, from America and unlike most places it was pan seared and then cooked in the oven then pan cooked again and basted in butter and garlic. At 10oz it’s a very big portion size, so big in fact that we could not eat all of it, so I turned it into a stir fry the next day.
The steak was cooked as requested to medium rare. Because the beef is from the USA, the cow is mostly grain fed, which gives the meat a different taste compared to grass fed. I didn’t think the steak blew me away – it was good but not great.
I actually think it’s my fault. Ever since I’ve had the steak from Meat and Co, no steaks can compare to that amazing taste.
Pan-cooked Fillet of Stone bass and Scottish scallop, on a bed of smoked beetroot puree, labneh and charred cucumber.
This was the dish I opted for. I really didn’t feel like eating meat as I knew I could sample a bit of the mix grill and steak so i got fish.
The presentation of this dish was great, plated up in a very appealing way. It was an interesting dish, but the fish I felt was not delicate enough. One of my favourite dishes is the stone bass tikka from Jamavar which is such a soft and tender bit of fish and part of me was expecting the same. Of course, this was pan cooked so the taste and texture would have been different. It was also served with a beetroot puree which I don’t think worked for me. The flavours did not work well with the fish.
A dish that you would expect in a high-end French Michelin star restaurant. Great presentation, however, I think the lamb was cooked too rare. I didn’t try the dish with all its components such as the artichoke mousse. I only tried a little bit of the lamb. Lamb has a naturally strong deep flavour profile, but for a Turkish restaurant this dish was maybe a bit too removed from Turkish flavours and could have done with the use of more traditional herbs and spices. Nevertheless, I liked that this place is trying something different.
This decadent cheesecake uses organic blueberries that are packed with Antioxidant power
To finish the night a lovely light blueberry cheesecake. Really nice texture and taste.
Summary
The service was mainly consistent and solid throughout, however, there was a slightly longer wait between the starters and main course. Service struggled a little during the busy times and the waiters became less attentive.
Overall I was really pleased with my experience here – the starters were great and I really enjoyed them. It’s great to see a restaurant trying some new things but also maintaining a high standard of food in terms of quality, taste and presentation.
I was invited to review this restaurant. The meal was complimentary and views my own
I’ve reviewed a few new Indian style tapas restaurants lately, ‘Chai Thali’, ‘Hankies’ and ‘Talli Joe’ to name a few and ‘Chai Naasto’ is the latest addition to a growing trend of new Indian restaurants that focuses on sharing small plates.
Chai Naasto is located in a very residential area in Hammersmith, about 7 to 8 mins walk away from the station. It’s sandwiched between houses and flats, relying on a lot on local custom and walk-ins.
The menu offers a wide range of items, I was very surprised to see just how many items there were on offer. It made the task of ordering a tricky one for myself, and the other 3 in my group. We actually spent around 30 mins deciding on what to eat. In true fashion, we ordered WAY too many small plates and were left with no room to try any specials or curries.
I’ve been to a lot of restaurants to eat, but I have never ordered nor tried so many different items before. I tend to write my reviews a few weeks after the visit so I can think about what to write, but writing this is very hard as we tried so many things…! Let’s try, so below is a list of everything we ordered and my thoughts on the items I managed to try..
Booths
Inside
Menu, Over 40 itemsOutdoor buzzer
When sitting outside, you have a little call the waiter button. Every place should have this!
Poppadoms
Starters/Chaats
Chandni Chowk Crispy Kale Chaat – (v) (gf) – £5.50
I had the kale chaat from ‘Talli Joe’ and loved it, so was hoping for something similar, however this was not the same, sure the texture was there but the taste sadly, was not. The kale pakora was too dry inside and not particularly well-seasoned. The chaat that it came in was the same in several of the other dishes we ordered.
Chilli cheese nuggets crumbed & fried until crispy & drizzled with our homemade chilli sauce.
Bombay Chilli Cheese Bites
I liked these: they were gooey and warm and comforting, with the melty cheese oozing as you bite into the nuggets. It’s what I like to call dirty food – something that you know is full of stuff that’s bad for you, but you don’t care, because it tastes good. However, I didn’t get much chilli coming through. I assume the chilli was supposed to come from the sauce that the nuggets were doused in, but to me it just tasted overly sweet and gloopy. Covering the bites with it meant that they lost the crispness they were supposed to have and instead came out soggy and overly sweet.
Crisp Punjabi vegetable samosas broken & served with spiced chickpeas & drizzled with a melody of chutneys & sweet yoghurt.
Chandni Chowk Ke Samose Chaat
As with the lamb samosa, I didn’t understand why these came half-immersed in a sweet and sour chaat mix. The filling of the samosa, for me, got lost in everything else that the samosa came in. I assume there was potato inside the samosa, but as there was also potato in the Bhel Puri/chaat, it all just melded into one big chaat dish and the samosa got lost in it all.
Crispy Gujarati lamb samosas served with green pea potato cakes & drizzled with a melody of chutneys & sweet yoghurt.
Nizami’s Lamb Samosa Chaat
The samosa was nice, with a good amount of keema filling. However, I didn’t understand the need to douse half the chaat street dishes in a chaat mix. It rendered them all very similar in taste and meant that what was supposed to be unique about each dish actually wasn’t very noticeable. All this did was turn the crispy filo pastry of the samosa soggy and meant it got a bit lost amongst all of the chaat ingredients.
Quinoa, freekah, lamb lettuce, beetroot, feta cheese & walnut drizzled in our chaat masala dressing.
Chatpata Super Food Salad
I didn’t try this… or maybe i did… I can’t recall.
Pani Puri Shots – (v) – £5.00
A refreshing savoury snack made with crisp wheat balls, stuffed with a spicy potato filling & served with a sweet & sour tamarind reduction.
Pani Puri Shots
These looked very pretty, coming on a delightful cart and presented with panache. In fact, all the food looked pretty, so top marks to Chai Naasto for presentation. Sadly in this case, it was a bit unnecessarily complicated in its presentation and lacking in punch. The pani puri’s were not particularly light or crispy and the fillings for them lacked spice or flavour. A real disappointment
Chicken wings tossed with spicy Keralan “gunpowder” seasoning & drizzled with our homemade chilli sauce (optional).
Kerala Chicken Fry
Indian KFC! It’s basically Indian fried chicken! What’s not to like about this dish, the spices in the breading worked really well – I liked this simple but effective dish.
Soft-shell crab marinated with spices, battered & fried until crisp & served with our smoked tomato chutney.
Kekda Koliwada
For me, my favourite dish of the night, the presentation looked beautiful and the light crab as perfectly cooked and was equally as good as the texture of the delicate batter – great use of spices and flavours.
Lamb cutlets marinated in mustard oil, malt vinegar, red chilli & crushed spices & served with tempered mashed potatoes.
Kareem’s Lamb Burra Kebab & Aloo Chokha
Lamb chops are my favourite things to order at a restaurant – these were cooked medium well, so slightly overdone in my book, I prefer medium; so it’s juicy and tender. The flavours were subtle and the mash potatoes that came with the dish was an interesting addition that worked really well.
King prawns marinated in red chilli, black pepper, ginger, yogurt & fresh lemon juice & glazed until golden in the tandoor.
Tandoori Jhinga Chatpata
At £10, I feel this plate could have come with more than two prawns on it. Yes, the two prawns we got were fairly large, but between four of us, it meant an average of half a prawn each. The bigger upset is that they were neither juicy nor spicy and the golden colour on them seemed to be more from the addition of turmeric than from being cooked in the tandoor. I found the prawns to be dry and bland..
Smoked chicken tikka marinated with yoghurt, chilli & gram flour & glazed in the tandoor; served on mini tandoori naan with mint chutney & pickled red onion.
Rajasthani Murgh Ke Sole
Mint sauce worked well with tandoori chicken, changed up the typical tandoori flavours, chicken was slightly overdone but a tasty dish regardless…
Slow-cooked spicy lamb mince stew served with brioche & a sunny-side-up egg.
Jaffer Bhai’s Keema Pav Slider
A very nice dish, the keema was lovely, with a good level of spice and masala to it. The fatal flaw was in the egg, which should have come with a runny yolk that, upon breaking, seeped into the keema and could be mopped up with bread. Instead the yolk was overdone with no sign of golden runny-ness! Additionally, I’d have preferred the brioche toasted and on the side. Placing it under the keema rendered it soggy and difficult to cut/tear. Why not leave it separate and allow the customer to pile the keema and egg on themselves? That way it won’t be soggy before it’s even reached the table.
Pan-fried scallops served with spicy cauliflower purée & herb dressing.
Tawa King Scallops
I have become a fan of the mighty scallop, these were cooked well, however, slightly smaller than a regular king size scallop. The cauliflower purée & herb dressing went well with the dish but needed more use of herbs and spice as the flavour was subtle.
An indulgent, spiced chocolate orange brownie served with vanilla ice-cream, salted caramel & toasted nuts.
The brownie was dry inside and the spices – predominantly cardamom – overwhelmed the dessert, leaving a barely-there hint of orange, or indeed chocolate. Not great.
The total bill was £115 for 4 people with drinks. Which, based on the amount we ate was worth it I think.
View Bill
Overall I feel that most of the dishes lacked enough spices which reduce the overall flavour and also lacked heat from chillies. I feel that the food has been catered for the local clientele of the area. The food all looks beautiful and none of it was bad, but equally, none of it was amazing, the stand out dish was the crab and I liked the Indian fried chicken.
If we had not over ordered then we would have gotten to try the curries, so it’s a shame we didn’t have space. But none of the food we ordered was wasted, we finished everything.
It’s an extensive menu, making it great if going in a big group, as you can try more. There is a plan to change the menu as it moves through the different food and cooking styles of the Indian subcontinent every few months.
I was invited to review here. The meal was complimentary.
Thanks to Rana who co-wrote this long review with me, she was part of my new group of foodies that joined me, check out her baking blog here http://www.acupofteasolveseverything.com/
At the time of visit, Restaurant has been open for less than 2 weeks
I’m not the biggest fan of Chinese food, maybe because I’ve never had any good Chinese food. It always tends to be too greasy and feels unhealthy. The other issue is that most Chinese food is heavy with the pork and the kitchens tend not to care too much about cross contamination.
Cocochino is the first and only halal Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. Furthermore, they also don’t serve pork on the menu and don’t use any alcohol in the sauces.
The venue itself is located in a basement so there’s no natural lighting. I found the venue to be a little cold in terms of the lighting, decor and atmosphere. It just didn’t feel that welcoming. The decor is also a little dated, there are some slight modern elements, but then tables are covered in a thick white table cloth, that appears to serve an unintentional purpose of just showing up oily patches from any spillage. I’ve never been a fan of a tablecloth on a table. It’s trying a fine dining look but doesn’t do enough to pull it off.
Menu
The menu has a section of items the ‘halalfoodguy gang’ decided to go for. A couple of starters and 3 mains. (Yes I have a gang of foodies now.)
Duck Spring Rolls
Crispy duck spring rolls. Served with what they call a special secret soy sauce. One of our favourite dishes on the night. The duck was delicate and the accompanying sauce complimented the crispy spring roll really well.
You can’t go to a Chinese restaurant and not order prawn toast! The version here did a different take on a classic and encased minced prawn and a whole prawn in battered bread. I liked that these were different to the standard, the use of a whole king prawn was a valid touch.
We ordered 3 mains and also received one house special as a complimentary dish. Kung Pao
Let’s start with the Kung Pao chicken. The presentation was good but the taste and flavour of this dish were not as good as it looked. What I didn’t like was the cheeky over use of cashew nuts that looked like chicken. This dish just didn’t work. There was also no need for a crispy noodle basket.
Another classic is the sweet ‘n’ sour chicken. Alas, again we fall short in the taste department. The flavours didn’t work well together. The chicken was also over cooked when it was deep fried
The remaining mains were the Beef in a Chinese-style sauce and a complimentary dish of fish in a cheese sauce. These were the standout dishes from the mains, the beef was tender and well spiced, with a range of flavours.
The fish was the surprise of the night with perfectly cooked fish, flaky yet juicy, in a velvety smooth cheese sauce that covered each bite with a unique flavour.
At the time of visiting, there was no dessert’s available, so they gave us a small fruit platter.
Overall, I’m not sure how I feel about this place. I asked myself would I visit again, and the answer is “no”. For 2 reasons, the atmosphere is not warm and is a little cold, second, the food is a little overpriced for what you get, the total bill was £77 for 4 people.
But I don’t think anyone of us left with our stomach’s satisfied. The food was just okay, with the exception of 2 dishes – which we really liked. Also, all the staff and other customers were of Chinese appearance (sorry) so food (and service) is pretty authentic.
I received a discount of 15% as I had mentioned an offer I had seen on their Instagram
I’m always on the lookout for new and different exciting restaurants that offer up something different to the usual.
Wing Wing is a hip new fast food outlet that offers Halal Korean free range fried chicken!
Halal Certificate
At the time of writing this review, I’ve had Wing Wing on 3 different occasions. The first was a visit to the restaurant as a paying customer. The second, I ordered a chicken burger via uber eats to my office the 3rd was a bloggers event that Wing Wing invited me to, So, I’ve been able to sample a lot of the menu.
Wings and Chicken
On my first visit, I decided to try the chicken wings, chicken drumsticks and also a Bao burger along with some seaweed chips and some battered beans.
You can pick 3 different types of glaze to be coated on your chicken wings or drumsticks, Soy garlic, hot and liquorice
On all 3 occasions I’ve had food here, it’s been really good. It’s not your average fried chicken place. The glaze really enhances the flavour of the chicken batter and the batter itself is really crispy and delicious as well as the fact that the chicken is fresh and tender. Both wings and drumsticks are given the same glaze treatment. The wings are whole wings, so you get a good sized portion.
Drumbstick
Brushing Chicken
battered Beans
I think I prefer the drumsticks than the wings, only because you get the big bite of hot juicy deliciousness.
The chicken burger that I’ve had is also so good. They pack it with so many different and unique Korean inspired flavours and ingredients that it creates a really different texture and taste to what I’m used to.
The baos are also different in a good way, there was a little too much use of Slaw that made the Bao into a Mushy mess, but I prefer the assembly and taste of the burger.
Chicken Baos
The venue is bright and coloured with a strong Korean karaoke styled theme. It’s fast food, so you are given a buzzer when the food is ready to take to your table. I believe they also have a ‘K pop’ karaoke room at the back as well.
It’s really close to SOAS and UCL university, so i’m sure it will be popular with the local uni crowd.
The price is more than your average fried chicken shop, but I could definitely tell a difference in the chicken quality The cost of 6 wings is £6.90, the cost of 3 drumsticks also £6.90 and £2.00 extra for chips and drink.
If you like your chicken fried and wanna try something different than the usual ‘Spice Hut’ then give this a go. I recommend getting a mix of glazes so you can figure out your favourite flavour of choice.
Obviously, I like my burgers and so do many of you, so, I decided to drag my burger loving mate along and give this place a go. One of the things that drew me here was the fact that they had a fried chicken burger on the menu, a rarity amongst the halal burger restaurants in town.
The first noticeable thing about this place is the location, it’s half way between chalk farm and Camden station and off a side street that doesn’t get much foot fall. The next thing is the size, this is a tiny shack, that, at best would hold 16 people max. Most of the seating consists of uncomfortable stools, but there are a few padded chairs. I ended up on a small table with some stalls.
Menu
The menu at the time of visiting was very simple and small, reflecting the size of the venue. You order at the till and food is brought out to you.
Chicken Strips
We started the night with a mix of chicken strips, one portion tender strips of deep fried chicken thighs covered in Teriyaki sauce and sweet and spicy sauce. The Teriyaki sauce needed improvement, it’s definitely not authentic and really didn’t work.
However, the sweet and spicy was on point. Burger UK uses chicken thighs, which is more tender and juicier but also less healthy and normally a cheaper cut, most places use chicken breast because it’s leaner and easier to cook. The advantage of this cut is that you can really maximise the flavour you get from the tenderness of the chicken thighs.
Next – the beef burgers, we kept it modest and went for the 6oz patty for both the classic and chefs special.
Classic Beef Burger 6oz
Accompanying the classic, I added American cheese and caramelised onions. Looking at the burger you could be forgiven for thinking I ordered an onion burger. Looks like the cook really likes his onions – there were a lot of them! The kicker was that there weren’t actually any caramelised onions present, or if they were meant to be, they certainly did not undergo the caramelisation process. I had to remove most of the onions from my burger. The burger itself was not to my taste. My personal preference are burgers that are cooked on a hot plate grill and cooked with a dome to trap that steam and flavour. The burgers here are cooked on a traditional grill, so burgers lose a lot of their natural juice. Sadly, this burger tasted the same as so many other burger places that cook their burgers in the same way.
The chef’s special also had an excess onion issue, as well as none of those onions tasted caramelised, the main difference was that this burger had some added chilli sauce which gave it a different flavour. 6.5/10
Chef’s Chilli Burger
Next up, me and my friend both decided to get the fried chicken burger which is pretty hard to find, not many places do a deep fried chicken burger. So let’s talk about the good points. The chicken fillet was very tender, soft and juicy. This is because they had used a chicken thigh piece, which is naturally tender and succulent, the batter was also crispy and cooked perfectly.
Chicken Burger
However, I found the taste of the actual burger bland, I wasn’t picking up any hints of any of the herbs and spices. I tend to be more critical of food that I can make better myself at home and I believe one of the reasons my own chicken burger tastes great is because I use a blend of around 12 different ingredients; But with this burger I really couldn’t get any flavour other than the mayo, I think it may have been an off batch where not enough spices and herbs were used in the flour batter mix.
Despite this, I have to state, it was really crispy, not oily, juicy, tender and cooked perfectly. Just lacked seasoning.
We also tried the sweet potatoes fries, which were just not pleasant: they were soggy and soft, I later found out that this was intentionally served this way because this is how the owner likes them. Soft and soggy chips?! So I decided to run a twitter poll
Whats the best kind of sweet potato chips? I had some soggy ones last night. Owner said that’s how he makes them…
I spoke with the owner in depth and passed on my feedback. I must commend him on his vision and ethics of sourcing quality and halal ingredients, I like his idea of using free range chicken, grass fed beef, freshly made brioche buns and independent drinks, so no branded drinks like coke and sprite here, but hipster lemonade. Of course using quality chicken means it tastes better – but it also carries a bigger price tag, however, the prices are very good for the quality. The restaurant is still in it’s infancy and are still developing their recipes, flavours and balance of ingredients – granted I may not have been blown away with the end product and was a little disappointed with the burgers, but I can see the potential with a few more tweaks, (and we are taking slight tweaks) the chicken burger, in particular, will be a winner.
I was invited to review, the meal was complimentary.
