Review: Humble Chicken, Soho

Chicken is really having its day, with fried chicken becoming the hip casual eating option across the realm. I can even see KFC trying to elbow in on the act and fair play to them, they’ve been doing it a lot longer! It can also only be a good thing that chicken is taking over from beef as the meat to eat; it’s got a hugely smaller carbon footprint per calorie.

At Humble Chicken they’re tackling chicken from a different (and healthier angle), bringing classic Japanese yakotori up a notch to a level of chicken-y obsession that can’t help but raise a smile. Did you know that the “achilles” is the lower part of the chicken thigh and a slightly sturdier piece of dark meat than the “inner thigh”? Each of these is skewered and grilled separately with its own thoughtful accompaniment.

We opted for the omakase and allowed chef to decide which six skewers to gift us. This meant that we started with breast, a piece of chicken I’d never ordinarily order. Here it was soft, plump and bursting with juices, a gentle blob of minced daikon on top. Very soothing. But… yeah… I’m still never gonna order breast voluntarily! Let’s get on to some charcoal-kissed bits of properly unctuous and flavourful chicken bits!

So we have a parade of wings, thighs, achilles and eventually a sheesh of minced chicken dipped in confit egg yolk and soy. The grilling is all absolutely pin-perfect, the meat just cooked through with nice blackened edges.

I should spare a mention for the starters because they were both top notch. A bite of wobbly perfect tofu underneath a tangy mouthful of kimuchi (think: gentle version of kimchi). Some slivers of shimmering cured mackerel in a pile of smoky tomato and ponzu jelly.

For me this is as good as chicken gets and I’ve instantly added Humble Chicken to my list of handy places in the West End for a brilliant bite to eat. The rest of the list so far is: Kiln, Paradise, Kolamba, Bocca di Lupo, Barrafina. Good company.