London's trendy chicken offerings vs. The Colonel: an epic battle

First burritos, then burgers, now...fried chicken. Yes folks, fried chicken is indeed the latest craze in trend-loving London town. Over the past 6 months we've watched with interest as a number of fowl establishments have popped up in various guises across our capital. 

Here at KFB we felt it was important that we tried as many of these offerings as possible in order to answer for our readers the ultimate question: can anyone do fried chicken as well as the Colonel? Here's how we judged - each venue is scored against 2 simple criteria: taste and value. All orders were compared to the equivalent offering at KFC - chicken burgers vs. Fillet Tower burger, classic fried chicken vs. Original Recipe chicken pieces and so on. Here's how they stacked up.

Rita's, Dalston

While they serve a variety of different American style dishes we were only here for one thing: the much lauded fried chicken sandwich. Famous food critic Jay Rayner had this to say about it:

“Rita’s Bar and Dining in Dalston is a serious piece of work. This will probably be the best fried chicken you’ve ever had.”

Bold claims indeed, Mr Rayner and not entirely unfounded. The chicken was indeed very tasty and incredibly crunchy, even giving Extra Tasty Crispy treats from the Colonel a run for their money. Ultimately though at £6.50 a pop it just can't hope to stack up to it's larger, more cheese and hash brown laden brethren - the Fillet Tower.

Taste: 4/5
Value: 3/5

Does it beat the Colonel? No
Big thanks to WhatJoannaAte for the pic.

Spit & Roast, food stall

We encountered these folks at a street food market in Dalston (we don't hang out there every day, honest). They were serving a buttermilk fried chicken burger with Korean sauce. Given that we had a slider, the closest comparison would be a Mini Fillet. And while the sauce was very interesting (and quite spicy), the mini burger cost about £3 (nearly triple the cost of the Mini FIllet). Still, a tastily different take on fried chicken.

Taste: 3.5/5
Value: 2.5/5

Does it beat the Colonel? No


Roost, Soho pop up

Operating out of a Soho pub's kitchen for a couple of months, Roost offered a wide range of chicken-based dishes. Clearly though it was the fried chicken that we had to sample. We opted for an off-menu buttermilk fried chicken burger with chorizo and aioli. While delicious and the coating very crispy, the combination of the two accompanying strong flavours was perhaps a bit much. We would however like to see the Colonel experiment with chorizo as an alternative to the usual bacon.

Taste: 3.5/5
Value: 3/5

Does it beat the Colonel? No


Wishbone, Brixton

If you follow the UK fast food scene you'll have no doubt heard of MeatLiquor - the restaurant (and travelling van before it) that could well be credited with kick-starting London's renewed interest in pimped-up fast food. Imagine our excitement then when we heard that some of the people involved were opening a chicken only shop in South London's Brixton village market. Then imagine our disappointment when we arrived only to find extremely cramped 'tables' (shelves sticking out of the walls) and sub par fries that tasted as if they'd come straight out of a freezer via an ALDI. The chicken didn't fare much better - we sampled the Thai and Buffalo thigh nuggets, both of which came in very vinegary sauces that went soggy all too quickly. Colour us disappointed.

Taste: 2/5
Value: 3/5

Does it beat the Colonel? No

Mother Clucker Soho pop up

In similar vein to Roost, these chaps are currently appearing at a Soho pub (the Endurance on Berwick St). The menu is a fairly sparse affair - we opted for the combo that included a buttermilk biscuit, some 'Cluster Clucks' which were similar to popcorn chicken, a drumstick and some waffle fries. As intriguing as they sound, waffle fries essentially equate to crisps and weren't particularly interesting. Better was the chicken - the popcorn style bites were the real winners - tasty and crunchy in equal measure. At £7.50 it did offer good value - though with a box meal at the Colonel offering a similar quantity of food at £2 or so less, they were never going to win out on the money front. Oh and the biggest disappointment - the lack of gravy. As all chicken fans know, a tub of lubricant to help the fowl slide down is essential.

Taste: 3.5/5
Value: 3.5/5

Does it beat the Colonel? No


Lucky Fried Chicken, Kentish Town pop up

Pop up. Pub. You may have spotted a bit of a theme here. The chaps who have in this blogger's opinion crafted London's best burger (check out http://www.luckychipuk.com/) were doing a residency above a pub in North London that has now sadly come to an end. First to draw our attention was the familiar effigy and tagline in use. Sacrilegious on the one hand, inspired on the other - we'll let you decide.

Between 4 of us we opted for 2 Jumbo boxes and a couple of fries and coleslaws for good measure. As it turns out this was a bountiful bevy of food. And oh what food it was. First off we sampled the coating. Though not hugely crunchy it was bursting with flavour. We're not sure what herbs and spices they were using (and certainly not the same as in Original Recipe) but damn, that was some serious taste. Then onto the chicken itself - we can safely say we've never before sampled chicken as juicy as this. In fact, we'd struggle to think of any kind of meat we've ever sampled anywhere that was this juicy. Much like the Colonel, though the sides were tasty, the chicken was absolutely the star of the show. And between the four of us, the meal came in well under £10 each, not including beer.

Is it wrong to say that we've found chicken better than that at KFC? Quite possibly. Is it true? 3 of our team sampled the chicken and in our expert opinions, we'd have to say yes. Now remember that this was a tiny pop up above a pub, not a huge international chain. And that it did indeed cost more than the equivalent at KFC. But we've got to hand it to them, the folks at LFC certainly know what they're doing. Colonel - we hope you're watching.

Taste: 5/5
Value: 4.5/5

Does it beat the Colonel? Yes, yes it does.

Nacho Stacker Box Meal Review

Yep, it's that time again. TLO time. The latest and greatest to come out of the secret labs at KFC UK HQ is the Nacho Stacker Box Meal. Promotional material for this new release has appeared all over London in the last week or 2 and I have to say, I was quite excited when I spotted it. The poster shows off the new product and describes it as "Packing a mean crunch", while packaging uses the line "It's crunch time". Personally I prefer the image posted on the KFC Facebook page, with a simple, sparse design and the line "Nacho + Burger...there is a god". Hopefully this new streamlined and refined style will continue because it feels quite effective to me.

After the initial excitement, I took a closer look at the details - this is essentially a Fully Loaded Box Meal, except with the new Nacho Stacker burger. The burger itself is also very similar to the Fillet Tower, with the addition of a nacho layer and a slightly different salsa-type sauce (more on this later). I felt a little disappointed that there wasn't more to it, but was keen to give it a go (hoping that it would at least come up on par with the Nacho Cheese Tower Burger that I had in Australia).

I tried the Nacho Stacker at the Brighton KFC restaurant (branch review coming soon!) where the service was swift and I was soon sat in the upper level seating ready to tuck in. The unboxing...

As expected, the Nacho Stacker looks nearly identical to a regular Fillet Tower. The crispy corn nacho can clearly be seen above the hash brown, and the new sauce oozing out at the base. I could immediately tell by the dark, rich red colour of the sauce that this wasn't regular ketchup or zinger salsa. It was time to take a bite and find out how it tasted.

*CRUNCH* As my jaw clamped down, the satisfying sound of cracking nacho could be heard, certainly matching expectations set by the promotional material. The nacho layer added a slightly different chewing texture, but didn't seem to add much to the flavour. I guess a nacho isn't much else besides corn and salt, so this is to be expected. In stark contrast, the new sauce is full of flavour and reminded me of a tangy but cool salsa with a hint of mango chutney, ever so slightly sweet. I enjoyed it but did wonder if an overly generous amount of salsa (which can happen sometimes) might be a bit too much. One to watch out for.

All in all, the sauce and nacho texture combined with classic Original Recipe chicken and hash brown made for an enjoyable meal. Interestingly, the salsa in my burger was under the chicken, but in the promotional material the sauce appears to be on top of the nacho. This may have been an error in the construction of my meal, and I wonder if having the salsa on top of the nacho would give it more of a complete nacho/salsa experience and while making more of the nacho layer (although there is a risk of soggyness).

It's good to see some new, interesting ingredients coming into the mix rather than just a different sauce every now and again. A step in the right direction, and although the Nacho Stacker won't be winning any awards here at KFB, I'm hungrily looking forward to what the next TLO might bring.


Taste: 8/10
Value: 6/10
Innovation: 6/10

OVERALL: 7/10

Reggae Reggae Box Meal Review

So the time comes once again for a new TLO (time-limited offer) at KFC. If you've been following us here at KFB recently you'll know that the TLOs have been on a steady downward spiral ever since the incredible peak that was the Hot Rods Box Meal, primarily due to a lack of innovation. Could Levi Roots' famous musical sauce turn things around? Could this be the shot in the thigh that the Colonel has been looking for of late? Or will this be yet another disappointment? Read on to find out.

The prospect of a new TLO is always an exciting one (if tinged with a little trepidation these days) and the Reggae Reggae Box Meal was no different. A Caribbean-influenced addition to the menu surely couldn't go far wrong. After all, jerk chicken is a famous national dish of Jamaica, the home of Mr Roots and almost always delicious. With this in mind, we ordered at Marble Arch: KFC UK's flagship branch.

The first shock was the price: KFC has recently taken to automatically upgrading all meals in their largest central London branches to 'large' sizes (something this blogger complained directly to HQ about) meaning the meal cost a whopping £5.69. Naturally, we felt the need to Tower Up which adding a shocking 50p extra.

The meal arrived:

Reggae Reggae burger, fries, drink, side, mini breast fillet and a dipping sauce (which was totally absent). Sadly it seems the branch had run out of the special TLO boxes which dampened the spirits somewhat.

Let's cut straight to the chase: this is a fillet tower burger with Reggae Reggae sauce instead of ketchup. Nothing else is different. No special ingredients, no additional marinades, no Jamaican inspired bun. Nothing. Our hopes were immediately dashed: once again the Colonel has seen fit to simply take an existing product, make a tiny variation and sell it as something new and exciting. Still, we cracked on with the eating.

The accompaniments to the burger were all of high quality. Crunchy, hot fries, 3 step gravy and a succulent (if unusually small) mini fillet. No complaints here. 

The main event

A Fillet Tower is a consistently delicious burger (though obviously no Zinger Tower). The real question here is around the sauce and the first issue was that it wasn't spread equally around the bun, meaning the last few bites contained none of that Jamaican flavour. When we did taste it though, we liked what we were experiencing: zingy, tangy, fruity and spicy all combine in the mouth to provide a flavour never before known at KFC. And despite the fact that the mayo was still included in the burger, it all worked together very well. We just wish there was more of it or that the chicken had been marinaded in a jerk seasoning to add that special extra punch.

We've said it before and we'll say it again: the Colonel needs to bring something new to the table. Simply adding a new sauce to an existing product is just not good enough. What's happened to the creative geniuses that suggested the Hot Rods or Wrapstars of this world? The most innovation we get today is the Supercharger: a new type of roll containing two mini fillets and a sauce recycled from a special edition Zinger Tower from many moons ago. The depressing thing is, having visited KFC's HQ in the UK and toured the test kitchen, we know that they're experimenting with some products that are seriously pushing the boundaries (one of which didn't even contain chicken!). It's just a real shame that they don't have the guts to bring them to market.

Taste: 6.5/10
Value: 5/10
Innovation: 2/10

OVERALL: 4/10