LeCoq

I love chicken. Love love love it. I really wanted to love this place. It’s got a cute, friendly vibe, intimate seating and super friendly staff.
But man where is the chicken on my plate?! I swear I had about 5 bites of chicken.
It was moist. Fresh. Juicy. Tasty. Skin was crispy and not fried and oily. But there was barely any chicken. You’d get more with a «half chicken» in nandos. Serious.
The sides were great. Tomato salad and celeriac roumelade were the sides of the day.
But I left feeling hungry. And when I go out to dinner and pay £25 I don’t expect to.
Increase the chicken portion sizes!

A few questions should be raised after my meal there, 1. Why call yourself LeCoq when your chicken looked like the worst of the three options on the menu? It was skinless drumsticks, where’s the crispy skin? Where’s the better parts of the bird?
2. Why don’t you put your sides on your Sunday menu? I was completely unaware of them as I couldn’t see the menu board and as a restaurant your motto is to upsell, so why would you not include them?
3. Why would you not let us know before ordering what you are out of? Which btw was one main out of three, and one main side out of three. As a chef I find it baffling you would pair something that doesn’t go with a different meat and just expect us to enjoy it equally the same. Pork belly isn’t meant to be paired with Indian daal. It needs something caramelised, sticky and winter warming. Think whiskey caramel glazed apple purée.
Don’t bother, not worth the cost. Wait until they learn how to pair food that is fresh and organic and minimalistic. No drowning things in spice to avoid the flavourless reality.

Overly strong flavours, limited menu, good wine. Felt like a dinner party hosted by a friend who can cook.

Different menus each week, though we the same great base of rotisserie chicken. Such heaven (if you enjoy chicken).
We had our PandaPay trial on Monday at LeCoq with great success.
In total there were 10 people, all arriving at different times. The great thing about LeCoq is that the menu is so wonderful simple that there’s not painful discussions about what everyone is going to have. It also makes it easy that everything on the menu is amazing.
On the week we were there (I make this point as the menu changes weekly), you could choose one of 3 entrées, the main is always the Chicken dish (though I believe that was an alternative and a vegetarian option) and 3 dessert options.
I started with the Braised Lamb Meatball & Marinated Yogurt, which was a great size for an entrée. It wasn’t over cooked (as Lamb often is) and was a refreshing start to the meal.
At LeCoq, they bring the main chicken dish on one plate so everyone can share. The chicken dish was rotisserie chicken with delica squash, kale, spiced sage crunch. It was very creative dish and delivered amazingly well.
Overall, a great chicken restaurant that was loved by everyone at our table and I would recommend to anyone and everyone :-)

Overpriced. I mean it’s just a roasted chicken. When I’ve seen the price I thought they probably do something special to it but no, it’s just an ok roasted chicken, probably one of the most expensive in London, that’s it. And also there’s no appropriate wine matching the only food they have on the menu! Given the great choices this area offers, seriously you can skip this one.

The ambiance is relaxed with communal. The rotisserie is on full display and you’ll see a line of chefs preparing the food just in front of it. The décor makes use of rough wood, decorative tiles, copper and stained glass giving the space a warm, natural feel. The menu changes weekly and is minimalist to say the least with a choice of only 2 starters, 1 main and 2 desserts (as well as some sides and snacks) so it’s well worth a look online before you go to make sure you actually like the sound of what’s being served this week! The pricing is simple as well, which I like. Two courses for £17 or three for £22.
We ordered some Spiced Nuts for £2.50 to snack on, which were nothing to write home about but a nice snack nonetheless. The starters this week were Deep Fried Mussels & Cauliflower with Tahini and a Winter Fattoush. I asked our server what a fattoush was (just like every other customer did that night) to be told it’s a bread salad with fried pieces of bread combined with mixed greens and other vegetables. Both starters were lovely and worked well shared between us. Anything deep-​fried is going to be tasty and the fattoush was full of flavour and texture.
The chicken at Le Coq Islington is always Sutton Hoo and this week was served with Turkish Lentils and Carrots. It’s pot luck which pieces of chicken you get (although you can probably put in a request). I got two lovely pieces of juicy breast and Mark has a piece of breast and a drumstick. The lentils and carrots had an authentic middle eastern depth of flavour to them and there was plenty of gravy to mop up with the perfectly cooked chicken.
We had a couple of great sides as well. There was a special of Beetroot, Castelfranco & Roasted Shallots (£3.50) which made a great side salad and I highly recommend the beautifully crispy Rotisserie Potatoes (£3.75), which were everything you could want from a roast potato.

Excellent little place in Highbury — Isllington. Simple menu done well. I’ll be back on my next trip!

2 stars may be a little harsh, 2.5 would be better suited. However I was really under awed by Le Coq. So much potential but it really falls quite flat.
You are locked into the chicken, that’s fine, but what the chicken comes with rotates on a weekly basis. If you don’t like it, you have to pay extra for sides, which are quite expensive. £4 for a few potatoes, which even though they tasted great, was a bit much. The chicken itself was juicy and tasty, but nothing special, a bit anemic looking if you ask me.
The dessert was terrible and definitely not worth the £5 extra for 3 courses rather than 2. It was the same chocolate tart pictured in another review.
Upside was that the service was pleasant and prompt. The venue itself is in a great location, but was a bit shoddy.
Much better chicken places out there. £160 for 4 people, 4 chickens, 4 sides, 2 bottles of wine and 1 dessert. Way overpriced.

Hmmm… this is a tricky one.
This is a welcome addition to Highbury-​Is which has few restaurants. It has a nice ambiance (I looked it up because I went by it on a bus and was impressed from afar – especially the cool lights). Light, bright, and a cool, good vibe.
It is following the trend of do one thing and do it well. In this case it is rotisserie CHICKEN. That’s it. That is what you are eating with whatever seasonal veg they are putting on the side. There are two offered appetizers and two offered desserts and you either select two or three courses. You can add on some sides or start with bar snacks. The menu changes weekly except for the chicken. Always chicken. Unless you come on Sunday when they do non-​chicken roasts.
The drinks menu was good and the wines were pleasant.
The starters were good – a taramasalata and a stuffed courgette flower. The chicken was great with nice veg and the potatoes were great. We had harissa yogurt as well.
We weren’t happy with dessert – a yogurt ice cream with pollen. We took a couple of bites and our waiter knew we didn’t like it and yet we were charged. SO BOO for bad service.
The catch – it is expensive! 80 quid for two. So bring your checkbook and your love of chicken and you’ll be happy.

Le Coq is a neighbourhood restaurant located in Highbury and Islington. Rotisserie has become a bit of a smash hit lately, with a good number of chicken themed restaurants opening across London such as Chicken Shop and ClockJack Oven.
The chicken meat was very moist and tender as expected, I could really taste the freshness of the meat and it was some of the nicest roast chicken I have had. The barley offered some great grainy texture and the swede gave the whole dish a hint of sweetness which worked wonderfully. The side order of rotisserie potato was also outstanding, it benefited from all the aroma and flavours from the chicken during the cooking process and it was such a treat with a well executed chicken gravy…

Delicious! The menu is tiny, but done well. I had a duck and pomegranate salad that was marvelous, and the chicken and side veg were wonderful.
Don’t know how anyone would not be full after even two courses. Maybe they’ve beefed it up.
Worth a try, and worth a return!

I liked everything here. I did. Really! It was nice.
It’s just… there isn’t much choice.
2 starters
3 mains (although on a Sunday night there was only one choice left and that was chicken)
2 desserts
£16 for 2 courses
£21 for 3
And that’s where my issue. You see, I had three courses and I don’t see how either the starter I was served (a perfectly pleasant pear and watercress salad whose raw ingredients would have amounted to less than 40p and I could put together myself if about 60 seconds) or the dessert (two scoops of bourbon/​chocolate/​caramel ice cream that was also pleasant enough that would cost about £3 at the best ice cream parlours in London) could justify that extra fiver.
My advice, stick with two courses so you don’t feel quite so ripped off. The chicken is delicious, moist and flavoursome. The rotisserie potatoes were also top notch and I had a whole side of them to myself (£3.50 for about 6 spuds).

The good — the rotisserie chicken is really the star attraction. Moist, flavourful, an absolute delight. A close second is the pear and frangipane tart — I’d go back just for the tart, it was that good! The wine on tap is also a novel feature and the house wine was reasonably priced and of decent quality.
The bad — the portions, for 3 of us we shared what seemed to be ½ a chicken, leaving us each with 2 diminutive pieces. That’s not filling. Even with the dessert, I left hungry. £16 for 2 courses seems like a steal, but the portions were woefully inadequate…
It’s really hard to justify £16 for 2 small pieces of chicken and a slice of tart, even if that tart is delicious.

The food here is delicious. If I were the sort of guy to do so I would put stars around the word delicious in that last sentence.
Like this: *delicious*
Get it?
Anyway, I went here pretty soon after it opened and I enjoyed an Aperol spritz at the beginning, which is perhaps the most on-​trend drink going in London right now. It was nice, but it looks like Lucozade but doesn’t taste that much like Lucozade so if you order one just remind yourself that you aren’t drinking Lucozade before you take your first sip. Or «cop» your first sip? Too much?
Back to the food. Yeah, the chicken was mental. It was so delicious and it was all juicy. I really like it. When I ate it I did that annoying thing I do where I kind of rotate my fork while I chew and dance a little with my shoulders. Sometimes I think about the things I do and I realise that I hate myself a bit.
The wine is really nice here too. But when I went it was all listed by region as opposed to grape, so watch out if you get all your wine advice from the Queer Eye For The Straight Guy book. I bet you £20 you order the Bergerac just because it is a word you recognise. That’s what I did. Tried to act all cool while I did it too.
I had this bread salad thing when I was there too, which tasted great. Or gr8. Whatever. Quite a lot of bitter leaves but I can style it out with those.
It wasn’t loads of food overall, but come on, we are trying to live like they do on the continent here guys. If you want some giant bit of chicken and fries then you’ve got it twisted. We are moving into the next phase where it’s all unsalted butter and wet shaves. Get involved.
One last thing is that one of the waiters has one of the most relaxing voices I have ever experienced. It is magic.