Le Coq (Holloway)

• How many times have you sat down for half a bird in your local pub only to be presented with a dried up old carcass with a texture like damp loft insulation
• How many hotel restaurants have proudly unveiled a 'supreme' from beneath a silver dome and for it to taste like it's been crumbling under a hot lamp for the best part of a fortnight
• So it's worth repeating a couple of the places that are Doing Roast Chicken Right
• Where each piece of spit roasted poultry is bouncy and juicy and seasoned to perfection
• Where for very little money you can eat some lovely crispy skinned bird with a side of crinkle cut chips
• It's places like these that make you wonder what the hell everyone else is finding so difficult
• They may bristle with the comparisons with the rather more downmarket examples above Le Coq is a classy
• After the initial shock of the powerfully seafoody brown meat had died down it was actually weirdly moreish
• We and everyone else in the room for that matter were here for the chicken
• It came with a colcannon made with yet more artichokes (Jerusalem this time)
• I like to think were gently cooked in the roasting fat from the chicken
• All soft and glistening and browned with concentrated chicken flavour
• Not content with serving arguable the best roast chicken in London
• My only regret was not ordering a side of bread to soak up the rest of the juices
• Running your fingers feverishly round your plate trying desperately to get a final fix of that sticky chicken stock is not the most edifying way to end a meal
• The only question is where they go next
• It's sort of a one dish place for mains all you can have is the Sutton Hoo rotisserie chicken
• Where they get to show their flair is the ever changing (daily) menu for starters
• We had an amazing bruschetta dish with cedro a lemon flavoured ingredient without the bitterness
• The chicken came with swiss chard and an excellent sweet and sour sauce
• Dessert was a pistachio and grapefruit tart which was more of a cake than a tart and a great end to the meal
• The chicken was perfectly cooked
• The chicken does come with a side &ndash
• This week it was a tangle of soft
• They also serve it with a little jug or gravy and pot of tarragon mayonnaise
• The desserts there is always a tart and an ice cream we shared the honey
• The service was great &ndash
• They must get a little tired of explaining to everyone that walks through the door that it is chicken only
• Their sides are always made with fresh ingredients and really tasty vegetables
• The atmosphere is quite casual but they serve some really nice wines
• Saturdays throughout my childhood were dominated by football
• Football training in the morning followed by watching one of the local teams (Nantwich Town or Crewe Alexandra) in the afternoon with my brother and old man
• T quite the all encompassing entity that it once was at the weekend (although I do dust off the boots occasionally)
• Le Coq specialises in rotisserie fare with spit roasted chicken as the main feature
• I guess it would be predictable to say this is a posh Nandos
• Tasty healthily cooked chicken is its whole point
• Of course it is miles better than Nandos and really ups the bar for chicken establishments
• They throw in some side options for those with a hefty appetite
• I went for the beef topside with wild mushroom
• Le Coq specializes in rotisserie fare with spit roasted chicken as the main feature

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