Latest Opening: Humble Chicken 2.0
What: The observant among you will note that this is not a new restaurant per se but a fresh take on a concept that first opened in January 2021. Located on Soho’s Frith Street, this 18-cover restaurant occupies a site that was formerly a Barrafina and was most recently pan-Asian restaurant Freak Scene.
Who: Japan-born Angelo Sato is the creative genius behind Humble Chicken. Sato has a strong pedigree having worked at some of the world’s best restaurants, including Narisawa and RyuGin in Tokyo, Eleven Madison Park in New York, and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London. He has also worked with Adam Byatt at Trinity and has been head chef at Tom Sellers’ Restaurant Story. Humble Chicken isn’t his first solo venture; he has launched two casual takeaway and delivery concepts – katsu sando brand Yatai and sushi bowl specialist Omoide.
The food: Humble Chicken was known for its yakitori, with all parts of the chicken served on skewers, such as neck, wing, tail, soft knee and cartilage, liver and mixed offal. That approach has now been dropped for an eight-course tasting menu of ‘Japanese food with a European accent’. Instead, a meal starts with one-bite snacks such as mussels with citrus kosho ponzu, and avocado; miso cured foie gras tart with a crunchy kaki and almond brittle; and a pig trotter, karashi and quail egg bao before hitting its stride with a menu of superbly-crafted dishes. Highlights include a grilled oyster that benefits from a creamy slick of citrus kosho beurre blanc and burnt chicken fat; a melting slow cooked short rib served with lettuce; and a bread course of shokupan served with a miso sesame butter layered with chicken liver pate and fermented red cabbage. Sato provides only one echo of Humble Chicken’s former self in the form of a skewer of chicken achilles with charcoal fat, daikon oroshi, and kosho.
To drink: Like the restaurant itself, the drinks list is small but perfectly formed. Cocktails include the Lemon Turbo made with barley shochu, yuzu sherbet, lemon, lemongrass soda, and Asahi Super Dry; a Strawberry Calpico Sour featuring sake, strawberry distillate, strawberry yogurt, and matcha; and a Koji Coffee Old Fashioned made with Nikka from the Barrel, miso coffee, butter, and shimeji mushroom and sit alongside a small selection of whiskey and sake and red and white whites – some from Japan. Fans of the automatic - but extremely temperamental - Asahi beer pourer will notice its absence from the bar.
The vibe: Despite having been home to a number of very different restaurant concepts since Barrafina’s departure – it was also where Adam Simmons ran his Test Kitchen pop-up for a year in 2017 – very little has changed by way of décor since its tapas bar days. Nevertheless, the feel is very different at Humble Chicken, partly by virtue of the fact that it is currently only open in the evening, giving it a moodier and calming vibe, and partly due to the bright red neon cockerel on the wall that bathes the restaurant in an atmospheric crimson glow. The overall effect is that of an elevated dive bar that feels simultaneously exclusive but not in any way pretentious.
And another thing: Those mourning the loss of what was an exciting - and very good value – yakitori restaurant can take solace in the fact that this might not be the last we see of Sato’s more casual concept. The chef says he intends to do something similar in another location - presumably one that can work with a lower customer spend than the Soho site requires.
54 Frith St, London, W1D 4SJ
https://www.humblechickenuk.com
