Cyndi Himmelstiere leaves E1 and discovers that the fried chicken revolution has reached the Embankment
Thunderbird Fried Chicken Charing Cross: The Shoreditch Standard Arrives at Villiers Street
I cover Shoreditch for a living, which means I have eaten at more fried chicken restaurants than any single human being should reasonably consume in a lifetime, and I have developed opinions about this subject that some of my friends find disproportionate. When Thunderbird opened in Charing Cross I went with the specific energy of someone who has seen the genre done badly enough times to be genuinely interested in whether this was going to be one of the good ones.
It is one of the good ones. Let me be direct about this, because the fried chicken landscape in London is littered with operations that have good branding and mediocre food, and Thunderbird is not among them. The chicken here is the real thing: properly brined, properly battered, properly fried, with a crust that stays crisp for a useful period rather than dissolving into softness the moment you unwrap it. This sounds like a basic standard. It is not, in practice, a basic standard. Most fried chicken in London does not meet it.
The Technical Excellence
The batter at Thunderbird has enough seasoning to be interesting without tipping into the aggressive oversalting that some operations use to disguise mediocre chicken underneath. The spice levels are genuinely graduated: the classic option has warmth but is not challenging; the hot option earns its name; the extra hot is the kind of thing you order once and then respect permanently. I ordered the hot. It was excellent. My eyes watered in a way that felt appropriate rather than alarming.
The chicken sandwiches are the menu item I would direct most people toward on a first visit. The bun has enough structural integrity to survive the filling without disintegrating, which is a technical achievement that more fried chicken operations should be aiming for. The slaw inside adds the necessary freshness and crunch. The sauce is properly calibrated. The whole thing arrives wrapped and immediately needs to be eaten, which is the correct relationship to have with a fried chicken sandwich.
The sides are taken seriously. The fries are good, properly seasoned, with enough thickness to have substance. The mac and cheese is richer than you expect and better than it has any right to be for a fast casual operation. The coleslaw is fresh and properly dressed. These are supporting players that have been rehearsed rather than afterthoughts.
The Villiers Street Context
Villiers Street runs from Charing Cross station down to the Embankment, and it is one of those London streets that serves multiple populations simultaneously: commuters in a hurry, tourists who have come from the station, office workers from the surrounding area, theatregoers who need something before a show. Thunderbird serves all of these well, because the food is fast without feeling rushed and the quality is consistent enough that it does not need to be finished at the counter to be good.
The location is, from a Shoreditch perspective, deeply mainstream. Villiers Street is about as far from the railway arches of Bethnal Green as you can get while remaining in central London. And yet the food at Thunderbird is as good as the best fried chicken I have eaten in E1, which is the most honest compliment I can pay a restaurant operating this far from my usual patch.
Visit Thunderbird Charing Cross if you are passing through, or make a specific trip. Either way, order the hot sandwich. The London Prat agrees that London’s food scene rewards the willing explorer. Bohiney Magazine has the wider picture.
SOURCE: https://thunderbirdckn.co.uk/locations/charing-cross/
