Flying visit to upmarket chicken rotisserie restaurant, Cocotte Queen's Park - a review
Sunday's are the perfect day to have no plans. Free to roam, free to eat, free to explore. Until recently, I've not explored much in and around the NW area of London. One perfect way to explore some of the offerings in any given area is the use the brilliant app Too Good to Go (review coming soon)- the app that exists to encourage restaurants to reduce food waste by selling their leftovers at heavily discounted prices. This is how I discovered Cocotte near Queen's Park Station - a healthy, chicken rotisserie focussed restaurant with branches also in Notting Hill, Shoreditch, Parson's Green and, soon, South Kensington.
Cocotte's focus is to have healthy, sustainable farm-to-table rotisserie food with a homemade ambience. All their chicken meat is free-range and sourced from Pay de la Loire in France and then marinated for twenty four hours in their own secret blend of herbs and spices before being slowly cooked on a spit fire. In short, very tasty, happy chicken food!
We dropped into Cocotte on a Sunday around midday with no reservation. This made a refreshing change to recent times when you absolutely needed a reservation for almost everything. The restaurant was not busy and only had a couple of tables occupied - which always makes you question a place, alas this proved to be a red herring. At weekends, Cocotte offer two menus - including a la carte and brunch offering with the ability to mix and match items from both. Bottomless brunch, if that's your kinda thing, can be added for GBP 18 per person - which isn't bad when a glass of prosecco can set you back GBP 10 per glass for a cheaper one. For me, this wasn't a day I wanted any alcohol so we all declined instead opting for a flat white, matcha latte and Coke Zero. Their coffee was of good quality, as you would expect for any trendy restaurant like this, and was matched by an ambience that was relaxing making it a perfect way to spend a chilled Sunday with those you love. I absolutely love the colour green they use alongside the signature lighting features - lovely!
Now onto the thing that makes this place, chicken! We all opted for chicken-centric dishes - including the following:
- Quarter Free Range Rotisserie Chicken with Mash Potato and Truffle Mayo
- Chicken Burger with fries
- Chicken and Waffles
Although all of these are relatively simple dishes - they are simple but cooked to perfection. All the chicken meat had a lovely taste to it, using, in my opinion, superior tasty thigh meat that oozes flavour instead of dry breast meat. The food was all piping hot, having been freshly prepared by the chefs, and was delivered to our table within a reasonable amount of time after ordering. One of our party said that the Truffle Mayo was a little rich, which is worth bearing in mind, but I personally thought it was very tasty - so maybe avoid the truffle flavoured dishes if you are not a fan of rich foods. All the food was served on stylish, branded plates featuring the Cocotte brand and cockerel motif - making it clear exactly where you were eating.
Cocotte was a great place to visit for a basic but extremely tasty lunch at a reasonable price. Take a look in here whether its for a bite to eat in or grabbing a discounted take away option with Too Good to Go. I'll definitely be visiting again - and encourage you to give it a try when you are near a branch.
