Casa do Frango – Exceptional Quality and Value Portuguese Piri Piri Chicken, Vinho Verde and Pastel de Nata!

Name: Casa do Frango

Where: 32 Southwark Street, London SE1 1TU, https://www.casadofrango.co.uk/

Cost: A 3-course meal plus a side cost on average £25-£30 per person (not including drinks or service). The menu is short but well thought out. Frango (half chicken) is the star and the signature dish of the menu (£9 per portion). Starters cost from £4 to £10 such as chilled Algarvian gaspacho (£5), Bacalhau and chickpea salad (£7), Grilled prawns (£8), or Octopus rice (£10). Sides include African rice (£5), Lettuce salad (£3) and Batatas fritas, (fries, £4).

About: Casa do Frango is a beautiful and airy restaurant on the busy Southwark Street, just around the corner from Borough Market. It is on the 1st floor of a rather dull, corner building though with its vaulted ceiling, a huge glass skylight, and an inspired interior design that fills the space with plants and gorgeous furniture, Casa do Frango is a lovely dining spot.

Casa de Frango’s fresh and modern look really sets it apart from other Portuguese or pseudo-Portuguese eateries like the more traditional, cheap & cheerful piri piri chicken joints in Stockwell (I visited these a lot during my spell in Dulwich and highly recommend them) or the Nando’s chain, which is in fact is South African owned.

Casa do Frango is the result of travels and food expeditions in the South of Portugal by three friends - Marco Mendes (himself Algarvian-English), Jake Kasumov and Reza Merchant. Their mission is to bring to London the real flavour of Algarvian piri piri chicken to folks in London.

To this end, they brought in a specialist “pitmaster” from the Algarve to ensure that the dishes, particularly the frango, which is roasted on an impressive wood charcoal grill at the heart of the open plan kitchen, deliver the promised regional authenticity.

What We Ate: The Algarvian Gaspacho (£5) was cooling and flavoursome, the small pieces of sourdough bread, cucumber, tomatoes and pickled garlic added a lovely texture. I could have done with more seasoning but my companion felt it was just right.

With its thick but crispy batter the Super Bock Beer Battered Whitebait (£6) was lifted by its delectable, smoked paprika aioli.

Grilled Prawns (£8) with piri piri, white wine and parsley, a serving of four well-sized prawns, had a lovely charred flavour from the grill, but the much anticipated heat from the piri piri sauce wasn’t really noticeable.

The Octopus Rice (£10) was a shade too far on the side of pale. The octopus was tender but the rice was overcooked and thus unpleasantly gummy and soft. It also lacked seasoning, which was rather disappointing.

Much better though was the Bacalhau and Chickpea Salad (£7) with slivers of salted cod, chickpeas, black olives, and a generous serving of creamy mayonnaise and soft-boiled egg. We loved this salad.

We didn’t think we could eat any more but we soldiered on to the mains.

The Frango (1/2 chicken – one breast, thigh and leg on the bone) comes with three flavour choices: piri piri, oregano, and lemon and garlic. We ordered their star dish, the Frango Piri Piri (£9) - the chicken meat was very succulent, oozing with flavour and had the perfect amount of heat. The skin was crisp and delectable. Casa de Frango’s Piri Piri Chicken is probably the most flavoursome grilled chicken I have had in London for a very long time.

The other Frango we ordered was laced with oregano and garlic. Grilled as perfectly as its piri piri sister, it had distinctive herbal, garlic and salt flavours, which were a delight to tuck into, particularly for the wonderful crispy skin and the moist thigh and leg meat.

To accompany our Frangos, we ordered a number of sides - the African Rice (£5), a nod to the cultural influence of former colonies, had an infinitely better texture than the earlier Octopus version and was truly delicious.

It came with chorizo, plantain, garden peas, peppers, parsley topped with crispy chicken skin. It was a great accompaniment with a perfect balance of flavours and texture. It was so good I am featuring it again below!

The other two accompaniments were a very well-dressed lettuce salad (£3) and Batatas Fritas or chips (£4) which were sadly a tad under-cooked and so not crisp.

We could (or should) have stopped here, but we couldn’t resist ordering the traditional Pastel de Nata (£5) for dessert. The quintessentially Portuguese custard tart, it was deliciously creamy and sweet served with a small glass of refreshing coffee ice-cream.

What We Drank: The drinks menu offers cocktails and a good selection of Portuguese wines (prices ranging from £20 to £44 per bottle). We kicked off with the classic Portuguese Port & Tonic (£8), made with Churchill’s 10-year-old white port, tonic, mint and orange peel, which was perfect. The Portuguese version of Gin & Tonic (£8) made with Portuguese Gold grail gin, tonic, lime peel, rosemary, juniper berries and cardamom, was equally refreshing.

With our meal, we shared a bottle of Vinho Verde Muralhas de Monção (£26) made from Alvarinho grapes (albariño). It had a fresh and citrusy flavour, with a great structure, acidity and body- it conjured up summer by the beach.

Likes: Both Frangos piri piri and oregano ticked all the boxes – they were exceptional and I cannot recommend them highly enough. We also loved the grilled prawns (though more piri piri heat was needed) and the Bacalhau and chickpea salad. The African rice was also great. Very attentive, efficient and friendly staff. 

Dislikes: The starter section of the menu desperately needs to be looked at, especially the Octopus Rice (by far the weakest link) -  they lacked seasoning and texture and did not compare well with the wonderful frango that followed. Bacalhau is the trademark of Portuguese cuisine so it would be great to have a bacalhau main course on the menu (also as a pescatarian option) and perhaps Bolinhos de Bacalhau as a side or starter.

Verdict: Casa do Frango has the most flavoursome and perfectly grilled Piri Piri chicken in London right now - it was exceptional. The perfect meal here is Frango Piri Piri, Bacalhau and Chickpea Salad, and the wonderful African Rice (and chips too of course) followed by Pastel de Nata with coffee ice cream. It is excellent value too and I cannot wait to return. Highly recommended.

Le Coq – Islington’s New Neighbourhood Rotisserie

Words & Photography by Matthew Brown and Luiz Hara

Name: Le Coq 

Where: 292-294 St Paul’s Road, Islington, London, N1 2LH 
http://www.le-coq.co.uk/

Cost: Le Coq offers a brief and affordable menu - 2 or 3 courses for £17 or £22 (Mon-Sat) with a choice of three starters and three desserts, and a single main course, using chicken from the rotisserie (a vegetarian alternative is available if requested). On Sundays, a greater choice of mains is available, and the meals are priced higher at £21 for 2-, and £26 for 3 courses. 

Drinks are also very reasonably priced. All cocktails are £5, the draught beer, 1936, is £4, and wine begins at £13 for a ½ litre carafe.

About: Le Coq is a “neighbourhood rotisserie restaurant” on St Paul’s Road, close to Highbury & Islington Station. As its name suggests, chicken is at the heart of this restaurant’s offering. The flaming rotisserie is the first thing you see on entering, and the familiar smell of roasting chicken fills the small dining room.

Though the menu is short, Le Coq emphasises that its ingredients are carefully sourced. The free-range chicken is supplied by the highly acclaimed Sutton Hoo farm in Suffolk. Living up to the restaurant’s market atmosphere, many of the other ingredients are sourced from local businesses. The noticeably fresh bread comes from the Better Health Bakery in Haggerston, a social enterprise that helps to train people recovering from poor mental health. The charcuterie comes from Islington’s Cobble Lane Cured, and the cheese from the long-established La Fromagerie.

What We Ate: We started with two of the three starters on the menu: roast chicory with smoked ricotta and honey, and salmon gravlax with cucumber. The chicory salad brought the smokiness of the ricotta and the tartness of the chicory together with sweet walnuts and honey. This enjoyable combination could have been improved by a little more honey and ricotta, to avoid the lingering bitterness of the chicory, however.

The salmon gravlax was simpler and better executed. The salmon was soft, and the salad of cucumber and rocket brought out the sharpness of the simple lemon dressing, making it a great prelude to the rotisserie chicken.

That rotisserie chicken is the restaurant’s star attraction. It is served as part of a different main course each week, and on this occasion was served with hispi cabbage, bacon and hazelnuts. A small jug of roasting juices and a pot of tarragon mayonnaise were also served alongside it, and we ordered a further two sides of roast potatoes (£3.75), a simple side salad of dressed green leaves (£2.75) and a small serving of harissa yoghurt (£1.75).

The flavoursome Sutton Hoo chicken is undeniably well-sourced and tastes excellently of itself. Its flavour is also appreciated in the roast potatoes, which are roasted in the chicken fat, and seasoned with lemon, olive oil and thyme. The addition of the chicken fat gives them a thicker casing that resounds with the flavours of the rotisserie. No trip to Le Coq would be complete without a portion!

One of the downsides of serving rotisserie chicken is that it is difficult to achieve a really crispy chicken skin. Le Coq compensates for this, however, by supplying texture throughout the rest of the course. The sizeable chunk of hispi cabbage was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, and never mushy. Extra crunch came from the hazelnuts and bacon, and of course the roast potatoes, which were so delicious they made it onto every forkful!

Texture was better catered to than seasoning. Whilst the roasting juices provided a flavoursome gravy that kept the dish from having the heaviness of a roast dinner, the tarragon mayonnaise was tangy rather than rich in flavour, and jarred with the rest of the course. The harissa yoghurt was a better accompaniment, but the absence of salt and pepper on the table meant that it was difficult to make smaller adjustments to the taste. 

For dessert, we shared the Le Coq Mince Pie and an ice cream made with dark chocolate, PX and raisin. The eponymous mince pie was served with clotted cream and a squirrel-shaped biscuit, and the mincemeat itself tasted strongly of cloves, giving a festive aroma and warm flavour that reflected the homeliness of Le Coq’s cooking.

The dark chocolate gave a similarly strong flavour to the ice cream. With Moro’s famous Malaga raisin ice cream with PX available down the road at Exmouth Market, Le Coq’s faces strict competition. The dark chocolate makes this a very different dessert, and though it smothers the raisins, it stands up to the PX to make a very rich ice cream. 

What We Drank: Le Coq’s dedication to careful sourcing extends to the beer, the Swiss 1936. At a reasonable £4 for a Pilsner glass, it is a great opportunity to try this uncommon beer from draught. Made with Swiss mountain water and organic hops, and with notes of lemon and grass, it is both a refreshing aperitif, and a good accompaniment to the restaurant’s chicken.

Cocktails are only £5, and the negroni we tried was strong and well made, making it fantastic value and almost certainly the cheapest negroni around Upper Street.

Wine is similarly good value, and the decision to offer house wines in carafes of 500ml and 1 litre will undoubtedly help to maintain the neighbourhood atmosphere. We went for a bottle of the Wiengut Von Winning 2012 Riesling from Pfalz in Germany. That year, this wine was awarded ‘Best New Comer’ by the Gault&Millau Wine Guide, and with its refreshingly acidity and dryness, it tasted like a worthy winner.

Likes: The quality of the chicken and the brilliance of the roast potatoes mean that Le Coq definitely excels in what they offer. In addition, the choice of £5 cocktails and litre carafes are an added bonus.

Dislikes: Whilst the more permanent fixtures of the menu are strong, some of the dishes we had lacked consistency - the imbalance of the chicory salad, and the lack of salt in the main course, were a little disappointing. 

Verdict: “Neighbourhood rotisserie” Le Coq truly is an asset to the local community. With well-sourced ingredients and a reliable roasting technique alongside a constantly changing menu, it could make a regular haunt or a friendly haven from nearby Upper Street.