In this guide
Ask who fries the best chicken in London and you get two answers that do not overlap.
Britain’s only judged fried chicken competition ran for the first time in January 2026, and gave the title to 20Ft Fried Chicken, a West End operation that appears on no editorial list in this pass at all. Meanwhile the place named by more independent sources than anything else in the city is Good Friend, a Taiwanese counter in Chinatown that has never won anything.
That disagreement is not a flaw in the evidence. It is the most interesting thing about the subject: the judges are scoring a plate, and the writers are recommending a trip.
💡 The Short Version: 20Ft Fried Chicken won the only judged championship. Good Friend in Chinatown is named by more sources than anything else. Chick’N’Sours and Butchies are the only two names in both camps — and Chick’N’Sours no longer has a restaurant. Morley’s is the chicken shop the serious lists actually name. For Korean, go to New Malden.
📊 The evidence behind this guide. Nothing here rests on one visit. This pass reads 14 independent sources carrying 130 citations across 76 named venues. 23 are named by two or more sources; six carry a dated award. Built on: one judged championship, seven mastheads, two independent blogs and four YouTube channels — counted per creator, so a channel’s five videos are one voice. Evidence built 7 September 2026 · How we rank →
Where they are
| If you are near… | Where to eat |
|---|---|
| Chinatown & Leicester Square | Good Friend |
| Soho & Oxford Street | Bao, Kricket, Manna (Arcade Food Hall), 20Ft (Holles Street), CheeMc Soho |
| Covent Garden | Lucky’s Hot Chicken (Seven Dials Market) |
| Shoreditch | Butchies, Smoking Goat |
| King’s Cross | Chick’N’Sours (Big Chill) |
| Elephant & Castle | CheeMc, La Barra |
| North London | Chick King (Tottenham), Eden’s Cottage (Finsbury Park) |
| South London | Morley’s (everywhere), Maureen’s (Brixton), Chick’N’Sours (Canada Water) |
| New Malden | Chick and Beers, Tongdak, Imone |
| West & north-west | Normah’s (Queensway), The Best Broasted (Willesden) |
Price guide: £ under £15 a head · ££ £15–£30 · £££ £35+.
The ones that won something
Britain had no judged fried chicken award until this year. The Fried Chicken Championships changed that in January 2026: four judges, five scoring criteria, and a result close enough that two entrants finished on identical points.
20Ft Fried Chicken — the champion nobody writes about
£ · Holles Street, W1 · 2 min from Oxford Circus · Champion, Fried Chicken Championships 2026
It won on the 20Ft Hot Chicken Burger, and it is the strangest result in this guide: a national title, and not one of the seven mastheads or two blogs in this pass names it. It trades off Holles Street just behind Oxford Street and through the delivery platforms.
If you want to know what the judges rewarded rather than what the critics recommend, this is the only place to go — and the gap between those two things is the reason this guide exists.
Chick’N’Sours — joint second, and no longer a restaurant
£–££ · Canada Water and King’s Cross · Joint second, Fried Chicken Championships 2026 · Cited by 7 sources
The full spread. Since the restaurant closed you get this at a residency rather than a room of its own.
The most-recommended fried chicken in London that you cannot go to a restaurant for. Seven independent sources name it and a national panel placed it joint second — but its own site is clear that the ten-year run as a full restaurant is over.
What is left is worth knowing precisely, because every list still files it under an address it no longer occupies. Corner Corner in Canada Water is a long-term kitchen residency, eat-in, walk-ins welcome, cocktails on tap — and closed Monday to Wednesday, opening Thursday to Saturday noon to 10pm and Sunday noon to 8pm. The Big Chill at King’s Cross runs the full menu seven days across a three-floor bar with a roof terrace. Everything else is delivery-only kitchens across north and west London, plus a summer festival circuit.
⚠️ Check which one you are going to. Turning up at Canada Water on a Tuesday is the failure this entry exists to prevent.
Butchies — joint second, and the tenders beat the burger
£ · Shoreditch · Joint second, Fried Chicken Championships 2026 · Cited by 6 sources
The tenders rather than the sandwich - which is what Time Out says to order here, at a place built on burgers.
Tied with Chick’N’Sours on points, and the only one of the top three you can walk into as an ordinary restaurant. It is known for buttermilk-fried chicken sandwiches — but Time Out’s verdict is that the tenders are the better order, which is an unusual thing for a source to say about a place built on burgers.
They arrive with house BBQ sauce as standard. Order extra dips; skip the blue cheese, which Time Out describes as watery.
Fortune Fried Chicken took third with Nam Jim chicken tenders. It is a sister brand to Gunpowder, and like the champion, it appears on no editorial list here.
The ones the sources agree on
Good Friend — the most-cited fried chicken in London
£ · 14 Little Newport Street, WC2H 7JJ · 1 min from Leicester Square · Cited by 7 sources
Popcorn chicken from the yellow shopfront on Little Newport Street. There is nowhere to sit - you eat it walking.
Seven independent sources — five mastheads and two YouTube channels — name this Taiwanese counter, more than anything else in the city. No judge has given it anything, which is the mirror image of 20Ft.
Taiwanese fried chicken came out of night-market stalls in the late 1970s, trying to copy the western chicken nugget and arriving somewhere better: popcorn chicken, boneless, bite-size, fried dark. That is the order. After it you choose from eleven seasonings shaken over the top — plum and chilli is the one two sources single out. The menu also runs to a flattened whole crispy breast, crispy squid, chicken skin, tofu and sweet potato.
There is nearly always a queue out of the bright yellow shopfront, and it moves fast — the staff work at a pace that makes the line look worse than it is. Takeaway is the norm; this is not a room you linger in.
Morley’s — the chicken shop the critics actually name
£ · Branches across London · Cited by 5 sources
London has thousands of chicken shops and the serious lists name this one. It started in south London and now runs from Edmonton to Finsbury Park to Brick Lane, which has cost it none of its standing.
The spicy wings are the order — fried in a peppery spice mix, and about 80p each, which is the whole argument. Nothing here is trying to be a restaurant.
Chick King — Tottenham, and worth the journey
£ · 755 High Road, N17 8AH · Cited by 4 sources
A rain-or-shine Tottenham takeaway that four sources treat as a destination rather than a local. The chicken is fried hard enough to stay crunchy without turning greasy, and seasoned without going salty. Takeaway operation — there is no dining room to speak of.
La Barra — Colombian, and enormous
£ · 147 Eagle Yard Arch, Walworth, SE1 6SP · Cited by 4 sources
The five-piece Dominican fried chicken plate, which arrives with plantain and a pile of chicharrónes and is considerably more food than the name suggests. The batter is thick and deeply crunchy. Squeeze the lemon over it and ask for the house chilli sauce.
An Elephant and Castle railway arch, good for groups, and cheap. Plan nothing for afterwards.
Eden’s Cottage — hot wings in Finsbury Park
£ · 264 Seven Sisters Road, N4 2HY · Cited by 4 sources
A chicken shop whose hot wings are what four sources come for, even where the house order elsewhere would be a burger or strips. The coating stays dry rather than greasy and the heat comes from the marinade rather than a sauce. Takeaway.
Coqfighter is also named by four sources and is the fourth of this group.
Smoking Goat — the wings that are not really fried chicken
££ · 64 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6JJ · Cited by 3 sources
A Thai restaurant, and the chilli fish sauce wings are why it appears in a fried chicken guide at all. Sweet, sour, and crunchy enough to do damage to the roof of your mouth. A proper Shoreditch dining room rather than a counter — this is the one on the list you would take someone to for dinner.
Bao — Taiwanese fried chicken as a bar snack
££ · 53 Lexington Street, W1F 9AS · Cited by 3 sources
The batter is light rather than armoured — more rain jacket than parka — with a sharp vinegary hot sauce over the top. Ask for extra on the side.
A portion is four or five pieces and will not touch the sides, so order two. Counter seating, good for eating alone, and it takes bookings, which almost nothing else here does.
Chick and Beers — Korean, in New Malden
£ · 282 Burlington Road, New Malden, KT3 4NL · Cited by 3 sources
Double-fried, then glazed and topped with fried shallots. New Malden, and worth the journey out.
Family-owned, and the local reference point. The chicken is double-fried for the crackle that technique exists to produce, and the batter lands between rugged and glossy. Sticky nuggets are the order.
By tradition, because they are not the same food
The word covers at least six different things in London, and a reader who wants Nashville heat will not be satisfied by a Taiwanese popcorn cup.
Korean. Double-fried, sauced, and built for sharing over beer. New Malden is the centre — Chick and Beers, Tongdak on Kingston Road (seven seasonings, and a 20–30 minute wait because it is fried to order) and Imone on the High Street (kan pung gi, in a smoky, spicy sauce) are all in the same quarter. In the centre, CheeMc has Elephant and Castle and Soho branches and sells seven flavours, of which the honey butter powder is the best-known.
Taiwanese. Lighter batter, boneless, seasoned from a shaker rather than sauced. Good Friend and Bao.
Nashville hot. Cayenne-heavy oil, served in a bun with pickles. Lucky’s Hot Chicken at Seven Dials Market and Mikkeller on Exmouth Market twice-fries its strips and sandos, with heat levels from “country” up to an XXX seasoning. Manna inside Arcade Food Hall on New Oxford Street does the bun version with cheese, pickles and a house sauce.
Caribbean and West African. Maureen’s Brixton Kitchen on Railton Road runs as a Jamaican home kitchen and is a takeaway operation rather than a dining room.
South Asian. Kricket in Soho does Keralan fried chicken — thighs marinated in tandoori spices then rolled in masala, flour and buttermilk, served with pickled mooli and curry-leaf mayonnaise. It is a small restaurant that takes bookings.
Levantine and Malaysian. The Best Broasted in Willesden Green does Syrian broasted chicken with toum, pickles and chips. Normah’s in Queensway Market does lightly spiced Malaysian wings — and releases bookings in monthly batches, so it needs planning that nothing else here does.
What to know
Almost none of this needs booking, and that is the point. The list is counters, takeaways and queues. The exceptions are Bao and Kricket, which are restaurants that fry chicken well, and Normah’s, whose monthly booking drop is the only thing here that requires an alarm.
The chains are in the videos and on none of the lists. The YouTube channels in this pass visit KFC, Popeyes, Jollibee and Dave’s Hot Chicken as part of price-ladder and levels formats. Not one editorial source names them, and they are excluded here on that basis rather than on taste.
One venue in the sources has closed. Sichuan Fry in Hackney, named by two sources, is recorded as permanently closed by The Infatuation’s own listing. Kaieteur Kitchen in Elephant and Castle is listed as temporarily closed — check before travelling.
Two names are missing from the editorial lists entirely. The champion, 20Ft, and the third-placed Fortune Fried Chicken are named by the championship and by nothing else in this pass. That is recorded as it stands rather than smoothed over: the judges and the writers are not looking at the same city.
Evidence built 7 September 2026 from fourteen independent sources. Award results are from the Fried Chicken Championships’ own published 2026 results. Opening days for Chick’N’Sours are from its own site the same day; chicken shops change hours often, so check before a long journey.
Common questions
What is the best fried chicken in London?
It depends whose answer you want, and the two available answers do not match. Britain's only judged fried chicken competition crowned 20Ft Fried Chicken in January 2026 — and 20Ft appears on no editorial list at all. The place named by more independent sources than any other is Good Friend in Chinatown, a Taiwanese counter that no judge has given anything. Chick'N'Sours and Butchies are the only two names that show up in both camps.
Is there a fried chicken award in the UK?
Yes, and it is new. The Fried Chicken Championships ran its first edition in January 2026, with four judges scoring across five criteria. 20Ft Fried Chicken won, Chick'N'Sours and Butchies tied for second on identical points, and Fortune Fried Chicken came third. The next one is on 19 January 2027 at Big Penny Social in Walthamstow.
Where is the best fried chicken in central London?
Good Friend on Little Newport Street, a minute from Leicester Square, is the most-cited fried chicken in the city and the easiest to reach. For Nashville-style heat, Lucky's is inside Seven Dials Market and Manna is inside Arcade Food Hall on New Oxford Street. Bao on Lexington Street does the Taiwanese version as a bar snack.
Where do I get Korean fried chicken in London?
New Malden, if you are serious about it — Chick and Beers, Tongdak and Imone are all within a short walk of each other in London's Korean quarter, out on the south-western edge of the city. In the centre, CheeMc has branches in Elephant and Castle and Soho, and sells its chicken in seven seasonings including a honey butter powder.
Do you need to book for fried chicken in London?
Almost never, and that is part of the appeal — most of this list is counter service, takeaway or a queue. The exceptions are Bao and Kricket, which are restaurants that happen to fry chicken well, and Normah's in Queensway Market, which releases bookings in monthly batches and needs an alarm set.
What is a chicken shop, and are the chains worth it?
A chicken shop is the London high-street institution: fried chicken and chips, sold cheap, usually open late. Morley's is the one the serious sources actually name — it started in south London and now runs from Edmonton to Brick Lane, and its spicy wings cost under a pound each. That is a different proposition from the international chains, which appear in the videos and on none of the editorial lists.
Is Chick'N'Sours still open?
It trades, but it no longer has a restaurant of its own, which most guides have not caught up with. You can eat it in at two long-term residencies — Corner Corner in Canada Water, which is closed Monday to Wednesday, and the Big Chill at King's Cross, which serves seven days. Everything else is delivery-only kitchens and festival pop-ups.
