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 is at the Big Chill in King’s Cross. Morley’s is the chicken shop the serious lists actually name. For Korean, go to New Malden.
📊 The evidence behind this guide. 14 independent sources carrying 130 citations across 71 named venues. 21 are named by two or more sources; six carry a dated award. Built on: the Fried Chicken Championships; Time Out, The Infatuation and the Evening Standard; independent blogs; YouTube. 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) |
| South London | Morley’s (everywhere), Maureen’s (Brixton) |
| 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’s first judged fried chicken award, the Fried Chicken Championships, was held 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 why this guide exists.
20Ft Fried Chicken, off Oxford Street.
Chick’N’Sours — joint second, and it is at the Big Chill
£–££ · King’s Cross · Joint second, Fried Chicken Championships 2026 · Cited by 7 sources
Chick’N’Sours, at the Big Chill.
Go to the Big Chill at King’s Cross. Seven independent sources name Chick’N’Sours and a national panel placed it joint second, and the Big Chill is where you eat it — the full menu, seven days, across a three-floor bar with a roof terrace.
There is a second kitchen at Corner Corner in Canada Water, but it runs Thursday to Sunday only, so King’s Cross is the one to aim for.
Butchies — joint second, and the tenders beat the burger
£ · Shoreditch · Joint second, Fried Chicken Championships 2026 · Cited by 8 sources
Butchies’ tenders, Shoreditch.
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 — third place, in a market stall
£ · Unit SP4C, Old Spitalfields Market, 12 Horner Square, E1 6EW · Third, Fried Chicken Championships 2026
Third in the championship, and it is a counter in Old Spitalfields Market rather than a restaurant. The judged dish was the Nam Jim chicken tenders — Thai, sharp and hot rather than American and sweet, which is why it stood out to a panel that had eaten a great deal of buttermilk that day.
It is run by the people behind Gunpowder, the Indian restaurant group, and trades as Gunpowder Mayfair Ltd. Like the champion, it appears on no editorial list in this pass — the judges found it and the writers have not.
Order ahead for collection on its own site, or just walk up. It sits inside the market, so the market’s hours are its hours — and if you are going, our Shoreditch and Spitalfields walk passes the door.
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
Good Friend, Little Newport Street.
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 8 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. 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. Twin brothers opened it in 1981 and the family still runs it. The chicken is fried hard enough to stay crunchy without turning greasy, and seasoned without going salty.
Order the hot wings, crumbed rather than battered, with the thick-cut chips. The rest of the board is chicken portions, spare ribs, sausages and a chicken fillet burger, which Eater singles out for sheer size. There is nothing to book and nowhere to sit — it is a shopfront on the High Road two minutes from White Hart Lane station, so you eat it walking.
Chick King, Tottenham.
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.
Coqfighter — four sites, and it takes bookings
£–££ · Liverpool Street, Soho, King’s Cross and Finsbury Park · Cited by 4 sources
Four independent sources name it — the Evening Standard, SquareMeal, Secret London and Hungry Soles — which puts it level with Chick King and La Barra.
The breast is brined overnight and twice-fried in a house flour blend, then built into a sandwich at £11.50 on a sesame bun the company bakes to its own recipe in north London every day. The original comes with sambal mayo, Korean hot sauce and pink onions; the Nashville version is dipped in hot oil and finished with green slaw and chipotle mayo. Wings are £10 and glazed rather than sauced — sweet Korean with pickled ginger, laksa and coconut milk butter, or a Thai butter finished with toasted rice powder and lime. The roast side of the menu is easy to miss: half a chicken, marinated 24 hours and basted in the house sauces, at £13.50.
It is the most convenient thing on this list. Four London sites, all of them by a mainline or Tube station, open noon to 10pm Monday to Saturday and noon to 9pm on Sunday, and it takes bookings — which almost nothing else here does. There is an express lunch Monday to Friday, noon to 3pm, where the sandwich and fries are £12.50. If you are feeding a group or want to sit down without queueing, this is the answer the rest of the guide cannot give you.
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.
Smoking Goat’s chilli fish sauce wings.
Bao — Taiwanese fried chicken as a bar snack
££ · 53 Lexington Street, W1F 9AS · Cited by 3 sources
The order is Taiwanese fried chicken in hot sauce, £9.25 for five pieces, or the chilli lime fried chicken steak at £12.75 if you want a slab. 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; dips are £1.50, and a fried chicken bao is £5.95.
A portion will not touch the sides, so order two. This is the original BAO, open on Lexington Street since 2015 and a Michelin Bib Gourmand for nine years. Counter seating, good for eating alone. Walk-ins only and card only, and the kitchen shuts between 3pm and 5pm Monday to Thursday.
Chick and Beers — Korean, in New Malden
£ · 282 Burlington Road, New Malden, KT3 4NL · Cited by 3 sources
Chick and Beers, New Malden.
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.
It trades from a shopfront on Burlington Road rather than the New Malden High Street where Imone sits, and takes collection and delivery orders on its own site. Hours are limited: closed Mondays, and 4.30pm to 8.45pm the rest of the week, with one extra Saturday sitting from 1.15pm to 3.45pm.
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, on the Chinatown grid our Chinese and East Asian guide walks you round, and Bao a few streets north on Lexington Street.
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. The list is counters, takeaways and queues — Bao on Lexington Street is walk-ins only too. The exceptions are Coqfighter 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.
Two venues in the sources have closed. Sichuan Fry in Hackney, named by two sources, and Kaieteur Kitchen in Elephant and Castle, which shut in October 2025 after its landlord locked it out.
The champion and the third place are on no editorial list. 20Ft and Fortune Fried Chicken are named by the championship and by nothing else in this pass — recorded as it stands, because the judges and the writers are plainly 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, and BAO Soho on Lexington Street is walk-ins only. The exceptions are Coqfighter 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?
Yes. The full menu runs seven days a week at the Big Chill at King's Cross. There is a second kitchen at Corner Corner in Canada Water, open Thursday to Sunday.
