#blahvsfood: Humble Chicken, London…. and the difference between an excellent restaurant and an exceptional one.

September 27, 2025

#blahvsfood: Humble Chicken, London…. and the difference between an excellent restaurant and an exceptional one.

There is a difference between an excellent restaurant and one of the world’s very greatest restaurants. Humble Chicken is a perfect example of that. I can see why it is one of the hottest restaurants in the UK. This is the most original take I’ve seen on Japanese food since Inua back in 2018. It is modern. It is Japanese but it doesn’t follow any school (Nikkei, French, classic, California/New York). All the dishes are completely original or only loosely inspired by an existing Japanese dish but are very much about the creativity and ideas of Chef Angelo Sato.

That being said, I do feel there is some way to go before the cohesiveness of the meal catches up with the buzz.

Wild mussel

This is not so say the meal is bad. It’s excellent, a solid 8/10. The wild mussel tastes fleetingly of the ocean as the fermented onion and tomato notes add briny umami and the seaweed adds a bracing freshness. There is a foie gras course where the sweetness of the chilled fig gives way to the mineraly saltiness and far ot the foie gras that is stunning. The cook on the scallops for the sushi was perfect, both firm and buttery.

Humble pigeon

Even better is the dry aged 10 day pigeon slow cooked and smoked with rosemary, served with a quail egg and pigeon liver meatball Donburi, and tempura fried buttermilk marinated pigeon leg. This dish is worth the price of the meal in itself. The cook on the tender pigeon. The crisp thinness of the tempura batter. The comforting richness of the donburi.

Cheesecake

And in the dessert section, there was a cheesecake with clementine orange and shavings of frozen clementine juice that I really loved. The hint of saltiness in the creamy cheesecake was lifted by the citrusy zing, the freshness of the sweet clementine orange. And I thought the frozen shavings were just brilliant.

Old Town 97

These dishes were enough to explain the buzz and excitement around Humble Chicken and prove that this is a fantastic restaurant. But it’s still not hitting the heights of an Ikoyi or Atomix or Gaggan.

There is a difference between a collection of great dishes and a great tasting menu. A great menu has a progression. It is a journey through textures and flavours where every element and every course has a specific place for a reason, playing with contrast and continuity, ensuring that every part feels distinct yet connected.

Isle of Wight Tomato

Dashi

I had two challenges with the meal. I felt the meal as a whole leant very heavily into umami. This is same problem that Ryu Gin in Tokyo has. Yes, I get that umami is the definitive Japanese flavour profile and that many of the great Japanese dishes have an umami flavour. But there’s so much more to Japanese food than umami. Everytime Humble Chicken stretches itself and explores freshness, smokiness or sweetness, it feels new and revalatory. But too many dishes, from the tomato broth to the sea bream with dashi, were in the same sort of zone. The cod, for example, had a beautiful smokiness. But instead of letting the masterful protein work shine on its own, the broth and chawanmushi brought it back to more Classical Japanese flavours. So while the dishes were very good individually, it all felt a bit one note.

Chawanmushi

The other thing that didn’t really work for me was the excessive use of fat. Fat on fat is one of my pet peeves, and the other is the idea of fat meaning luxury. From the very first course, the fresh tomato broth had fatty notes with grape seed oil that distracted me from the flavours of the tomato. The aforementioned cod needed nothing more than the accompanying crispy canbage. It didn’t need the chawanmushi and it certainly didn’t need the roasted bone marrow. The tuna didn’t need caviar in the same course and it just felt like a lazy attempt to demonstrate “luxury”.

Tuna

Picnic

That being said, there were two fat driven courses that I did love. The “picnic” course has a shokupan with a bunch of accompaniments, the best of which was a spectacular three layered butter. Parsley, black Truffle and liver parfait wrapped in seven day old dairy butter. And I also loved the decadent combination of caviar and chocolate for dessert, as well as a red miso and burnt butter Madeleine that came with it.

Chocolate and caviar / passion fruit / red miso madeleine / mango /black sesame

Again, I want to reiterate that none of this means it was a bad meal. It was excellent, and there were moments that were exceptional. But I couldn’t help compare it to recent meals at Ikoyi, Naar and Labyrinth. And keeping in mind the originality of Chef Sato’s vision, I hope that over time these minor quibbles are cast aside and we see Humble Chicken eventually join the ranks of the world’s 100 best restaurants.

The menu: