The place
Where do chicken fiends find their fix of roast chicken in this city? It used to be Brasa’s citywide locations before that dwindled down to one little shop on Taixing Lu, but now Wishbone is here, selling juicy birds from a compact little shopfront in Northern Jing’an. Decidedly hipper than the aforementioned Brasa, Wishbone is managed by Brit chef Sam Norris, whom some of you may know from excellent streetside taco den Dogtown. Norris has some serious cooking credentials to his name thanks to stints at Nobu and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in London.
The food
We kicked off with a couple of cocktails, the ‘hawthorn’ and ‘kumquat,’ both RMB55. We’re going to go ahead and say these were straight up not great. They took ages, were too sweet, not cold enough and not nearly strong enough (at least for our grizzled palates).
On the food side of things, Wishbone keeps the menu concise, and rightly so for such a diddy kitchen. Country style pâté was peppery, fatty and delicious (below).
Pulled pork croquettes with cheddar (below) were also a big hit – nice touch with the pickled cucumber on the side.
Less good was the pickled mackerel crostini with pear (below). Mackerel is a fish delicious enough as is, no need to mess around with pickling/adulterating it with beetroot.
Also slightly strange were the hot wings (below) served languishing in what was for our taste an exceptionally sour vinaigrette sauce.
However, to their credit, all sides are very reasonably priced at RMB35.
At last the whole chicken stuffed with gremolata butter (below, RMB280 plus choice of four sides, half/quarter with two sides: RMB150/78). We were pretty much convinced the white meat would be dry as hell (as is usually the case) but happily, Wishbone proved us wrong: the bird was juicy throughout, and the skin crispy. Our only suggestion would be offering cranberry sauce as well as the jalapeño mayonnaise and mustard sauce currently offered, but to each his own.
Sides on the other hand were a mixed bunch, the best being roasted butternut squash with tahini (below, RMB28) and root veg slaw with ricotta (above RMB30).
Chicken dripping new potatoes (below, RMB28) were a huge disappointment. Kudos for roasting them in the chicken fat drippings, but as you can see in the photos, these look very done... perhaps even burnt. Just a little bit less time in the oven and they would have been a home run.
Food Verdict: 1.5/3
The vibe
Set in a tiny little space, on our visit Wishbone was full to capacity with patrons. Service is sketchy at this point, which is to be expected – it’s still early days and management tells us they’re waiting for more staff over the coming weeks.
Here’s a hint though: don’t let people smoke inside if your restaurant is that small. On our visit, two people proceeded to chain smoke the whole way through our meal after a waitress opened the window next to them, effectively blowing the smoke inside the restaurant and onto the surrounding tables. A steady gust of cold wind and fag smoke does not a pleasant experience make.
Vibe Verdict: 0.5/1
Value for money
Service definitely needs to be improved for this place to reach its full potential. However, the rotisserie chicken was undeniably delicious and well executed, albeit a touch more expensive than we expected.
Value for Money: 0.5/1
TOTAL VERDICT: 2.5/5
Price: 78-200 per person.
Who’s going: local hip kids, chain smokers.
Good for: roast chicken, casual dinner.
> See a listing for Wishbone Rotisserie Chicken.
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