Just a short walk from the frenetic touristy chaos of Piccadilly Circus, you will find Coqbull - a three-floor venue comprising a streetside terrace, a ground-floor bar, a dining room and a chic rooftop. Coqbull was founded by Irish-born restaurateur Patrick Frawley and as the name suggests, focuses on serving up free-range rotisserie chicken and gourmet burgers.
The simple interiors see the dining room kitted out with dark wood tables and chairs, although pops of colour are provided by orange napkins and menus. On warmer nights, we’d recommend dining on the covered roof terrace, complete with pretty foliage hanging from the rafters.
Coqbull’s menu is a celebration of well-executed, crowd-pleasing comfort food and it works. To kick things off, we enjoyed a duo of starters - supremely tender chicken wings arrive slathered in a sticky barbecue sauce and served alongside a pot of intensely garlicky aioli that you want to stick your face in, while the indulgence of halloumi fritters was tempered by a smattering of pomegranate seeds.
For the main event, Coqbull’s range of burgers seems to be the obvious choice, each variety stuffed with two beef patties. We however, were intrigued by the Coqbull Spice Bag - the restaurant’s own spin on an Irish takeaway classic. The dish consists of breaded chicken strippers, dry rubbed chicken wings, fries, spiced peppers and pickled onions, all shaken together inside a heat-sealing paper bag. It’s fatty, salty and dangerously moreish, even if we barely finished half of it (you could easily share a spice bag between two).
You can go for full throttle indulgence come dessert by ordering a chocolate chip cookie warmed in a cast iron skillet, but we chose the slightly lighter Eton Whip - refreshing whipped ice cream, berries and chunks of meringue.
Cheery staff and a flirty cocktail menu, which includes the likes of Frozen Strawberry Daiquiris, are further pluses, making Coqbull a fun and reasonably priced option for when you find yourself in the West End.
We have even been back for their Night Bird menu, an option for more fun-loving diners that occurs every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 21:00 to late. We enjoyed the special 'nibbles' menu with small bites like the Popcorn Chicken with juicy chicken and crispy breading, or the Coqbull Nachos, which were greatly improved by our choice to add the chili beef. There's also a live DJ blasting music, so expect more of a party vibe, and keep the drinks flowing- our favourites were the Pornstar Martini, Basiltini, and the Horny Bull. Decidedly a different experience than before, this Night Bird experience would be a fun way to start off a night out- just expect to strain to hear your fellow diners over the music.