[Invite] – click here
Slim Chickens is a popular American-style fast-food outlet located across the country, well known for their chicken. They have just opened up a restaurant on Regent Street, located in the old Gourmet Burger Kitchen spot and were kind enough to invite me and a few other foodies for a visit.
Pictured above, me and FoodMikeLikes.
Cambridge is a tough market to crack for Slim Chicken, with “Chickeez” and “Ji, The Chicken Shop” next door and Popeye’s down the road. My initial thought is that it is going to take something special to stand out but Slim Chicken is clearly expanding across the country for a good reason, so I remained optimistic.
The restaurant
The restaurant is spacious with a large window overlooking Parkers Piece for those beautiful scenic views. There are booths available for that casual dining experience but also tables with paper towels ready for that inevitable messy experience.
A drink station is also available, letting you customise your bottomless fizzy drinks. I picked a Dr Pepper Cherry combo and it really hit the spot 😎
Milkshakes
Slim Chicken also offers an assortment of 9 different flavours of hand-spun milkshakes. Being the boring sod that I am, I went for my usual favourite, vanilla, but you can also get Oreo, Biscoff, and Cadbury Flake. It was incredibly smooth, thick, and a fairly good take on vanilla for a fast food outlet.
The burgers
We were presented with three different burger options, all made with their signature 12-hour marinated buttermilk chicken.
• The Hot Buffalo Sandwich – Buffalo sauce, lettuce, pickles, fried onions and blue cheese sauce.
• The Honey BBQ Sandwich – Honey BBQ sauce, pickles, onions and Cheddar Jack cheese
• The Classic Chicken Sandwich – Buttermilk chicken breast with lettuce, pickles and mayo.
There is also a plant based option on the menu called the “Plant Based Buffalo Sandwich”, made from TiNDLE oat milk, lettuce and pickles.
All burgers come with a side of fries and served in a basket, with a choice of 15 different sauces. The presentation was reasonable but it didn’t particularly inspire. Having food brought out in a basket can make presentation a challenge but having good looking meals served this way can be done. The issue I had was that the bun and the chips looked a little flat by eye, though, as we are all aware, looks can be deceiving.
Taking a bite of their burger put all my presentation doubts to rest. The bun was able to hold everything together well throughout my experience and its thin build meant that the chicken could take centre stage. This was clearly a calculated choice by Slim Chicken and it truly worked, as the chickens crispiness wasn’t muffled by a thick bap and allowed more of the chickens flavour to come through. This is a burger all about the chicken!
Chicken tenders and wings
The chicken tenders are absolutely gorgeous! They were so thick, juicy and succulent but with a beautifully crispy skin that just brought everything together perfectly.
The chicken wings were really good, especially for the price point, and having a choice of different sauces made it customisable for my own palette. I found the chicken wings to be a little skinny (living up to the Slim Chicken name, I suppose) but worked well with their hot sauce.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Texas toast, which is made with thick cut slices of bread that are covered in butter on both sides and grilled. There was a hint of garlic flavour that really gave it an extra dimension. I thought this went particularly well for dipping with their classic gravy.
Wraps
We were given a couple of wraps to try that came served exactly the same as the burgers and chicken tenders (in a basket with a side of chips and sauce). The lettuce and the crispy chicken combined perfectly to give an extra crunchy bite. The thinness of the wrap only emphasises this further. I bought one home for my wife and she agreed it was a really very good execution which also proved that it travelled well.
Sides
Slim Chickens had some excellent sides available, including the crispy fried onions, coleslaw and fried pickles.
The fried onions were served as a generous portion and looked great. They were extra crispy and came accompanied with your choice of side sauces. Having something like this really added a satisfying crunch to anything it was added to. No wonder they added it to the Hot Buffalo Sandwich.
It’s always good to see coleslaw on the menu and today was no exception. The Slim Chicken-take tasted so fresh and creamy. I would have liked to have seen this served in a pot rather than on paper, as I found it quite hard to scoop out of the basket but otherwise I couldn’t complain.
Fried pickles were absolutely out of this world. I love me a pickle and having them deep fried only made them better. This is a side that I would definitely recommend for anyone visiting.
An unexpected hero?
An unexpected highlight of the evening was their salad. It came with coleslaw, cheese, shredded carrots, fried onions, two different sauces, and their signature crispy chicken tenders, which have been cut up and placed on a bed of salad and cucumber.
Visually it was the most beautiful dish of the evening. Whereas a lot of the other dishes tonight were generally quite beige. This had a lot of colour and life to it, with the coleslaw giving an attractive shade of purple, the salad proudly showing off a bright green and the carrots giving a vivid pop of orange.
Everything was fresh and vibrant while also being a decent sized portion.
Conclusion
Slim Chicken might just be one of the best chicken joints in Cambridge at the moment. Yes, there is stiff competition in the area but even with all that considered, I feel like Slim Chicken manages to stand out from the rest. Little details, like having a bottomless customisable soda machine, to American telly on display in the restaurant, and the beautiful views of Parker’s Piece…and that’s before we have even got to the food!
Some dishes are better than others on the menu, with the crispy chicken tender standing out as my particular favourite. This is chicken done brilliantly, in a way that anyone visiting would expect it to be done – cooked fresh to order, crispy, juicy, and delicious! The fried pickles are another dish I highly recommend trying and you shouldn’t visit without giving their gravy a go, especially when accompanied by some Texas toast.
Thanks for reading
You must be logged in to post a comment.