April 2023 - Food

Humble Chicken

Angelo Sato's revamped his Soho spot to offer a stunning and highly fun omakase experience.

When the then-twenty-something head chef Angelo Sato opened Humble Chicken in the bones of the original Barrafina in 2021, people were tripping over themselves to sing the praises of his cosy Soho yakitori joint. A couple of years down the line and Sato has shifted his own goalposts. He’s now moved on from acclaimed and juicy Japanese chicken skewers to Humble Chicken 2.0 which offers an omakase of 13 immaculate East Asian-rooted dishes for a not cheap, but not extortionate, £115. You’ll be happy he did, thanks to a magical menu that pivots from seafood mastery that’s nigh on hallucinogenic to quirky wee bao and a miso sesame butter and chicken liver parfait so smooth, so rich and so moist that you suspect rubbing it on your face would be as effective as botox when it comes to securing the secret of eternal youth. 

Sato’s talent has never been up for question. He did time under the great Clare Smyth when she was at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, and was then head chef at Tom Sellers’ Restaurant Story in Southwark. You may have even seen him on ‘The Great British Menu’. He cares, deeply, about food. So much so that he has the confidence to tell you exactly what you’ll be having for dinner. You’ll be happy for such decisiveness, especially when you discover that his powerful tasting menu doesn’t have a duff dish on it. 

The vibe An omakase tasting menu with Japanese roots, oodles of imagination and seriously clever cooking.   

The food An eight-course, 13-dish offering that spans snacks, oysters, dumplings, sashimi, and, of course, chicken. So much! 

The drinks There are punchy cocktails such as a Plum and Rum and a Koji Coffee Old Fashioned, as well as a well-curated sake list for which you’re encouraged to pick your own cup from a platter of mismatched crockery