The Best Wings in London

Modern, artistically presented pan-Asian small plates are the specialty of Foley’s in Soho. The 70-seat space includes a chef’s counter, dining room clad with rough whitewashed brick, and a walk-up bar facing out to the street. The menu includes vegan options, noodle dishes, salads, and under “bits and bobs” a matchstick wing seasoned with fish sauce. Items that could complement an order or two of the wings include the aromatic duck buns, a green papaya salad with peanuts, chili tamarind and lime, and the crab meat fried rice. Standouts among the more substantial offerings include a duck curry with lychee and aubergine, and pad thai with a choice of vegetable, chicken or prawns. The cocktail and mocktail lists are enticing in their creativity too.

Akira, a restaurant specializing in sushi, robata and donabe dishes, is on the ground floor of Kensington’s Japan House London. The venue is one of three nationwide established by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a center for Japanese culture at its most innovative. At Akira, namesake and chef Shimizu Akira has designed a dining experience around the concept of three principles – food, tableware and presentation – together in perfect balance. The culinary element of this trinity embraces big-ticket items like kobe beef and pristine sashimi, but don’t overlook less showy items like the chicken wing skewers. Seasoned simply with natural salt and lemon then cooked over the robata charcoal grill, they’re a serious contender for the best wings in London.

The hip and upscale Japanese restaurant Aqua Kyoto has a lively vibe, bright décor and a rooftop terrace. It presents an array of dining experiences including a la carte, tasting and set menus, and for weekday lunches a choice of poke bowl, chirashi don and bento box specials. There’s also a bar snacks menu, available seven days a week starting at midday, with expanded options on weekdays. It includes stuffed chicken wings with teriyaki sauce and sesame, as well as bites like rock shrimp tempura, a spicy tuna roll, wagyu gyoza and a 12-pice sashimi platter.

The izakaya-inspired Flesh & Buns in Oxford Circus, a rustic-minimalist space furnished with blonde wood, specializes in nikkei cuisine, a fusion of Japanese and Peruvian flavors. Its menu is mostly made up of sushi, ceviche and small plates including wood-smoked creations like chilli-miso smoked brisket and pork cheek. A certain highlight is the Korean fried chicken wings with a spicy-sour sauce and sesame. Other signatures are buns stuffed with fillings like rabbit katsu, crispy piglet belly and miso-grilled aubergine, and from behind the bar a mean Pisco sour.

The two-story restaurant Fatt Pundit specializes in small plates of creative Indo-Chinese cuisine with origins in the far north of India. The menu features momo dumplings stuffed with spiced vegetables, chicken, beef or kid goat, all with a bold chutney, and interesting vegetable dishes such as sticky sesame vegetables and crispy okra salt ‘n’ pepper. Fatt Pundit also boasts some of the best wings in London. Its lollypop chicken is a dish of spicy and crispy chicken wings with Szechuan chutney. Other highlights include rabbit wontons, lamb chops charred and seasoned with black bean dust, and shredded chilly venison inspired by the Leopold café of Mumbai.

The signature cuisine of Shack-Fuyu is “western-style Japanese food,” a concept resulting in a wide range of options from shared snacks to substantial main courses. The trendy restaurant started as a pop-up and proved popular enough to warrant a permanent location. Small plates and snacks include maki rolls, bao buns, raw items and fried snacks including Korean fried wings with a spicy sour sauce and sesame. Other small plates include prawn toast “masquerading as okonomiyaki,” duck gyoza and Iberico pork cheek skewers. Among the main courses are a rabbit katsu curry with rice, fried egg and daikon pickle; plancha grilled seabass with yuzu jalapeno salsa and cress salad; and beef short rib in a spicy sesame sauce.

Blind Spot, an eclectic cocktail bar with an excellent bar food menu inside the St. Martin’s Lane Hotel, incites a sense of intrigue immediately upon arrival. Guests access the bar via a golden hand-shaped handle, revealing its entrance behind a faux loose-leaf tea counter. It’s a nod to the era of the early tea trade and melding of cross-global flavors that inspires Blind Spot’s menu of small plates and sharing platters. The focus is on classic and original cocktails that pay homage to diverse global destinations, with small plates such as lime jerk chicken wings, coconut tempura prawns and mini Moroccan lamb koftas to accompany them.

Heddon Street Kitchen is a spacious, bright and sleek restaurant from Gordon Ramsay inspired by a classic European brasserie. It has an open kitchen, cocktail bar and heated terrace for outdoor dining. The all-day menus are comprehensive, covering dishes large and small from breakfast porridge and pastries to weighty rare-breed, dry-aged steaks. Among the starters are tamarind-spiced chicken wings garnished with spring onions and coriander. Share some of the best wings in London along with other snacks such as hand-cut chips with truffle mayo, salt and pepper squid or ‘nduja filled gnocchi. Or opt for a superfood salad or vegetable side dish such as spiced honey carrots or beetroot with hazelnuts, mint and a balsamic dressing.

Characterized as a farm-to-table rotisserie restaurant, Cocotte Notting Hill has a rustic vibe and obsession with the finest, farm-fresh ingredients. Chicken is a signature, free-range birds sourced from France and marinated for 24 hours in a herb and spice mixture before meeting the rotisserie. It’s sold by the quarter, half or whole, as well as a starter of eight chicken wings with a trio of house-made sauces – honey mustard, BBQ and spicy mayo. More house sauces are offered a la carte, including tarragon mustard, Cocotte gravy, green sauce and truffle mayo. Grain salads are another specialty, among them the Fernande with barley, pomegranate, feta and cashews.

Cinnamon Bazaar, a casual all-day eatery in Covent Garden, takes the diverse cuisines of the Indian subcontinent as its inspiration. The menu ventures into Anglo-Indian fusion fare such as shepherd’s pie filled with lamb rogan josh, and incorporates cuisines from the Middle East as well. An exemplary dish is the Indo-Chinese chicken wings seasoned with garlic and soy sauce, which feature as a large-format bazaar plate. Smaller snacks, sides and chaats such as spiced onion dumplings, Punjabi vegetable samosas and pressed watermelon with amaranth seeds and date chutney encourage diners to put together a shareable array of dishes.

A Clerkenwell dining icon, The Peasant pioneered the concept of the gastropub. The two-story space features a historic bar downstairs and light-filled dining room upstairs. Its Sunday roast is a local legend, and microbrews are another specialty. Both the full a la carte and set menus offered upstairs and more succinct bar menu present a globally influenced version of classic British cuisine. Those craving some of the best wings in London should grab a seat downstairs, where the bar snacks menu features crispy buttermilk chicken wings in sesame seeds. They come with a carrot and coriander salad and chilli mayonnaise dipping sauce. Also on the bar menu are mezze platters, baby back ribs, a beef and ale pie and butternut squash risotto.

Japanese spiced burgers are the specialty of Yen Burger in London Bridge. It’s the brainchild of chef-owner Yen Nguyen, who brings together the inspiration of her mother’s home cooking with her experiences in fine-dining restaurants across Europe. The signature Yen Burger uses 100-percent wagyu beef, topped with pickles, turkey bacon, cheese and shiso leaf. Other options include a coconut panko chicken breast burger and a tofu burger, while the single-sheet menu also offers a handful of salads and vegetable sides plus small plates of chicken gyoza, halloumi and mango, and “angry wings.”

In a loft-like warehouse space near St. Paul’s Cathedral is Bread Street Kitchen, an all-day restaurant from Gordon Ramsay. The menu takes inspiration from an array of international cuisines and features raw bar items as well as specialties from the wood-burning oven. Tamarind spiced chicken wings are a standout among the starters. Main courses to consider range from a spelt risotto with roasted cauliflower, wild mushrooms and black garlic puree to a beef Wellington with truffle mash and bone marrow sauce for two. Bread Street Kitchen hosts brunch on weekends and an all-day Sunday roast. Note that children always eat for free in this family-friendly London restaurant.