Peter Morrell and his wife enjoy the food and the atmosphere in this charming French farm-to-table chicken rotisserie restaurant
Cocotte was founded by chef Romain Bourrillon. His inspiration has come from his experiences of working in restaurants across France, NYC, Belgium and London. Romain has created delicious home-made dishes that are made from fresh, farm-grown ingredients. For example, all the free-range chickens served in the restaurant are sourced from Evron in the Loire Valley of France.
The menu is chicken-centric and all the dishes are full of flavour. The chickens are marinated for 24 hours in a secret blend of herbs and spices, then cooked slowly and finished on the spit.
Cocotte has two locations, Hoxton Square and Notting Hill, we went to the latter which is on Westbourne Grove. Arriving at around 7:00 pm we were pleased to see that the restaurant was already busy and had an upbeat atmosphere. The décor was cosy and rustic, making it a relaxed and comfortable place to eat.
If you don’t want an all chicken meal then there is a cheese plate and a veggie board as two starter options. My wife chose the 8 chicken wings to start and I had the family recipe chicken soup. The wings were delicious, the meat packed with flavour and served with a honey mustard sauce, other options were a BBQ sauce and spicy mayo. My soup was almost like a meal in itself. A large hearty bowl filled with an intense broth and loaded with diced vegetables and shredded chicken.
Again if you don’t want a chicken main there is an enticing list of healthy salads to choose from. Our choice of main was half a chicken each served with a choice of sauces, garlic mayo, tarragon mustard, cocotte’s gravy, classic mayo, spicy, green sauce, truffle mayo and BBQ.
There’s a good array of sides including the salads, truffled mac and cheese and chorizo rice. We both had sides of fries and my wife added a salad with kale, roasted pepper, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, with sesame, walnut and a tahini dressing.
The chicken was moist, succulent and tender, enhanced by the 24-hour long marination. We both thought the fries were excellent, crispy with a good floury centre. My wife was impressed with the fresh and imaginative salad.
The portions of chickens were huge, for the first time I asked for a doggy bag, so our enjoyment of the food stretched into the following day.
There was a good, well-curated drinks list with a wide selection of cocktails and a spritz bar with lots of options, not just Aperol. All the wines were French, our pairing for the evening was the Terre des Olivette 2016, a sauvignon blanc from the Pays D’oc
This was a pale yellow wine with green tints. The bouquet had good aromas of white flowers with hints of peach and on the palate, it had a mix of tropical and citrus fruits. The well-balanced acidity worked well with the food and the finish had lively fruit flavours.
Desserts were almost beyond us, despite some tempting items like date and coconut cake, and lemon tart. For people with a less sweet tooth a French cheese board. We did share a dish of mochi. These are tasty balls of ice cream wrapped in a soft shell of sticky rice dough to give a unique mix of textures. There was a choice of flavours, we selected coconut, green tea and strawberry cheesecake. The combination of smooth ice cream with the slightly gelatinous rice dough was intriguing, particularly the one with the green tea flavour.
A final plus point for the food, decaf cappuccino is available.
The combination of the buzzy vibe, the friendly, attentive service, and the quality of the dishes and the ingredients made this a very enjoyable dining experience that I can recommend.
Cocotte
Notting Hill
95 Westbourne Grove, W2 4UW
0203 220 0076
westbourne@mycocotte.uk
Hoxton Square
8 Hoxton Square, N1 6NU
0207 033 4277
hoxton@mycocotte.uk
Open for lunch, dinner and weekend brunch
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