The Jerk Off 2014!

With the sun still shining down in London town the last thing you want to do is a) waste time in a hot kitchen cooking or b) sit shivering in a restaurant blasting AC while you eat. Solution? Al fresco dining! The Queen of Hoxton in the East End hosted the Jerk Off 2014 in the blazing sun yesterday...but even the sun wasn't as hot as the jerk!

Situated on the gorgeous rooftop of the Queen of Hoxton, 4 restaurant/pop-ups battled it out to be crowned London's best jerker: Portobello Roads' Boom Burger vs Brixton Village Trini's Fish, Wings & Tings, White Men Can't Jerk and Mama's Jerk Station.

Sooo for a tenner plus booking fee everybody was given a scorecard with 4 'I want jerk' slips and two drinks tokens, which entitled you to two Wray and Nephew rum drinks with any mixer (there was lots of apple juice or Ting with rum in our corner). You collected your paper plate with two sides and then hit each jerk stand to sample their chicken...or in my case, I'd brought along my own portobello mushrooms as I don't eat chicken. Very resourceful I am! Each stand gave you a little coloured flag in your chicken that corresponded to their colour on the scorecard. I would have liked a choice with the sides as I ended up with rice and cous cous and friends who arrived later had coleslaw and potato salad which I would definitely have preferred.

"Will you jerk off my mushroom?" Got a good response from the guys at the jerk station I found!
Jerk sauce, jerk mayo, jerk rub....all the jerk you could hope to burn your mouth off! I mean just look at the way my mushroom is being handled...

My faves were Mama's Jerk station for flavour but they were a bit slow with the chicken for my mates, followed by Boom Burger who I gave my actual vote to. I mean jerk mayo guys! But the winner was Fish, Wings and Tings, a bit too spice for me personally, I had to drink a lot of rum to cool my mouth down. Ahem.

OG Normski presents the winners of best Jerker with champers seconds before they sprayed it all over, well, everyone.

Perfect Sunday on a sunny rooftop eating food and drinking rum. Does it get better?

Eat: Gallus

Watch out Nando's, there's a new chicken restaurant in town. Serving up skewers, wings, salads and burgers with 'world flavours' such as Jerk, Cajun BBQ, Katsu, Tandoori and Miso Teriyaki, Gallus Restaurant's plush booths and sleek breakfast bar are all muted shades and chic simplicity in contrast to to the gaudy warm colours of everyone's favourite chicken chain. The simple touches of the metal buckets of cutlery and Gallus reward cards on the tables make all the difference at this restaurant that promises 'good honest food the healthier way'.

I started with a strawberry milkshake - made with yoghurt rather than ice-cream it's lighter and fresher than a traditional milkshake, in keeping with the healthy-ish vibe.

But that all went out the window when the glorious burgers arrived. For the boy, the Gallus burger, a chicken burger served with homemade Gallus burger sauce.

And for me possibly the best portobello mushroom burger I've ever had. Served on a super soft seeded bun with halloumi cheese, roasted mixed pepper and garlic mayo I was in veggie burger heaven...

Sides wise - skin on wedges and coleslaw complimented our burgers but it was the corn on the cob that won the prize for best side on the menu. Why have I never squeezed fresh lime on corn on the cob before? Or had corn with chilli butter? Delicious really.

I told you that corn was demolished!

For dessert we shared a light fluffy chocolate brownie with ice cream and the brownie was just chocolatey enough. You know how sometimes brownies can be too dry or too rich and chocolatey? Yeah well this wasn't. Just right.

The service was attentive and it wasn't very busy when we were there, perhaps because it was quite late but I can't imagine that Gallus will stay low key for much longer. This chicken restaurant is making its mark.

Shanika Says: Get down there before everyone jumps on the hype and say you were one of the first.

Gallus Restaurants
103 Charing Cross Road
WC2H 0DT