About this guide

Chicken World Harlesden — NW10 Fried Chicken & Takeaway Guide is an independent editorial project. We write about fried chicken, peri-peri, takeaway culture and the food history of Harlesden and northwest London. That is all we do.

What this site is not

• We are not a takeaway, chicken shop or restaurant. We have no kitchen, no counter and no fryer. We do not cook or sell food.
• We do not take orders. There is no menu on this site, no delivery, no collection, no ordering service of any kind.
• We are not affiliated with any business. We have no commercial, ownership, franchise or sponsorship relationship with any takeaway, chicken shop, restaurant, brand or delivery platform — in NW10 or anywhere else.
• We are not a paid listings site. Nobody can buy a mention, a recommendation, a rating or a position on this site.

If you've landed here trying to place an order, you're in the wrong place. We write about chicken. We don't fry it.

What we publish

• Technique. Brining, buttermilk, seasoned dredges, oil temperature, the double fry, and why the crust behaves the way it does. See the fried chicken guide.
• History and culture. Where peri-peri actually came from, and how a chilli of American origin became a Portuguese-African dish that ended up on a London high street. See the peri-peri guide.
• Place. Harlesden, the Jubilee Clock, the High Street, Willesden Junction and the communities that built the food culture here. See the Harlesden and NW10 area guide.
• Practical knowledge. What survives a journey home and what doesn't, in the takeaway guide.

Our editorial rules

We don't make things up. We do not publish the names, addresses, telephone numbers, prices or opening hours of any business. Those details change constantly, and publishing them incorrectly does real harm — to readers who turn up at a closed door, and to businesses who get blamed for someone else's bad information. We write about food and about the area instead.

We take no money from food businesses. No advertising, no sponsorship, no free meals, no affiliate commissions, no "featured shop" fees. Nothing on this site has been paid for or approved by anybody who sells chicken.

We correct errors. If we get a technique, a date or a piece of history wrong, we fix it and we say so. Readers can flag mistakes via the contact page.

Why bother with a chicken shop guide

Because the London chicken shop is one of the most consequential and least respected food institutions in the country, and because Harlesden is one of the most interesting places in Britain to eat — and almost nobody writes seriously about either.

The food press covers openings. It covers small plates and natural wine and whatever has just launched in Soho. It very rarely covers the shop on a high street in NW10 that has been feeding shift workers and schoolkids for twenty years, that is doing a genuinely skilled thing with brine and oil temperature, and that will never be reviewed by anyone.

There is real craft in that food, and there is real history in the neighbourhood that produced it — Caribbean, Brazilian, Portuguese-speaking African, Irish, West African, South Asian, all layered into one square mile. That is worth writing about properly, and with respect.

Who writes it

A small independent editorial team who live in and around northwest London and eat here. We are not chefs and we don't pretend to be. What we offer is attention, specificity, and no financial reason to flatter anyone.

Start at the homepage if you're new, or get in touch through the contact page.