Greidy’s claim that somewhere between five and ten percent of their chicken doesn’t make the required grade to serve to their customers. That on arrival they check every singular piece and discard those not good enough into a pile marked for stocks. That those which do make the cut then go through a two-day process of brines and marinades and dredges before they make acquaintances with a deep fat fryer. It is this level of detail that may explain why they’ve won awards at Wing Fest, BBC One Show, and British Street Food. When it comes to fried chicken, they’ve read the read the book, got the t-shirt, and opened up a little restaurant in Stirchley. The Cotteridge end, if you’re wondering.
It’s a slightly awkward space, though I think it adds to the charm. A corner spot, with the toilet past the Ozzy Osbourne graffiti outside that bends around the corner and into the back. Indoors, the restaurant clad in wood and tiles and sheet metal so that it just about feels like a roadside dinner in the deep south. They have no booze – yet – and a menu from a QR code which they use for their street food and comes with a discount for eating inhouse. That menu contains chicken and more chicken, with a side of chicken on the side
I’ve been eating their food for years. Have been ever since one of the owners of Digbeth Dining Club told me about them in the early years. And whilst it may suit the environment of street food a little more, the food is to admired more within their own home. The chicken is excellent, with coating that cracks and snaps, whilst the meat is soft and accurately fried, giving the inaccurate observation that it might have been cooked in a pressure cooking. It’s seasoned high – really high – but that is great for a salt fiend like me, and the types we try all have all had the jerk marinade with all spice and heat. There is one covered in a crude jerk gravy that pulls no punches, and another that is like a KFC Zinger on steriods. Probably not an apt turn of phrase likely that the KFC probably are on steroids, but you get my point. We upgrade the fries if only to try more of the sauces. There is a gravy one and a buffalo sauce one, both are very good, though the buffalo sauce is next level. Little wonder it has cleaned up in competition.
The bill is about thirty quid for two, I say about because I’m being treated to dinner tonight by an extremely nice person who wants to cheer me up. Greidy’s is great, possibly the best fried chicken in this city at present. The commitment to quality is there, as is the detail in every one of the sauces which coats them. It’s a short walk from the other big guns of Stirchley High Street, but it is worth it. It deserves to be a sucess.
8/10
