Pecking Order – Stanmore

THIS RESTAURANT HAS SINCE CLOSED DOWN

Pecking Order is, as the name suggests, a restaurant dedicated to serving chicken. And despite not openly advertising as serving halal meat, this place was, nonetheless, brought to our attention by a Lion who was thoroughly impressed.

It was a shame, however, that we didn’t get to taste their pièce de résistance – the grilled chicken (see menu below).

This is the only section of their menu (see below) which is NOT halal… yet!

We, therefore, had to remain content, for the moment at least, with trying what seemed, on first impressions, to be a very unique and exciting menu.

It’s obvious from the interior that a lot of dedicated thought and love has gone into its overall design and execution.

All non-alcoholic cocktails & shakes £4.00. VIRGIN MARY (left) – Tomato Juice, Lemon Juice, Worcester Sauce, Tabasco, Salt, Pepper. THE ELVIS (centre) – Peanut Butter, Banana, Honey, Chocolate Sauce. BERRY NICE (right) – Cranberry Juice, Strawberry, Blackberry, Lemon Juice, Gomme Syrup.

There are six cocktails and four shakes to choose from. And although they sound interesting enough, the execution didn’t quite live up to our initial expectations.

The Berry Nice was kinda refreshing, but only because of the disproportionate ratio of ice (70%) to juice (30%), which, we suspect, was the reason why the berry flavour simply didn’t come through as strongly as it should have.

The Virgin Mary is what it is; and though Pecking Order’s version is slightly more chillier than others, in our opinion, this was a good thing since it gave it that little extra kick.

As for The Elvis shake, then this was the most ambitious of the four in terms of the ingredient combination. However, even with our combined sweet tooth, this was far too sweet. They might want to rethink this one.

One thing is for sure, Pecking Order has also put a lot of thought into their starters and sides.

Mac ‘N’ Cheese Truffle Bites – £4.50

Served with rich sweet sauce, these little nuggets of fun were delicious – perfectly golden and crispy on the outside, beautifully cheesy and creamy on the inside, and drizzled with just the right amount of pungent truffle oil.

Soft Mexican Mushroom Tacos (v) – £5.50 – Tomato Salsa, Chive Sour Cream, Crispy Shallots and Shredded Lettuce.

These bite-sized tacos were very well conceived and executed.

Not only could you literally taste every element, but they all married together as a whole for a fresh flavour KO.

Fresh Loaded Nachos – £6.00 – Guacamole, Pico De Gallo, Jalapenos, Chive Sour Cream and Monterey Jack Cheese.

Yup; the above was certainly fresh, and definitely hit the high notes for us. With just the right quantity of each ingredient perfectly complimenting the other, along with the crispy nachos, a different taste sensation was guaranteed with every devoured morsel.

Special Sweet Chicken Wings (not on the menu) – 6pcs £5.50, 12pcs £9.50.

Not part of the actual menu, these wings were actually the weekly special, and recommended to us by the waiter. With a finger-lickingly delicious sweet glaze, they also came with… wait for it… a Coca Cola sauce!

Now, before you raise questionable eyebrows, this sauce was surprisingly mild and subtle, in spite of the seemingly strong sounding flavours. Of course, not only was it something we’d never tasted before, but we increasingly grew to appreciate how the flavour came through and developed with every try. Definitely worth ordering if only for its uniqueness.

Coca Cola Smoked Hickory BBQ wings (left), Buffalo Hot wings (right) – 6pcs £5.50, 12pcs £9.50.

The Buffalo Hot Wings are the ones to watch out for. In a word, delicious! Large, succulent, tender chicken wings in a very flavoursome hot sauce.

As for the Coca Cola wings, then they were, quite unsurprisingly, sweet and very sticky! Worth a try if you’ve never had them before, but nothing too memorable.

The owners divulged that the above sauces, unique to Pecking Order, were so popular, particularly the ultra-chilli Habanero Hot Sauce, that they will soon be making them available for sale over the restaurant counter. And we can understand its popularity too. Aside from the obvious heat factor, it had a lovely fruity-citrusy after-taste which made it quite addictive.

As for the Smokey Jalapeno Sauce, then not only was it naturally far less intense, but also far milder than we expected (although that might have something to do with our taste buds needing time to recover from the Habanero assault).

Jumbo Onion Rings – £4.50 – Camden Lager-Battered with Ranch Dressing; Sweet Potato Fries – £4.00.

Before you crucify us, we only discovered afterwards that the onion rings, again recommended to us by the waiter (who was obviously not privy to the peculiar Islamic dietary requirements), were made with lager-batter, a fact that might explain our subsequent bouts of bizarre behaviour. :lol: For what it’s worth, these rings were incredibly crispy, though slightly on the oily side.

As for the fries, then there was complete consensus that these were the best sweet potato fries we’ve ever had. Thin, crispy and crunchy, and highly, highly recommended!

Buttermilk Popcorn Chicken – £6.00 – Honey Chipotle and a Blue Cheese Dip.

With a crunchy exterior, these dainty little nibbles literally came alive with the two respective sauces – honey chipotle and a blue cheese dip. Nice!

Buttermilk Buffalo Chicken Burger – £9.50 – crispy bacon, Monterey Jack cheese and ranch dressing.

This was an interesting one.

Overall, it had an intense taste that reminded one of Tabasco sauce; and with a hint of chilli in the background coupled with a generous portion of Monterey Jack cheese oozing over the side, this was a very enjoyable munch.

Char-Grilled Burger- £8.50 – Chicken with Avocado Salsa, Crispy shallots, Garlic and Herb Aioli.

Wow; when they say chargrilled, they really do mean it!

Unfortunately, this was a little too char-grilled for our liking, to the point, sadly, that the resulting strong acrid taste overwhelmed the subtle avocado salsa and everything else in between.

Not very pleasant!

Smokey Joe – £9.50 – Smoked Cheddar, Smoked jalapeno Ketchup, Caramelised onions and Streaky Bacon.

This burger was a story of two halves (no pun intended). The meat patty, though slightly dry, was full of flavour; in fact, one of the few where the actual flavour of the meat could stand up on its own merit. Alas, the rest lacked the necessary sauce to elevate it to the ranks of greatness.

In short, these burgers are good, but not outstanding. While the buns are superb – soft on the outside with a wonderful sheen, there is definite room for improvement in terms of the overall composition.

Given a few necessary tweaks, including serious thought into the quantity of sauce added – an integral component of any successful burger – these have potential!

Dessert of the Day – Sticky Toffee Pudding, £5.50.

Sometimes a picture says a thousand words! The above was absolutely sublime. One of the best Sticky Toffee Puddings we’ve had. Fearing that this might turn out to be heavy and stodgy, however, resulted in us regretfully ordering only the one!

Yet, this was light, and therefore easily manageable after so many starters, sides, burgers, and beverages. It was decadently sweet and sticky, and perfectly complimented by the creamy vanilla ice cream lightly drizzled with a toffee sauce. A pudding person’s wet dream!

As mentioned above, currently the grilled chicken in their chicken section isn’t halal.

Nevertheless, the owners did confirm to us that they’ve managed to source a halal supplier, which they hope to introduce in a couple of months time.

So keep an eye out on here, as well as our social media sites, because we’ll be publishing confirmation of this once its rolled out.