YARDBIRD, Southern Style Fried Chicken Comes To Zürich

Tonight at 18.00 the doors of Zürich latest restaurant, YARDBIRD, will open to the public.

Last night my plus 1 and I were lucky enough to be asked to sample the menu before anyone else in Zurich!

A yardbird is slang for chicken in the American Deep South.

Brothers Thomas and Stephan von Matt have already brought Zürich Brisket BBQ and The Bite Gourmet Burger and now a 3rd establishment with chicken at its heart.

Meat lovers will be licking their lips with glee.

Entrance, Yardbird

Yardbird joins a plethora of other meat focused restaurants in Zurich. I’m thinking Smith and DeLuma, Chilees Korean Burgers, the new Helvti in Bellevue, The Butcher and Boucherie AuGust to name just a few.

Can Zürich cope with another?

It can when the menu tastes good and isn’t overcomplicated.

Zürich may be a relatively small metropolis with just over 380,000 inhabitants but the Canton has nearly 1,5million and needs choice. We look to restaurateurs like Thomas and Stephan to give us that choice.

By the way, my plus 1 is American and has lived in the Deep South so she knows her buttermilk chicken!

The venue was a Chinese restaurant that had been there for 40 years. The brothers gutted it and took several months to transform the space.

It is beautifully considered with minimal décor finished in warm hues and plants hanging above you. I have no idea if they were real but it didn’t matter. They added naturalness to the ambiance. The tiles add a little ‘street’ having been hand painted by Oibel Art.

The evening started with cocktails and nibbles. The Choke Slam gin sour was perfect but the little burger bites we sampled were too ‘bready’. The drinks card offers a range of interesting cocktails and the trend for craft beer lives on at Yardbird. Beer is the perfect accompaniment to fried food after all.

The menu itself is pretty straightforward, lots of deep-fried variations on chicken with sauces or waffles and biscuits.

All the chicken cooked on the bone literally fell off and was incredibly succulent. You need the bone to maintain the moisture in this style of cooking.

Our 2 favourite dishes were:

The Caesar Salad OR THE WEDGE as we liked to call it!
A delicious wedge of cos with finely sliced and pickled red onions and a fabulous ranch dressing a.k.a Parmesan cream (the food is not for those on a diet by the way).

And….

The Nashville Hot Chicken Wings (left in the pic)
Which were spicy, sweet and had a touch of vinegar to them. Even diners afraid of chilli could manage these, not too hot.

yardbird-southern-fried-chicken-zurich — Southern Fried Chicken

The team together with their Canadian chef, Dan Shu, has tried hard to put their own stamp on Deep South dishes. Overall it has worked.

I understand that making the menu appealing to Europeans involves some concessions but I really saw no place for the Chicken Parmesan on the menu. Dry, boneless fried chicken with not a great tomato sauce will leave diners who order it disappointed.

My guest had a fabulous idea. You see all dishes can be offered vegetarian, and we were lucky enough to try their Deep South tempura cauliflower, spring onion and courgettes. They were amazing. The batter was the difference.

The vegetables were deep-fried in a lighter batter than the chicken, which she felt was far too dense. I didn’t mind it. Saying that my plus 1 felt strongly Yardbird should hold true to their chicken style but offer the guest a choice of batters and sauces. The ranch was our favourite. It was so delicious – I better never know the ingredients! The chorizo gravy on the other hand needs addressing.

The staff were exceptional, particularly Kirtanya, our hostess, incredibly knowledgable, friendly and passionate about the concept. Everything is branded even the refreshing wipe!