Clockjack (Rotisserie Chicken) – Woolwich

THIS RESTAURANT HAS SINCE CLOSED DOWN

With its striking bright red exterior, Clockjack’s shopfront easily and distinctly stands out from the others on Powis Street in Woolwich.

It’s a spacious 70-seater restaurant that’s well lit and semi-rustic in nature, with a dark wooden ceiling and beige leather-style seats.

While outdoor seating is available, on this particular chilli evening, its fully retractable shopfront windows were firmly closed, with the diners cosily tucked up inside and marvelling no doubt at this Rotisserie & Grill’s peculiarly charming wall ornaments, which includes a large neon sign in the form of angelic wings that promise “heavenly chicken”.

Homemade Lemonade (left) £2.75, Virgin Mojito (right) £3.95

The fizzy Homemade Lemonade was fairly well balanced. With raw sugar providing a touch of sweetness, the lemon came through strongly followed close behind by mint that lingered nicely in the background. A good’un this.

The Virgin Mojito, however, was a strange one in that while the lemon and lime did materialise, the latter was barely discernible. Needs to be far stronger all round.

Buttermilk Chicken Bites – Marinated chicken thigh bites, gently fried until golden, £4.95

While these moist Buttermilk Chicken Bites had a crispy cum crunchy exterior – with one erring more on the crunchy than crispy – there wasn’t much else to speak of in terms of flavour.

Crispy Chicken Wings 3 for £3.50, 5 for £5.45, 10 for £9.45

Worse still, these small Crispy Chicken Wings bordered more on the crunchy than the crispy.

Why? Because they were overdone and, consequently, dry.

Free Homemade Sauces – Top: Burger, Korean Angry, Ranch. Bottom: Chilly, BBQ, Mustard-Mayo. Single: Gravy.

Clockjack’s in-house sauces, however, were very impressive.

While the Burger was plain, but decent, the strong fruity, tangy Korean Angry Fiery delivered some serious heat.

The Ranch was a tasty one too – not too strong, and just right. But, the runny Chilly was mild, and so nothing special,

The deeply flavoured BBQ Solid, though again fairly runny, had a satisfyingly sweet and tangy vinegary taste to it.

Conversely, the Mustard-Mayo was the thickest of the lot with a deliciously vinegary mustard taste.

Lastly, and despite its fairly watery texture, the Gravy had a rich, meaty and buttery taste that we all appreciated.

All in all, the heady BBQ Solid was the best, followed close behind by the Gravy, and then the thick Mustard-Mayo.

Rotisserie Chicken – Quarter Chicken £5.45, Half Chicken £9.95, Whole Chicken £18.95

We’ve never had something so delicately marinated, but so utterly full of that natural chicken goodness.

This was arguably one of the best Rotisserie Chickens we’ve had re flavour. Moist and succulent on the inside, we thoroughly appreciated it for its flavours, as well as the natural juices oozing out of this foul’s soft, tasty flesh.

If we did have a complaint, it would be that the skin wasn’t especially crispy. Had it been so, this would have floored us entirely.

Of course, this comes with a choice of the aforementioned sauces, which just gives this dish that extra dimension.

Pull the Chicken Trigger – Fried Chicken, fresh vegetables, sliced gherkins, BBQ Buffalo sauce, served on a brioche bun, £8.95

And the following two chicken burgers were just as good in their own right too.

Pull the Chicken Trigger – a new addition to the menu – comprised of gorgeously crispy and succulent chicken strips smothered in the smoky-sweet BBQ Buffalo sauce that was cleverly tempered by the salty vinegariness of the Worcester sauce, and topped with fresh strips of tangy, juicy and crunchy pickled gherkins.

Densely packed and, therefore, a difficult burger to contain, this accounted for many of the basic flavours and textural classifications.

Clockjack Club Burger – Chicken breast, bacon avocado, wild rocket, curry mayo sauce, £9.95

NOTE: Be sure to ask for the removal of the non-Halal bacon. Ours was replaced by avocado at the recommendation of our waiter.

The Clockjack Club Burger was entirely different to the above, but just as original and provocative.

The chicken breast was as moist as you’d want it, and with the natural sweetness of the soft, creamy slices of avocado contrasting well against both the spicy curry mayo sauce, and the peppery rocket leaves, we really enjoyed this too.

Having said that though, while the chicken had an excellent char to it, we felt that the spicy mayo sauce could have been stronger in flavour so as to really lift this burger that extra notch. Furthermore, we can imagine the addition of the smokiness from a crispy strip of bacon marrying seamlessly with this burger. Perhaps they might consider providing a quality Halal turkey rasher as an alternative.

Chocolate, Strawberry, Sea Salt, Mango, Raspberry

With such an array of vivid colours, the black slate, on which these five ice creams were presented, was perfect in presenting this wonderfully conceived platter, albeit for review purposes.

Putting aside the incoherency of the cylinderical marshmallows, the addition of the condiments with the trio of ice cream scoops was a clever one which provided that extra spark for discussion.

Take the chocolate scoop and the sprinkling of the crushed nuts. Everyone knows that chocolate and nuts are a match made in heaven; thus, while the chocolate could have been stronger in flavour, we all acknowledged the nuts as a combo.

Similarly, the raisins not only provided a textural contrast, but their natural sweetness played off against the sharp saltiness of the Sea Salt.

The orange sugar shards embedded in the Strawberry & Cream didn’t bring much to the subtle sweetness of the ice cream except a nostalgic playfulness.

As for the sorbets, then we simply couldn’t decide which was better: the strongly flavoured and extremely addictive Mango, with the tasty bits of fruit providing that bite and texture, or the intense fruity Raspberry, with its tantilising notes of sweet and sour that rocked our collective taste buds.

Clockjack Strawberry Cheesecake £4.25

In all honesty, and while appreciating the thought behind it, we felt as though this little pud was more a trifle than a cheesecake.

With a soft and slightly caramelised, sweet strawberry top, followed by two layers of cream and biscuit, the latter was far too soft and, thus, resembled a mushy cake-like texture than a crumbly biscuit.

This needs to be rethought. Otherwise, they’d be better served renaming this a Clockjack Strawberry Trifle.

Camomile Spicy Apple (top), Camomile Honey (bottom) – short £1.95, long £2.45

And the offering of two soothing teas to round off a meal, particularly at a chicken place, was a pleasantly surprising and welcome one.

The Camomile Spicy Apple had a subtlety to it; but it’s the Camomile Honey, with its almost bubblegum-like flavour and the honey mildly lingering in the background, that’s the one to get.