If you’ve spent any time in Birmingham’s street food circuit, odds are you’ve come across Yardbirds – especially if you’ve hung around Hockley Social Club. Born in 2018, it’s the ultimate team-up between some of our other street food favourites, The Bournville Waffle Company and Pietanic Pies. This is the best spot in Brum for fans of American-style fried chicken.
Yardbirds have appeared all over the country, however, fine-tuning its menu at street food events, festivals and private parties. Always serving the same mouth-watering buttermilk fried chicken burgers and fried chicken strips with fries. While we’re happy the rest of the UK has had the chance to try Yardbirds’ crispy chicken over the years. The only downside for us Brummies has been the wait for these fried-chicken legends to come home again.
Luckily Yardbirds blessed Birmingham with a permanent restaurant last November. It means we’ve finally and completely ditched the competition. Based in Stirchley, Yardbirds’ brick-and-mortar restaurant allows for a much more expansive menu, filled with fried-chicken and even vegetarian and veganoptions available too.
“The restaurant allows us to expand on our street food menu and you can now find sides like chicken wings, frickles and mac and cheese, as well as mains like chicken & waffles and a choice of vegan fried chicken burgers too,” said co-owner, Jonathan Jones, back when it opened.
And the new Stirchley restaurant is still allowing Yardbirds to try new things they could never before. Its newest menu addition is Wing Wednesdays. Served, well, every Wednesday, is a wider spread of chicken wings – many flavours not seen on the menu before. Customer favourites like Buffalo & Blue and BBQ Sriracha are still there. But some delicious new offerings include Garlic Bread, Thai Sweet Chilli, Teriyaki and Salsa Taqueria. For £30, why not order a huge platter? It includes three wings of every flavour, fries and frickles.
You’ll still find Yardbirds’ amazing range of burger choices elsewhere on the menu. From Buffalo Sauce and Caesar Salad-style twists to the Vegan Chick-Potle (with Mexican cheese and chipotle mayo). But Yardbird’s standout for us is the Dirty Chicken & Waffle: buttermilk fried chicken thigh with streaky bacon, pickles and dirty cheese sauce, all served on a malted waffle. It’s the best finger-lickin’ chicken in Birmingham! (Can we say that?)