The top of Granby Street in Leicester, near the station, used to be a pretty rough end of the city centre with yelling street drinkers and not much going for it. But over recent years it seems as though the almost constant roadworks have moved them away.
I went along for a big lunch at Daft Bird, which was formerly a Chickano's and is still run by the same team. And the experience was way better than I'd imagined.
Heading down Calais Hill, there were some pretty unpleasant smells of rubbish and cooking from the back of the building but inside the restaurant it had a nice vibe. The friendly and helpful member of staff recommended I try the katsu chicken burger and I chose a few extras for a big lunch that cost £11.98 in total.
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Starting with the burger, my first thought was why burgers were so hard to eat these days? A giant piece of chicken was held between two halves of a brioche bun and the gloopy mix of sauces and lettuce lubricated the chicken making it want to slip out onto the table.
There were lots of drips and katsu - a very rich, sweet Japanese sauce - has a pretty powerful scent and it's not something you want to spill over your trousers. When a burger is tricky to eat it's an immediate obstacle to fully enjoying the flavours but the taste of the burger was amazing.
The chicken was succulent and the coating was crunchy, and as well as great textures, every bite had a nice combination of savoury, sweet and spicy flavours. There were little hits of saltiness every now and then from some ingredient. Once the burger was gone I moved onto the paprika fries.
It was a good-sized portion of chips with a perfect mix of tangy tastes and spices and the ideal combination of crunch and soft potato innards. Towards the bottom of the box the flavour built up among the smaller bits of chip and I was glad to have the onion rings for a bit of relief.
Meals come with a free plastic pot of sauce and I went for refreshing garlic mayo. It wasn't easy to get into - it took a while to get my teeth around a little flap of plastic to rip the lid off. But once in, it was great to squeeze each onion ring down to a size where it could be dunked.
My table had a bit of stickiness to it when I'd sat down and it was even more of a mess by the time I'd finished dripping burger juices over it, but the service at the restaurant was great. As I loosened my belt and sipped my can of Irn Bru the staff member came over to clear my tray away for me as I watched the world go by outside.
And to top it all, there was a nice bathroom for cleaning up afterwards. Although, despite all the soap and water, that katsu smell was still on my hands two hours later, like a happy reminder of a great lunch.
Verdict
Eating at Daft Bird wasn't a daft decision at all. It's not too pricey and the food, as well as being very tasty, was also interesting. As well as the katsu burger, there's a Korean burger, a Nashville-inspired one and lots of other great menu options. And if, like me, you had previous prejudices about the south end of Granby Street, it's a lot nicer than it used to be. 4/5.
