East End Vibe Buzzes in To Ealing

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Butchies chicken restaurant is latest addition bringing new life to the town centre

Butchies Chicken, 14 Bond Street

Slowly but surely Ealing's new ''destination'' area, Filmworks is beginning to open up.

Granted, the pièce de résistance - the much awaited 8 screen cinema is still not showing any signs of being ready to sell popcorn to a *very* ready audience, just yet.

Filmmworks Picturehouse Cinema- still work in progress

It's hoped that this will happen by the end of the year (which year though?, yes, good question!) but, other pieces of the Filmworks jigsaw are coming together.

Teatro bar restaurant

Visiting the area over the Easter holiday many people were pleased to see ''Teatro'' - an arty new bar and restaurant venue in the site of the old cinema. I heard some locals remarking how they thought it was really classy and a great addition to the area.

Walking through the development and there are still plenty more venues still to open including Boom Battle Bar which will bring ''Bavarian Axe Throwing, Crazier Golf, Electric Darts, Shuffleboard & much more''.


Butchies Bond Street

Just opposite, and across the road from the very well estabilshed, ever popular Nandos, is Butchies. Described as ''one of London's favouite buttermilk chicken joints'' Butchies began in 2013 when founder Garrett and his wife returned to London after an extended period of time in NYC.
They set about creating London’s ''ultimate'' fried chicken sandwich. The Butchies original fried buttermilk chicken recipe was developed over 10 months before being served up at street food markets, music festivals and pop-ups. It was said to be a huge hit and led to the first restaurant opening in Shoreditch in 2017. Since then Butchies have been spreading across London and now have 5 restaurants across the city.

Speaking about the 6th and latest opening in Ealing , Butchies’ founder Garrett said, “We could not be more excited to be opening here. It's a real milestone for us, our biggest restaurant yet! We’ve come so far from our pop-up days, but our mission to serve the best buttermilk fried chicken sandwich in the world is still the same as it’s always been. We cannot wait to spread the Butchies love in Ealing.”

Having been invited to try it out I had to find some chicken experts to accompany me because, as a non-meat eater I really wouldn't have had much to say. The vegan patty was substantial and nice enough, but I am really not their market. However, my companions ( teenage and young adult) were and both very pleased with their poultry selection, tenders, wings and burgers. They declared the meat to be really great quality, the buttermilk to be flavoursome and the various sauces to have plenty of kick. Butchies use Red Tractor accredited birds which are sustainably sourced from one single farm based in South Yorkshire.

Butchies Buttermilk chicken

A few teething problems with the new site still have to be ironed out - and currently there's no milkshake machine was a bit of a disappointment, but hopefully this will be rectified soon.
Whilst acknowledging this is a CHICKEN restaurant, a few more veggie options would still be appreciated and perhaps some healthier choices (non fried) too. Having said that it'd also be an idea to have some desserts as currently there are none and who doesn't like ice-cream?
Currently Butchies seems to be focussing on getting it's chicken just right and would appear to be doing just so. It certainly got the thumbs up from my chicken critics.

Once the cinema and Boom Bar open I imagine this will become a very busy and popular fast food restaurant and can only add to the increaingly lively vibe of Ealing town centre.

Move over East End - Ealing is the next big thing!


Teatro ( left) Ealing Town Hall viewed from Filmworks

Annemarie Flanagan