Birds does one thing and does it beautifully: chicken. Wherever you turn on the concise menu of Nanglinchee Road’s industrial, French-run bistro, there’s no escaping its rotisserie-roasted whole, locally reared birds. Without a compromising salmon steak or kurobuta pork chop in sight, it’s the kind of single-minded dedication that good restaurants are made of.

Jeremy Tourret (formerly of El Mercado and L’Appart) is a permanent fixture behind the corrugated iron kitchen bar, where he presides over the roasting of chicken so moist and soft that we had forgotten it could be this good. Each bird spends three days marinating before being shown the oven, he’ll tell you, and the fragrant taste of thyme powers through the deliciously tender flesh—white and brown meat alike.

The skin: that’s as crisp as you’d hope for, and begs to be ripped clean and eaten alone. To go with, you’ll be needing a side of the rotisserie chicken jus (B40)—no match for your mom’s best gravy, but a good close second—as well as the smoky “Angry Birds” chili dip (B35). All this comes served up on chopping boards in your choice of whole (B790), half (B430) or quarter (280) chicken. Up it to a set (half/+B120, whole/+B260) and you get the sauces thrown in as well as a healthy portion of skin-on roasted new potatoes—glistening brown clouds of fat-roasted tastiness. 

The caesar salad (B270) with its huge strips of succulent breast meat and sharp hits of pickled cauliflower is just as good, and likewise the chicken burger—ultra plump and sandwiched in an oatmeal bun from neighbor Amantee. It’s just a shame that, at B480, the price has jumped up a whole lot from the B290 written in the menu. The service staff can’t really tell you why, either—other than that it comes with potatoes.

And while there’s nothing painful about the service, they could definitely do with an extra pair of eyes working the room—especially when, most nights, the bar seats are the only  ones not booked. We also have to take issue with what Birds calls an apple crumble (B220), which is really just a portion of neatly plated stewed apple.

To drink, pick between local craft beers (from around B175) and cheap but perfectly drinkable table wine (from B140). That makes Birds one of the rarest of things in 2017 Bangkok: an excellent restaurant that you can do for B1,000 a head including booze.  

This review took place in November 2017 and is based on a visit to the restaurant without the restaurant's knowledge. For more on BK's review policy, click here.