Will Chicken Club please stop running out of chicken

Chicken Club is a way of life for many of us. That’s not to say it’s perfect.

If you live south of Nicolson Street, there’s an inevitable ritual that accompanies most night outs. After you’ve frequented either Hive or the Big Cheese, you take the walk up Clerk Street passing many a takeaway place.

The most popular of these places is Chicken Club. The CC isn’t like any other takeaway. It doesn’t have regulars – it has devotees.Their chicken fillet burgers are better than anything you can find in KFC and their spicy wings, although hazardous to your bowels, are the most reliably tasty late night cuisine option south of Palymra.

However, there is one problem. A major problem. One that undermines its role as a fast food outlet.

It regularly runs out of chicken.

Now, when they run out of burgers and the guys offer you wings or strips instead that’s fine. They’re charming young men who give you food when you’re desperate for that drunken late night meal – you can’t really complain.

What is an issue is if they run out of chicken completely. No burgers, no wings, no strips, no sizzlers – no nothing. How can a chicken place run out of chicken?

It’s like a pub saying – “Sorry, we’ve run out of beer, would you like whiskey instead? Actually, no we don’t even have that.”

It’s in the name – eating chicken is what makes you part of their club. Whether it be a fillet burger, a sizzler, hot wings or strips, the chicken is fundamental to the experience.

The loyalty it builds up is reliant on its own reliability. It is head and shoulders above most of its competitors in terms of quality only to let itself down on delivery.

We don’t want to go to KFC, but if you keep this up we might have to

One of Chicken Club’s strengths is it’s versatility. Despite being known for its chicken, it actually has a pretty wide range of food, from kebabs to pizzas. Now these are tasty, but nowhere near the level of their chicken. Their pizzas take at least fifteen minutes to prepare and I’ve only ever seen people with kebabs in the dark downstairs bit that most people don’t know exists for a long time.

Even then they sometimes run out of those foods.

I’m not angry at Chicken Club, just disappointed. It’s a crucial part of Edinburgh’s late night food scene and it has a cult following. Come on Chicken Club, give us some more chicken and regain the love and trust we once had for it.