Chef puts ‘KFC’ octopus on menu after reopening restaurant

The Kentucky Fried octopus. Pic: Archant (Image: Archant)

It’s apparently already been so successful, it might even outdo Norwich’s Last Brasserie’s famous crab doughnut.

When chef and new owner Iain McCarten reopened the restaurant in St George’s Street, after five months of closure because of Covid, he knew he had to come up with a new signature dish.

So he created a starter that appeals to people’s love of KFC, but instead has coated the spices onto octopus.

The new Kentucky Fried octopus served with charcoal oil-infused mayo, courgette and charred sweetcorn is a new starter and already going down well with customers.

However, still the favourite after Mr McCarten introduced the concept a year ago, is the crab doughnut, a savoury sourdough starter filled with crab and with a lemon and garlic drizzle.

He said: “I wanted to get another dish on the menu to rival the crab doughnut...quite often I will put octopus on the menu, we normally barbecue it but I fancied doing something different.

“I’m not sure it will be as popular as the crab doughnut but I’m trying.”

Mr McCarten, who took over the restaurant from a consortium of investors who saved the restaurant from closing last year, has been posting on social media that the crab doughnut had to make a return. “The first dish out of the kitchen after nearly six months, it’s only right it was this one..any guess what the most popular dish since reopening is?”

But after introducing the Kentucky Fried octopus, he later posted: “Now on our opening menu, it’s going down a storm, a close second to the Cromer crab doughnut.”

Mr McCarten has also just unveiled the new-look downstairs bar in the restaurant available for private events and hopefully soon, even the choice of live music.

Mr McCarten decided to take the venue on as owner after the consortium felt it would be better run under single ownership.

They saved the restaurant from closing for good after the former owner decided to retire.