These days, Amelia Dimoldenberg makes a fortune putting A-listers at ease at the world's most scrutinized red carpet events like the Oscars, but she made her name interviewing them in far humbler spaces: London's fast food chicken joints.
Her web series Chicken Shop Date, in which the enchantingly laconic Brit banters with celebrities at affordable fried chicken restaurants, began in March 2024 with awkward close-ups and dodgy audio.
Her shooting methods and poise have blossomed since then, but her locations haven't changed much. She's still charming celebs—most recently, Sir Paul McCartney and Swedish singer/songwriter Zara Larsson—among the linoleum and fluorescent lights at cheap fry-ups scattered in residential neighborhoods around London.
To say Chicken Shop Date is a phenomenon would be as understated as her flirting style. Her most popular episodes have racked up more than 19 million views each, which would put them in the Top 5 most-watched shows of the year if they had happened on broadcast television.
And because the intimate show happens at normal, everyday chicken fast food joints (source of a quintessential budget feed for Londoners on the go), you too can dine on the same counter-service meals. At these chicken shops, a full order with french fries (called chips in the U.K.) can easily cost under £12, or about US $13.70.
You don't even have to be a meat eater—McCartney's chosen chicken shop location was vegan.
Chicken Shop Date locations in London
Organized roughly from Central London outward, here are the main chicken shops of 30 of the most popular episodes of Chicken Shop Date, the stop on the London Underground that will get you to each one, the celebrities who were filmed there, and what they were seen eating on camera (so you can duplicate their order, if you must).
Slim Chickens
1 Cambridge Circus, WC2
Tube: Leicester Square or Tottenham Court Road
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman (7 million views)
Chips and nuggets; Jackman ate heartily and was generous with the ketchup.
Ben Stiller (2.1 million views)
He was given a pineapple (not on the menu).
Chicken Cottage
135 Praed Street, W2
Tube: Paddington
Paul Mescal (6 million views)
He drank an orange Mirinda; Dimoldenberg has called this episode her favorite date.
Keke Palmer (4.6 million views)
Mirinda and chips; she also revealed she doesn't prefer bald guys (sorry, Sean Evans).
Kasey’s Chicken
223 Holloway Rd., N7
Tube: Holloway Road
Sean Evans (3.6 million views)
The chicken web series king had his with chili sauce, but he also fed us: It’s where he publicly revealed his crush on fellow CSD guest Keke Palmer.
The Jonas Brothers (3.2 million views)
Nick: chicken and chips (he liked it enough to take leftovers); Kevin: bottled water; Joe: ketchup and chips (plus someone else's leftovers)
Temple of Seitan
43 Parkway NW1
Tube: Camden Town
Paul McCartney (1.8 million views)
Vegan chicken nuggets and chips: “That is a good chip!”
Chicken King of Camden
19 Kentish Town Road, NW1
Tube: Camden Town
Daniel Kaluuya (5.3 million views)
He drank an orange Mirinda.
Morley’s Chicken
60–62 Brick Lane, E1
Tube: Liverpool Street or Aldgate East
Jack Harlow (19 million views)
He sipped his first Ribena blackcurrant beverage and ate wings: “quite exceptional, bit of spice”
Finneas (4.3 million views)
Vegan nuggets and chips, served dry: "I like everything sauceless."
Bella Hadid (3.7 million views)
Nuggets and sauce. Dimoldenberg: “That is kind of the most glamorous way I've ever seen anyone eat a chicken nugget.”
Jonathan Bailey (2.6 million views)
Chips, which he used to point at things
Cynthia Erivo (2.4 million views)
Erivo did not appear to eat, but when Dimoldenberg asked her kink, Erivo said, “I feel quite vanilla.”
Slim Chickens
167–169 Edgware Road, W2
Tube: Paddington or Edgware Road
Trixie Mattel (1.9 million views)
Mattel had an orange Mirinda (but needed help opening it because of her nails).
Chicking
362 Edgware Rd., W2
Tube: Edgware Road or Paddington
Jennifer Lawrence (10 million views)
Nuggets and chips
Kasey’s Chicken
223 Holloway Rd., N7
Tube: Holloway Road
Chunkz and Yung Filly (19 million views)
Yung Filly nibbled a chip like a rabbit.
Charli XCX (3.7 million views)
Chicken nuggets
Sam’s Chicken
338 Kilburn Lane, W9
Tube: Queen’s Park
Ed Sheeran (8.8 million views)
He played a ukelele more than he ate.
Morley’s
121 Stroud Green, N4
Tube: Finsbury Park
Rosalía (6.2 million views)
Chips and water (plus Bonds of London Rhubarb and Custard sweets, not on the menu)
KHF Fried Chicken Shop
4 Blackstock Rd, N4
Tube: Finsbury Park
Aitch (16 million views)
Ate a nugget and later dated Dimoldenberg briefly, so this episode could be considered one of her most successful.
Morley’s
139 The Vale, W3
Tube: Acton Central
Central Cee (aka Akhil) (14 million views)
Nuggets and chips
Sam’s Chicken
84 High St., Harlesden, NW10
Tube: Willesden Junction
Andrew Garfield (13 million views)
Although this interview went viral for its romantic sparks, all he appeared to consume was a can of ginger beer.
Louis Theroux (13 million views)
“Chicken nuggets. It's not quite what I was hoping for.”
Billie Eilish (10 million views)
Vegan chicken and chips
Lando Norris (5 million views)
Chips and a juice pouch
Idris Elba (1.7 million)
Chips and bottled water
Zara Larsson (1.7 million views)
Larsson didn’t appear to eat anything.
Sam’s Chicken
39 Watford Way, NW4
Tube: Hendon Central
Sabrina Carpenter (8.4 million views)
Espresso, plus a nugget. Her review: “It’s chicken.”
Alex Consani (7.3 million views)
Nuggets
Sesame Street's Elmo (2 million views)
Vegetarian nuggets: “Elmo has friends that are chickens.”
Jason Cochran is the author of the award-winning Frommer's guide book to London. The next edition will go on sale in September and can be pre-ordered now.
Frommer's London
This is London advice the way a friend would give it to you: fiercely opinionated, funny, and brimming not only with suggestions about what to see and do and what’s not worth your time. Whether you want to see Big Ben or the Harry Potter studios, Trafalgar Square or the V&A, London is a city wit...
Get the bookFrommer's London
This is London advice the way a friend would give it to you: fiercely opinionated, funny, and brimming not only with suggestions about what to see and do and what’s not worth your time. Whether you want to see Big Ben or the Harry Potter studios, Trafalgar Square or the V&A, London is a city wit...