The coals burn from sunrise till sunset at Braddon’s Charcoal Rooster. Photo: Tenele Conway.
Live-fire cooking has become a catchphrase of fine dining restaurants in the past few years. The cheffiest of chefs man the hearth to stoke the charcoal, char the veg and bronze the meats, often to great industry accolades.
Yet all across Australia, in humble chicken shops where cardboard takeaway boxes stand in for fine crockery, you can grab yourself a charcoal chook for a reasonable price with chips and salad thrown in.
Canberra’s very own Charcoal Rooster on Lowanna Street in Braddon is one such place and whilst you won’t find a Michelin chef pondering the perfect pyre, you will find some of the best service in town and some damn good chicken.
There are an estimated 25,000 chicken shops across Australia and they employ two primary cooking methods: either the classic rotisserie method of cooking that was popularised by post-war migrants in the 1950s or live-fire cooking over charcoal. The latter was first used in Australia in 1975 by Nadia Softa, a migrant from Bosnia who set up shop in Cairns.
She may be humble but the art of live-fire cooking is at its best at Charcoal Rooster. Photo: Tenele Conway.
I’m partial to both methods of cooking when it comes to producing a delicious dinner, but on a recent visit to Charcoal Rooster, I was reminded of how special the charcoal method is.
Hoping to have a chat with the owner, I timed my visit perfectly and wandered in the door to be greeted by a well-tended mound of red-hot charcoal that was just ready for its first spit of chickens.
When I complimented the fire, the gentleman who built it showed a hint of pride and deservedly so. If you’ve ever tried to slow cook on charcoal, you’ll know it’s no easy feat to form a successful stack of smouldering coals and keep it at cooking temperature for a long period.
He went on to tell me that they produce anywhere between 20 and 50 charcoal-roasted chickens a day at Charcoal Rooster, with each spit taking around two hours to cook. It really is an all-day affair and one that pumps the smells of crispy chicken skin all through the neighborhood.
Life doesn’t get much better than a quarter chicken with chips, salad and chicken salt. Photo: Tenele Conway.
Between tending the coals from 7 am to 8 pm and roasting chickens all day, you’d assume the work ended there. It doesn’t. The chef also runs the food service, taking and filling orders with extra help at dinner. Despite the workload, the service here is a joy; genuine, warm and welcoming.
You might think after three-quarters of a decade, the roast chicken might be losing popularity and be heading in the direction of the all-you-can-eat salad bar, but word on the street is an unexpected crowd has created a recent resurgence in popularity: the gym crowd.
Healthy eaters and takeaway shops are not two concepts that you think of going hand in hand. Yet here we are – 2026 is the year of protein and you don’t have to go down a very deep rabbit hole to find online forums that can direct you to the best place to slam down half a chicken for maximum gains.
Sitting outside Charcoal Rooster eating my quarter chicken pack with its moreish salad and fluffy salty chips I received direct confirmation that the trend isn’t hearsay, as the table nearby discussed their training whilst lamenting that when they were younger, they could eat anything they wanted. Mind you, they couldn’t have been older than 21 and I can report it’s only downhill from there.
I never did get that chat with the owner, but in this case, the coals and the art of the smoulder really spoke for themselves.
With a tummy full of chicken, I left with only one question in mind: is charcoal chicken Australia’s most under-rated takeaway?
Charcoal Rooster is at 94 Lowanna Street, Braddon and is open Monday to Saturday, from 7 am to 8 pm.
