The Drunken Duck (已結業)

I'd normally get really excited about a restaurant opening, walking by the construction and keeping an eye out on its progress. I don't really have the same level of excitement in Hong Kong, it's not possible; there are so many new restaurant openings in HK that I'd be walking around in a perpetual state of excitement. But, for some reason, the Drunken Duck was one new restaurant that we'd been keeping tabs on, with a view to checking it out ASAP.The latest in a number of British style Gastro Pubs that have opened in the last twelve months in HK, the Drunken Duck is the most recent creation of the Enoteca group. who also run a couple of Enoteca restaurants, as well as Iberico & Co in Soho. David Tamlyn, who was the head chef of Iberico & Co has moved over to the new venture. David is one of the multitude of chefs who trained under culinary legend Marco Pierre White then went on to work in a number of well known Michelin Starred restaurants such as Pied-a-Terre and The Square. David then took a bit of a change of direction to run Michelin rated Gastro Pubs The Bridge and the Salt House, before moving to hot and steamy Honkers.With pretty high expectations, we braved a wet and stormy Sunday evening to wander along to the Drunken Duck (without reservation, of course) and found ourselves seated at a table right in front of the kitchen. Like a lot of English style gastro pubs, the Drunken Duck has quite a warm and welcoming feel to it, and it was a lovely refuge from the stormy weather outside. You could tell that the restaurant was still brand new, it had that new building smell and feel about it, everything was still shiny and new.The minimalist interior, which is quite funky, was designed by Kinney Chan, who has used exposed concrete columns and piping to create a comfortable yet modern pub feel about it. The dining was split with a couple of areas separated by a share style bench with high chairs, which was where we found ourselves sitting. Menus were hanging on hooks screwed into the concrete columns and before too long, we were checking out the menu, contemplating the composition of our Sunday meal.It's unusual to go to a restaurant nowadays that doesn't have the ubiquitous small and large plates on offer, and the Drunken Duck had run with the crowd in that respect. There were a couple of other options though, 'titbits' was a term I hadn't heard in a while (and we presumed they meant 'tidbits') and there was a section set aside for the Drunken Duck's specialty 'Our Duck'. The menu was quite extensive, with contemporary twists on gastro pub fare, but unusually, there was not a lot on the menu that really appealed to me, with a lot of spicy options. We managed to cobble together enough options for dinner though, and waited for our meal to arrive.Served at the same time was a 'rude boy' pilsner, one of SC's favourite styles of beer and the black truffle tossed chips with duck dripping- a really good combination. The rough cut chips came in a enamel cup and had heaps of Maldon sea salt and black truffle sprinkled on top. The chips still had heaps of the potato skin on and were golden, crunchy and pretty darn nice. What elevated the chips to legendary status was the small jar of duck fat that was used like a dipping sauce - yum! It combined two of SC's three favourite foods in the world, truffle and duck fat (the last being bacon).Up next was eight hour slow roasted and grilled octopus with chorizo, soy beans, olive oil, garlic and coriander. It was my turn to have some of my favourite ingredients together, chorizo and octopus! It was a rustic looking dish, served in it's cast iron frying pan and I have to say, the octopus was sensational. Soft octopus tentacles with a slight char on the outside indicated that the dish had been cooked to perfection. I loved the octopus, but thought the rest of the dish was a little out of balance, heavy on the beans and with chorizo chopped so small, that it got lost tin the more powerful bean flavour (not something you'd normally hear).It was at this point that things went seriously downhill. There are few dishes that can show off the skill of a chef like a well cooked scotch egg and we were hoping for a lovely scotch egg with a soft and runny yolk in the centre. Unfortunately, the soft centred 'thai thai' scotch egg with Mae Ploy sweet chilli sauce was anything but (soft centred that is). Straight up we could see that the egg was not right, with the yolk being quite solid, but what was also clear was that the filling underneath the golden crust was incredibly dry. It was so dry in fact, not even the lovely sweet chilli sauce could make it go down easy, it was just so dry. So much so, it shouldn't have made it out of the kitchen.Dry and over cooked ingredients would be the blight of the remaining dishes as well, with the grilled confit of pork belly with hosin 'slick', apple sauce and crispy skin being extremely tough and hard to eat. This time there was no lovely sauce to help the protein down, with the hosin 'slick' and the apple sauce being quite dry as well. The one component of the dish that was enjoyable was the crispy pork crackling, which was delicious.Our final course, which was the Drunken Duck's signature dish of 'plump US duck marinated in 5 spices, then steamed, dried, sozzled in tasting tao and fire roasted in the duck oven', was also very much on the dry side. Duck, when prepared well is one of the culinary world's true delights and with so much wonderful duck dishes in Hong Kong, we did have high expectations from a restaurant with a name such as the Drunken Duck! Unfortunately, the duck was dry, really dry, as were the pancakes that were served alongside. We normally expect ultra thin pancakes that allow the duck to shine, but these were really thick and also dry. We ended up leaving quite a bit of the duck, which was unfortunate.Being so close to the kitchen had allowed us to watch the preparation of the duck, which was cooked with a beer can inserted, which normally helps keep duck super moist. So, it was even more disappointing when we were served with ultra dry duck.We decided that we'd skip dessert, not really wanting to try our luck and have another disappointment. Was it a mistake, could the Drunken Duck have pulled one back with a delicious dessert? Well, I'll never know because none of the half dozen options on the menu really appealed enough for me to try.The Drunken Duck is located right in the heart of expat and tourist territory in Soho and is probably targeted towards transient customers that will come in once, maybe twice and probably move onto another destination or back home. Our experience at the DD was pretty similar to quite a few of our Soho meals, which are hit and miss (mostly miss) and should serve as a lesson for us. I guess though, Soho is our local area, so we tend to hit the area when we don't feeling like travelling.On a positive note, the staff were really friendly and the service was excellent. It's possible that we visited a little early in the life of the Drunken Duck and it will find it's feet, I certainly hope so. But for me, with so many other restaurants to check out in Hong Kong, it's pretty unlikely we will be back.@FoodMeUpScottyThat Octopus was sensational but it went downhill after thatUnusually quite for a Sunday night in SohoUsually good advice, not sure what happened though? 繼續閱讀

We had lunch there on a Saturday. Although not many people but we were attracted by the pub look and decor. interesting menu... Part Korean, part Asian and part western. Hoisin sauce on baguette topped with roast duck. A twist from Peking duck pancake I guess. Bread was soggy by the time it arrived at table... Awful. Duck terrine ... Even worst. Duck pieces all fallen apart. It looked well marinated but it was dull and tasteless. Hugely disappointed. I had to ask the waiter why is it so tasteless. They didn't explain and offered to take it back. I then ordered a macaroni and cheese (from kids menu) to be safe. It was fine. All meals range around $150. A smoothie was $60. Without looking for the drinks menu I ordered apple juice x 2. These turned out to be the most expensive juice ever. $42 each!!! And they are not the fresh ones. Again I asked if there was a mistake.. Nope. Nearly $100 for 2 glasses of basic-out-of-bottle apple juice. I was very annoyed. I didn't stay for coffee of course. It was a so bad and I felt compelled to write this review.  繼續閱讀

I have always wanted to dine here but there seem to be lots to choose from but not a lot that I can choose because quite a lot of the choices have Korean ingredients which are too spicy for me.The lunches that they do are great but they are only available from Mondays to Fridays.The tempting lunch dishes I wanted to try werenion Bhajis with Mint JellyDuck Broth with Soba NoodlesSplit green pea soupMiso salmon with bubble and squeakRoast Lemon & Cinnamon Chicken with Asian Greens and Chips,Neal's Yard Brie with Sesame Crackers Green Tea infused Chocolate Mousse with fresh cream and chopped almond topping.Beef & Duck Cottage Pie with 5-spiced GravyOther great appetizers with a British touch that I plan to try later.Bombay roastiesBroccoli, goats cheese and sweet potato samosaThai style scotch egg which I like but I don't like the lemongrass in it..Tikka spiced meatballsRoast lamb and mint dumplingsSteak and kidney pot stickersThe brunch was quite pricey and it looked confusing.For appetizers, the options were really good but I needed a full meal so went for the gnocchi which is now on the social plate menu hence the portion was small.++++++++++++++++RICOTTA and Morning glory gnocchi with roasted chilli essence, parmesan cream.On the plate, there were four big pieces of gnocchi.The gnocchi was quite creamy but it had a strong salty taste and it was not too spicy. 繼續閱讀

I'm a sucker for fusion. The principle is undeniable: recipes should not be held hostage to history and the worldwide distribution of flora and fauna. Everything belongs on a taco, or in a dumpling, or deep-fried. Not just those things that traditionally are put in tacos, dumplings, and deep fryers. But somehow, it rarely works. The Drunken Duck is mediocre fusion, at best.The beer selection is a little small for a gastropub. I tried a Murray's Big Wednesday, because it said dry and hoppy on the menu.I know how to pour a beer. I wasn't born yesterday. Somehow, even careful pouring resulted in an extremely foamy beer.There aren't a whole lot of vegetables on the menu. Three of the salads, for instance, are duck, tuna, and chicken, with some veggies as well. We got the only other salad: "carpaccio of organic beetroot and goat's cheese, bean shoots, spring onions, pomelo, herbs." It's not that I dislike any of those ingredients (not the biggest beet fan though), but I really felt that this salad did not "go together." Like, pomelo and goat cheese and bean sprouts aren't very synergistic. (Rating: no thanks)"Roasted lamb & mint dumplings" w/ "tomato momo dip". As far as menu items go, this seemed really exciting to me. Arriving, it was sort of strange to figure out how to eat. There's no chopsticks at the table, so you kinda gotta just stab the dumplings with a fork. That seems like a bad idea, because they look like xiao long bao, but they're actually not juicy inside. The filling is a sort of Indian (or Nepalese) -spiced ground lamb, and in my opinion is not really the right texture for a dumpling. The meat doesn't clump together like in a normal dumpling, and when you bite it things just fall apart. The sauce is a little tart, but doesn't greatly complement the dumpling. (Rating: OK)"Red & green curry pies." Sorry about the pic, I forgot to take one until I was tearing in. This is about half of a green curry pie.Before I continue, let me raise one issue. A lot of the sharing plates have sauces or are saucy. So at this point in the meal, I have beetroot juice, momo sauce and green curry all mingling on my plate. And my personal plate is small, so it's hard to keep them separated.Anyway, the pie crust was good. The curry inside was surprisingly spicy. Not stop-you-in-your-tracks spicy, but quite strong for a British place. The curry was mediocre though. I can make better curries and I'm not a fancy gastropub chef who's worked at Michelin starred restaurants. (Rating: OK)We had to get the duck. There's a picture out front with a duck stuffed with a can of Tsingtao, but they recently updated the menu and this one is "marinated in masala spices, then steamed, dried, sozzled in Kingfisher beer, and fire roasted in a duck oven." It comes with roti and some sauces. Altogether, I thought the duck was a little cold, the skin was soggy rather than being crispy and it was just OK. When you're in Hong Kong, you can't get away with OK roast duck. (Rating: OK)If the sign says "fusion gastropub," you can be sure I'll give it a try, even though that moniker is, in my experience, anti-correlated with goodness. Sometimes it works out, but not this time. Restaurant rating: fails to impress.Some final notes: I liked our server. The place is open-air so maybe not best for a humid HK night. Food was $516 before drinks and service charge. 繼續閱讀