Duck ‘n’ Doughnuts – A Marriage Made in Heaven?…Delicious food at dizzy heights – @DuckandWaffle
Duck ‘n’ Doughnuts – A Marriage Made in Heaven?
Before I tell you about the food experience at Duck & Waffle. One word of advice, if your partner has a nervous disposition or an aversion to heights, I suggest that it might be pertinent to have a snifter or two before you climb in the ‘Great Glass Elevator’.
At the bottom of Heron Tower you are greeted and directed towards the glass lift on the outside of the building and instructed to hit the 40th Floor button.
Now, I’m not a great lover of these kinds of lifts but needs must and it’s a great view of the London skyline en route to dinner.
I can guarantee that there isn’t anyone entering through reception of the restaurant in the bar would not marvel at the vista they are greeted with. Well done to the designers of the layout. The first thing you see is an aerial view of the Gherkin, a building that has aesthetically grown on me over the years.
We arrived just before sundown and were ushered to our table by a very pleasant chap front of house. The Bloke was rather pleased that we didn’t have a window seat!
The dining area is airy and spacious, scattered with tables for two and four covers, circular booths and long wooden tables for bigger parties.
The menu is basically a British tapas menu, allowing you to select as many dishes as you like to sample and I assure you the desire to have a plate of the majority of dishes is more than tempting. Plus there are the dishes ‘for the table’, including the signature dish ‘Duck & Waffle’.
Whilst sipping on our G&Ts we nibbled on the crispy pigs ears. What a delightful and moreish snack. Beautifully seasoned and I mean seasoned, not just sprinkled with Maldon Sea Salt; crispy and crunchy served in a brown paper bag. We could definitely have had another serving.
Whatever you order from the menu will come as and when to your table, cooked to order from the open kitchen central to the restaurant.
First to arrive was the mutton slider with harissa and scorched tomato sauce. The bloke dived in. He commented on the cute bun and I quickly realised that he wasn’t paying me a compliment but looking adoringly at the creation on the plate in front of him. The harissa lent a subtle heat and spice to the moist and perfectly cooked mini mutton burger. It got a firm thumbs up.
Next to arrive was the spicy ox cheek doughnut covered in a smoked paprika and sugar coating served with a smooth apricot ‘jam’. What a very, very clever dish. On the face it, it looked like any other homemade doughnut, until you cut into it to reveal the slow braised ox cheek inside. The texture was light as a doughnut normally is…then when you take a mouthful, your food brain goes into argumentative mode with itself.
“It’s a doughnut, it should be sweet…but it is sweet with a smoky edge on the sugar? So it’s not actually sweet…or is it?”
Then a double whammy as both the lamb cutlets with smoked aubergine and raita, plus the duck & waffle ‘for the table’ dishes arrive.
Three lamb cutlets were precariously balanced on a mound of smoked aubergine and a perfectly proportioned serving of palate cleansing raita. The lamb was sublime. Cooked to perfection with a tantalisingly pink interior. We could have just grazed on plates of them the whole evening. The aubergine had a beautiful lightly smoked earthy flavour which was a spot on bed fellow for the lamb and raita.
So… trumpet fanfare and onto the duck and waffle. To many it will seem an odd juxtaposition of the savoury duck and sweet waffle and maple syrup that you would normally associate with breakfast or dessert. However…this works, it really does.
Every mouthful is a treat of the moist confit duck, soft fluffy waffle, rich runny duck egg yolk topped off with mustard maple syrup. As you can see we rather enjoyed it!
So did we have room for a pud? Normally I wouldn’t but on this occasion, I indulged and so did The Bloke. We both plumped for the warm chocolate brownie with peanut butter ice cream and caramel.
What can I say other than it was a chocolatey delight. The peanut butter ice cream was subtle and not overpoweringly ‘nutty’ with the caramel giving a nice crunchy texture against the indulgence of the brownie and the ice cream and was washed down with a glass of Maury Grenat Els Pyreneus 2009. A perfect accompaniment to the dessert and the end of our meal.
We both thoroughly enjoyed the meal and Duck & Waffle’s menu sings in it’s own right aside from the stunning setting and views…that is a bonus.
We’ll definitely be back as we need to try the other dishes that we couldn’t manage on the night. It’s a great restaurant for couples and groups alike and the dishes are not expensive.
Top marks from The Bloke and me.
Heading here in 3 weeks. V high on my list when back in London!
I highly recommend it, will be going back again very soon. Hope you enjoy it when you’re in London.