Since I’m literally working next door at the moment, I
decided to check out the bar before dinner. My heart sank when a guy at the bar
told me, “Food is not the point here, check out the view!” Hell yea the view is
absolutely stunning with the Gherkin glowing and the glittering city stretched
beyond darkness. But food matters! So I relaxed when he said he’s never eaten
here... shut up then.
The restaurant has a posher touch to it, a few half circle
sofa booths and small marble tables. We were seated right by the open kitchen
and were under a continuous attack of mouth-watering aroma. We decided to skip
the conventional-looking items and ordered whatever sounded wrong on paper.
Scallop / apple / black
truffle / lime
These looked like sushi perched on
a solid block of pink crystal. So pretty...but!
The apple chunk was leaning more on
the citrusy side than fruity, and so it killed the delicacy of the thin slice
of scallop. The truffle wasn’t helping either, as it was deeply engaged in a
battle with the lime juice, which probably felt clueless as to what it was
doing there when truffle essence almost always dominates. Scallop itself wasn’t top
notch, could have been better with a thicker cut to gel things together. All
in all, it was disorganised.
I know a lot of people liked this
dish, even the ones who didn’t like D&W liked this dish. I didn’t. Michal
didn’t either. Olivia would have liked it better if more scallop replaced the
apple.
Yellowfin tuna / watermelon / balsamic
/ basil
The meal
only got better from here.
Pairing
watermelon and tuna sashimi is adventurous and it totally worked. The subtle
sweetness from the watermelon cube brought a refreshing dimension to usual fishiness
of the tuna, and also more succulence. And whatever punch the fish and
fruit was missing because it was somewhat watered down by juice, the balsamic kicked it all back in.
The flavours were layered and composed; I was pleasantly surprised.
Shetland mussels & clams / n’duja /
fennel broth / house bread
The mussels
were so plump the meat fitted to the edge of the shell, cooked to en-point
perfection the silky morsels were melting on tongue. Flavours were fresh with an underlying pungent heat from the fennel and gentle spices. The bread
was unexpectedly gorgeous too, super crispy on the outside, encasing some
seriously piping hot pillow-soft dough. We only wished there was more.
Spicy ox cheek doughnut / apricot jam
And it just
keeps getting better. The deep fried doughnut was light and fluffy and
absolutely greaseless, packed with shredded tender ox cheeks, oozing with meat
juice. The sweet paprika powder dusted on the outside made it even more
addictive. When dipped in the apricot sauce, which probably drove the
sweetness a tad into an overkill, it was like a barbecue pork puff, but in a
doughnut, and even better.
Foie gras ‘all day breakfast’
The constant
wave of pan fried foie gras coming from the open kitchen was killing me.
‘Breakfast’
was toast topped with a healthy slice of crispy edged liver, brittle streaky
bacon, small balls of deep-fried black
pudding and a fried quail egg, all held in place by a thin layer of chocolate
spread. The choc worked magic bringing the goodies together; took on the plum
sauce role with foie gras, replaced the maple syrup job with crispy bacon, and
enriched the flavours of black pudding balls. Top marks.
Despite the
portion, it’s a pretty heavy weight dish that makes the traditional fry-up look
too healthy. That said it was definitely worth that the extra gym-ing.
Battered sausages / mustard
The original plan was munchies with wine. These turned up
right at the end of the meal after a gentle poke. Yea we know things come as
they are ready, just hard to imagine how long these 4 dingy sausages could
possibly take.
Once one has been hooked on the corn puppies at MEATmarket,
these ordinary ones simply don’t make the cut. Next!
Duck & waffle / crispy leg confit /
fried duck egg / mustard maple syrup
And here
comes the wax seal.
I know
others have complained about the duck being dry, but ours was perfect with
crisp skin and tender, juicy muscles, almost like steamed chicken thigh-kind of
tender. The egg yolk, the faintly gamey duck meat, and super fluffy waffle, all
drowned in maple syrup with a mustard hint. Yes, drown, that’s how you’re
supposed to do it, drown it dammit!
It was so freaking good; it was "the three of
us stopped chatting and just kept saying ‘oh my god this is so good’" type of
good. And it wasn’t the novelty of the combination; since I have had something
similar in the States before, it was striking that balance between the
sweetness of the syrup and the savouriness of the duck. Scrumptious, I loved
it.
Warm Chocolate Brownie / peanut butter
ice cream / crunchy caramel
They even
nailed the desserts. Crumbly edges to the indulgent brownie with a moist chewy
centre, paired with peanut butter ice cream. Who would say nay?
It was no
doubt one of the more memorable meals I had this year in London. The food was
quirky with sophistication and a touch of class to go with its location. We
decided it was a great date-restaurant, the food sharing, the
not-trying-too-hard ambience, unbeatable view, though I wouldn’t sit so close
to the kitchen as we all ended up smelling like we had been cooking too. I’ve
already put my next reservation in for 3 weeks time.
Whoever
thought food was secondary to the view here at Duck & Waffle, think again.
Heron Tower
110
Bishopgate
London
EC2N 4AY
Tel: 0203
640 7310
You may also like: Corner Room, Pollen Street Social, Kopapa
Sounds fabulous, can't wait to try it out!
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