The newly opened Duck and Waffle, featuring head chef Daniel Doherty, blends an experiential restaurant with wonderfully quirky dishes.
Situated on the 40th floor of the Heron Tower, Bishopsgate, the lift up is an immediate talking point, offering an almost fairground-like ride up to the strangely homely graffiti cocktail bar. Being this high up, it goes without saying the views are stunning. We were lucky enough to have a clear day so could see for miles in all directions, picking out landmarks, whilst indulging in bottles of London brewed beer.
The restaurant itself is distinctive and modern. The open plan island in the cocktail bar leads through into an open plan kitchen in the restaurant. The kitchen covers one wall of the square room, the other three walls are windowed, and it’s topped off with a yellow wave-like ceiling.
The Duck and Waffle has plenty of exciting dishes choose from
The menu was offered along with an explanation that the Duck and Waffle serves smaller dishes to be shared, and the choices are not for the faint hearted. We ordered BBQ-spiced crispy pig ears and chip-shop cod tongues from the ‘snacks’ menu while we pondered our mains.
Although initially unsure about how many main dishes to order, our excitement about the eclectic choices on offer soon dismissed any tendency to hold back.
Once ordered, the dishes appeared rather randomly with a brief (and slightly over excited) explanation from the waitress. The oysters and crab on toast were as expected and the scallops were served on a rectangular block of slightly indented, pinkly coloured salt for dipping.
Although I’m still unsure what a ‘heritage tomato’ is, the dish was very nice, the rabbit rilletts with beer chutney offered a nicely rounded, fuller flavour. We stayed clear of the foie gras ‘all day breakfast’ due to my ‘foie gras guilt’ from recent trip to France, however it looked spectacular.
The larger dishes were cooked in a brick oven and the wood pigeon with pickled golden turnips was cooked to perfection.
All dishes were pleasant, however there were three stars to our meal. The smoked haddock scotch egg, soft goats cheese and the signature duck and waffle stole the show. The latter being a leap of faith well rewarded.
How many dishes can you eat at the Duck and Waffle?
Believe it or not, we still had room for desserts, which materialised into some rather average cheese boards as well as a warm chocolate brownie with peanut butter ice cream and crunchy caramel. This was ridiculously good and could rival any dessert in London.
Overall the Duck and Waffle is definitely worth visiting, and I’d also consider a longer stint in the cocktail bar, as long as you are confident you can handle the ‘fairground ride’ back down.
The Duck and Waffle
Heron Tower
110 Bishopsgate
London
EC2N 4AY
020 3640 7310
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