Duck & Waffle, not content with the unique appeal of being at the top of one of Europe's tallest buildings, added further to its proposition by opening all day, every day, so being there for you when other restaurants simply aren't. The combination of theses two factors pretty much guarantees D&W a good trade, so you might think that they wont be trying so hard with the food, but then you'd be wrong.
You might also think they would be predictable, but then you'd be wrong again: they have avoided cliché, avoided the Michelin trap and the tourist trap, charge normal prices for the food (it will cost you £25 to visit the top of The Shard, no food included), and instead, have done their own thing. The menu looks interesting, features items rarely found elsewhere while the food itself tends to be full on with flavour: it's a winning formula.
This is our second visit to D&W and with the snow outside ensuring we had no view (for the restaurant now nestled amongst the clouds), it bothered us not one bit, for while our first visit might have been partly motivated by the draw of altitude, this time, we're simply here for the food. What is different to our last visit is that we have chosen a Sunday for the brunch menu. We've been doing something of a 'Sunday lunch challenge' for a while now with mixed results: being well fed on a Sunday in London is not as easy as you'd think. We had wanted to eat at D&W on previous Sundays but found it fully booked, so with a little planning, here we are, back on the 40th floor.
The brunch menu is divided up between 'brunch favourites', 'eggs', sweets (but not desserts), and large plates, the last of these being duck & waffle itself, sirloin steak or a whole roast chicken. We took a little selection of plates to share from around the menu.
Chef Dan Doherty also kindly sent out a venison carpaccio sitting on a base of pear and macadamia, together with pine embers (a vestige of Christmas), and all of this on the Himalayan salt block. Beautifully done, amusing, tasty, all then typically Duck & Waffle. If the venison was subtle, bacon wrapped dates were anything but. With linguica sausage inside the wrap also, three of these dark sticky parcels arrive at the table and each one takes three or four good bites to see it away: it's rich, hearty and quite frankly gorgeous.
You might also think they would be predictable, but then you'd be wrong again: they have avoided cliché, avoided the Michelin trap and the tourist trap, charge normal prices for the food (it will cost you £25 to visit the top of The Shard, no food included), and instead, have done their own thing. The menu looks interesting, features items rarely found elsewhere while the food itself tends to be full on with flavour: it's a winning formula.
This is our second visit to D&W and with the snow outside ensuring we had no view (for the restaurant now nestled amongst the clouds), it bothered us not one bit, for while our first visit might have been partly motivated by the draw of altitude, this time, we're simply here for the food. What is different to our last visit is that we have chosen a Sunday for the brunch menu. We've been doing something of a 'Sunday lunch challenge' for a while now with mixed results: being well fed on a Sunday in London is not as easy as you'd think. We had wanted to eat at D&W on previous Sundays but found it fully booked, so with a little planning, here we are, back on the 40th floor.
The brunch menu is divided up between 'brunch favourites', 'eggs', sweets (but not desserts), and large plates, the last of these being duck & waffle itself, sirloin steak or a whole roast chicken. We took a little selection of plates to share from around the menu.
Chef Dan Doherty also kindly sent out a venison carpaccio sitting on a base of pear and macadamia, together with pine embers (a vestige of Christmas), and all of this on the Himalayan salt block. Beautifully done, amusing, tasty, all then typically Duck & Waffle. If the venison was subtle, bacon wrapped dates were anything but. With linguica sausage inside the wrap also, three of these dark sticky parcels arrive at the table and each one takes three or four good bites to see it away: it's rich, hearty and quite frankly gorgeous.
It's eggs next, with our chosen dishes duck egg en cocotte (wild mushrooms, gruyere, truffle, soldiers) and steak 'n' eggs benedict (braised ox cheek, charred sourdough, hollandaise). Both are good but the steak 'n' eggs benedict is a clear winner bringing together many threads and many favourites for a winning brunch dish. We're now beginning to think we've overdone the food a little.
The spicy ox cheek doughnut was the one dish that didn't work for us, not because we didn't like the flavours so much but because, in our view, the doughnut was too stodgy, weighing the dish down with it. It came with apricot jam on the side and certainly has the potential to be great, just a little tweaking needed perhaps.
Finally, almost finally, it's duck & waffle. We had this last time too and it is a dish that not only sticks in the memory but has you thinking in idle moments, 'I want it again, I want it again'. The name of the restaurant reinforces the idea and there's no where else you can really get it, so here we are, back, eating duck and waffle. Crispy duck, runny egg, regular or mustard maple syrup and a few carbs, what doesn't this dish have (apart from vitamins)? Another great brunch dish, and not a million miles away from steak 'n' eggs benedict when you think about it.
We are so very full, stopping of course would be the sensible thing, but so many favourable comments have been made by foodies about the warm chocolate brownie with peanut butter ice cream and crunchy caramel, for the blog, we thought we had better try one. It is indeed a winner of a dessert centred around a really great brownie, crumbly but gooey, just as it should be.
We enjoyed the brunch menu at D&W, a nice change to the usual Sunday roast, and clearly a winner, for the restaurant was full when we arrived and full when we left, despite the snow on the ground. The website for D&W lists multiple menus including breakfast, brunch, all day and late night, though when one menu starts and another ends, you'll have to check with them. Head Chef Dan Doherty is another young man with a big talent and is really making a name for himself at Duck & Waffle. After all, when you run the restaurant on the highest floor of the second tallest building in the UK and people are coming for the food, not for the view, you know you must be doing something right.
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