The Duck and Rice

I was told this place was a bit overpriced for what it is and as a recent HK transplant to the city I had my own reservations abt Chinese food plus beer plus hip culture in Soho. I was wrong about all things but one — the food is a tad on the pricey side but it is very delicious. We got wasabi prawns, the crispy aromatic duck and siu mai. The siu mai I was most impressed with — bursting with meaty flavor it could comfortably go head to head in a competition with any HK treat. The duck made me think of a different version of Peking duck — same fixings different kind of duck. Wasabi prawn is tender and had great sauce and almonds. Also worth a special mention is the beer negroni and the wide selection of draft beer. Cool vibe, great service — if I can find a more affordable less trendy version of this place I think I would have found a personal nirvana in the city. In the meantime Duck and Rice is a solid option when I get my Asian food cravings

There aren’t too many Chinese restaurants in London I like, but this certainly is one of the two. Owned by the people behind Hakasan (I think), this place is renowned for its original duck, but goes above and beyond to offer delights like wasabi prawns and more. I have been here twice and loved my meal both times, if only I could remember what else I ordered. It is always busy, any day of the week, so make a reservation.

Owned by Hakassan, so you’ll definitely get solid food. The crispy duck was definitely crispy and wasn’t dry and others have pointed out.
Presentation and décor make for such fancy Chinese food, but it comes with a ££££ price tag. Ehh, it was good, but I don’t think it warrants the cost and a second trip.

Alan Yau m’a toujours impressionné avec ses ouvertures de tables asiatiques qui les unes après les autres se sont avérées être de remarquables réussites; Hakkasan, les chaînés Wagamama, Busaba Eathai, le délicieux Yauatcha et depuis peu de temps «Duck & Rice «à quelques mètres du dernier en plein Soho. Toujours d’intelligents concepts, des cuisines la plupart du temps chinoises, des ambiances et décors comme nulle part ailleurs.
» Duck & Rice «né déroge pas à la règle et en plus avec un nouveau concept… Comment créer un pub chinois, moitié «on va boire des bières «et «mangeons quelque chose de sophistiqué «…Il fallait vraiment y penser !
Une fois arrivé dans le lieu, né vous attendez pas a trouver une devanture «chinoise comme dans le quartier Chinois «, mais plutôt un lieu étrangement moderne avec une paroi de vitraux et un intérieur qui me ferait un peu penser à l’une des maisons de Gaudi de Barcelone, le Palais Güell toutes proportions gardées.
Le rez de chaussé est un vrai pub avec son comptoir et ses distributeurs de bière à la pression; une salle qui associe divers matériaux entre bois, pierre et cuivre avec une lumière générale plutôt assez douce et bleutée,
Au centre, deux cuves de cuivre dans lesquelles sont stocké la bière de la maison qui s’avère être une Pilsner Urquell. Bière tchèque parmi d’autres.
Un escalier en colimaçon métallique vous amènera au premier au premier niveau où vous pourrez vous installer à l’une des tables pour un repas qualifié ici de chinois gastropub, encore une idée plutôt intéressante. Une salle elle aussi décorée avec beaucoup d’idées, quelques références asiatiques avec ces murs comme de la porcelaine chinoise, quelques structures métalliques, des tables recouvertes d’une dalle de pierre ressemblant à des feuilles d’arbres, des fauteuils ou sièges de cuir rappelant un peu le confort britannique. Sans être renversant, cela reste un décor plutôt original et agréable.
Vous trouverez également des foyers ou un feu crépite, à nouveau un peu surprenant pour un tel endroit.
Dans une partie de cette salle, le comptoir où se préparent les boissons et où la vaisselle est rangée.
Une autre surprise sera avec cette série de tables qui donnent sur la rue et depuis lesquelles on peut observer à travers les vitraux l’activité piétonnière. Dressage minimal avec bol, cuillère, baguettes et sauces standards pimentées. La carte est semblable à un certain nombre de lieux asiatiques car on coche avec un crayon les plats qui nous intéresse. Des plats vapeurs, au four, frits et un ensemble de plats plus consistants seront proposés. A priori plutôt une cuisine rapide mais soignée.
Comme nous sommes dans un pub nous prendrons cette délicieuse bière maison de Tchéquie, la Pilsner Urquell.
Quelques entrées mais qui qui arriveront un peu tout en même temps et assez rapidement avec tout d’abord des raviolis aux légumes du Sichuan. Vraiment excellents, une pâte fine, une farce gouteuse et une sauce bien relevée au piment mais sans être trop forte.
Des brioches fourrées avec de la «chasse «qui s’avèrent elles aussi être parfaites. Une pâte brisée avec un peu de sésame et à l’intérieur une farce plutôt douce et parfumée avec un ménage de viande et de sauce à la saveur typique des plats asiatique. Difficile d’en identifier les éléments mais c’est délicieux.
Les rouleaux de canard sont eux aussi fabuleux et ressemblent à ceux du Hakkasan. Probablement que la recette est identique. Un incontournable des tables de Alan Yau.
Là où l’on restera vraiment déçu c’est avec les calamars sel et poivre. Frits avec une couche de friture trop importante et basiquement mélangés avec oignons et lamelles de piment. Un plat que l’in pourrait presque trouver n’importe où dans un établissement chinois qui saurait cuisiner.
Les feuilles de laitue farcies sont correctes mais le mélange manqué un peu de finesse. Mélange difficile à identifier,
La déception vient du Canard et riz qui est d’ailleurs le nom de l’établissement. Ici aussi c’est franchement très basique. Un bol de riz parfumé, quelques lamelles de canard enrobées de sauce type Hoisin et de plus tiède, servi avec de grosses tranches de concombre. Un plat un peu «street food «, sans aucune finesse, pas franchement mauvais mais ni très bon non plus. On s’attendrait quand même à quelque chose de mieux cuisiné.
Certes le concept est différent et le lieu agréable, mais la cuisine reste irrégulière. Les entrées furent nettement meilleures que les plats principaux. Nous sommes bien loin des adresses précédemment mentionnées et même si cela reste un gastropub chinois, cela pourrait un peu «mieux faire «.

Crispy duck is the bomb! Food coma alert. Good vibes.

Great for the ambience. Has a nice buzz. Feels like a good place to go out for a meal out. Food is just ok. On par with a good Chinese restaurant but much better is easily found. If you aren’t too fussy about your Chinese food or don’t eat it too often, you will probably enjoy this. If you go in expecting hakkassan or yauatcha quality, you will be disappointed.

Amazingggggggg place for chill drinks and nibbles. The downstairs pub is super trendy and their food is phenomenal. It’s decently priced for a London soho hotspot. Haven’t tried the food at the Resturant yet but will definitely give it a go next time I’m in the area

On a scale 1 – 10 this gastro pub and especially the food gets 15 points! A Small piece of heaven in earth for a hungry shopper.

Sunday Brunch menu is pretty good, prawn cheung fun is a must try, also crispy duck roll, shanghai xiaolongbao taste so good, very authentic.

friend ended up with diarrhea!!!
nice décor dreadful food ok service
i know i can be very harsh with my reviews but i honestly would feel sad if you went through what I’ve been so at least let me warn you :)
was here on a saturday 10 days ago
saturady 8pm we’re in soho and we were hungry! ha we didn’t have any reservations big mistake on a sat night in london
friend wanted to eat in some place in soho i know my stuff and i wanted to eat in yahuatcha
so we ended up in yahuatcha’ just to learnt that it was full ha so we went next door Duck and Rice which looks very nice from outside but .
the ground floor looks like a pub and the restaurant is upstairs nice décor walls, tables, the tables are lined up in an awkward way.
they told us that they might have a table so we waited, i wanted to leave i knew food wasn’t gonna be good (call it six sense haha i just know) but friend wanted to stay :(
so as i said dreadful food, dish called shredded meat DISGUSTING! couldn’t eat it, i have no problem in sending back something thats awful but friend didn’t want to moaning and all he eat it! felt sorry for him! haha but was funny watching him eating it and pulling faces ha ha! when the waiter came back for feedback my friend said food is ok (typical british) i said food is pretty average awful’ sorry couldn’t eat it’ to what the waiter answered, its ok i understand! haha what does that mean? dear waiter You are meant to say i apologise would you like anything else instead??? or don’t worry its on the house! as i wasn’t paying i didn’t mind as friend said its ok leave it!
squid was awful anyway Mediocre dreadful food!!!
around 1am when i got home was feeling a bit funny it was 3am and couldnt sleep because i had stomach ache headache, next morning my friend texted me saying he had bad diarrhoea that night! he blamed the squid!
there you go!
ill never go back again!
Surprised tbh as its the same chef Alan Yau from yahuatcha!

It was a day of relatively disappointing expensive food. London can be so hit and miss sometimes. Having used to live in the neighborhood, I’ve been wanting to try the Duck and Rice ever since it was supposed to open in 2014. It finally did in 2015 and it truly became for the East Asian foodie community in London, one of the most anticipated restaurant openings. I’ve tried on numerous occasions, as I would never sit down at the bar, to book a table and have dinner here, but 1. the prices scared me away, and 2. it was impossible to get a table. I’ve walked in here probably as many times as I’ve called and without success either. So, of course, I pick the last Saturday to walk in with friends and we do get seated, only because someone else didn’t show.
Anyway, as luck would have it, I should have probably listened to the unluckiness from before and stopped trying to come here. The food is definitely decent, and flavorful, but good lord is it salty. We had the salt and pepper squid, the kai lan seasonal veggies, the malaysian duck curry, the ribs and the black pepper glass noodles. Everything but the duck curry was overly seasoned and doused in garlic — I wondered if there was a whole bunch that they needed to use and just made things extra garlicky. Anyway, what you’re really paying for is the renovation of this once a watering hole for the locals of Soho — much to my utmost annoyance. The atmosphere fits one of my core values — i.e. it’s young and it’s introducing Chinese food to British yuppies (albeit in a laid back, rather contrived pub/​club vibe, reeking of TOWIEsque lads and lasses). It also completely violates another of my core values that food should come first and the environment compliment rather than cover for the lack of good cooking.
Service is good, however, and redeems this place from a bottom of the heap finish. However, for £30 a head, I’d rather have stuffed myself silly at equally qualified, probably even finer cuisine at Royal China or Phoenix Palace.

Meh! Went to the bar downstairs at the Duck and Rice but wasn’t really feeling it. Vicky L suggested it’s because I am freaked out by the fact it’s no longer the Endurance pub — the old boozer that existed on this site before Alan Yau restaurateur funked it up with snazzy windows and fittings. But I suspect it was just because it’s not that special.
Perhaps my meh ness could be down to pre Christmas fatigue. It was pretty busy, people were unfriendly here (not the staff, just the people) and we moved spots SIX times in the night before we found a place where three of us could drink happily.
The menu was a bit of a mash up. Beer cocktails rule the drinks list — perhaps a nod to its public house former life. Some beers cost £8. What kind of weird parallel universe has Alan Yau created where beer costs as much as cocktail?
You can get ‘pub food’ too. Not cheap but decent value to share, and great that it’s gastro-​Chinese. However the staff weren’t able to adequately explain what is in their food — which in my book reaches new levels of Meh-​ness. Although my friends explicitly asked them, they weren’t told that shellfish was in the spring rolls. And we were wrongly delivered the salt and pepper squid instead of the chicken. Therefore I ended up accidentally eating two things I shouldn’t be eating. Double meh. My pals were happy at least though as they got the squid for free on top of our chicken.
Also the music is loud, but allegedly you can control the playlist and queue up a song if you log into their wifi on and go to their website. We were there for an age and we never heard the gorgeous C-​Pop song we lovingly picked. It’s all lies I tells ya.
Oh and one last meh, the downstairs where the toilets were smelt so bad and unpleasant. But they do redeem themselves with the loos because they actually had Thomas Crapper cisterns. However it seriously can’t be good, when the bogs are the best thing about the Duck and Rice.
So Generally meh — but this is a review just for the downstairs bar. Perhaps I will give it another chance when it’s less busy after Christmas, and i expect the restaurant upstairs will be different altogether.

Pleasantly surprised by this place, and it has the potential for 5*s!
A pub style Chinese sounded to good to be true-​It wasn’t. This place has a brilliant drink selection-​I had a few different beers and then some Gin and Tonics… all really good!
The main attraction was the food, I think London struggles with affordable, nice Chinese food, so was over the moon when I found here.
We tried quite a bit, with my favourites starting to pile up. some highlights included–
–Salt and Pepper squid-​fresh, tasty and not grease in sight
–Duck Rolls-​loved these-​really tasty and fresh
–The BBQ ribs-​again really tasty, lots of meat and good flavours
–The duck-​a must for any Chinese for me, and these guys got it spot on!
So the reasons we are a star short–
the waiter forgot we ordered shredded beef (one of my favourites), and when we reminded him, we were told the kitchen was shut so we couldn’t have it. Not something I expect to hear in a restaurant really… just still the pan on and cook some up. We were a big table spending a lot of money so the response was surprising.
Top 3 tips for this place–
1.Book, it can get busy, especially if you are a big group. They don’t have many larger tables.
2.Share-loads of great things are on the menu so don’t all order the same, mix it up and taste everything
3.The drinks are great, so try a few and give yourself time to chill in the pub down the stairs to carry on the afternoon/​evening

Great place, we stopped in twice in one day because we needed to go back and have one of their G&T specials again (the Gin Mare). Atmosphere is chill, and the food at the bar was pretty good. The best of what we tried was the duck spring roll and a spicy pork and prawn noodle dish. The dumplings and pork chips were just ok. Will be going back for the drinks and to try the restaurant for sure!

Alan Yau does it again (and much better here than Bababji)! Not sure if the concept is so much gastropub but the food and drinks were very good. We had the crispy duck and the duck and the pancakes were perfect. The special fried rice has egg fried rice on the bottom topped with chicken, prawns and veggies in a brown sauce. Mixed together it was very good. Dim sum was on par with Yauatcha — very well executed and not greasy. I would skip the ginger chicken — the chicken was dry and the ginger sauce surprisingly was flavourless.

Coming from NYC we did not know what to expect. We loved the place. It started with a great seat overlooking Berwick, followed by Jacques who was the best waiter we encountered in London and then with his assistance we sampled a great portion of the menu including sesame prawn toast, pork bun, Szechuan chicken dumplings, signature duck, egg fried rice and #23. We concluded with chocolate pudding with lemon crème anglaise. When we return to London we will be back

Two words — crispy duck. Served with «pancakes» (think Asian tortillas), veggies and a sweet brown sauce. Incredible service and what a scene, bar downstairs was absolutely jumping when we arrived. Everything was great but sesame prawn toast was the other truly unique item that was spectacular. Highly recommend it, our waiter Vikish (sp?) crushed it and this is definitely a place to go with the waiter.

The best crispy aromatic duck in London hands down. Starters are the best I’ve ever had.

Luckily for me, I didn’t realise this was a Hakkasan owned place until later… I’m guessing by some of the grumbles people had come in expecting the same quality. This place isn’t anywhere near that level of food… BUT… It’s still good!
We went for the crispy duck, some dim sum and a spicy noodles. The dim sum was ok (better than most places but not the best) the noodles were good although spicyer that expected, which was good for me as I like them like that. The duck was really good!!! We went for the half and it was easily enough for 4. We didn’t have any issue with the food or the service bit quite a few people round us were grumbling about the seating and food. The price is mid level, not cheap but good for a treat.
The bar/​restaurant is very cool looking although I don’t think it works as a pub… It’s a restaurant, a nice restaurant. The beer menu is extensive but mostly bottles, very few on tap (that were on the menu)
One down fall is the seating is a little on top of each other, a fact that was obviously getting th complaints. I reckon a few more weeks and this place will have it all worked out and it will be a top place for a night out.

The whole premise of a pub with Chinese food is great. The venue itself is lovely inside and the location excellent. The window spots are superb for people watching the huge variety of souls wandering Berwick Street Market, Sohos finest.
Sadly I was a little let down by everything else. My char siu bau were small and mainly onion rather than pork. The wines were overpriced and when I asked for a house red was offered the most expensive one on the list.
Was very busy and people passing were clearly intrigued. I wasn’t convinced however.

Duck and Rice has been one of the most hotly anticipated restaurant openings for this year, coming from London restaurateur Alan Yau, the owner of Yauatcha, Hakkasan and Wagamama. The idea is a Chinese themed gastropub in prime Soho real estate, right around the corner from Yauatcha. I thought it would be incredibly difficult to get a table, so when I emailed the reservations line a week ago, the request was more along the lines of «when is your next available table?» rather than «can I get a table next week?» But to my surprise, I was able to get a table on opening day, April 13, at my requested time of 7 PM without a problem.
The entrance is dominated by a large copper beer tank, and behind it are tables that are arranged in a high table quasi-​bar setting, and I think you can just walk in there. I was confused because there was no around to check my reservation, so I wandered upstairs, which was a more obviously restaurant setting. The first day was not super crowded, as I could see the odd empty table here and there, but also not very chaotic, which I guess is the benefit of having a few weeks of soft openings already.
The menu is large and very overwhelming, with one side dedicated to food and the other, entirely to drinks. However, the menu items have no descriptions, and even with the experience of having eaten a lot of Chinese food over the years, I found myself asking the waiter a lot of questions because I didn’t recognise so many of the names. In the end, we ordered two dim sum dishes — a venison puff and duck spring rolls, Singapore fried noodles, Jasmined smoked pork rib, crispy shredded beef, and some steamed rice. The waiter recommended one more dish, but that was already more than enough food. I had really wanted to order some seasonal vegetables, but at around £10 for nothing more interesting than bok choy, it seemed like a total rip off.
The first 3 plates were our dim sum dishes and the Singapore fried noodles. I loved both the venison puff and the spring rolls — you get 3 of the former and 2 of the latter, but the spring rolls are huge and cut in half, and are served with a lovely hoisin sauce. They are also very generously stuffed with duck meat, so you can’t go wrong here. The Singapore noodles were the size of a main, and the main reason that we thought that we had gotten too much food. They were very heavily spiced and extremely flavorful… but definitely was enough to comfortably share between 4 – 5 people.
Next we had the Jasmine smoked pork rib and the crispy shredded beef. When we ordered, I had asked a lot about the crispy shredded beef, as I had never heard of anything like it before, and our Spanish waiter sounded like he didn’t know much more, except that it was a highly recommended dish. It was very disappointing. In theory, they shred some beef and deep fry it, but in the end it came out like crunchy pork rind or something, served with enormous Sichuan peppers and rather unmemorable in terms of taste. The Jasmine smoked pork rib was the exact opposite, with a rack of about 7 ribs and an intensely strong smoky flavour, and very unique.
Throughout the whole meal, I had the Czech pilsner and my friend had a Chinese beer and then a Japanese beer, both of which were wheat beers that tasted like Hoegaarden. The one thing I will say is that the foreign bottled beers do not come cheap — they are upwards of £7. The ones on tap are all European, with the likes of London Pride, a Scottish pilsner, and even a cider. When we got the bill, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that we had gotten all the food at 50% off, which had not been advertised. It is unclear if they are still doing their soft opening… I asked the waiter and he said that he thought it would go on until Thursday, but it was happening at the manager’s discretion. If I had known, I would have definitely gone for the roast duck or the whole lobster! (they were like £40ish)
Overall, this restaurant is certainly not cheap at normal prices, but then again it is Soho. It kind of reminds me of Hutong in the Shard, obviously with the focus on the roast duck and fairly similar prices. I don’t get a strong impression that they are like a pub, large copper beer tank aside. I might pop in here for a beer, more because they stock some unique ones like the Chinese and Japanese ones my friend had, rather than for the vibe. The dishes are something in between tapas size and main plates, though personally I feel like they should focus on making them more like tapas. I’m glad I got the opportunity to check it out, but I wouldn’t be in a rush to return again.