The Drunken Duck (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I am always a firm believer that Soho is the world's most competitive market for bars and restaurants. As we've seen over the years, many of them just come and go in the matter of months. Still remember it wasn't that long ago when La Marmite was seen here on Staunton Street but it's now long gone. 

Taking up La Marmite's old place, The Drunken Duck brands itself as a gastropub offering innovative "East meets west" fusion dishes highlighted by their signature five-spiced drunken duck.



The Drunken Duck is a brand new concept brought to us by the Enoteca Group who's also behind Iberico & Co. Kitchen and Bar as well as eponymous restaurant Enoteca Soho. The Group's Executive Chef David Tamlyn knows all about gastropubs and has been very successful with former projects like the Press Room, The Pawn just to name a few.



My early impression on this new addition to Soho was a pretty good one. The predominantly light wooden interiors combines well with white tiles to give a feeling of space and light.




How could the restaurant be without a duck decoration of some sort?



A bottle of pear cider to get my adrenaline running first.



From the semi-open kitchen, we could see the chefs preparing their signature roasted duck. They are probably the first to introduce this special recipe of cooking a peking duck with Tsing Tao beer!

Watch how they shove those Tsing Tao up the ducks' asx!



Aunty Can's plum wine cured salmon gravlax, 3/10 ($93) 
OK, so we started off on the wrong foot here. When our salmon gravlax arrived, my first impression was that, "We didn't order salmon sashimi!".

This was a little weird right from the start. The presentation (I am sure they did it on purpose) obviously suggested it was a salmon sashimi and thus the soy, wasabi, pickled ginger and white radish. Upon further review, the texture also suggested it's nothing more than a few pieces of raw salmon. There was no jerky-like texture from a typical gravlax and definitely no sign of it being cured in salt or herbs. Furthermore, there was no sign of Aunty Can's plum wine neither.



Crispy Irish rock oysters, 4.5/10 ($139)
While we were still scratching our head on the previous dish, our second starter arrived. I like the fact that they were using a traditional Chinese plate for good measures.

These were reasonably good. The oysters were fresh and tasty. The Tsing Tao batter was an interesting idea although it was a little too thick for my liking. I thought the Thai-style dipping sauce with lime juice, lemongrass etc. was refreshing.



Udon noodle carbonara, 4/10 ($149)
Finally some "East meets west" fusion as promised. This looked very interesting on paper, a Chinese udon noodle with carbonara sauce.....an Italian twist, with parmesan cheese, poached duck egg and Chinese dry-cured ham (金華火腿).....oh wow! 

Too bad the execution of this dish has really let us down. The carbonara sauce was too thick and gluey.



Five spiced Plump US duck, 7.5/10 (quarter: $134)
At last, the signature dish of five-spiced Plump US duck, steamed, dried, sozzled in Tsing Tao and fire-roasted in oven. Unlike most peking ducks served in Hong Kong, the meat here was still very moist and juicy. I also love the fact that they were not slicing the duck the traditional way. Instead they were cutting it into long, narrow stripes which was very nice.

As always, the duck skin and meat were in very good company with a solid hoisin sauce, cucumber and spring onions. I particularly liked those steamed pancakes. Very soft yet spongy. 

 

Alcohol infused dishes were supposed to be the difference maker here highlighted by the five-spiced Drunken Duck. But based on our random samples, only the namesake dish managed to pass.


Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: 44-46 Staunton Street, Central, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Central / Hong Kong Station
Tel: +852 2803-0050
Website: www.enotecagroup.com/thedrunkenduck/thedrunkenduck.html