Ducksoup

After previous failed attempts of visiting Ducksoup in Soho, it was for Sunday brunch that I eventually visited this popular establishment on Dean Street. It’s a small venue comprising of stools at the bar, a daily changing menu and a handful of tables scattered throughout the L-shaped venue. The menu is simple suited towards a tapas of sharing dishes, complemented by a fuller main course menu from the kitchen.

I arrived slightly before my brunch companion, so spent time people watching and checking out the venue in general. Ducksoup has the vibe of being a bit too cool for school and not in a good way necessarily, and on the Sunday we visit the venue is frequented by parents with their freshly delivered infants from the stork. It’s surprising that babies so small take up so much space, or at least their buggies do. The parents seemed to have little interest in moving said contraptions (the buggy that is, not the baby…though….).

Seated at the bar, we started with the (excellent) bread, green olives, saucisson seche, and delicious ratee potatoes served with dill and cucumbers. I could not find fault with any of these selections. They provided a wonderful array of flavours and I additionally liked the assortment of ware they came served in.

We followed the tapas with an order from the kitchen. Here we opted for the marinated seabass presented with blood orange and the shoulder of braised lamb and canelli beans served with zatar . With hindsight ordering both of these at the same time was an error. The reason why this was a mistake is that the seabass struck me as being a traditional cold starter.

It was tasty and I think would have tasted even better if we had ordered it as a starter or at least earlier than the lamb. Instead, it arrived the same time as the lamb which had a strong meaty taste to it and overpowered the more refined flavours of the sea bass. What’s more was that as the lamb was truly mouth watering. Really, just superb. All energy was expended on admiring the melt in your mouth lamb and the sea bass was forgotten about somewhat so I don’t think it received the justice it deserved.

While we ate, records were spun from the player located just inside the door. We decided to share a crème caramel for desert. It was underwhelming at best, by far the poorest or our selections, just really bland I suppose. At £5 for dessert, bland is not the word I want to have to use to describe my dessert.

So, the venue is nice, the food very good, there was something however that just didn’t quite hit the spot regarding the clientele. Maybe it was just an off day. That said, the food couldn’t be faulted (except the dessert). Lunch for 2 excluding alcohol came to around the £40 mark.