All hat, no cattle
My fiancé and I visited Duck & Waffle in Edinburgh and unfortunately, the experience did not live up to the price tag or the hype.
When you first walk in, the design hits you immediately the bright red is visually overwhelming, but it did give me hope that the food would be bold and creative. We booked the chef's table, expecting to see some action in the kitchen, maybe interaction or samples, as you'd typically get in this kind of seating. Instead, absolutely nothing was happening. No prep, no cooking, no interaction so I would not recommend the chef's table at all.
For food, I ordered the festive turkey entrée, and my fiancé got the signature duck and waffle. We also shared the prawns in butter sauce. The butter sauce itself was flavorful, but very soupy, and the prawns tasted like they had been cooked straight from frozen. One wasn't even deveined, which I had to do myself. The dish felt unfinished some toast or even a bit of pasta would have helped, but overall it was a miss.
Dessert was the biggest disappointment of the night. We asked our server whether to choose the cinnamon ice cream apple dessert or the Elvis (peanut butter, jelly, caramelized bananas, waffle), and he confidently recommended the Elvis. This ended up being one of the worst desserts I've ever had. The bananas tasted underripe, the Chantilly had an odd aftertaste, and the berries didn't make sense with the rest of the dish. The flavors clashed in a way that made the whole thing borderline inedible. I genuinely don't know how this made it past a test kitchen.
The bill came to about $225, and with the slow service and underwhelming food, it just didn't feel worth it. The wine list was nice, but that's hard to mess up.
Overall, the restaurant felt like a lot of flash without the follow-through. Edinburgh has beautiful produce and ingredients, but so far many places including this one seem to struggle with seasoning and flavor. I wish this had been a better experience, but I wouldn't return and wouldn't recommend it at these prices. There are plenty of simpler, more affordable spots serving better-tasting food. read more