Review: Late night dining at Duck & Waffle — Her Favourite Food & Travel

Dec 28

Dec 28 Review: Late night dining at Duck & Waffle

Style Points: 5/5
Price: £££
Overall: 5/5

It seems that London is a city that doesn’t sleep, but instead flocks to Duck & Waffle in its masses at 4am in the morning.

I should have known from the struggle it was to find a table for a group of people at the dead of night that this wasn’t going to be a quite meal. Instead when the glass elevator had whooshed us up to Heron Tower's 40th floor, we walked into a bar and restaurant which was pumping high volume electro tunes into a space which was absolutely packed with people.

Yet they were not ordinary people who had just finished a night out and were in search for something slightly more appetising then a donor kebab in their after-party, post-drunk, pre-hung over states like us. Instead every table was full of freshly pampered groups or couples who looked like their night had just began.

We were seated next to a table of bow-tied men and white gown wearing women who seemed to have just walked out of the salon whilst I hadn’t even bother to top up my make-up. However as the rest of my group were suitably trashed this didn’t bother us at all and we commenced our meal in high spirits.

Would I Want Seconds?

Of course the views here are stunning and it was with the lights of London twinkling below us that we were given the Late Night Menu to order from. This contained a good mix of sharing plates, breakfast dishes, sweet dishes and an immensely tempting list of cocktails.

My table ordered a variety of dishes including the house speciality of duck & waffle, a crispy leg confit, served with fried duck egg and mustard maple syrup, as well as ox cheek grilled cheese with onion jam, fried organic hen’s egg and sriracha. Due to my overriding sweet tooth I ordered the toffee apple Belgium waffle which came with cinnamon ice cream and honeycombe.

One telling factor about the quality of a meal is the noise level generated from the table and ours was completely silent as we demolished every morsel of food in our plates. The finesse of the flavours in our food was so good that we were even able to appreciate the high quality of produce in each dish in our post-party stupor.

Some critics have waved away Duck & Waffle as a gimmick of a restaurant; however this is an underestimation of the effort the chefs here put into producing stunning dishes both visually and in terms of flavour all day every day.

Belgian waffles

Bananas brûlée Belgium waffle

Toffee apple belgian waffle

Duck and waffle

Spicy ox cheek doughnut with tea

Could I Afford Seconds?

Of course the prices here are as high as the setting, which is probably why the diners looked so glamorous. The egg based breakfast plates are around approximately £12, as are the main course dishes. That’s except for the signature Duck & Waffle dish which is priced at £17, whilst and the sweet dessert waffles are approximately £10.

There are restaurants in London which serve food at a much higher price than this who are based much closer to the ground. As a result the combination of the stunning views and the fantastic food actually make Duck & Waffle very good value for money.

Overall?

Duck & Waffle would call itself the UK's first high-end restaurants to stay open 24 hours and judging by the fact that every table was occupied there certainly is a market for this. I’ve also had brunch here at a more civilised hour and it seems to be a much more relaxed setting at that time of day.

The experience of dining at Duck &Waffle at 4am added an amazing end to a lovely evening. If only it wasn’t for the blaring music pumping out at us we may have had the energy to make a bit more conversation around the table.