Holy Duck! — Restaurant in Sydney

I want to preface this review by saying that, despite having disappointing experiences before, I've never felt compelled to write a review about it.

We came for the All You Can Duck and, despite our tepid expectations, we left disappointed.

The service was poor - we made the reservation at 7.30pm and on arrival, were ignored and got seated after a group of 4 who arrived at the same time as us, but did not have a reservation.

Upon seating, it took about 10 minutes for the waiter to come and ask us for our order. We promptly told them we booked the all you can duck course, and they asked us for a booking confirmation. I questioned why we would need to show this, as we expected this sort of information should have been reflected on our booking in their system. The waiter completely ignored me and still demanded to see our booking confirmation.

The rules regarding the all you can duck were incredibly restrictive and outright egregious. We were required to go through the menu, one dish at a time, and if we moved to the next dish, we weren’t able to go back and reorder a previous item. This did not make much sense to us once the food came out - the earlier dishes, the spring rolls, san choy bow and duck fried rice, were incredibly stingy in terms of the meat and filling. I don’t see the reason why someone would not be able to order more of these items, especially since they inherently have less substance than the last dish - the duck pancakes. Further, we were told we could not order until we finished our current course (eg when we get the order of spring rolls , we need to finish the spring rolls before asking to order another plate). This was incredibly frustrating because each dish would take 15 minutes to come out, and we would struggle to get the attention of the staff, some of whom would actively avoid eye contact. We spent a significant portion of our 90 minutes either waiting for food to arrive or waiting to order.

The food itself was also not good.

The spring rolls were mainly comprised of the wrapping paper - there was close to no filling in each one and they were drowning in sweet chili sauce, instead of having the sauce in its own bowl separately.

Each san choy bow had a third of a teaspoon of filling (mostly green beans too) and we couldn’t hold back our laughter when we saw it. The ratio of lettuce to filling was borderline comical and, bluntly, embarrassing.

The duck fried rice was similar - an experienced archaelogist may have found some duck in there, but to the ordinary layman, "fried rice" would have been a better name for this dish.

The highlight was the duck pancakes, however, even this had significant faults. The pancakes were dry and doughy. The duck was extremely dry and was overcooked to the point where the flavour of the duck had long disappeared. In order to combat the dryness of the pancake and duck, you had to douse the entire pancake in hoisin sauce - also detracting away from the dish.

We tried to order as much of this dish as we could as we wanted to get our money's worth, and it was frustrating, given how long it would take for the kitchen to cook, that we could not order in advance while we were still eating the current serving. We spent the entirety of the 90 minutes constantly waiting for food to arrive because of how small the portions were and how long each dish would take to arrive. We still left the venue hungry - which says quite a lot given we had a significant amount of time to digest throughout the meal.

In summary I would not recommend this to anyone, and I could not see any redeeming qualities from our experience. After reading the other reviews here I question why they still have this option available - our experience seems to be shared by everyone else. The service by the maître d’ was abysmal and I question how he even managed to get hired. The fact that a portion of my bill has gone towards his wages is the biggest disappointment of all. Perhaps he would be better suited to running TED talks on how to scam your way into a job you're not...

Peking Duck always draws crowds to a Chinese restaurant and Holy Duck! have taken it to the next level, with their whole duck feasts that will serve the masses at a reasonable price. Not only this, you can order an array of Chinese meals, primarily duck based but plenty of other quality dishes too. This highlights them to be one of the masters of modern Chinese Cuisine.

In addition, they are now offering diners a journey through China with their regional dinner series. To keep the dining experience exciting, the specials menu will change every two months to focus on a different province. Holy Duck! aim to highlight the distinct characteristics of each region. This month it is highlighting the flavours from Sichuan.

The Hainan Chicken was superb, beautifully poached, soft and tender $22. So good, we wish we ordered a double serve and would love to try this again!

From this menu, we also tried the incredibly Moreish crispy battered golden shrimp, stir fried with dry long chillies, Sichuan pepper, celery and broad-bean sauce ($28).

The duck at this restaurant is a must and we obliged, with a serving of duck pancakes, that left us praising Holy Duck! The roast duck is mouthwatering and succulent. What better way to enjoy the duck than rolling a few pancakes and filling them with generous portions of the delicious duck, greens and hoisin sauce.

Some of our other favourites from the dinner menu were the pork and prawn dumplings as well as the scallops on zucchini medallions.

We loved all of the food we tried and we are keen to return again soon. As the regional dinner series is rotating, we can try some new things then. Don’t miss out on the regions still to come, focusing on Cantonese (Apr/May), Hunan (June/July), and finally Shanghainese (Aug/Sep).

The restaurant is hip, buzzing with diners. It’s a great place to enjoy a shared meal and a few drinks, right in the heart of the vibrant...

The worst service I recall having in 45 years!

The food, whilst only reheated by youngsters in the kitchen, was sufficiently loaded with MSG to actually taste good (aside from the spring rolls which did not).

However, the service was comically, almost impressively bad. We sat down at 8:15 on a Friday evening and whilst in the middle of eating our rushed mains at 9:05 we were asked if we wanted to order any dessert as they were closing. I asked to see a menu, which the waitress seemed put out by. She was back after 1 minute to pester for an answer and when I explained that we were still in the middle of eating our main course and so couldn’t really decide on dessert immediately, she left.

She returned at 9:10 and slammed the bill on our table, which we had not asked for. We were still eating.

At that point I felt that something needed to be said and I told her that being rushed like this was spoiling our experience. They gladly sat us down at 8:15 with the restaurant stating that it closed at 10. She said, “well that is when we are leaving so you have to be gone”.

I asked to speak to a Manager and she literally laughed in my face. She then said that there was no manager. I asked to speak to the most senior member of staff, she then said “er…. they are off sick” and once again laughed in my face, then turned and walked away!

Unfortunately, whilst I was in this bizarre exchange, my wife tapped her watch on the terminal and paid, therefore taking away our only leverage which was a bit of a shame.

Therefore, the only recourse I have available is to write this review.

If you value service at all, or wish to return to the days when a meal out in a mid-tier restaurant was a relaxed, enjoyable affair, I implore you to speak up when stuff like this happens.

It’s apathy that allows for this sort of thing to keep happening in Sydney and let’s be honest, it’s not really good...