The Duck & Willow — Restaurant in England

Duck and Willow.

We wanted to catch up with some friends before we set off to Spain and they suggested the Duck and Willow which has been renovated and apparently is gaining a reputation for good food, so we booked a table for 1930 hrs.

The pub is close to, if not opposite Downend Cricket Club which I suspect influenced the name.

I was driving so I was grateful to find a parking space in the Pub car park right outside the front door. Once these few spaces have been taken, its a bit of a bun fight to find street parking.

We introduced ourselves at the bar and we were shown to our table and given a menu each, whilst the server took the drinks order.

The venue is pleasant enough with pine topped tables perhaps a bit too close together but we weren't squashed, however our friends were sitting on a sort of bench (their side of the table) and both complained of back ache when we got up to leave.

The place started to fill up quite quickly and by the time we left it was packed so booking an early slot was a good idea.

The menu had some great options so choosing was always going to be a problem.

Strangely there are two sections to the menu.

The Restaurant Menu with:

'Single Muscle cut of Devon ruby red beef rump with a herb puree, pommes Anna, savoy cabbage, blue cheese and wild mushroom duxelle and a red wine jus' being the most expensive option at £19.50

I've no idea what most of this is but it sounded delicious.

The Bar Menu with:

Rump Steak, with 'an' onion ring,roast Tomato and mushroom, Chunky chips and dressed salad @ £16.95 with an additional £2.50 for Peppercorn sauce which seems a bit miserly?

When it came to it we all chose from the Bar menu which is still served at the same table though Im not sure why they make a distinction, perhaps the restaurant food isn't served in the bar area though I found it hard to see where the bar ended and the restaurant began?

The Fish and Chips was excellent. £13.50 but may vary.

Two good fillets of fish (unknown variety but apparently sustainable) on a good portion of chips, nicely cooked with a small tub of Marrow Fat mushy peas and a Tartar sauce dip. This was a really good choice and I would recommend this to anyone who loves Fish and Chips.

My partner surprisingly went for the 'Southern Fried Chicken Burger' that tasted delicious.£10.95.

Presentation was good though serving chips in an enamel mug is a bit too gimmicky for me. The only criticism from Jaki was technical. In order to eat this she had to deconstruct it and there wasn't enough space on the plate to do that, so it all became a bit of a logistical nightmare. Maybe an additional side plate or a slightly bigger main plate would have been helpful.

There was no Ketchup or sauce served with the meal's though small tubs of sauce were available from the server if you asked for them.

I chose the 'Flaked and dressed Gammon' dressed with honey, mustard and fresh herbs, served with a poached Duck egg, chunky chips and salad. £11.95.

Gammon Steak is my all time favourite go to Pub meal, I don't eat it at home as Jaki doesn't like it, its 'Too much meat' for her.

But this was, I think, a roast (may have been boiled ?) gammon joint that had been pulled, like they do with pork and dressed with enough honey to make it sweet. It was an absolute winner. I was surprised to read that the eggs were duck, a novelty but I'm not sure I noticed?

The salad was from memory a sort of wilted spinach which went really well with the meat and the Chips were well cooked, crisp and tasty.

Unfortunately the 'Kedgery and Potato cakes' let things down. £9.50.

At best these were two rather dry, plain fish cakes with a side of salad. Very dull, very unappealing and would have ben better served as a starter than a main course. Very disappointing.

Whilst I'm in negative mode, there was a speaker just above our table and we found it difficult to speak over the music being played.

We will come back again and I would happily recommend this to friends and family.

Well done Team,...

AVOID AT ALL COSTS Worst customer service experience I’ve ever experienced

We booked for a party of 9 and unfortunately on the day 5 people couldn’t attend and so it ended up being 4 of us. We were told we would have to pay for the missing peoples food (which was disappointing because we had paid a £10 deposit each and so assumed at worst we would lost their deposits - but either way we took the loss and paid their meals). They asked if we still wanted the food and we said yes if we were paying we would still take it.

All was fine until it came to paying. They then bought the bill over and hadn’t deducted the deposit. I advised them of this and they told me I hadn’t paid a deposit. I told them I had and showed them my bank statement showing £90 to Duck and Willow. They told me this proved nothing and I could have just come in for a meal that night. I told them the table was booked for 9 and the deposit was £10 each and so clearly it was obvious the £90 was the deposit. They argued but eventually said ‘you have no proof but we will take your word for it’. They then bought a new bill over with a £90 deduction but then said to me ‘but actually you should pay the extra because your friends didn’t come’. I said that this doesn’t make sense because we paid for our friends full meals so why should it matter that they didn’t come. They continued to argue with me about this for a full 10 minutes before I told them they could either take what we owe or we would leave paying nothing. It made absolutely no sense to pay for our friends full meals and then pay an extra £90 because they didn’t show. When we finally left the manager looked at me and said ‘yes you were right’ as if this made the situation any better.

Absolutelt disgusted at their lack of service skills, especially after we just took the loss when they told us we had to pay for our friends full meals instead of just lose the deposits.

Have also heard that they offer young students ‘trial shifts’ and then never get back to them as regards a permanent job and I am convinced this place is run by scammers. I will never be going back.

In terms of food, it wasn’t bad but definitely not the best and most certainly not worth...

I booked a table here to take friends as last time we came the food was delicious, the staff were really helpful and friendly. However we did not receive the same experience today…

We arrived at 2:30pm for a roast table of 4. We were asked to get drinks at the bar and wait as the table wasn’t ready - absolutely fine.

We got seated and placed food and drinks orders. We didn’t receive our food nearly 90 minutes after being seated. Other tables seated after us received their orders before us. (They were also tables of 4) the food was okay not as nice as the previous time we came. We asked for more gravy and really we shouldn’t have bothered we got an expresso sized cup with some gravy in for 4 adults. We asked again for more and they came with two tiny desert pots. This also took an age, so we had shouldn’t have bothered as the food had been eaten. Twice I had to chase someone down to ask where the drinks order was. Again shouldn’t have bothered we had all finished eating by the time it got to the table. Deserts were okay but all in all I think we were there 3 hours. It wasn’t busy at all. It definitely felt as though the “B or maybe D team” staff were in. Which was disappointing. The ladies bathroom was filthy.

Highlight had to be waiting 30 minutes for the bill to be taken so me and a friend went to the bar to split the payment so we could finally leave. I paid the first half and then the waiter said he forgot to put the optional service charge and he’s added it so she would have to accept or deny before putting her card in. She decline it and he said “oh” whilst pulling a face. She then explained if she didn’t have to come to the bar to pay for the bill and if we have received better service she would have tipped. The attitude we got whilst paying was off putting. Definitely will not be returning as felt basically forgotten about and when there are so many other places in Bristol to go that are...