Little Duck The Picklery — Restaurant in London

First things first. I really wanted to like LDTP as it is a welcome addition to this part of Dalston Lane. It's a well created space in a new build unit with a huge terrazzo effect kitchen table with the chefs on one side and some diners on the other. A floor to ceiling wall on the right is stuffed with LDTP ferments, pickles , vinegars etc. Be thinking of a nicely crafted wall of IKEA expedit (kallax) sized squares. Lots to look at.

Being sat at the table opposite the chefs on the other side of the table is a bit odd. It's not like seating at a bar, its more like sitting opposite someone cooking at their kitchen table.

Straight up, the pickles we tried were nicely pickled, slightly astringent and well picked. Home made kimchi is a world away from the Korean stuff in plastic packets. Nice. £2.50 per small plate of pickles.

We went as two at lunchtime and we were interested in eating, thinking of something substantial and if not inexpensive, then at least not expensive. The staff were attentive enough, but again it felt a little as if we had intruded into their kitchen. My antenna should have shot up when I heard the words "sharing plates" and "we recommend 4 plates" and natural wine...

I drink wine. I like nice wine. I like expensive wines. I like cheap wines made with love and with interesting flavours. I don't like bland wine and I don't like wines that leave a nasty taste. I don't need "challenging" wine especially at lunchtime and especially at 7squids for a glass. We tried the orange coloured wine. We ordered a glass of an Italian white and an Italian red and TBH i wouldn't repeat any of them. I'm clearly not beardy enough to appreciate the farmyard smells.

I wish that places like LDTP had non-natural wine options for those of us that don't appreciate them.

On a wine note, part of the ikea wall was a wine shop. I presume the double pricing is for drink here prices / take away prices. I also presume that the bottles at £50-ish take away prices are really bloody good and compare well to what £50 buys from the winesociety in the unnatural wine world.

The food. A small plate of roasted cauliflower (£9ish) with a minty goat curd - this was ottolenghish but I couldn't really get the mint. And the pièce de résistance was a small plate with a slice of Lamb and Turnip Pie (£12.50) which took a long time to come and when it did.... Well, the pastry was nicely pastryish. The four small chunks of lamb were nicely chunked and lamby and the turnip slices were thankfully not very turnipy. But i cant get over the £12.50 for what is a small plate of a piecrust topped lamb and veg stew. Not good VFM.

Time ran on, we declined desert and asked for the £50 bill. LDTP charges £1.50 for a carafe of still water from the (doubtless filtered) tap. It also charges a 10% service charge on top. This grates a little. Surely, tap water should be free or at least service should be optional?

£50 for 2 small plates of pickles (good). 2 small sharing plates (not very good). 2 glasses of natural wine (good if you like that sort of...

I went here this evening for my sisters birthday. Although the food was delicious, unfortunately the service was really awful tonight especially from the blonde waitress. My sister arrived before my friend and I did and she was asked continually if she wanted a drink despite her saying she didn’t want one which wasn’t a great start.

Things got progressively more uncomfortable, the blonde waitress made it clear that people usually got 2 plates per person but we ended up choosing 3 plates between us (where she proceeded to point “you only have 3..”). We were made to feel uncomfortable just because we didn’t order more food, and the service felt very pressurey (for example when we SAID we didn’t want desert, the man came up again asked again then when we declined for the second time he brought the bill almost immediately after, making it clear they wanted us to leave as soon as possible).

As me and my sister were the only two people of colour, and everyone else was white we felt we were placed under more pressure than any other customers to order more when we had clearly stated what we wanted.

The whole thing cost me almost £80 which is a significant amount of money, which I was happy to pay as it was my sisters birthday, however being treated as if we were being “cheap” and feeling so hassled about getting more made the experience really strange. Just because I am not a white yuppie with lots of disposable income, doesn’t mean me and my sister should be treated as though we don’t belong in a nice restaurant.

Funnily enough I had been to this place before with a white boyfriend and had been treated a lot more nicely last time. Clearly this place has some thinking to do about how it treats people of colour with a smaller income, despite the fact that I still feel I spent what I feel is a fair amount of money.

I will not be returning to this place, as the service felt very pressurey, belittling and uncomfortable. I would definitely not recommend eating here and can say with confidence there are lots of wonderful places to eat in dalston with friendly, kind service without classist,...

We booked a spot at the side bar, not really understanding what this meant – it means sitting facing shelving (full of wine bottles) with your back to the restaurant. It’s great for privacy, but next time I would definitely book the kitchen counter, or come in a larger group and get a window table. As a veggie and a pesci, our options were a little limited – to order the number of dishes recommended for two people, we had to essentially order everything without meat. My personal highlights were the charred peaches & green beans and the ricotta with borlotti beans - which were absolutely delicious. We also enjoyed the Pickles + ferments and the pan con tomate. I ordered the crab pasta but found I didn’t love it. It came out far later than everything else, so I found myself quite full by that point. I thought perhaps this was the reason I didn’t overly enjoy it, but the following night I ordered crab macaroni at another restaurant and the more subtle flavour there was much more to my taste. We enjoyed some cocktails while waiting for our food, then decided to move onto a carafe of rose. I ordered from a section of the menu labelled ‘pale, pink and juicy’, as I only like very light rose. Unfortunately what we were served was almost the colour of red wine and I couldn’t drink it at all (thankfully my spouse was happy to polish it off singlehandedly). The ambience of the restaurant is great – my pictures don’t really do it justice in that sense. It’s cosy and intimate without feeling squashed. The service was average, but having read the reviews beforehand, we knew this might be the case. There was no cause to complain - just nothing special either. The total bill was just shy of £200 for the two of us, covering the wine, two cocktails, three starters, four larger plates and a dessert. We knew it was pricy when booking, but I dare say I had slightly higher hopes for the value. That said, I did enjoy my experience and would visit again. I’d just pick a different seating option, order a little less and avoid the rose section of...