The Duck and Rice — Restaurant in London

Lunch on 9/8/25:

We visited Duck and Rice for the second time on a Saturday lunchtime at 12:30, before heading to a show. The restaurant was empty apart from two tables when we arrived, but it filled up soon after.

We ordered a selection of dim sum: • Fried cheung fun – nicely done • Taro pastry – very good • Har gau (prawn dumplings) – fresh and tasty • Venison puff – delicious • Scallop & prawn shumai – good • Prawn & Chinese chive dumpling (Sichuan style) – good • Vegetable dumpling (mushroom) – very nice

Most dim sum dishes were around £10 for three pieces, which works fine for sharing between up to three people, but can get tricky for a table of four.

Service was acceptable, though we did have to prompt staff a few times. Ambience was pleasant but nothing extraordinary.

Overall: A good central London spot for quality dim sum, especially before a show.

Dinner on 25/5/25: Duck & Rice is a stylish Chinese restaurant located at the edge of Soho, just off the main drag. Housed in a building with industrial metal stairs, the dining area is on the first floor, while the bar sits on the ground level. A large brewery tank near the entrance acts as a striking space divider and gives the place a unique character.

Ambience was below average as very nice, busy and service was haphazard at the start with food order taken then returned for drinks.

We tried the Peking Roast Duck, which came with a generous number of pancakes. However, there wasn’t quite enough cucumber and spring onion to match the amount of meat and pancakes provided. The hoisin sauce was decent but leaned on the sweeter side — a touch of chilli oil (ordered separately) helped balance it out.

The highlight was the Cantonese-style Roast Duck — beautifully cooked, succulent, with crispy skin. It’s worth noting this dish takes around 30 minutes to prepare, so order early. It pairs well with a side of rice, which must be requested separately.

The Assam prawns was excellent, quite spicy, more Malaysian style however more on the sweet side as well as sour. The kai lan (Chinese broccoli) was well-prepared, sautéed with garlic and still retaining a pleasant bite.

For drinks, the Lychee Empress cocktail was served in a large gin and tonic glass. Unfortunately, the lychee flavor was barely noticeable, with the puree not coming through clearly. It lacked the bright, fruity notes you’d expect.

The white wine we ordered was average.

Service was handled by Toni, an interesting and friendly host originally from Hong Kong. He added a personal touch to the experience.

Note: There’s a 10% service charge — slightly lower than the...

Our family and I had a mixed experience here. Service was unfriendly and we did not feel welcome in the restaurant. Server didn’t introduce themselves, didn’t talk to us other than the bare minimum to take our order and one time checking how the food was. When it was time to pay the bill the server just plopped the check in front of us without saying anything. When we paid the bill the server scrutinized our credit card signature and then asked for our ID. After all this I told the server that the service he/she had provided was unacceptable. He/she was very apologetic and told us that he/she was having a rough day due to the heavy customer load during lunch; because I felt the apology was genuine I am speaking generally of the service and not of the individual. But please know that a little kindness goes a long way. We are undemanding and friendly customers and we did not expect to be treated so poorly. On the flip side I did hear another server attending to other guests who was very kind and attentive.

As for the food we had an overall great experience. The crispy duck was moist and juicy and we like they they gave us a lot of the tortillas. The Japanese silken tofu with eggplant was the tastiest eggplant dish my wife and I have ever had - with the perfect combo of salty and sweet with tofu. The salt and pepper steak was also outstanding. The sweet and sour pork could be skipped - a bit tough with not too much meat. Gailan was fresh and crispy though for the price would expect a bigger portion. Portion size could be improved for some dishes, but this is also in a pretty central location so we kind of expected higher prices to come with...

Aromatic duck was not aromatic, and very dry, was like really dry duck jerky. The crepes were extremely dry and stick together, often tearing. Such a difference in standard compared to similar duck wrap dishes at Min Jiang or Imperial Treasure.

Asked for a change of wraps, which they obliged, but next batch was the same, dry and tearing. I asked for another change and the manager seemed quite upset about it and said "we haven't had any problems with this before". Hard to believe people are okay with torn, dry crepes.

The third change they gave, the crepes were finally decent, but instead of a full change of 15-20+ crepes, they gave us only 6 crepes for half a duck.

We ended up wasting the duck as it was really too inedible.

The salt and pepper shrimp was too salty. The eggplant dish was very mediocre, lacked the distinctive 镬气 (wok hei, aka wok flavour) that is necessary for Chinese hotplate dishes, and the eggplant was undercooked. However, I think these dishes were still edible but not worth it for the price point, tastes like takeout you can get for much cheaper in London.

I think the decor was nice, but it was very echoey and made it hard to hold a proper conversation.

Appreciated how they tried to give me a replacement, but I didn't really appreciate how they were trying to insinuate I was being difficult for not accepting dry, torn crepes in a proper restaurant. If it were takeout with takeout prices, I won't complain, but insofar Duck and Rice positions itself as a proper restaurant, then this does...