If it were up to me to come up with a name for a new Modern Chinese restaurant with duck as the focus of the menu, ‘Duck Restaurant’ is probably the most exciting name I’d come up with. Luckily, Holy Duck! seems to have hired a much much more creative soul to name and create this fun and exciting newcomer to Kensington street’s growing food scene!
The creativity doesn’t stop at just the name either- just have a peek at their unique menu and you’ll see what I mean. Holy Duck! is the latest baby of Chef’s Gallery, and it brings some fresh new twists to Asian street food. And whilst I would have happily devoured my way through the menu through multiple visits, I was only too happy to accept and invitation to their VIP Preview night, where I could try a selection of their signature dishes in one go!
As the name may suggest, the star of the show here is the duck- and more specifically- roast duck with menu items ranging from just plain roast duck to the classic peking duck pancake to duck burgers. And if the amount of duck is a little overwhelming, there’s also other some chicken and pork on offer too. Think classic Cantonese BBQ. But jazzed up.
An as if to say they’re anything but classic Asian, we’re served some shoestring fries to start off with, lightly seasoned with Holy Duck! Salt.
Popcorn Chicken
It gets a little more exciting from there and we’re quite intrigued by these cute bite sized balls which follow shortly after. Although we’re not quite sure what they are, we immediately fall in love with the crispy batter coated in a sticky brown sugar glaze, and deliciously tender chicken piece hidden within.
It’s not all duck on the menu, there’s some other barbecued meats including this delicious Sticky BBQ Pork bowl. We’ve managed to snag a great seat right next to all the action, so we’re quite excited as the chef’s plate up these cute little bowls.
Holy Duck!’s selection of rice bowls are a lot more exciting than your typical Asian BBQ roast meat with white rice offerings. The sticky barbecued pork we sampled is served atop a bed of glutinous rice, which is quite reminiscent of chinese stir-fried glutinous rice, plus a few extra surprises in the rice itself. The full sized offering on the menu, even comes with a very photogenic side of pickled vegetables too!
It’s not everyday that you get the option of a duck burger on a menu, and the What The Duck! Sliders proved quite a popular option. They’re available in the full burger size on the menu, but we got to try these cute, yet quite substantial sliders.
Essentially a peking duck pancake, encapsulated between two soft burger buns instead of a the usual delicate wrapping, you’ll find the usual suspects- a generous serve of sliced roast duck, cucumber, spring onion and lettuce, topped with a sweet sticky orange hoisin sauce. It’s a little odd at first, but it works!
They even have their logo branded on the bun!
The sliders were definitely a satisfying end to our delicious meal, the only thing we’re missing is some dessert, but perhaps duck and dessert was a bit of a stretch!
