london fat duck, scotts square.
to be honest, london fat duck has never been on my to-try list, as reviews online have been mixed. but my friends tried it previously and loved it, so we came by for dinner on a weeknight.no reservations allowed, but thankfully we didn't have to wait long for seats (probably five minutes or so), even though the restaurant was crowded.
the menu consisted of roasts and the usual dim sum items. we ticked the items that we wanted on an order chit and passed it to the waitress (it was only later that my friend remembered that there were ipads available to do ordering on). food came really quickly- like within five minutes, which was awesome!
i was most excited by the black pepper london duck buns ($4.80), which my friends had had previously and raved about.
didn't look like much, but it was awesome. it came piping hot, with a crispy, sugary crust that reminded me of tim ho wan's. i would come back just for this.
that's not to say that the rest of the items weren't good. they were, too. i found the rest of the items to be pretty competent. standouts were the char siew ($14.80), the dumpling soup ($8) and the crispy london duck snow bun ($4.80). the snow bun was essentially a black pepper-less version of the black pepper duck bun, so of course i liked it, especially since it had the same crackly crust. we didn't get the duck to share, because my friend and i aren't fans of fatty duck, but my other friend who wanted to try got the london roast duck noodle ($7.80), which he enjoyed well enough.
perhaps the only item i didn't like was the golden custard bun ($4.80). as promised, it did flow, but the filling had none of the fragrant saltiness i love about salted egg custard.
i don't eat dim sum often, but i found the prices to be quite reasonable given the quality and the location. we ordered freely and were stuffed at the end of the meal, yet the bill came up to only about $85 for three people, including chinese tea at $1 per person. it was a pretty satisfying meal, and i'll be back for the buns.
london fat duck
#b1-16/17 scotts square
