the betterfield, high street, 2.0.

they've moved from their old location at waterloo, over to high street. my last visit was more than a year ago- meant to go back, but as usual, didn't manage to (because i got distracted). new location, bigger premises and a bigger menu as well. looked promising, and the menu was tempting enough for X, so we met for dinner there.

i'd made reservations, but i honestly wasn't expecting such a sizeable crowd. every few moments people would walk in, and the restaurant seemed to be running at almost full capacity. as a result, service seemed pretty haphazard, and i was bracing myself for a long wait for our food (and i was right).

having tried the beef previously, i decided to go for the duck confit ($22) instead. X chose to have the pulled duck burger ($21). we wanted something to share, and were tempted by the hot melted brie ($16) and one of the risottos ($22). eventually decided on the mushroom truffle risotto, because a whole wheel of brie sounded like overkill. (X wanted the red cheddar scallop tots ($16), but it came with a whole lot of tater tots (!) and i put my foot down at that.)





X's pulled duck burger came first, accompanied by fries and a salad. the sides were nothing to shout about, but she liked the burger well enough (but then she likes any pulled meat). from the bit i tried, i liked it well enough, but i suspected that my duck confit would taste exactly like it (and i was right). not a bad thing, though!



my duck confit came slightly later. while it did look good, golden brown skin and all, accompanied by an arty swipe of berry compote, i found the skin to be way too fatty. it seemed like they hadn't rendered the fats off the skin enough to get it light and crispy. i found myself scraping off the bits of fat underneath the skin.



couldn't help but compare it to saveur art's version, which i'd had recently. saveur art's one, with its crispy, light skin and accompaniments that matched perfectly, was far superior. i should've stuck to the beef. (did want to try to côte de boeuf, but there was a minimum order of 850g, and there was only two of us.)



glad we were greedy and decided to order three mains between the two of us, because portions were kind of small (even after sharing three mains, i felt peckish). the risotto arrived when we were halfway through our food. it was alright- not anything particular impressive, but good enough.

prices are nett, so i really shouldn't say anything about service. they seemed quite disorganised though, perhaps because they're newly opened. given that they don't charge for service and there's a counter displayed prominently, it seems to make more sense for them to get people to go up to the counter to order and pay there, rather than come around and take orders. it'd save us a lot of waving, anyway. i was expecting to pay the bill at the table, but we were given the bill at the table, and told to go to the counter to pay. but when i went over, it was chaotic, with everyone rushing around and no one at the counter to actually accept payment. i had to hang around and wait for someone to attend to me. kind of weird, really. they do have to work on getting more systematic.

i'd come back to try the beef again. they're still offering a set lunch, but now for $17.90. given the time we had to wait for our food, i'd probably only come over if i have time to spare, though!

the betterfield
100 high street
#01-03
https://www.facebook.com/TheBetterField/