Last week was my birthday week, and I had a fairly quiet one this year. I've been wanting to visit Duck and Waffle for awhile now, and I've had to cancel reservations three times due to circumstances beyond my control beginning last June. I was actually due to visit on the Sunday before my birthday for brunch, but I woke up feeling ill, and they kindly let me reschedule it for last Sunday while I slept away most of the day. It's a pity that I had to rearrange it because that day had lovely weather, and this Sunday just passed was a wash-out. A clear day is needed in order to enjoy the amazing views on the top of the Heron Tower in the City of London, where Duck & Waffle is located.
The entrance to Duck & Waffle is on Bishopsgate, and it's a road that I walked every day and would often see people waiting to get inside in the evening. Once inside the tower, a glass lift whizzes you up to the top floor. Now, I am not the best with heights, but the lift does move quite quickly. The below photograph is the view at the top of the lift shaft.
Once at the top, we walked through a lounge with a bar. The blue and white tiled floor was beautiful, and we caught a glimpse of the Gherkin a couple of blocks away.
Once we made ourselves known, we were welcomed and shown our seat. They had reserved a table beside the window for us on the same side as the Gherkin. I had an amazing view, looking southeast with Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, and the Gherkin in my view. Unfortunately, the visibility was very low as the rain was coming down lightly. I am certain that Canary Wharf and the Olympic Park and O2 Arena (former Millennium Dome) can be seen on a clear day.
Unfortunately, this was the best view that I had of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London through the rain and mist.
Looking behind, I had a view of north-east London. The white tents of Petticoat Lane Market can be seen below and lining the street.
Directly below is Houndsditch and the road where the old London wall would have been. The greenish square area nearly in the middle and to the left of the red cranes in the photograph is where one of the old city gates stood - Aldsgate. The bloke used to work in the building just to the right of those cranes. The seating area below is for SushiSamba, another restaurant in the tower.
We were shown a menu, and we both ordered the Mimosa cocktail. This is champagne mixed with orange juice. It was nice, but it was highly expensive for what it is. I think perhaps a bottle of champagne would have been a much better value, or even a glass of champagne would have been a better value. This was the only negative comment about my experience, other than not having better weather, which is beyond everyone's control. The service was very attentive throughout.
My partner ordered the full English breakfast, but he did not want some of the items. This actually ended up working out cheaper. The full English breakfast comes with eggs, mushrooms, tomato, and black pudding in addition to what is seen below. My partner had the sourdough bread, hashbrowns, sausage, and bacon.
I tried the hashbrowns, and I ordered a side of bacon, and both were delicious. The bacon is streaky bacon (or American-style bacon). I normally do not like hashbrowns because I find them greasy, but these were not and were mixed with spring onion.
I had the "Full Elvis", which is one of the waffle items on the menu. Waffles make up part of the signature dish (duck and waffle), so I decided to try them. The waffles are drizzled with peanut butter and jelly (pbj on the menu), cramelised banana, chantilly cream, and lashings of fruit (blueberry, strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry). I am not a big fan of peanut butter, but these tasted delicious, and thinking about them now makes me droll.
By the time we were about ready to leave, the sky had cleared slightly, but this still was not enough to see for miles. Oh well, we shall have to visit again!
However, just before we were ready to leave, the waiter brought this over to my table. I had told the staff that this visit was for my birthday when I had to reschedule, so they kindly made me a birthday plate with a chocolate truffle, sugared dried fruit jelly, marshmallow, and sugared almonds. This was lovely.
Before we left, I checked out the view on the other side and discovered the orange tree. This tree is visible from the street level, and I've been able to see it from ground level around Spitalfields.
We had a lovely brunch, and I cannot wait to go back and have dinner at some point. Let's hope that we have better weather for that time.
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