Little Duck The Picklery: restaurant review and dinner party menu
Read our review of Little Duck The Picklery in Dalston and check out some of head chef and proprietor Tom Hill's uniquely curated seasonal small plate recipes
Little Duck The Picklery restaurant review
Dalston’s Little Duck The Picklery is no ordinary restaurant. Describing itself as a “fermenting kitchen, eatery and wine bar”, this third venue from the same team behind Soho’s Duck Soup and Hackney’s Raw Duck centres round one large, family-style kitchen table from which head chef and proprietor Tom Hill preps and cooks a carefully curated selection of seasonal small plates, guests only an arm’s length away.
The walls of the restaurant are well stocked with jars of unpasteurised, fermented treasures, drinking vinegars, elixirs and kombuchas, and an impressive choice of natural and biodynamic wines, which are worth ogling for their quirky labels alone. All are available to buy to take home.
Drinks and dishes are scrawled on blackboards and change each week. For breakfast, expect the likes of beef and lamb sausages with garlic yogurt, flatbreads and pickled tomatoes, masala-spiced scrambled eggs, and shiitake mushroom oats. For lunch and dinner, the Mediterranean-skewed plates linger around the £8 to £11 mark and pack serious flavour. Start with a gut-friendly daily pickle or ferment (like a kimchi or kraut, for as little as £2.50) then move on to the plates proper. Roasted cauliflower, goat’s curd, green chilli, mint and sunflower seeds on our visit wowed with its texture and tang, while an ox cheek, chanterelle and potato pie had been sat opposite us, teasing with its golden crust, and didn’t disappoint.
The team hosts affordable workshops, too, if you want to learn how to recreate these types of dishes at home. Learn how to ferment and pickle foods, brew kombucha, or get up close and personal with inspiring cooks including Olia Hercules and Anna Jones as they take to the table.
Little Duck The Picklery menu
Braised cuttlefish, peas and pancetta
Try this easy yet impressive cuttlefish recipe with salty pancetta and crunchy vibrant peas, topped with a fresh and zingy gremolata. Discover more of our best fish recipes here...
Green beans, fried olives, goat’s cheese and basil
Check out this quick and easy veggie dish with crunchy green beans, fried olives and creamy goat's cheese. Ready in just 15 minutes, this dish is a perfect starter when hosting a dinner party. Many more vegetarian entertaining recipes here...
Hanger steak, braised greens, wild garlic, lemon and olive oil
This super succulent steak with crunchy garlic greens is ideal for a quick date night dinner or double it for an impressive dinner with friends. Check out more steak recipes here...
Romana courgette agrodolce
This easy recipe for romana courgettes with a sweet and spicy agrodolce sauce is great for a vegetarian side dish or a showstopping starter. Find more of our exciting courgette recipes here...
Review by Laura Rowe, recipes by Tom Hill, Little Duck The Picklery in Dalston
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