Monsieur Le Duck, London’s only duck restaurant, has celebrated the launch of its first fully dedicated restaurant with plans to open more.
The restaurant is designed to bring the food and wine of South-West France to the heart of London.
Owner Richard Humphreys was Inspired by the douceur de vivre of Gascony (sweetness of living) and offers an exciting menu, focusing on duck, chips, salad and wine.
The popular restaurant which opened last month in the heart of Clerkenwell is set over two floors and has dishes including duck burger, duck steak baguette, duck Wellington, confit duck and the delicious duck magret breast.
It followed a six month stint as a pop-up restaurant near Liverpool Street and following the huge success it moved to a permanent home.
Richard, a frequent traveller to Gascony, has designed Monsieur Le Duck as an authentic portal to a land of relaxed eating and drinking - a concept synonymous with south-west France. With the success of Clerkenwell, he has been inspired to expand the brand across the capital.
Monsieur Le Duck has proved popular by emulating long lunches in village squares, laughter amongst friends, carafes of local wine, Armagnac, and, most importantly, duck.
Hugely passionate about the simple, rich and delicious food of this part of France, Richard gave up his previous career in the City to follow his dream of introducing his distinct take on this cuisine to London. The result is a fun, light hearted and delicious homage to duck, lots of duck, so much duck.
The menu includes confit Moulard duck leg, pan fried or chargrilled Moulard duck breast and an awe inspiring 100% Barbary duck leg minced burger accompanied with homemade prune mayo and baby gem lettuce.
No French meal is complete without wine and Monsieur Le Duck will be offering carefully selected wines, focusing on south-west France; available by the glass, carafe or bottle. The wines will be complemented by signature Armagnac based aperitifs and French beers.
Richard, 35, Founder of Monsieur Le Duck said: “The idea to open a duck restaurant had been kicking around for a while. I had been craving good quality duck following a number of family holiday’s to Gascony. Last year we decided to just go for it and open a pop up near Liverpool Street. It all happened very quickly. It was only two and a half weeks from finding the site to opening the doors to the public. One of the highlights was hosting Jay Rayner who gave us the most incredible review, so we can’t have done a bad job.
“Duck is a relatively unexplored meat in the UK but the health and sustainable benefits make it a great alternative to beef. The carbon footprint of duck is actually one fifth of that of beef and lamb. It contains more iron than beef. Duck fat also has a melting temperature of 14 degrees C, whereas beef is 45 degrees C. This means your body will processes the fat a lot easier than other red meats.
“The best part so far of Monsieur Le Duck has been seeing French people flocking to the restaurant. We actually have plans to open a few more sites in the future, starting with London then looking further afield in Europe, Asia and the US. I would love to open one in Paris at some point, just for the cheek of it.”