Cotton Duck (Closed)

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  7     

Used Spreets voucher on Friday dinner and it was a very pleasant experience. The food is of excellent quality , it's organic and carries the Slow food principle. We find the wait staff service very good, always smiling while serving their clients. The Pork belly was cooked to perfection, with crispy crackling and taste real Lechon. Great sculptured lights, great entrance design which match european style ambiance.

Sad to see them close and I think the negative reviews contributed to it's demise and I strongly believe is the reviewers were to harsh on their comments. The food and service is absolute best, however they should work better on their pricing which I agree with other reviewers is too expensive. But then again you want healthy food then customers are obliged to pay premium price.

Mar 26, 2012 

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  7      Ambience  10      Service  9      Value  8     

Used super fresh, "biodynamic" ingredients but proteins weren't cooked and seasoned to perfection, leaving the accompaniments to make up for the slightly lacking main part of the dish. Great service though. I don't think the food is worth the price tag (we went with a Spreets voucher). Sad it'll be closing at the end of March though!

Mar 24, 2012 

8 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  6      Value  8     

Ate at Cotton Duck last week catching up with a friend and we were seriously surprised after reading some of the reviews below. This place is a serious find - with a great value set menu serving up some serious and very beautifully presented food. We caught sight of some dishes not on the set menu heading to other tables and will definitely be back to order a la carte. Well priced wine list featuring some interesting drops.

Mar 01, 2012 

4.3 Below Average

Food  5      Ambience  6      Service  3      Value  3     

We went on Saturday night (group of 4) and ordered the 5 course set menu. While the food was not bad (not unusual by any means though) the service, portion size (including the wine) and value for money ruined it. I could see several other diners were also confused with the dishes they were being served (which weren't explained and when they were we were told we were eating pork belly when it was prawn).

Tables of 2 got 2 dishes, but as a table of 4 we also got 2 dishes?! so they got 1 each and we had to share?! we could see their meals were the same size.
The staff don't have a system for looking after patrons/ areas so we sat with empty glasses and dirty plates on most courses.

The waitresses leaned across the tables than walking round the table to collect our plates so I got an armpit each course. Cutlery was laid out with the knives and forks on the wrong side, just poor attention to detail. So disappointing as we had really been looking forward to eating here.

Feb 20, 2012 

1.8 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  2      Service  3      Value  1     

Not recommended. We went last night with a voucher $79 (value of $ 176) for two.
Food : no value for money. Very poor set menu for the voucher with minuscule portions and the main Kingfish cold. The service : friendly but very slow.
Ambience : not good too loud.

I wouldn't recommend it to anybody. It's a shame how they take advantage of us!

Feb 17, 2012 

5 Average

Food  6      Ambience  8      Service  2      Value  4     

We were impressed with the ambience and the vibe. Initially the wine list seemed impressive with various Spanish, French and NZ offers in addition to local. However, a number of wines by glass were grossly disappointing with imbalances and a deficit of fruit character. One of the waiters admitted this and said that as soon as their stock had run out they would not continue certain wines. Surely someone is in charge of this and shouldn't keep those wines on the list in any case?

Food wise, breads and a small starters were a delight. Starters and mains reflected a desire to display interesting and creative ideas and mostly worked. The fish main was very small and hardly passed as a main size, so really poor value.

Four of us dined there on a Saturday night. We really wanted to like this eating place but were all frustrated with the inconsistencies and worst of all, really patchy service. We decided that, for us, the Cotton Duck is an interesting, characterful midweek feed and nothing more.

Feb 10, 2012 

7.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  7      Value  7     

First time here - on a voucher. The meal started with (very) small canapes of fish cake with tapioca balls, and babaganoush with yam crisp, and bread with house churned butter. Very nice intro.

We then ordered one of each of the entrees, and shared. The prawn in sesame oil dressing was nice, but 2 average sized prawns on a $20 entree is pretty skimpy. The pressed pork with black lentils, however, was sizeable and a definite standout.

For mains we both ordered the lamb shoulder. This was another simple but very tasty dish. The lamb was pretty much perfectly cooked. Accompaniments of mushrooms and chestnuts were a nice side show.

For dessert we ordered the goats cheese pannacotta with mousse and strawberry gelato. This was quite a weird taste, as - apart from the gelato, it was not sweet, but somehow I could have eaten a bucket of it.

Overall, I really enjoyed the experience. The open kitchen is always good to see, the fresh "herb garden" on the bar highlights the food ideology being followed, and the waiting staff were exactly what you expect in a place like this.

Update: Came here a second time and the experience was just the same. Still great food, with probably the best pork belly I have had in recent memory, (Jared was actually working this time!) and just a nice spot over-all. There was a new girl working our table who was unsure of some of the dishes/ ingredients, and I had trouble getting her to bring the bill. Hopefully it was a "this is my first day" moment, and I'd expect this to improve exponentially in the coming weeks. Same ratings apply.

Dec 14, 2011 

7.3 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  7      Value  6     

Nice restaurant and very good food, even though we have a voucher we were treated very well by wait staff and overall a nice weeknight out.

Dec 08, 2011 

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  8     

Randomly went to Cotton Duck one Friday night and really enjoyed the food and service. I had never heard of that place, so I had no expectations and I enjoyed it so much that I organised our xmas party there for 10ppl last night. Quite slow and disorganised at getting the booking sorted, but once we got there, everyone around the table was raving about this place. Everybody loved the food, we got a $70 sample menu with enough variety (4 choices) to satisfy different tastes, we had our own waiter who looked after us very well all night. Everyone of us will be back!

Nov 26, 2011 

2.8 Not Recommended

Food  3      Ambience  4      Service  2      Value  2     

We had a voucher deal last night for 6 people. It really felt like an automated procedure. Bread was wonderful with the butter to die for. Canapes were cute but not overly flavoursome. Entree - I had the pork and based on the description it did not visualise the components stated. It was a breaded ball of Pork deep fried sitting on black caviar. Not to me an outstanding dish.

We all had the Lamb and again it was like there was a vat of lamb chunks stewing in a large oven waiting to be served. The lamb was succulent Yes - sitting on miniscule and I mean miniscule clumps of odd vegetables , cabbage cut in an inch triangle, tiny top of carrots no larger than a 5cent coin, and not able to identify the other veges. Dessert which was extra at $ 15 each and again nothing to rave about. I had the pannacotta, presentation amazing, but bland.

An experience at a very expensive restaurant, would I go back - No. If they are going to do these vouchers, at least make it a pleasant enough experience that you want to return. I have had better elsewhere.

Nov 10, 2011