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| - Accidental surprises are great. And admittedly...I had no intention going to this restaurant.
Wait....wait, let me explain myself.
I was actually supposed to go to the nearby Korean restaurant that specializes in cold noodles with a friend, but there was no parking in their respective parking lot and if I attempted to park at the parking (where Duck & Chicken is located), there were signs of doom saying my car would be towed if I LEFT THE PARKING LOT.
So...funny enough, I remained in that parking lot, and was very close to going to Paramount Fine Foods (in the same plaza/parking lot). But I saw "Duck & Chicken", and since I love duck....I was like, screw it, let's just do this, rather surprise myself than go for something I've already had (and usually not to rave reviews).
I should do this more often.
So this place wasn't too busy since it was a bit after lunch, but we were greeted and seated (you know the standards). As we reviewed the menu, sure there was the typical Gamjatang and Haemul Paejeon, but why go there for the basic Korean dishes, you go for their specialties! I went straight to their feature items, Duck and Chicken. So this place offers duck and chicken in a few formats, and we opted for smoked duck KBBQ (typically authentic KBBQ is mainly pork or beef). We changed tables so that we had the hotplate to do a bit of grilling.
Service was decent, considering on off-peak times, the waitress could manage the customers inside. She gave us brief instructions on how to eat the duck, since my friend and I were a tad clueless.
So the food, right off the bat, the banchan (side dishes) is delicious,SO good. Star banchan? Their eggplant. Perfectly cooked (not hard or overly mushy), with a new soy sauce, sesame oil and crispy bits of garlic on top? Their kimchi and sliced odeng were good as well. Got a 2nd round of banchan while we're at it, free of charge.
The main duck platter, comprised of smoked duck (which appeared to be cooked, but to be warmed on the grilled), shredded cabbage, bell peppers and onions. And then on the side there was a plate of perilla leaves (gaenip) and circular pickled white radish (moo). It was such a fun lil experience to take these ingredients and make little wraps out of them. Perhaps I just like meals that don't always have to involve chopsticks, a fork or a spoon. Oh, and we got our own individual salads, which was pretty much a mound of cabbage and few other vegetables, but a nice tangy vinegar based dressing. The meat was good, partially my fault for slightly over cooking the duck, but I wouldn't say it was mind-blowingly out of this world. Considering that it's smoked duck, "smoked" just has a certain flavour which goes across any protein. Smoked turkey leg is what comes to mind.
Overall, great meal, a semi-unique restaurant offering, my final words for this place is to show off their strengths (Duck & Chicken). If there are other Korean styles to cook duck & chicken, they ought make that their selling point. But if I'm ever in the area, I'll bring more friends over to this place :)
Accidental surprises FTW.
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