Urban Duck

I decided to take some people from Meetup here as I have heard rave reviews about this place. As the name suggests, duck is what they do, and do a lot of.
If you don’t live in the area or have an Entertainment Book, it is unlikely you would have learn about its existence.
The décor was very contemporary. No typical Chinese decorations or paintings in sight. A refreshing change from what I am used to.
The place was rather empty for a Saturday night. There were steady orders for takeaway, but nothing crazy compared to the Chinatown precinct.
We decided to select a dish each to share with a sides of hokkien noodles and special fried rice.
Dishes include: Peking Duck (whole), Urban Duck, Eight Treasure Duck and the orange and cointreau duck. Non-​duck dishes include: sizzling beef, salt and pepper squid, steamed barramundi and lemon chicken.
Peking Duck was our starter and it was delicious! Traditionally, they would shave off only the crispy skin for use in the pancake. The duck meat is usually shredded to make two other dishes. This place however, does not do that. They instead sliced up the entire duck for use with the pancake.
The rest of the other dishes was average or subpar. Nothing to write home about. In fact, my biggest gripe is the portion size. It was incredibly small for the price, generally speaking. The fried rice and noodles in particular. These dishes are not designed for sharing.
Service was good, but as mentioned, it was very quiet.
They do offer lunch specials for around $ 10.00 on certain weekdays.
I was disappointed with my experience in this occasion, but because of the Peking Duck, I might return. Afterall, the search for the best Peking Duck in Radelaide is one of my challenge.

A few of us headed to Urban Duck, which is well known for their Asian fusion of Chinese and Thai blend. It was a cold Saturday night and were pretty excited about this place of the different types of duck cuisines they were offering as I was only use to eating roast peking duck. I got a little lost on the GPS as there were 2 different malls, but never fear, usually my instinct skills I drove around the parking lot and realised it wasn’t at this mall and spotted Urban duck in the next mall where it was situated next to a sushi place and café primo.
Interesting little find with a block of restaurants in this area, it was quite amazing. Easy to park and an atm near by, I thought it was well organised. Thumbs Up!
Upon entering the place, it was quite trendy. Not your usual Asian Décor with the bright red and yellows for luck but very café like with it’s browns, booths and tables. However I notice there is a bright yellow lucky cat at the counter and a painting of ducks on the wall, so there is a bit of Feng Shui to roll in the customers and mula.
We decided to share their meals so we could taste a bit of everything which was a excellent plan and also to use our entertainment cards to get a 25% discount on top of the meals. BIG THUMBS UP on DISCOUNTS!
Looking at the prices of the meals, entrees ranged from $ 6 to $ 19, mains were $ 19 to $ 23, sides ranged from $ 2 to $ 18. They also cater to vegetarians, prices range from $ 8 to $ 18. In my eyes, these Asian cuisines were more on the expensive side then the ones at food court but judging from the photos on the website and the menu, you are paying for gourmet/​quality.
What we ordered:
*Urban Duck — Twice cooked, roasted and slowly braised duck served on potato slices. Only a quarter of the duck was served, the meat was tender and there was less fat as it was cooked twice. The meat fell off the bone, with the sauce and potatoes, it was more of a western dish.
*Orange and Cointreau Duck — Lightly battered duck glazed with Chef’s homemade orange and cointreau sauce. This cuisine sounded more French than Asian however it was an interesting dish not to order. The duck leg was lightly fried in batter and soaked in orange and cointreau sauce with slices of oranges on the side. With the overpowering sauce, the duck flavour was lost and all I could taste was the orange liqueur, maybe next time I’ll order the dish with the sauce on the side. Thumbs down!
*Peking duck — Crispy skin duck, cut and shaved and served with light pancake with shallot and homemade hoisin sauce. Here it was well cut in portions and plenty of meat left on the crispy skin. There were 4 drumsticks and the meat was succulent and was able to enjoy the natural flavour of the duck without too much hoisin sauce as that can be empowering. Usually at other restuarants, you are left with only crispy skin where the remainig duck meat is served on a noodle/​rice dish and the duck bones are made into soup. This tasted super duper!
*Eight Treasure Duck — combination of sliced meats and vegetables in oyster sauce. Lucky number 8, a traditional Chinese dish of 8 different ingredients «treasures» and usually should be a stuffed duck full of different flavours, however came our sliced. Modified recipe and slightly disappointed in the display as it looked too simple where the ingredients were thrown into a flying pan. It was missing the glutinous rice, dried shrimp and lap cheong (chinese sauage). The dish was still flavoursome and delightful.
*Salt and pepper Calamari — lightly batter and tossed in fresh chilies. A mouth watering dish of how salt-​and-​pepper squid should be. Crisp and deep-​fried glory with the right amount of seasoning and a dash of fresh chilies for the kick.
*Lemon Chicken — battered with lemon sauce. Giant pieces of deep fried chicken and a side of lemon sauce. Not my choice of a dish that I would order but it was a shared meal so this tasted pretty standard. It was deep fried in batter, so the chicken flavours were lost and the lemon sauce was sweet and zesty.
*Sizzling fillet steak with black pepper sauce — Came out sizzling on a hot plate and the aromas were delicious. The meat was cut into big slices, the sweet and slighted chared carrmelised onions were rewarded with rich flavors of black pepper sauce. Yum!
*Special fried rice — Standard fried rice, not dry or cloggy. The rice is cooked properly. If it was dry, the rice is overcooked or left for a couple of days. If it’s cloggy, then there was too much water added. Thumbs up!
*Combination Hokkien Noodles — Standard noodles, not too oily or dry. Long strains of noodles thatnot broken are a good sign of a good noodle dish. Thumbs up!
If you are wanting to try this place at lunch time during the weekdays, they have specials for lunch at about $ 10 a meal. I’ll definitely come back again.

Great venue for me as in walking distance from home and had come with recommendations.
A great venue for relaxing on a Friday night. Such tasty food on offer and my special favourite was Mongolian lamb!
The dessert selection was so tempting and my choice of flaming Gallicanism deep fried ice cream was excellent.