The Fat Duck Gastro Pub

A favourite place to go on Friday night after a long work week. While all your pub favourites are there on the menu, they are made with fresh ingredients and flavorful twists. Scotch eggs, chicken curry pie, beef vindaloo, braised ribs, and fish and chips (gotta love the Fat Chips) are tasty choices. Cozy ambience, friendly servers, and a good bar selection round out the reasons why we are regulars here.

My wife and I have been patrons of The Fat Duck since it opened, they tell us (we didn’t know it was new when we first visited). Simon and Rose are excellent hosts. The food is awesome, the servers are attentive, the atmosphere wonderful. We used to come Thursday evenings when Jamaican musician Lloyd Delpratt held court — sadly, the restaurant was remodeled this past winter after a devastating flood, and there is no longer room for Lloyd.
My wife has Celiac disease, with a severe reaction to gluten, and she has always been safe eating at the Fat Duck.
One memorable note… A couple of years ago we dropped in to the Fat Duck one evening, a couple of hours after my wife’s brain-​injured brother had passed away, At one point during our meal, Simon stopped by our table to greet us, and he was informed of the sad event. After our meal, he surprised us by inviting us to the bar where he served each of us a drink on the house, and then he sat with us for half an hour or so, commiserating with us.

I first discovered this gem just after they opened as I was working in the area. At the start I would go for lunch and it would be me and a couple of others at the bar but quickly word spread if the excellent food and soon the place got busy.
Fast forward a few years and we dropped in to see Simon and have lunch this Saturday as we were passing by. As always, the food is beyond compare.
Highly recommended.

Been here many times, one our favorite places for lunch or dinner. Scotch egg is a different treat, Fat chips are excellent. Service very friendly, always found the beer selection to be good. Will continue to repeat.

It’s cold. I’ve been sitting studying for hours, and I can’t feel my fingers anymore. My head is inhabited by a swarm of bees (well, cytokines, really, but they sounded like bees) and I don’t feel like cooking dinner. His Goatness suggests we try The Fat Duck, and I’m all for it.
The Fat Duck is billed as a gastro-​pub, and visions of gourmet foods paired with local craft beers spring to mind. When we enter, the foyer is steamed from all the wet diners entering; the bar is warm, cozily lit with lots of gleaming woodwork and old-​fashioned charm. We’re seated rapidly in a tall wooden booth with a view of a crackling fireplace.
Something about the old-​world ambience of the place puts me in the mood for a whiskey sour… or maybe it’s the cold weather. I had noticed Jameson’s Irish whiskey on the way in, which I’m fairly partial to, so I ordered. There aren’t too many local craft beers, but HG orders from the set available, and is satisfied. My whiskey sour arrives… and is pale green. *Green*. Whiskey sours are supposed to be golden amber, in my experience and understanding, so what the –? I taste it and all becomes clear: it’s comprised mostly of Rose’s lime cordial, with a splash of whiskey. Ewwww. I send it back, and ask for straight whiskey, on the rocks. Note to self: don’t repeat this error. (I haven’t ordered a whiskey sour anywhere else in Canada; I sure hope this isn’t a Canadian thing. Terrible way to treat whiskey. Then again, I’m not fond of Canadian whiskey; maybe the idea is to disguise the taste?)
Still feeling pub-​ish, I order the meat pie. The crust is crisp and flaky, and the meat fairly savory, but a bit chewy. It’s pub fare; it could be «upscaled» by the addition of wine and herbs, or by being made with a better grade of meat… apparently this is not the sort of gastro-​pub I was envisioning. The acid reflux begins almost before I’m done eating.
So: decent service, uninformed bar, limited choices of craft beers (it’s been a while since I’ve been, so hopefully this has changed), and perhaps my choice of entrée was not the best thing on the menu. It’s a pub. Not a gastro-​pub. Would I go again? Possibly so, given another reason besides the food.