31/05/2022

Duck Goose Bistro, Leek: familiar and flavourful

Duck Goose is the newest independent eatery in the Staffordshire Moorlands town of Leek. Styling itself as a bistro rather than restaurant, Duck Goose offers a small but regularly changing menu of familiar dishes that are big on quality and flavour.

I ate dinner there on Saturday night and was mightily impressed by their great value, seasonal cooking.

Duck Goose exterior — *photo credit: Duck Goose*

DUCK GOOSE: A NEW VENTURE

The Gallaghers have made quite a name for themselves in the north Staffordshire market town of Leek. No, I’m not talking about Liam and Noel. But Chris and Jessica who, between them, have thirty years’ experience in hospitality.

Although I never tried the lockdown dine at home meals from Gallagher’s Home Kitchen, from what I hear they were great.

But I was one of their many fans when they opened Gallagher’s Deli & Kitchen, selling fantastic takeaway sandwiches, wraps and other goodies. Mind you, you had to be quick. Turn up at their tiny store on St Edward’s Street a few minutes after opening and there’d be a queue already winding its way up the hill. And then there was the fear: would they run out of those famous Sunday Yorkshire pudding wraps before it was your turn?

But you don’t have to worry about that anymore. Now you can take a seat, relax, and eat in their cafe-bistro Duck Goose. A little further up St Edwards, on the corner of High Street, it’s a lovely, informal little place which they’ve refurbished in beautiful, simple style. For now, only the ground floor is in use. With a good number of tables in there, as well as the bar, it manages to feel cosy rather than cramped. No mean feat considering they were full even though it was early on the Saturday night myself and partner ID turned up.

THE MENU

It seems clear to me that whatever the Gallaghers do, they want to do it well. They don’t try to juggle too many things at once. When they opened Duck Goose, they wanted to give it their full attention so closed the takeaway shop. Initially, that was going to be temporary. Like others, I was sad to hear it’s now shut for good. But focussing solely on the bistro does make sense when you see the care, attention, thought, and sheer hard work they must put into their projects.

Which is a roundabout way of me saying: don’t expect a big menu with lots of options. On the night of my visit there were four starters, six main courses, three desserts plus ice cream, and a cheese course.

The emphasis is on seasonal and locally sourced food cooked simply. However, as we’ll see, while dishes can sound almost overly simple on paper, in the eating they can be very special indeed.

STARTERS

As a greedy omnivore, I would happily have eaten any of the starters (£5.95 – £9.25, two vegetarian, one meat, one fish). But I do love a good tomato salad, so I plumped for the tomato salad with burrata (£7.45).

TOMATO SALAD WITH BURRATA

Of course, these weren’t any old tomatoes, but full flavoured, heritage tomatoes. They came in a generous portion, sitting on a bed of what I think may be the best basil pesto I’ve eaten.

An overworked pesto can be grainy and oily – in my view, most of those you buy in jars in the supermarket fall into this category. But at Duck Goose it was nicely chunky. The individual pine nuts and gratings of cheese were easily discernible, and the seasoning was spot on.

The soft burrata, an especially creamy type of mozzarella whose name means ‘buttery’ in Italian, was fresh and clean tasting. A classic and satisfying contrast to the acidic tomatoes and rich pesto. Finishing the dish was a long, slim crouton of toasted focaccia bread and a slick of quality extra virgin olive oil.

In short, this was a dish demonstrating that ‘simple’ shouldn’t be confused with ‘dull’.

WILD GARLIC SOUP

For his starter, ID chose the wild garlic soup (£5.95). Like my salad, this was beautifully presented. On top of the pale green, speckled liquid with its dashes of olive oil, were crumbled pieces of salty feta cheese, a heap of golden, crisply fried potato straws, plus a tangle of dark pink-purple micro herbs.

Besides seasonal wild garlic, there were spinach and potato in the soup. The spinach added further grassy flavours, fitting for a late Spring evening. The potato brought body and silkiness without heaviness.

We both agreed that this was another triumph of a dish whose seasoning was perfectly balanced.

MAIN COURSES

The six mains on offer (£12.45 – £25.95) included four meat dishes, one fish, and one vegetarian. And it’s here, more so than with the starters I think, that you can see why Duck Goose have called themselves a bistro rather than a restaurant.

On paper, there are no ‘cheffy’ dishes here. Fish and chips, chicken pie, two types of steak, risotto, and a burger.

However, as you’ve probably already guessed from the quality of the starters, although the dishes sound familiar, we’re not talking pub grub here.

PORK RIBEYE

For my main course I chose the pork ribeye steak (£19.95). Although I’ve eaten beef ribeye many, many times (cooking it at home I usually get it from the same supplier as Duck Goose: Dunwood Farm), I’ve only knowingly eaten pork ribeye once before. That time, I’d slow-cooked it with cider and apples until meltingly soft.

So I thought it would be interesting to try it quickly and plainly cooked as you might a beef ribeye. And what a good call that turned out to be.

The steaks are cooked over charcoal which gave a wonderful crusty exterior and lightly smoky taste. Sitting on top was a hugely inviting, heavily caramelized tomato half – none of your weak and watery specimens here.

There was also a heap of fresh watercress, a very perky parsley-peppercorn sauce, and a generously stuffed pot of skin-on fries.

Our server said they offer the pork ribeye cooked ‘blush’ or well done. Knowing that these days, it’s perfectly safe to eat pork cooked slightly pink, and that the steak would be much juicer that way, I went for ‘blush’.

But even I was surprised at just how juicy and tasty the steak was. Almost gamey in flavour, the pork was a revelation. The meat, and the delicious little bit of fat, were also perfectly tender.

The accompaniments were bang on too. I particularly liked the crispy fries which came with lots of truffle, Parmesan, and parsley. ID managed to nick a good few off me. If you find yourself in a similar position, it’s worth knowing you can also get a portion as a side (£3.95).

Not being a massive lover of peppercorn sauces, I didn’t eat that much of mine. I did fleetingly wonder if Duck Goose should offer a choice of two (Béarnaise, please 😁). But then, guessing the tight margins much of hospitality works on, I thought better of it. In any case, with a juicy steak and tomato, I happily ploughed through my plate without a need for sauce at all.

CHICKEN PIE

From a friend, ID had heard good things about Duck Goose’s chicken pie (£15.95). So he’d virtually made up his mind to order it even before we arrived. Our server warned there was a twenty-five-minute wait as they’re cooked fresh. But as we could be getting on with our starters, we ended up with a gap no longer than you’d expect between courses anyway.

The chunky pie looked perfect perched on its bed of spring greens. Next to it was a swirl of mashed potato almost equal in shape and size. Bringing them all together was a rich roast chicken gravy. Inside the crisp shortcrust pastry, hunks of slow-cooked chicken were joined by wild mushrooms.

ID declared it one of the best pies he’d eaten. And, judging by my sample taste, I have to agree.

Equal care had been taken with the veg. How often do you hear someone say ‘that chard is delicious’? The wholegrain mustard in the potato had been added in a sensible amount – too much can detract from rather than enhance a good mashed potato in my experience.

DESSERT

If you’ve read many of my eating out reviews, you’ll know it’s a rare occasion when I can’t find room for pud. On Saturday night there were a choice of three (£6.95 – £8.95) plus ice-creams and sorbets (£4.95 for three scoops).

Unusually though, I made my choice not from a detailed and repeated scrutiny of the menu. But based on the rather impressive looking plate I’d seen being taken to another table.

CHOCOLATE, PISTACHIO, RASPBERRIES

I’ve written above that where the main courses are concerned, none of the dishes sounded ‘cheffy’. There was a little more cheffiness apparent on the dessert menu which, if you’re going to have any, is probably the right place for it.

My dessert was described as Dark Chocolate & Pistachio Gateaux, English Raspberries (£8.95). But that turned out to be an understatement. Because it was a wow of a dish which must have taken a considerable amount of work.

The gateaux itself was a multicoloured, five-layered affair. I’m not knowledgeable enough in pastry to know exactly what each was, technically speaking. But what I can tell you is that, if you like chocolate desserts with something different in every bite, you have to try it.

At the bottom was a rich, fudgy, dark chocolate. On top of that was a moist sponge-like layer that tasted almost of marzipan. Then there was soft meringue, a creamy layer and, finally, a soft, milky chocolate mousse. Pressed into the sides of the tower were shards of thin dark chocolate. Sitting atop were fresh raspberries.

But the gateaux was just one aspect of the dessert. Not explicitly mentioned on the menu were the extraordinary raspberry sorbet and sauce. Deeply fruity flavoured, they were intense with tart raspberry. The perfect contrast, of course, to the sweeter (but not too sweet) gateaux.

More chocolate came in the form of a little soil nest for the sorbet to sit on and a crispy tempered chocolate tuile with crunchy pistachio bits embedded in it.

This was one of those desserts where you say, ‘oh I can’t eat any more’ but carry on and clear the plate anyway. Full disclosure: I had a little help from ID who also claimed not to be able to eat any more but then did precisely that.

STICKY TOFFEE

For ID’s own dessert we were back with the familiar. Sticky Toffee Pudding, Butterscotch Sauce, Vanilla Ice Cream (£6.95).

But again, don’t be fooled into thinking that the familiar and apparently simple equals boring. Because there are sticky toffee puddings and there are sticky toffee puddings. And this was a belter.

The softly tender cake was indeed sticky. But not tooth-achingly sweet as lesser versions often are. Likewise, the golden butterscotch sauce was one of the nicest I’d tried. Full of buttery flavour rather than just sickly sugary. As with my raspberry sorbet, the vanilla ice cream was beautifully smooth. In fact, judging by these standards, that standby dessert of a few scoops of sorbet and ice cream was beginning to look like even more of a bargain.

DUCK GOOSE: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The total food bill for three perfect courses apiece came to £49.30. In the current climate of rising costs for businesses as well as households, I think under £25 per head for this quality is incredibly good value. And almost none of the dishes we chose were the cheapest either.

Looking at Duck Goose’s menu, you may think you’ve seen it all before. But that’s part of the charm. Jessica and Chris say they want their fab little bistro to offer something ‘familiar and flavourful’. And with brilliantly executed, comforting dishes like soup, steak, pie, and sticky toffee pud it’s clear that they’ve already hit that goal. On top of that you’ll get seasonal food sourced as locally as possible.

Both kitchen and front of house deserve high praise. With Chris in the kitchen and Jessica leading a very efficient and friendly team of servers, I think the bistro can only go on to greater things. Already in the pipeline is a major refurbishment of the historic building’s large downstairs area. Eventually, this will become the dining room with just the bar upstairs.

It’s been a real joy to watch the development of this great little independent food and drink business. And I can’t wait to see where Duck Goose goes next.

Highly recommended.