Little Duck the Picklery - Dalston - review

This little place has been there for ages now, but I’ve never made it in. During lockdown they had great pick up and picnic options. Their speciality is ferments - pickles, kombucha, and the like -all up my street. So I finally got to go.

There were three of us, one is a pickle hater and shall we say frugal so she was least pleased. The menu items are elaborate in description, the plates are for sharing. We chose two starters and three sharing platters. For the pickle hater we got spiced pork salame - she tested it poor and too dry. Two of us got assorted ferments which that day were romanescu, red cabbage, and some carrot. Tiny plates of each. I like the cabbage which had a curious flavour I forgot to ask about. The other two weren’t any better than I’ve made myself.

The three plates we chose (in brief and I’ll include a photo of the menu for fuller descriptions) were sheep’s cheese agnolotti, ray wing, and roasted pork with lemon and capers. They were all very good, but I’ll confess to afterwards wondering what to eat for my real lunch. I’m not a big eater but each plate yielded a spoon and a half for each of us.

We opted for no drinks or dessert after but I had a pine and juniper kombucha (pleasant) and my friend had serps. I’d go back, would like them to return to a Lunch set menu because of price. Bill was in the mid 90s. Came home and cheese and crackers :joy:


I loved the space but cant get up on those bar stools these days


We had a window seat instead


The ferments and salame


Agnolotti


Ray wing with some fennel


Pork with lemon and capers, the most substantial and expensive (£20) dish


Kimchi, kombucha, cocktails and other fermentations in the fridge for sale


The menu that day. It gets regular changes

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So, the “sharing plates” totalled four and half spoonfuls? In my book, that’s a small starter for one person.

Looks like lots of sauce and not much substance (other than price ) for those ‘mains’