I've been to this restaurant twice and both the times the food started out to be worthy of a 5 starrer but it wasnt consistent.As always, I start off with the ambience, its very quaint,quiet,private and a cute lounge of sorts where you can simply laze.The lighting and artsy wall hangings dont fit into the theme of the restaurant but would rather go perfectly with a more rodeo type of restaurant.What I got of the ambience was, it tried too hard to fit into a certain British feel but it didnt quite get there.
For starters, I had Egg Mimosa,which was halved boiled eggs(this is a cold appetiser) filled with a very innovative spicy yolk mix that is quite delightful to the tastebuds.Next was the Spicy Potato Balls that was again very different and interesting,definitely worth trying.For the main course, I had the Moussaka the first time I went there and the Funghi pasta the second time and this is where my ratings dropped.While the moussaka was definitely good comfort food, it wasnt done right, there was no cheese/tomato sauce dribbled around the moussaka as it is supposed to and after a point the dish just becomes too dry and chewy to handle.Coming to the pasta,a Funghi pasta is traditionally supposed to be made with mushrooms and cream sauce with some pepper but here at the Ugly Duckling, I think they got the pasta recipe all wrong.It was sweet,was made of some basil flavored sauce(it was definitely not pesto though) and all in all was just really bad.
For the dessert, I tried both the Fererro Rocher pastry as well as the Passion fruit Sorbet, both were very very good.The menu doesnt really have too many desserts or beverages and this should certainly be improved.Also this restaurant needs to appoint a new cook as far as anything remotely Italian/Greek is concerned.The service is very slow and needs to pick up if it expects many more customers pouring in over time.The tab is quite alright with the tab coming up to around Rs.1300(though service tax is included in the bill as seems to be the latest trend everywhere!).But to end it on a good note, the Ugly Duckling has some great potential...just needs some good looking into some of the recipes.
grubalicious
