After hearing the terrible (as in “I have just won £177 million on the Euromillions and  been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize” sort of terrible) news that Gregg “the gurning egg, that bit of pork you cooked in the sun’s corona for 20 million years is too rare for me son, Finbarr Saunders” Wallace (living proof that having no discernable talent is no bar to being constantly on TV – there is still hope for me) was stepping back from Masterchef (temporarily, well until the Sun goes supernova temporary I suspect), I thought going out to lunch was in order to “commiserate” 

not having to throw stuff at the telly in future, so much.

I have been meaning to try Kegbelly in the Whitchurch burb of Cardiff for a while, as I have always rated the food of the chap behind Mr. Croquewich and beer, burgers, grilled cheese sarnies and the dogs are generally regarded as a match made in big belly heaven.

What really piqued my interest and got me off my fat arse was their new menu,

which included reference to a duck burger.

Ducking hell, I thought, that sounds iTeal I better get myself (eider) down there (sorry I couldn’t help myself).

On arrival, the specials board gave more details

as to the duck burger (very much an everyone in the pool/pond affair).

Now £18 is a princely sum for a burger and certainly vies for top spot price wise in terms of Cardiff burgers (Pasture’s is £17.95 and Ansh’s Owain Glyndwr is £18), but you do get chips (although the menu and specials board makes this far from clear – I checked when ordering) with it.

I shall apologise in advance as to the slightly (well totally) crap photos of the food, which seem to be due to me sitting under this

which has given all the pics an odd purple haze.

I ordered my duck burger at the bar and what arrived was a big bugger, replete with chips on both sides of a hefty looking beast of a burger.

Lifting up the lid did little in terms of ascertaining the exact make up of the patty,

with the abundance of sauce camouflaging it very effectively.

Only once I bite into the behemoth did I get a feel for said patty 

which was made up of big chunks of  a confit duck leg encased in breadcrumbs coating

Whilst the confit was French and the parmesan crumb coating was quite Milanese in nature, the honey, soy and ginger sauce, chilli jam and kimchi gave it very much a Far Eastern vibe.

Quite the hotchpotch of flavours on display here, with the Far Eastern one’s definitely dominating. The confit duck sort of morphed, with the sauce hitting pretty much all tastes bud receptors (salt from the soy, sweet from the honey, sour, salt and heat from the kimchi and the ginger), into a sweet and sour duck dish.

The duck itself was very nicely cooked, with the confit process keeping it from drying out and allow for it to have cooked down to a yielding tenderness. Good flavour to it, that held its own against the heavy hitting sauce and kimchi combo.

The parmesan in the crumb coating of the duck was, however, all a bit lost. I felt the coating here was more for textural contrast (providing a bit of crunch, along with the kimchi) and integrity purposes (a holdall for the duck) rather than flavour.

The robust bun eventually lost its battle with the sauce, collapsing towards the end.

This was a very messy burger and I would advise asking for extra napkins and (a lot of them). My face was literally covered in the sauce, which seemed to be subject to a black hole strength gravitational pull into my beard

All in all a nice burger, but there is quite a lot (maybe a touch too much) going on in there. With the Far Eastern sauce, I would certainly question the parmesan in the coating as it didn’t register to me at all.

I would also question what the bun brought to the equation, as it was tricky to eat without a knife and fork and 9 bazillion napkins.

The chips that came with the burger,

were bountiful and nicely crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Not sure as to the “house” seasoning’s make up, but it added a nice umami touch to the fries.

On the booze front, beer is this place’s thing with it being a collaboration between Mr. Croquewich and Flowerhorn Brewery

Wine is usually more my thing than beer (can’t take the volume these days) and the short wine list is actually pretty reasonably priced. Both of the cheapest wines (red – a tempranillo blend – and white – a verdejo) on the list are sub £20 (so parentheses days) and retail at between £8 and £9. The most expensive red (a malbec) is £25 on the list and retails as £11. These are pretty fair markups for the UK.

With the duck and it’s Asian flavours, I would have gone for a German riesling (without the Asian flavours, pinot noir is generally the de riguer pairing for duck). Perhaps unsurprisingly there wasn’t any, German riesling is still inexplicably tricky to sell in the UK, so I defaulted to beer and and as I was driving the 2.5% Schofferhoffer (50% wheat beer and 50% grapefruit juice – £2.25 for a half) rather appealed.

Enjoyed this, with it being a very pleasant, easy quaffing number, with enough acidity to cut the richness of the burger. Many non/minimal alcohol beers taste like dish/ditch water, but this was actually very pleasant with my burger. I could happy drink this stuff as a session beer (I can hear proper beer drinkers tutting) as it is a sort of superior shandy.

The verdict

I rather enjoyed my trip to Kegbelly, with good food, good drink and very convivial staff (get the tip machine sorted as I tried and failed, even with said staff’s help, to get the infernal thing to work).

I shall certainly return, with Dick the Dog in tow next time as it is resolutely dog friendly (well until Dick’s visit at least), to try their other wares (got to be a Mr  Croquewich grilled cheese sarnie next time).

Good things happening in Whitchurch food wise, with this place and a second  Sushi Life branch having opened next door to it. 

The details

Address: 12 Park Road, Whitchurch, Cardiff, CF14 7 BQ

Website: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558158647800