Duck Inn Review

Natalie Antin

The Duck Inn is an unassuming riverside restaurant located in Bridgeport. With its simple exterior, it’s the type of place you’d drive by and not realize is a restaurant unless you were looking for it. Tucked into a quaint residential neighborhood, the restaurant describes itself as a gastro-tavern with a cozy retro design aesthetic. Still, it would be a mistake to overlook this small but mighty dining room. The menu features many American and Midwest classics, with elements of duck or duck flavor throughout many of its dishes. The unique restaurant concept, coupled with well-executed dishes, made my meal at The Duck Inn an amazing dining experience.

I visited the Duck Inn last weekend with a group of friends. We were welcomed by the dark and intimate interior, which was perfect for our party. Upon walking in, an expansive bar and decorations that are evocative of the pre-prohibition era tavern greeted us, adding to the unpretentious atmosphere. The rustic yet polished decor set the scene for our meal.

The menu itself features an expansive list of appetizers and shareable dishes, with their signature Duck Inn hotdog, roast beef sandwich, and whole roast duck highlighted as popular main dish options. I had visited the restaurant once before and had a sense of some aspects of the menu, but we tried our best to diversify our appetizer and main dish choices. Given the size of the group I was dining with, we were able to order a large variety of appetizers for the table. We started with the duck wings, cheese curds, duck fat fries, and Brussels sprouts.

We started off strong with the duck wings, which came tossed in a Japanese barbecue sauce with crispy rice topping. The wings were our favorite appetizer out of everything we tried, as they were crispy but still juicy and tender, and lacked the tough chewiness that I often find to be a negative with bone-in wings.

Everyone at the table also enjoyed the duck fat fries, which had a crisp and fluffy texture complemented by a homemade Bloody Mary ketchup. The freshness of the sauce elevated what would have otherwise been a greasy and salty dish. However, despite the relative heaviness of the fries as an appetizer, they make a great sharing dish.

Next, we had the cheese curds, which are drizzled with homemade mayo and the same Bloody Mary ketchup. The cheese curds deliver on everything you want from a cheese curd: they are salty, chewy, and crispy in all of the best ways. If you love cheese curds the way I do, these are incredible, but if you are not the biggest curd fan, this dairy-heavy dish may not be the appetizer for you.

Last, but certainly not least, were the crispy Brussels sprouts with Caesar dressing and brown butter crumble. The sprouts were my favorite dish of the night, and one I insisted on ordering given that I already had them the first time I went to the restaurant. The sprouts are charred yet chewy with the creamy and salty Caesar, but the element that makes the dish, in my opinion, is the crumble topping, which gives the dish much needed texture and a distinct nutty flavor from the brown butter. If I could only recommend one starter, it would, without a doubt, be the Brussels sprouts.

All four of the starters we ordered were fantastic, and at that point in the meal, everyone was excited to try the main dishes. Unfortunately, the restaurant was out of duck and we could not try the roast duck main. We dined quite late on a weekend, and on busy days the restaurant may run out of ducks, which is exactly what happened last Saturday. That was an oversight on my part, as the restaurant does allow and encourage you to reserve the roast duck in advance, it just slipped my mind when making the reservation. Alas, we ordered from the rest of the menu slightly disappointed but still intrigued by our options. Aside from the roast duck, the menu highlights two other main dishes as standouts, the Duck Inn hotdog and the beef sandwich. Having ordered the beef sandwich the first time I dined there, I decided to try the dog. The other members of my group ordered the dog, roast beef (some dipped and some with au jus on the side), and even the burger.

I ordered the duck fat hotdog which is served with many of the traditional Chicago style toppings. I enjoyed the hotdog, though as someone who is not the biggest fan of raw onions, I found the topping to have a bit of an overpowering onion flavor. However, when topped with the Bloody Mary ketchup it is an excellent, if slightly oniony, hotdog.

The beef sandwich can be ordered a few different ways and with a multitude of traditional topping options. For the most part, it is a traditional beef sandwich with flavorful jus and excellent peppers. The sandwich suffers from the same issue that many dipped sandwiches do:bread integrity. I enjoyed the sandwich, but I would recommend ordering it with jus on the side to prevent sogginess of the bread.

The final main dish we ordered was the burger. The double cheeseburger with lettuce, pickles, and a house made sauce features excellent and a wonderful bun,though the burger as a whole is a bit rich, especially after our array of salty and fatty appetizers. Overall, it is a solid burger but not the main dish the restaurant advertises or the one I would recommend unless you are a huge burger fan. You are better off saving stomach space for the appetizers.

Overall, I thought the main dishes were good, though a bit underwhelming in comparison to the fantastic appetizers. My friends generally agreed as most of the reviews of the main dishes were positive, though a bit less glowing than those of the apps. Having come to this conclusion, we moved onto dessert.

We finished our meal with two desserts shared amongst the table. The dessert menu features some intriguing pastries and an extensive selection of cocktails and wines. We chose to order the pumpkin crème brûlée and pure chocolate beignet. The crème brûlée was interesting; the crème itself tasted like a creamier pumpkin pie filling and the top came well brûléed and piled high with browned buttercream and homemade cracker jacks. The dish provided a nice sweet and salty flavor with lots of different textures.

The standout dessert, however, was the pure chocolate beignet. The beignet was incredibly soft and creamy and came served on a peanut butter custard with a caramel gelato on top. The custard and gelato were both sweet and salty at the same time, and acted as the perfect balancer for the rich, chocolatey flavor of the beignet. Though not a traditional looking beignet, this dessert was incredible and possibly the best dish of the entire night.

The overall dining experience at The Duck Inn was lovely. We enjoyed all of the menu items we tried, and they were all moderately priced with great service and ambiance inside the restaurant. The Duck Inn is open for dinner Tuesday-Saturday beginning at 5:00 PM, and from 10:30 AM on Sundays when they have a brunch menu. Check out the Brussels sprouts, cheese curds, hotdog, and beef sandwich for the perfect meal, and finish off your time at The Duck Inn with the beignet.