Duck, Duck Goat is a Chinese-American restaurant themed venture from the James Beard Award winning, Top Chef and Iron Chef alum, Chef Stephanie Izard. Conde Nast Traveler describes Duck Duck Goat as “…a proudly inauthentic Chinese spot, inspired by Izard’s travels, her love of Chinese-American take-out food, and modern global techniques.” – I think “proudly inauthentic” is a good summary.
Duck Duck Goat did not have a table ready for our reservation, so we ended up eating at the bar. The Duck Fried Rice comes with a soft-boiled duck egg sitting on a pile of Peking Duck meat and jasmine rice, a rice which is typically used in Thai, Cambodian and Laotion cuisines. This dish was reasonably tasty but the rice was very heavy and wet, my dining companion described the rice texture as being somewhere between fried rice and risotto. The first order of green beans and black bean garlic sauce we received was criminally overcooked with limp mushy beans. The bartender to his credit noticed the issue and sent the dish back to the kitchen and got us a replacement. The second order was slightly better, with some of the green beans still having a pop to them. The dish was covered in a thick layer of deep-fried garlic chips, which I enjoyed, but we did not finish the beans.
Overall Duck Duck Goat was a miss.
The Dumplings: Duck Duck Goat serves duck and goat filled Xiao Long Bao, Char Siu Pork Bao, potstickers filed with beef short rib & bone marrow, and crab and mascarpone-almond filled Rangoon. The soup dumplings were very tasty with a slight game meat flavor to them and were expertly cooked, so the filling was boiling hot but none of the wrappers had lost their integrity. But at $18.00 for four dumplings this is an expensive dish. The other problem is that these dumplings are served as if the person designing the plating had never eaten soup dumplings. First, the soup spoon was way too small for the dumplings and second the black vinegar dipping sauce was served in narrow, square, tall-sided vessel so it was impossible to dip the dumplings in the sauce. The sauce came with a small wooden, shovel shaped “spoon” that was totally useless for spooning sauce out of the sauce container. To get any sauce onto the dumplings we had to pour the sauce onto the dumpling.
The Location: Duck Duck Goat is in the Fulton Market District in the “Near West Side” of Chicago. Originally this was an industrial area with meat packing and warehouse businesses that has recently been gentrified with tech businesses, bars, restaurants and shopping. At night this neighborhood is very much a nightlife district where lots of prominent Chicago bars and restaurants have opened. Duck Duck Goat is at the corner of West Fulton Street and North Peoria Street.
