Restaurant review: The Duck Room, Mercado Marketplace

We were heading for the grocery shop (closely followed by the wine shop) when we stumbled on a stylish restaurant tucked away behind a glass cabinet.

The Duck Room at Mercado, Bowen Hills. Picture: Mark Cranitch

I WAS only going into the grocery shop to buy a pineapple. But when greeted at the door by a concierge in a smart waistcoat, I imagined for a split-second I was being ushered into a more-than decent London hotel.

Welcome to Mercado on King St in Brisbane’s inner northern Bowen Hills, part of the $2 billion urban renewal project at the Brisbane Showgrounds.

Perhaps I belittle the newly opened Mercado by referring to it as a grocery store. It’s more like a swanky food hall with a fishmonger, a butcher, a patisserie, deli, florist and a bottle shop containing vinous exotica from Champagne, France, and Italy, as well as Australia.

Chef Miki Damjanovic prepares a whole duck at The Duck Room at Bowen Hills. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

Mercado is just a champagne-cork-pop away from Montrachet, the sophisticated French diner that stamps this street as a highbrow culinary destination. The precinct also has a range of informal eateries, a four-star hotel and sets of groovy apartments whose (mostly) young inhabitants deliver vibrant street life.

Mercado has a busy cafeteria-style bistro serving a selection of the prime beef, pasta and seafood sold at the market. There is also a sushi bar and a pizza station.

Parts of Mercado remind me of fab food markets such as La Boqueria in Barcelona, London’s 1000-year-old Borough Market in Southwark, or Kyoto’s astonishing Nishiki Market, where I once saw two providores brawling over a box of prized sea urchins.

We were heading for the grocery shop (closely followed by the wine shop) in Mercado when we stumbled on a stylish restaurant called The Duck Room tucked away behind a glass cabinet containing a dozen shiny red ducks strung up by their necks. While the marketplace has a Euro feel, The Duck Room is quintessentially Asian.

The dutiful young French waiter was tending to the copious demands of an extended family at an extended table, so I helped myself to a menu.

Duck and miso soup at The Duck Room at Bowen Hills. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

When I saw those magic words “roasted duck with miso soup and shiitake mushrooms”, I knew the pineapple would have to wait.

And when the soup arrived, the perfume of coriander wafted from the bowl. It was everything a great duck soup should be, but it had a fatal flaw – it was tepid. Perhaps it was a case of mission impossible with the young waiter having to trek back and forward past the crowded bistro to the kitchen.

A roasted duck from the "taste of The Duck Room menu" at Bowen Hills. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

The soup was the beginning of a six-course “degustation” ($80) in a menu that was replete with taste sensations I found thrilling, resonant and “alive”. The flavours of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Malaysian cuisine were all showcased with equal flair.

A whack of wasabi enlivened but did not overpower the tartare of Hiramasa kingfish belly, cut into cubes and presented with scampi “caviar” juxtaposed with finger lime pearls, chives, capers and cured egg, and served with crunchy sunflower seed crackers.

The Mooloolaba tuna cheong fun parcels at The Duck Room at Bowen Hills. Picture: Mark Cranitch

Small cheong fun parcels of Mooloolaba tuna were glorified dim sum with a well-judged ponzu sauce and wasabi. Earthy Santa Gertrudis beef was likewise served cheong fun-style in rice noodle rolls and was followed by barbecued Borrowdale pork with a cucumber salad.

The final act in this drama was the showstopper. The “Mercado Signature Roasted Duck” in Asian juices came with steamed broccolini and steamed rice. It was warm enough, but only just.

From a wine list with more characters than a Charles Dickens novel, we sipped Cloudy Bay Pelorus Rosé bubbles from New Zealand ($68).

The Duck Room at Bowen Hills. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

THE DUCK ROOM

Mercado Marketplace, King Street, Bowen Hills

BOOK [phone] mercadobrisbane.com.au/duck-room/

OPEN: 7am till late (last orders 10pm), 7 days

MUST TRY

Roasted duck with miso & shiitake

VERDICT

Food 7

Service 5

Ambience 8

Value 7

OVERALL: 7/10