The room at Duchy - a light overhaul from its days as Leroy (paintings are still to come, they were stuck in customs when we visited)
What can you tell us about Duchy?
Duchy is the restaurant that took over the space that was formerly held by the Michelin-starred Leroy, which closed last year. But there's a bit more to it than that, as Duchy happens to be co-owned by two former Leroy alumni - Alex Grant, who runs front of house and chef Simon Shand, who is back in the kitchen here (after a very successful run at Topa in Holloway).
Food-wise, things have shifted quite a bit with Shand now exploring the Duchy of Savoy region for influence, which takes in bits of France and Italy.
Where is it?
If you've ever been to Leroy before, it's there. If not, then you'll find it in the back streets of Shoreditch just off Great Eastern Street, directly opposite Bistro Freddie. Travelling there, either Old Street station or Shoreditch High Street will do the job.
Right opposite Bistro Freddie, it's pretty easy to identify Duchy
Where should we go for a drink first?
There is a very small bar space inside the main door here but much as the drinks are excellent (we'll get to that in a bit), we'd say that it's currently geared up to be more of a staging area pre and post dinner. The good news is that as you're in Shoreditch, there's lots to choose from around here. Nearest to Duchy, we'd recommend new cocktail bar Waltz which we would have gone to ourselves if pesky Amazon wasn't filming a movie outside its doors. We'll assume that's not the case when you visit, so it'll be worth checking out.
Where should we sit?
Being on a corner site, the room is filled with light during the day, and everything's pretty well spaced out. Tables by the windows are probably the ones to aim for, but pretty much anywhere is a decent seat. It's worth knowing that there is counter dining here too, and if you like watching the chefs in action, there are two seats right in front of the open kitchen that are perfect for that.
One thing we also need to note is the music. There's a turntable behind the bar that is fed with classic albums, occasionally only bought earlier that day in Shoreditch. They're played all the way through, and it's a lovely touch which led to a throwback evening of Gary Numan and Fine Young Cannibals when we visited.
The growing collection of music behind the bar.
Onto the food, then - what can we expect?
As mentioned, the menu takes a small cross-section of Italy and France. So there's a bit of southern France, northern Italy and a little Alpine influence all detectable in the menu. It's a combo that works pretty well in action, freeing up the kitchen to run a little wilder with influences than rigidly using a specific area. On the other side, it's not as woolly in its references as, for example, "Mediterranean", so that works in its favour too.
On the practical side, the menu is split into a selection of snacks and small/large sharing plates. We'd say order 2-3 plates at a time to avoid getting overwhelmed and giving you a little more control of timing.
That all said, here's a taste of what we had. We'll start with the bread, as that's well worth mentioning on its own:
Apparently, they were toying with buying bread in, but instead settled with this Alpine-influenced fougasse as their own house bread, baked daily (£4). Very happy to have this fantastic bread as opposed to the somewhat ubiquitous sourdough we see so often in London. You may need more than one portion.
Then it's onto snacks. They have anchovies on toast too, but we've never been huge fans of anchovies unless they're pulped up until unrecognisable. The other two snacks on our visit are easy recomendations though - get them while you're thinking about your main order:
Fried courgette flowers, ricotta and green chilli (£6) - We're not terribly proud of our photo here, but don't let that put you off some of the finest courgette flowers we've ever had - the green chilli is a fine addition here.
Brown crab arancini (£5 each) - a great, filling start, with more crab to come...
Then it's onto the main sharing plates. They range from £10 to £30, which gives you a guide size-wise. However, also note that there are much larger dishes on the specials blackboards (an 800g ribeye with bearnaise for £85 on our visit). We're sure that's great too, judging from what we had, but think you'll get much more from Duchy by ordering multiple plates from the main menu. Here's a taste of that:
Cornish crab, white asparagus and fennel, all in a rich bisque (£16) with a notably generous portion of crab.
Sliced pork collar with tonnato sauce and tarragon (£10) - Vitello tonnato is a trigger dish for us, and this pork variant worked incredibly well.
House Diot sausage (made of minced pork from Farmer Tom's pigs and lots of nutmeg) paired with a wild garlic aligot - a proper French take on sausage and mash. Get this while they still have some wild garlic on hand.
Lamb chops, courgettes, bagna cauda (£28) - again, a generous portion on the lamb side.
What about vegetarian dishes?
Thre are a few options on the menu like the fresh spaghetti with sage and pecorino (£15) or the Italian flat beans with Gorgonzola, loquats and almonds (£11), but realistically, meat/fish eaters are going to get a lot more use out of the menu.
And desserts?
Yes, you'll want to save a little room for these, and they're also easy to share. If you're aiming for just one between two, we'd say the savarin is the best bet below:
Don't leave without ordering this - a light savarin with gariguette strawberries and chartreuse (with proper Chantilly cream too, £7)
Grilled strawberry gelato (the strawberries are the grilled bit) with Campari, giving this gelato something of a negroni touch.
Not actually on the menu when we visited - but we still managed to try them, cannoli with sweetened ricotta.
And what about drink?
Like the rest of the menu, the wine list is predominantly French/Italian, broken down in the list by area. It's an impressive list that starts out at a pretty reasonable £36 a bottle (for a 2022 Chateau Pesquie from Ventoux). There's plenty to choose from around £40-£50, but if you're looking for something a little more special, there's a lot in the higher brackets here too. We'd strongly recommend getting advice from their sommelier, who pointed us to a 2022 Bourgogne Aligote to take us through the meal (£60).
We'd also recommend starting with a cocktail, both of the below were excellent, the martini coming in for very high praise.
Negroni sbagliato (£12) and their house martini (£14) - both excellent but that dirty martini was one of the best we've enjoyed so far this year.
Overall thoughts
A fair few staff who worked at Leroy have come back into the fold to work at Duchy and that really showed on the night we visited. In a packed restaurant only a couple of days after opening, the service was notably smooth, friendly and relaxed, and the kitchen was on fire (in a good way).
As for the food, every single dish we had here was fantastically well put together and built up into a truly excellent meal. We were impressed with Shand at his Holloway pop-up, but even more so here - it's just fantastic, delicious cooking, all backed up by a wonderful atmosphere in the restaurant itself. Highly recommended.
More about Duchy
Where is it? Shoreditch - 18 Phipp Street, London EC2A 4NU
How to book: Book online
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Instagram @duchy.restaurant
Hot Dinners dined as guests of Duchy. Prices correct at time of publication.
Subscribe to be the first to get the news from Hot Dinners
