THE DUCK INN PUB AND KITCHEN + CAKE WINES - CHIPPENDALE, SYDNEY

The Duck Inn Pub and Kitchen + Cake Wines
74 Rose St
Chippendale, Sydney

The Duck Inn has a warm homey feel to it - think country cottage blended with, well, your lounge room.

We were there for our second Cake Wines matched campaign where they match signature dishes of unsung-hero restaurants with selected drops from Cake Wines.

Cake Wines are a fresh young crew that are making a name for themselves in the wine market.

We hadn't been to The Duck Inn before and we discovered it has undergone a metamorphosis.

Co-owner Ben Kirkman explained it all to us. The place has been completely transformed - and the public seems to love it - it was packed.

The Duck Inn  has a front bar area that stretches around one side and into a casual library space (well it looks like a library until you realise the books are wallpaper).

Around the other side is the restaurant which is quite a decent size and finally there's a lovely beer garden out the back that seems to always be popular.

We started with a lovely serving of house smoked salmon plated appealingly on a slab of black slate.

As a huge fan of smoked salmon this was certainly very tasty with great flavours and it was a decent sized serving as well.

A side of slaw that was tangy but not overpowering, and plenty of sourdough, capped this tasty starter off perfectly.

Our tasty salmon starter was of matched with a tipple from Cake Wines.

The Cake Wines 2014 Pinot Gris was a lovely drink that was indeed well paired and had a great bouquet.

Cake Wines are based in the Adelaide Hills and are certainly not approaching making a name for themselves in the same old traditional way.

For example they donate 10% of their proceeds to independent radio stations around the country. They launch pop-up bars in weird and wonderful locations.

They sponsor Tropfest. They do things like we were experiencing - matching their wines with possibly unsung hero restaurants. They even have their own art competition - the Archi-Bottle Prize with the winner displayed on a wine release.

The scallops were not something we ordered but Ben thought we'd like them anyway so they appeared. He read us very well as they were great.

The scallops were plump and juicy and cooked lightly - as they should be.

The scallops came resting on a mixed bed of corn and were generously topped with plenty of greenery.

Our main was a magnificent serving each of the lovely "Binderee" New England grass fed eye fillet.

It came with spinach puree, roast cherry tomatoes, crushed rosemary new potatoes and herb butter.

This dish looked and tasted great - and the meat was cooked perfectly to order. Mlady had some wholegrain mustard with hers and I just had mine as is.

Our mains were matched with a lovely 2012 Cake Wines Shiraz that was full flavoured and again matched the dish it was paired with very well. A good red with a good eye fillet is a match made in heaven!

Time for dessert and we had two great treats here! The apple crumble came in its own ceramic bowl and it was a big serving.

It was Mlady's favourite.

For me, the bread and butter pudding, made with brioche, was the winner. We both agreed it was a close call though and thankfully they give you decent sized servings as well.

The Duck Inn is a quaint, homey, comfortable place that you just relax into and it's somewhere you want to stay. The food is great - and so were the matched Cake Wines that brought us here. 

Sir and Mlady dined as guests of The Duck Inn and Cake Wines. Special thanks to Ben Kirkman, David Thackray - the chef, Michaela and Gary for looking after us so well. A big thanks also to Glen Cassidy, co-founder of Cake Wines for inviting us and arranging our visit.