The Fuzzy Duck Review

Opened in its current form in 2013 in the pleasant Warwickshire village of Armscote, The Fuzzy Duck is a boutique inn slash gastropub with a solid reputation for serving good food. Having held two AA rosettes and a Michelin guide listing for many years, I was very much looking forward to some high quality cooking as I rocked up for lunch with my wife and two young children, on a murky October Wednesday.

There's a small car park behind the restaurant which was already quite full when we arrived; the bays aren't particularly clear so other cars had parked at weird angles. We did manage to squeeze in although other people who arrived after us did not, so it's worth bearing in mind that you may need to find somewhere else local to park if visiting here. But try and park in a sensible spot, during our meal a waitress had to go around asking all the tables which one had parked their Hyundai in an awkward place as it was blocking traffic; fortunately that wasn't us.

Like a lot of leading pub-restaurants, the building itself is very smart outside and in; there's quite an upmarket vibe to the place, but that certainly doesn't mean the restaurant isn't family friendly and we had no issues at all in that regard. The welcome on arrival was fine albeit not as warm as I would have liked, and the same could be said of the dining room which although a very pleasant space, was quite cold for the duration of our meal (I nearly left my coat on). The restaurant wasn't packed, but there were a good few tables in which was great to see for a Wednesday lunchtime.

On offer at lunch is a solid three course carte menu with plenty of choice, and also a proper three course children's menu too which was great to see. Drinks wise, the main bases were all covered fairly well, but the non-alcoholic selection was quite limited. I had a couple of Hendrick's and tonics during my meal which were fine, whilst my wife and children had cranberry and apple juice respectively.

We didn't opt for anything pre-meal (like many places now, bread is chargeable here) so lunch began for me with the chorizo scotch egg. I enjoyed this, the dish was well executed and flavour wise it packed just the right level of heat for me. My wife had less luck with a very disappointing wild mushroom soup; it was a pretty wretched bowl of unpleasant flavour, not nice at all. For the kids, my daughter's tomato soup was actually a lot tastier, and my son was perfectly happy with a portion of truffle and parmesan chips.

For mains, I went for the roasted chicken breast with mashed potatoes, kale and pancetta. This was fine and an inoffensive plate of food (albeit served with quite a large chunk of bone), but it was quite a boring dish and I'd been expecting some more interesting flavours. My wife was equally unenthused with her pumpkin and spinach orzo pasta, and the large disk of grainy goats cheese sat atop it didn't do much to elevate the dish. My daughter's mini beef burger was overdone but tasty, and I appreciate it's always better to err on the side of extra cooking when sending out kids meals.

After some less than stellar savoury courses, would desserts be any better? In short, yes, they absolutely were. I don't think my 'baked alaska' had seen the inside of an oven (in fairness, the dish title was listed in quotation marks on the menu) but it was nicely constructed and the flavours enjoyable. My wife got the better course on this occasion with a delicious apple crumble tartlet, which was too nice to let me try any unfortunately. The kids desserts were of a high standard too; my daughter really enjoyed her winter fruits pavlova and my son was very happy with his three scoops of ice cream. The children's menu actually lists this as coming with two scoops (which is what we asked for) so I was slightly concerned we'd be charged the adult three scoops price from the main menu, but in fairness they just billed us for the child portion.

My wife and I had a cappuccino each to finish (complete with a shortbread biscuit) and the bill (complete with 12% service charge) was accompanied by some shot glasses of shop bought jelly beans; not exactly a noteworthy p4 offering, but better than nothing - who doesn't like jelly beans after all. One bonus I hadn't realised before we arrived is that the restaurant was running a 'kids eat for £1' offer during half term, which reduced the bill by a welcome chunk.

Overall, I enjoyed our visit here but it was quite a mixed experience. Some of the food was good, some really wasn't, and the service wasn't brilliant either. One member of staff looked like she really didn't want to be there and although she was in no way rude, it was a touch uncomfortable. There were also issues with the delivery of the food; although the overall pacing was fine, on every course there was a wait for some of our table to receive their dishes. If we were a table of sixteen I'd understand, but it's not unreasonable to expect a professional kitchen in an award-holding restaurant to serve a four-top at the same time in my opinion (when I say the same time, I mean within a minute or so), and they failed to do that with our starters, our mains, and our desserts.

It's a nice venue for sure and I've certainly had far worse meals in the past, but there's definitely an air of style over substance here, so although I wish everyone involved with the restaurant all the best for the future, this wasn't an experience I'm likely to repeat.