When we visited Ping Pang Pong in Northbridge in December, the owner (Pauline) informed us that they just opened a new restaurant at Ellenbrook called the Mouthful Duck. We were so keen to try but it was the distance from where we live that made us think twice. During our catch up with Martin, he informed us that a new restaurant just opened and coincidentally he mentioned the Mouthful Duck. From there on, we just had to go there and meet up for dinner.

All the staff were really friendly and I learned that the owner of this restaurant is Pauline’s brother. The only problem that we had that night was deciding on which dish to try since the menu was quite extensive for four people to choose from (first world problem right here!). It was always fun to have dinner in a group because I could try a lot of different dishes in one go.

The Mouthful Duck was a restaurant that also offers steamed house-made dim sum dumplings, so I just added an extra order of my favourite Xiaolongbao (XLB) on top of the big list of order that we already had.

Our food:

CRISPY PORK BELLY

Sometimes a restaurant can name their dish anything they want but sometimes the dish didn’t turn out exactly as what the description said. In this case though, when the menu said crispy, they really meant crispy. The pork belly wasn’t too fatty and was cut to mouthful portions. The pork skin gave a really satisfying and loud crunch with every bite, pure porky belly goodness.

XIAO LONG BAO

The house-made XLB didn’t disappoint! The broth was very tasty and the thickness of XLB’s skin was just perfect. Martin had his first XLB and he was pleasantly happy with the flavour (yay)! After this I should propose a meet up over dim sum…

DUCK WITH SPICY PLUM SAUCE BAO

Bao, Pork Belly, CHicken Wings and XLB at Mouthful Duck

The white bao was fluffy and fresh but this bao was lacking the spicy plum sauce, although the duck was really tender.

KUNG FU WINGS WITH SPICY TAMARIND SAUCE

Firstly, this dish was really good in terms of portion and the tenderness of the chicken. Secondly, I like the idea of chicken wings covered in spicy tamarind sauce. However all of us felt that we could hardly taste the chicken because it was overpowered by the sauce.

ROAST DUCK WITH CARAMEL SOY GLAZE

My duck dish was served with stir fry spinach in scallop sauce and braised peanuts. My roast duck was cooked well and glazed beautifully with the caramel soy. The meat however was tough and quite chewy which meant long chewing and difficulty in cutting pieces of the duck. My dinner companions could easily see that I had a very difficult time eating the duck. What I did appreciate was that the duck wasn’t too oily/greasy nor was it too dry.

TAMARIND DUCK CURRY

The best dish of the night was the tamarind duck curry with a side of Chinese cabbage and deliciously crunchy crumbed pinapple! I think this crumbed pinapple needs to be put on the ‘sides’ menu permanently. This dish had the right flavour and the tamarind added the sweet and sour taste to the very tender duck meat. The curry sauce was very tasty and added extra flavour to the duck and goes really well with the steamed rice.