Duck & Rice to open second site on 10th anniversary

Duck & Rice, the Chinese gastropub created by Alan Yau, will open a second location in Battersea Power Station this year.

It comes 10 years after the Wagamama founder launched his Soho pub serving dim sum and Cantonese cuisine.

The Battersea site will be larger than the original, with 185 covers and an open kitchen and raised bar area spread over a 4,000 sq ft unit.

Its design will be inspired by the Cha Chaan Teng tea houses of Hong Kong as well as the “comfort and familiarity of the British pub”, according to designers Macaulay Sinclair.

Work on the interior fit-out began in autumn 2024 and the restaurant is expected to open early this year.

Ian Roome, director at Macaulay Sinclair, said: “Duck and Rice is a hugely exciting brand to be working with, and our project is already well underway to deliver the new, highly anticipated restaurant.

“The much-loved Cha Chaan Teng are an integral part of South China’s culture stemming back to the early 1950s. Our British pubs and cafes hold a similar connection to our societal past. There is evidence that these Western influences crossed paths with the traditional teahouses, and this is what has inspired our design approach.”

Yau founded Wagamama in 1992 and was also behind restaurants including Yauatcha, Hakkasan and the Busaba Eathai chain.

When the original Duck & Rice opened in 2015, he told the Evening Standard: “I don’t do pastiche. What we have is a proper pub with a Chinese kitchen. It’s not a ‘Chinese pub’, because then it becomes an extreme exercise in the way a musician doing a restaurant would create a Hard Rock Café.”