Twins Signature Roast Duck @ Damansara Uptown

This place is a favourite (and very regular) haunt of one of my blogger friends whenever she needs to satisfy her carnivorous craving for roast duck.  Needless to say, she's pretty well known there...who wouldn't be when your regular order is half a duck (or sometimes a whole duck)...lol!  Another blogger friend has also tried the roast duck here (with a different outcome), so it was inevitable that I had to see for myself what Twins Signature Roast Duck @ Damansara Uptown was all about.

When I told my husband about the place, he asked, "Is it that place that's always empty when I pass by?" (he frequents PJ & Damansara areas quite a bit in his work).  That statement led me to think...hmmm, that can't bode well for the place (but I'll reserve my judgement for later).  We reached there just before 10am (on a Sunday morning after church service) to find the shop empty with no customers at all (by the way, the shop opens at 9am on Sundays and 10am on other days).  That made me second-guess if they were indeed ready to serve customers, so I checked before seating down.

I got down to ordering and thought I'd get the Triple Combo BBQ Meat @ RM46.80 so that I could taste all 3 types of meat in one go (it's the obvious thing to do after coming here all the way, right?).  

Let's start with their signature meat which is their roast duck, of course.  The meat of the roast duck was tender and moist and I liked that it wasn't overpowered by herbs and spices but there was no crispy skin though.  Reading Google reviews, there were those that showered compliments on the crispy skin while some weren't as fortunate to get crispy skin (even PH mentioned she got crispy skin in a recent visit).  So, I guess it's a case of inconsistency (and your luck) whether you get crispy skin or not! >_<  Inconsistency is something a shop should try to eliminate if they want new customers to visit again and regulars to continue to patronise.

I actually noticed 2 ducks hanging as I was walking in.  I even had to ask the lady boss (there were two of them) if they had siu yuk and char siew since I didn't see it at the shop front.  She assured me that those meats are ready and available in the kitchen.  Seeing that I was pretty much their first customer (since we were the only ones there), surely those two ducks were freshly made to start off their day...so how did it not have crispy skin, I don't know. >.<  

As for the siu yuk, the initial outlook was good, the cut was nice and short...the looks that I like.  It came with crispy skin with the ratio of meat a good balance between lean and fatty.  It could do with a bit more savouriness though but overall still a very decent siu yuk.

The savoury-sweet char siew wasn't quite at the standard of some of the excellent char siew we had.  Even though it had a good ratio of fat to lean, it wasn't quite the luscious melt-in-the-mouth bite that we were looking for which is the hallmark of a good char siew.

Of the three roasted meats we tried, I thought the siu yuk was the most successful of the three with the roast duck coming in second and char siew in last place.  My husband loves to eat siu yuk the most while my son is a big fan of char siew but, unfortunately, both these did not seem to meet their expected standards.

The meat combo came served with a dark sauce on the side...I wasn't quite sure if it was for the char siew or duck...lol!  Either way it wasn't of crucial importance since I wasn't liking the taste of the sauce all that much anyway.  It was neither here nor there...not quite the sweetish char siew sauce nor the type of sauce normally served with roast duck that we've come to know.

We got some artery-clogging Pork Lard Rice @ RM7 (how to resist when you see pork lard rice on the menu, right?).  The bowl arrived with freshly fried, crispy pork lard cubes sprinkled on top.  Why do I say it's freshly fried...coz we waited quite a while for it.  When it appeared, the looks of it immediately told me that the pork lard crisps have not been fried long enough (good pork lard has to be fried slowly till well browned and crispy).  This was just crispy...that's it, it wasn't fragrant nor had any flavour.  

My regular pork noodles stall has one of the best pork lard I've eaten, super fragrant and lightly savoury (some would even add aromatics into the oil to impart more flavour into the pork crisps).  Not only that but the rice was also too oily. I know one should expect oily rice if one orders pork lard rice but it turned out oilier than we expected (it was rather oily when we got to the bottom of the bowl).  This pork lard rice was a letdown, so skip this as the calories is not worth it! >_<

Even the normal Chinese Oil Rice @ RM4 was a little oilier than expected.  The flavour was ok, not outstanding but nothing to complain about either.  My only grouse was that it could have been served a bit warmer (not sure why the rice was barely lukewarm since it was just the start of the day).  When the rice was served, the server came with a tray filled with condiments/sauces of pickled green chillies, fresh chilli dip (on the spicier side) and a (cooked) sambal.  I took the latter two (and not the pickled green chillies) since I was not having noodles.  Both the chilli dips were alright except that the sambal seemed a bit of an odd pairing with roasted meats.

I ordered a plate of greens to go with our meaty meal of Stir-Fried String Beans with Minced Pork @ RM15.80 and it was expertly executed.  Other than the disappointment with the small serving size, the french beans were well wiltered, charred and soft and the minced pork was tasty.

It reminded me of a similarly popular dish in Esquire Kitchen which is still my gold standard when it comes to this dish.

Of course I had to end my meal with an order of Kopi-C Kosong (Cold) @ RM3.50 that my blogger friend has raved about countless times.  I've not had a cup of coffee for 6 months and decided to break my coffee fast with the one here.  It better be worth it, I said to myself! :D  Luckily, it was.  Perhaps, I can consider having kopi-c kosong once in a while (since it uses unsweetened evaporated milk, not as damaging as sugar since I find it difficult to drink kopi-o kosong without sugar, can only take it less sweet).  I say this with some conviction since my glucose reading was encouragingly within acceptableble range...even with a glass of coffee! ^_*

My Personal Opinion

I'm glad I finally came to try this roast duck that PH enjoys so much though my experience wasn't quite on a similar note as hers.  In the end, though their roast duck is the signature meat here (and it was certainly decent), I thought their siu yuk fared better.  But having said that, there's definitely better duck, siu yuk and char siew to be found elsewhere (and nearer to me).

Though prices of the roast duck seem fair (since duck is known to be expensive), I thought they were a little bit steeper based on the small portion size.  The food we ordered for the three of us (which cost more than RM80 for a simple meal of roasted meat rice) was clearly not enough to satisfy us.  My family didn't seem to enjoy the food as much as they were noticeably quiet throughout the meal...lol.

I guess when you come on a Sunday morning to find the place empty (including my husband's statement of "you mean the place that's always empty when I pass by") may be subtle clues that the food isn't quite on a stellar level (or maybe the steep prices played a part), otherwise flies will descend (good food places are always crowded no matter what time of the day...lol).  Not all is lost though as I did enjoy the coffee! ;)

I read that this place is run by twins (hence the name?) and they were formerly from the now-closed London Duck in Gurney Drive, Penang and an offshoot of Village Roast Duck in Bangsar (unconfirmed), the latter of which has a much higher Google rating (incidentally, their food photos do look a lot more tempting, especially the roasted meats, even the wantan mee, + I noticed that their roast duck is served with a sauce underneath unlike here)! @_@

Twins Signature Roast Duck

25G Jalan SS21/1A

Damansara Utama

47400 Petaling Jaya

Selangor

Tel: 016-716 3613