Duck Fat Tavern & Grill - Forest Park

We just tried Duck Fat restaurant on Madison Street in Forest Park--7218 W. Madison St ---last night and want to report a great new find. Housed in what previouly was Horan's Snug, the only thing that remains is the Find Food green neon sign. All else is new and quite tasty.

As the name implies, there is a great deal of duck on the menu. I had a duck confit sandwich on a pretzel roll that was really tasty. Roll was toasted, coupled with duck fat fries with three dipping sauces and a fine dill pickle for $8 bucks ;a bargain.

Others around the table enjoyed a bacon burger with thick cripsy bacon and more duck fries.

The menu has some real interesting future visit options including kobe burger sliders for a couple bucks and duck breast--not something you expect in a place with the obligatory giant flat screens viewable from every table. That feature is nice when interested in watching good march madness games, but becomes annoying when on constantly as you try to eat dinner and perhaps have some conversation. A pet peeve of mine of which I wonder if others find annoying as well.

In any event, I would be interested in hearing about other LTH'ers experience.

Duck Fat Tavern & Grill
7218 W. Madison St
Forest Park, IL
708-488-1493

I was interested until you told me about the TVs. Boy, do I hate that. The last time I want to Jimmy's Place, they had Ultimate Fighting on. My five year old girl was fascinated by it.

teatpuller wrote:I was interested until you told me about the TVs. Boy, do I hate that. The last time I want to Jimmy's Place, they had Ultimate Fighting on. My five year old girl was fascinated by it.

Funny story about TVs at Jimmy's -- the first ones were put in there when MikeG and I did our Gorilla Gourmet premier party there, years ago during Chowhound days. I'm sure they've replaced them with newer models, but even though he and me and many of us complain about flatscreens, we are actually guilty of facilitating that trend at that place.

johnnies wrote:Housed in what previouly was Horan's Snug

Where am I going to sing Backstreet Boys karaoke and swig Miller Lite now?

Thanks for the post. Sounds like an improvement.

David Hammond wrote: but even though he and me and many of us complain about flatscreens, we are actually guilty of facilitating that trend at that place.

just for that you should have to go a few rounds with one of those UFC guys.

The Fine Food sign has been placed on the wall in the room off of the bar. Despite the TV saturation, the food is actually quite good. I had the Duckfat Burger. It comes with grilled onions, applewood smoked bacon, brie cheese and a juicy Angus patty on a toasted pretzel bun. The service is also fantastic. Overall, the place is great.

Glazed Doughnut wrote:The Fine Food sign has been placed on the wall in the room off of the bar. Despite the TV saturation, the food is actually quite good. I had the Duckfat Burger. It comes with grilled onions, applewood smoked bacon, brie cheese and a juicy Angus patty on a toasted pretzel bun. The service is also fantastic. Overall, the place is great.

Have to agree; it's an odd experience eating something with truffle butter at Horan's, though.

Had three sliders: chicken with pesto and crispy onions, regular burger with cheddar and really nice dill pickle quarters, truffled Kobe burger, all on nice fresh mini-brioche buns, and an order of the duckfat fries. The fries, served in a mini deep-fryer basket lined with faux-newspaper, had that excellent de-starched hollow middle characterized by animal fat frying; the chipotle ketchup and "Mexican pesto" sauces were good, but the aioli needs work (it's more like garlic ranch at the moment).

A friend ordered two plain sliders and a side of the duck fries, and was presented instead with a full burger smothered in good-looking cheese and onions. He was prepared to eat it even with the extra toppings, but the server was mortified when checking against the order card, took it away, and came out five minutes later with the sliders and a double-order of the duck fries. He then took the whole thing off the bill, a complete over-correction, but a quite welcome one.

The current Achilles' heel is the beer list. You got your $2.50 Forest Park PBR tallboy, you got your $4 Negra Modelo, and you got your $6 Goose Island 312; fill in the rest with Miller Lite, Bud, and New Castle [sic]. Basically the same deal as the former incarnation. The burgers deserve better. Next time I'll check out the applewood-smoked bacon mac and cheese and maybe the confit quesadillas with grilled pineapple. The number of pan-Latin ingredients and items on the menu (from chimichurri to chihuahua cheese) suggest to me a chef's interest rather than market research.

Tried this place for the first time tonight. Will definitely return. Had the Kobe beef burger with truffle butter and fried onions on a pretzel roll --- really tasty. The truffle butter infiltrates the burger really nicely. Glad this place is in the neighborhood and looking forward to trying more items.

I just learned that this is the new place from chef Jorge Almarez who used to run Flamingo's Seafood in Mt. Prospect (until it closed). Based on how great Flamingo's was, I'm really looking forward to trying this place soon.

=R=

Glad to hear good things about the chef. I've now been to Duck Fat a couple more times and had the buffalo burger, and it's great -- totally juicy and flavorful.

This is why I really like the LTH. My wife and I were in Forest Park today for something and then had a taste for a burger. After a quick search on LTH, we ended up at Duckfat.

We started with the French onion soup. It was very tasty and not at all salty, which can be a problem for onion soup. They could have put more cheese on it however, but that's my personal preference for cheese.

We both had the Duckfat burger, which is a half-pound burger on a pretzle roll bun with brie cheese, applewood smoked bacon and caramelized red onions, served with fried fried in duckfat. My burger was a perfect medium rare. The pretzle roll is excellent, dense and chewy. The brie and the bacon were both excellent too. The only negative was the fries, which were very tasty but not at all crispy.

Overall, I liked the place a lot and I'll definitely be back.

We ate at Duckfat on Saturday. I had the fish tacos, which the waitress said were very popular. I thought they were good. They looked a bit small at first, but I made 6 smallish tacos out of the plate. I love the sweet potato fries. Another person had the clam chowder, which he said was excellent. The others had the duck confit sandwich and burgers. Everyone was very happy. There are tvs everywhere you look though. We were watching the US v. England game, so that was ok with us.

Just an update on Duckfat Tavern... I was there last Tuesday, and the beer options were much improved from the earlier posting!

Bell's Amber Ale on tap (ahhh!!!), along with Guinness, Harp, Sierra Nevada, Goose 312, a few others, and a comprehensive list of nightly bottled beer specials. So if you thought that the poor beer selection was an issue, you may now go assured that there are some fine brews on tap.

We were a party of 4, on a molten hot day, so we appreciated the inner room whose air conditioning was set to "near Arctic." The outdoor "Tiki bar" looked like fun, but we wanted COLD!

Our party had the Duckfat Burger (looked excellent), the Turkey Burger with duck fat french fries (more like a good turkey meatloaf sandwich, enhanced by lots of sun-dried tomatoes), the Kobe Sliders (good for a light eater) and the Pomegranate BBQ sauce Meat Loaf.

The meat loaf was the only miss of the evening; the Pomegranate BBQ sauce was good, but wasn't a good marriage with the otherwise fine meat loaf. I'd have preferred a good brown gravy, and perhaps a little more to eat.

I tasted the better half's duck fat fries, and promptly finished off half of her serving. Wow, were they terrific!!

But I will definitely be back. I liked the breadth of the menu, and the obvious care taken with the pub grub.

Went here for the first time on a slow Sunday afternoon. The Kobe burger was absolutely great, cooked to medium-rare perfection, and my wife loved her reuben. Sweet potato fries that I stole from the kids were OK, and the duck fat fries were a tad short of crispy (as they seem to be wherever I get duck fat fries), but this place was so satisfying I can't wait to go back and try more of the menu.

I actually really like the ribs here; like Skrine down the street, they're more or less Carson's-style, and well-executed at that. The fries can be really exceptional or just average, seeming to depend on how long they sit before served (this is not a guaranteed personal basket fresh from the fryer type of place, even if they plate the orders that way).

Wasn't too impressed with the fish tacos - they were average. However, the burger is one of the better, if no best, I've had in the area as far as quality.

The duck fat fries are good, but the truffle fries are fantastic.

It's probably worth mentioning that chef Jorge Almaraz is no longer cooking at Duckfat, though I have no idea where he is now.

A recent lunch -- my first meal here -- was fine but unremarkable. Duck Confit quesadillas were very sparse on the duck and drizzled with some sort of discordant sauce that tasted like 'Asian-style' sweet chile sauce right out of the bottle. Kobe Burger, which was almost certainly not Kobe, was cooked perfectly to medium-rare. It had decent flavor but lacked any juiciness, in spite of how well it had been cooked. It was topped with crispy-fried onions that were cold and served on a pretzel roll bun that had some truffle butter spread on it. I thought the pretzel roll kind of overpowered all the other elements, especially the truffle butter, which was almost entirely lost in the shuffle. Duck fat fries served with the burger were light and crispy but had no discernable duck fat flavor, at least not to my palate.

Service was friendly and professional, and the space seemed like it'd be a nice place to pass some time, especially that outdoor "Tiki Bar."

=R=

I had to be in Forest Park this past Wednesday, and the allure of things cooked in duckfat is a powerful draw. So I decided to stop by.

First, Duckfat is now named Fatduck. Apparently this change came about because a bar in Maine also shared the name, and wanted to avoid "confusion".

The menu does seem rather creative, and I ordered the Duck Confit Sandwich for $8.95 along with the duckfat fries. The fries were expertly fried and and definitely worth the upcharge. While the sandwich was a great idea on paper, and wasn't bad, it just seemed mispaired. There did seem to be an ample amount of duckmeat, with good quality. However, it was served with a pinapple chile which seemed like something you may get with an order of gyoza. The chile overpowered the duck, and the ciabatta roll didn't seem to pair up quite right. It was still flavorful, and service was good too. The burgers at nearby tables looked fabulous, so I wouldn't mind heading back to try one of those.

LOL! The Fat Duck is taken, too.

=R=

From what I remember reading, the Duckfat bar in Maine copyrighted the name so that's what forced them to change. Not sure if the Fat Duck has done the same or not.

Regarding the food, I was there on wednesday or Thursday for lunch and had the burger. Perfectly cooked medium rare but suffers from a poor bun to burger ratio. Those pretzel buns are just way too big for some of these burgers.

The outdoor patio area is fun, but it's closing soon for the winter. The fries were fantastic and the sandwiches were perfect. The staff are really friendly and on the ball. Well worth a stop if you are in the area.

Hi! New forum member here, glad to see a local fave of mine has been discussed.

Anyone who goes here must try the duck confit quesadillas. They are probably my favorite thing on the menu, cheesy, meaty, a little sweet, a little spicy--ask for more chili sauce on the side.

The buns on the burgers are indeed a little excessive--In my opinion, better that than to have them disintegrate under the weight of the juices (the burgers do get very juicy, especially if you order them medium or rarer).

I'm also curious what people's opinions are of the mac'n'cheeses. I'm not a huge fan, as I prefer the crispy, solid kind, and find Duckfat (Fatduck?)'s to be more of the "mac'n'alfredo" variety.

I go to Duck fat fairly regularly and it's a bit hit or miss. I've had some amazing burgers there, and I've had some duds.

The fries are consistently fantastic though.

My personal favorite item to eat there is their blackened tilapia sandwich on pretzel roll. It has some cole slaw on the fish and a nice spicy mayo. Or otherwise, one of their daily specials....whatever fish dish they are serving.

Last time there, I substituted grilled veggies for the fries....I know, I know, fries there are delicious, but I wanted a healthier option. Very good.

Oddly enough, since I live Forest Park, I'd never been there until earlier this week. I was very favorably impressed. We sat in the middle room, which was fairly busy (though not as busy as the first room, where the bar is) but certainly quiet enough for a book club conversation. We shared fish tacos, the duck confit quesadillas, and, of course, the fries. The tacos were substantially better than most of the fish tacos in town, if not ethereal, and the fries were superb. The biggest surprise was the quesadilla. The menu says "Chihuahua Cheese, Granny Smith Apples, Pineapple Sweet Chile Sauce" which seems like an unlikely combination, but was really rich and delicious. There's nothing in Forest Park to beat Gaetano's, of course, but for a reasonably priced evening out, this is going to be my new go-to spot.

I love the fish tacos there although I remember them being pretty small and on the appetizer menu so I always end up ordering more if it's my meal.