Duchy: A New Chapter in London’s East End

Lifestyle

Duchy has arrived and we are here for it

There's something quietly exciting happening around Shoreditch right now. Away from the relentless buzz of Liverpool Street and Old Street, and just moments from Tabernacle Street, a new restaurant has taken up residence in a space with its own significant history. Duchy may be new, but the story behind it is anything but, and from the moment you walk through the door, there's a sense that this is a restaurant that already knows exactly what it wants to be.

The former home of Michelin-starred Leroy, Duchy marks a particularly significant new chapter for the space. Chef and co-founder Simon Shand previously worked at Leroy, making his return to the site feel less like coincidence and more like serendipity in Duchy's story. Alongside manager and co-founder Alex Grant, Shand has created somewhere that feels distinctly personal, combining French and Italian culinary influences with an almost obsessive commitment to exceptional produce.

The name itself comes from the Duchy of Savoy, a region whose history stretches across what is now France, Italy and Switzerland. That cross-border identity provides the loose inspiration for the restaurant’s menu, where French and Italian traditions meet without becoming overly prescriptive. It's an approach that feels appropriate for London, a city where culinary borders have always been fluid.

Inside, Duchy is cosy, chic and unmistakably Shoreditch. Think Alpine chic, but with a distinctly London sensibility. There is wood on wood, an open kitchen and a remarkable collection of wines and spirits displayed throughout the room. Rare bottles sit along the windowsill, adding a touch of nostalgia, while a personal record collection belonging to the owner gives the space an intimacy that more polished restaurants can sometimes lack. Nothing feels overly designed. Instead, it feels lived in, collected and personal.

We were hosted by sommelier Matt, whose knowledge of the extensive wine list was matched by the warmth of the wider team. That warmth is important here. The staff are personable without being intrusive, creating the rare feeling that you have been welcomed into someone’s home rather than seated in a restaurant where hospitality has been reduced to a performance.

We began with a glass of Brut 'Terre D'Emotion' NV by Jean Marc Charpentier Champagne, alongside house bread and Netherland’s farm butter. The first plates arrived with crostini of Calabrian anchovies, salted butter and marjoram. The anchovies had exactly the right balance of brininess, while bread provided the necessary contrast, allowing the flavours to expand across the palate. It was a deceptively simple opening, but one that immediately established Duchy’s approach: excellent ingredients, carefully handled.

Next came fried polenta with roasted red pepper and hazelnut pesto, essentially little polenta chips with a seeded crust. Crisp on the outside and soft within, they were made all the more compelling by the accompanying dips, which added another layer of texture and flavour.

Matt paired these with Cot 'Manu' 2023 from Domaine Villemaine in the Loire, another reminder that the wine programme here is treated with the same level of thought as the kitchen.

The beef tartare was an explosion of flavour. Capers brought brightness and salinity, while Simon's homemade Sardinian flatbread provided an addictive crunch. Served alongside Nero d'Avola/Frappato 'Curva Minore' 2023 by Pianogrillo, chilled rather than treated as a conventionally served red, it demonstrated the playful confidence of both the kitchen and the wine programme.

Then came the juniper-smoked trout with sun-sweet melon, carosello cucumber and horseradish. The carosello cucumber deserves particular attention. It has such a fresh, almost melon-like quality that it prompted the immediate thought that we may never look at an ordinary cucumber quite the same way again. It's exactly the kind of ingredient that makes a restaurant memorable, because it introduces you to something you may never have encountered elsewhere.

That commitment to unusual produce is central to Duchy’s identity. Shand will travel for hours outside London, and sometimes internationally, in search of ingredients that are rarely seen on the menus of established or institutional restaurants. There's a sense that the produce comes first, with the menu built around what he discovers rather than the other way around.

This came through particularly well in the courgette flower stuffed with ricotta, served with warm bagna cauda and local honey. Having tried more than a few courgette flowers over the years, there is one now-closed London restaurant whose version remains something of a benchmark. Duchy’s version brought something entirely different to the table. The combination of creamy ricotta, the richness of the warm bagna cauda and the sweetness of local honey was extraordinary, setting the tastebuds alight without allowing any one element to dominate.

The whole roasted lamb neck that followed was equally generous, served with a risotto of datterini tomatoes and smoked mozzarella. Alongside came Ratte potatoes with crème fraîche, capers and chives. It was the kind of dish that encourages you to slow down, return for another mouthful and reconsider whether you have any room left.

Fortunately, dessert offered little opportunity for restraint. A trio of desserts arrived at the table, including strawberries with brioche and vanilla ice cream, followed by lemon verbena sorbet and pear with basil sorbet. Fresh, aromatic and beautifully balanced, they provided a welcome contrast to the richness of the meal.

The final course was perhaps the most Alpine expression of the evening: a selection of cheeses including 24-month-aged Comté, La Tur and Meules des Alpes, served with jam. It felt entirely fitting that a restaurant named after the Duchy of Savoy should end its menu somewhere in the mountains, before we finished with a glass of Génépi Dolin from Chambéry.

What stayed with us most about Duchy was not any single dish, although several will undoubtedly stay ingrained in the memory. It was the sense of discovery. In an era when restaurant menus can feel increasingly familiar, there's something refreshing about a chef willing to travel beyond the obvious in search of ingredients, and then build a menu around them with enough confidence to let those ingredients speak.

There's also something about the location that feels right. The space once occupied by Leroy has been given a new identity by someone who knows its history intimately, while the restaurant itself feels perfectly at home among Shoreditch’s creative energy. It's warm, unpretentious, with a familial feel.

It may be too early to predict what the Michelin inspectors will make of Duchy, but we would not be surprised to see their familiar notebooks appearing here before long. The sourcing is exceptional, the menu is distinctive, and the cooking has the confidence of a kitchen that understands that originality does not require gimmickry.

Duchy is, ultimately, a restaurant with a point of view. And in London, where there is no shortage of places competing for our attention, that may be its greatest strength.

For more information, visit HERE

Duchy

Address: 18 Phipp St, London EC2A 4NU

Phone: 07874 310612

Imagery courtesy of Duchy

Words by Jheanelle Feanny