Ugly Duckling Dining & Provisions

Beautiful tasting menu. Very well curated Food was delicious but would like to see a little more on the portion size

Custard, foam, emulsions, reductions, and gel. Lots of shiny textured sauces that look like pudding. 3 of the 5 courses were all brown plates, other two were beige. Many gravies, no vegetables except 2 leaves of gai lan and some radish. Flavours were underwhelming and over salted. We enjoyed the sablefish and the sorbet. At $300 the food should be delicious and it was not.

Every thing about this experience was perfect. The food was delicious and the service was attentive but not intrusive or intimidating. The crew at this place, both front and back of the house have taking dining to a new level in Victoria. They have captivated the attention of this diner. Ugly Duckling is one to watch.

We had a very good time at Ugly duckling restaurant. The food was very nice, the chef and the waiters were really kind and friendly while keeping the fine dining atmosphere. We took the pairing, and we enjoyed all the wines we tried. Our favourite meal was the beef, really tasty !

We did Dine around. Initially the service was slow but once the food came out it came at a reasonable pace. I had the black cod which was incredibly delicious and the others had the beef short rib. Everything was amazing although the beef dishes were just warm, not hot and were not as tender as expected. However the taste was amazing as it was with all other dishes. We will be back!

The lighting was so very bright for our dinner. It really took away from the ambiance and was abit distracting. Would be really nice to turn down the lighting for atmosphere. Food was good but abit salty. I usually love ugly duckling but this was sort of disappointing.

Our experience was amazing. The four course meal and wine pairing was outstanding. The serving staff is very attentive and knowledgeable. We will be back!

This was my first time at this restaurant and I will definitely go back. Our waiter was outstanding, knowledgeable and personable. The food was the best I've had a very long time.

Excellent belated dinner for our dear friend last night. We added a last minute vegetarian and ugly Duckling graciously accommodated and provided excellent options for the dine around! Our server Jannes (?) was outstanding and took great care of us. We will definitely go back after dine around for the regular menu.

We met friends for the Dine Around Menu this evening. Food was fabulous! Wonderfully presented, ample servings and delicious. Unfortunately our main server seemed to be very angry at us, or at something else, we were not sure. The evening started fine, but each time she returned to the table she seemed more and more irritated with having to serve us. This behaviour really made for an uncomfortable end to our evening. The rest of the staff were very pleasant. Too bad, as this certainly detracted from the atmosphere and food quality.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 2

Portions were very small for the cost. Flavours were excellent but portion size intimidated the cost reflection.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 4

Service: 4

Overall exceptional. We had the fall tasting menu, short rib and sablefish were main proteins. Service was excellent and the Mai Thai was one of the best cocktails I've ever had.
My opinion is that the main proteins could have been maybe 10% larger, especially the fish i was wanting a bit larger of a portion, but my overall experience was exceptional and I will be back.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

This was our first experience with Ugly Duckling and we were very impressed with the knowledge of the staff explaining how each dish was made, including the particular wine pairing. Each dish was a work of art and enhanced the taste experience along with the processes used for creating the delicate combination of flavours. The atmosphere, the staff's cheerful, elegant engagement with our guests, and their patience with our "foody" friend that wanted to learn of every detail of every dish was sooo appreciated. The intimate, calmly paced serving of the many dishes was such a treat to truly enjoy the whole experience - the restaurant atmosphere, the educated and friendly servers, including the chef visiting our table and cheerfully engaging in our foody friend grilling him for more details on the dish preparations was such a welcome and new dining experience for the four of us. Included in the experience was the restaurant following up by phone prior to our reservation reconfirming specific food alerts for one of our guests, and the surprise special birthday presentation to one of our other guests was the perfect ending to an amazing experience! BRAVO!

We visited Victoria from Seattle and we had dinner at Ugly Duckling where the food was amazing, six tasty little dishes, very impressed. We highly recommend this restaurant

To be honest we left this restaurant feeling disappointed. For the price of the meal we were expecting a more unique dining experience. The servings of food were extremely small and not that memorable. the hot beverages ordered arrived to the table only warm. All in all I could not recommend this to family and friends.