There is a fine line between the anticipatory joy of doing a menu recce in advance of a restaurant visit - oh the options, the potential of what might be - and the looming peril of having to pre-order your choices for a section lunch. So it is at Duck & Willow, a gastropub up in Downend, the chosen venue for the latest corporate card funded outing. Our office admin has (smartly, correctly) not given us the dessert menu to choose from in advance, so mains and starters it is. For the former, a cheeseburger - let us see what they can do with the classics - with a portion of onion rings on the side. These are pretty good, certainly better than the average fare. The burger itself, you know what, fair enough. The meat itself is good, if slightly crumbling. The chips are a little underwhelming, but fine. The starters are more impressive and versatile - I had ordered beef cheek croquetas, which is much more where the kitchen shone, beautifully crisp with the beef itself nicely tender, firmly fried, and served with a gochang mayo which was to die for. We return to the office sated and sleepy, ready to push through the last few hours of meetings and go home. Triumph at last.