Welcome to Duende Restaurant & Cafe

At this tapas restaurant we started with the Whitebait with Paprika Salt - in a word - YUM! And the sweetcorn frittas were a terrific accompaniment. Our mains were a mix of the Asparagus (good), mushroom (more please) and the potatoes (plenty of taste). The Atlantic salmon with beetroot was divine however the chicken chevap was not really what I had expected. Overall we were impressed with the food.

The service was efficient without being in our faces. Our water was constantly topped up (which always makes me happy) and the waiter kept an eye on when our wine glasses needed refilling - he seemed to have the knack of making the wine last forever!

The ambience was lacking for me on a busy Saturday night. It was loud and chaotic and with my seat facing the kitchen, at times I felt like I should jump up and give a hand!

I will return - perhaps during the week so I can get a better feel for the place however would definitely recommend the food - and I was pleasantly surprised with the bill. Be warned however the wine list is not cheap. Cheers!

I've never eaten anything that I didn't like at Duende - each morsel is either intense, or subtle, or very clean - it's like little explosions of flavour in my mouth.

Personal favourites still have to be the churros for dessert!

Where service is concerned, it's as if the staff aren't there at all - yet everything arrives on time, water is topped up, conversation is pleasant. They're great, as they work hard to make your evening run smoothly, but they're not intrusive at all.

The space is warm and visually appealing, with a great sense of casual style. Kudos to whoever did the interiors.

I really like Duende, it's got a great vibe and seriously awesome flavours. I just wish there was a bit more balance in the price to portion ratio - if the tapas serves are small, as they are, it'd be nice to be able to try a few more things before the bill gets too large. All in all, I'll go back to Duende, but the chances are, I'll stop for some sushi on the way home in order to 'fill up'

We recently visited Duende on a busy Friday night. We were promptly shown to our table and drink orders were taken by our friendly waitress. The first glass of champagne (Pol Roger, $66 for a half bottle) slipped down as we pondered the menu. We settled on 4 dishes to start, then later ordered another 4 along with a bottle of rioja ($40). In no particular order we had a half dozen oysters, pumpkin ravioli (the dish of the night), vitello tonnato (a lovely carpaccio take on the Italian staple), sweetcorn & manchego fritters with a red capsicum relish (the fritters were claggy and under-seasoned), merguez sausage (OK, but uninspiring), buffalo mozzarella with a tangy dressing (tasty, but not rocket science), kipfler potatoes with truffle oil, and white anchovies (most enjoyable). The total of the food bill was around $100.

We had a pleasant evening, and were entertained by the constant stream of wannabes who prance around the restaurant, waiting to be noticed. All in all though, the food is OK - not great, and there is no "wow" factor. We ate at Melbourne's Movida last year, and comparisons are inevitable. Duende's food doesn't come anywhere near the delightful fare which is made with love and passion at Movida.

And an aside - it was irksome to have to ask to have our glasses refilled - leave the bottle on the table for goodness' sake, unless you have highly experienced wine waiters on the floor.

Fantastic place, food not cheap, but Tapas rarely is.

The sizings are small, but delicious, and filling.

Staff extremely friendly and helpful in suggesting wines and meals.

Highly recommend.

My friend and I had never been to Duende and have heard good things so we decided to try it out on Saturday night with our partners in tow.

Firstly we were seated right next to the door which we were unimpressed with. I suppose someone has to sit there though (although they maybe could NOT put a table there). The restaurant itself is surprisingly small but the décor is quite funky and wait staff were lovely. Our wine glasses were never empty which was a good touch. From memory, we ordered the squid, eggplant, lamb/proscuitto/apple & natural oysters for starters and the pork, ocean trout, rabbit terrain, prawns, chicken, & lamb for our bigger meatier dishes.
Although the service , ambience, food was all lovely; I probably won’t go back. It was all very “nice” to try but I just didn’t find any of the dishes Oh My God delicious.

This cost $300 for 4 of us, so a little on the expensive side when I consider the food to be just “nice”.

After reading several good reviews, I just had to try this place. We went with 2 other couples on a Thursday night. As we were early (6:30pm) there weren't too many other tables. The wine list was fantastic - it's 3 pages long!! I would have to agree with belly's comment that there was a very limited selection of wine by the glass, however on the upside, it means that you're guaranteed not to receive a glass of wine from a bottle that's been open for several days, as can be the case in a restaurant where many wines are served by the glass but the turnover doesn't support this. In addition, the wine that was available by the glass was fantastic & we ended up buying a bottle.

We also enjoyed the field mushrooms with jamon, char-grilled zucchini with preserved lemon, flatbread, a divine avocado dish that I can't remember the name of and the frites. The olives received rave reviews from our table of foodies, as did the feta, which I would say is possibly the best I've ever tasted. The only let down was the king prawns, which were declared 'dry' and 'I've made better on the bbq at home'. Overall - the service was great, the ambience spot on, and the food & wine worth 'writing home' about! I have already recommended Duende to several friends & colleagues.

I had heard good things about the place and had high expectations. The ambience was good, the service good.

The food, while tasty was pathetically small in serving’s size. I'm a fella that requires to be fed a full meal when I shell out a $20.

The place is for a nibble only...

I won't be recommending the place for a meal. I think it’s trying to vie for the Subiaco, Claremont market where purchasing over priced wine and food is seen as a status symbol.

We ate at Duende last night, and overall I was quite impressed. We too had the field mushrooms with jamon which were sensational. The king prawns were tasty, as too is the chorizo and the feta.

The main reason for writing this review was to comment on the Churros. Although they are very nice.. from someone expecting traditional Spanish Churros these really arent very good. Just a warning.

Overall the meal was great and the wine was fantastic!

Oh my soul, the food was just too die for!!! My partner and I shared field mushrooms with spicy jamon in drizzled with lemon oil and garnished with almonds (sooo good), lamb cutlets with tangy yoghurt and mint dressing and a spinach salad. All of the dishes were superb. I would definitely recommend visiting Duende once. However be prepared for the cost, even though the most expensive main is like $25 the serving size is small and you need at least 3-4 dishes to fill you up which equates to $40 per person. My partner and I left hungry, we didn’t get the extra dishes we wanted because we couldn’t justify spending $120 on a casual lunch. We also ordered some chorizo to start it was $8 and came in a small ramekin with less then 8 pieces of sausage; I’m not sure how they justify that!?

The wait staff didn’t impress me at all they were very arrogant about their restaurant. Our waitress wasn’t impressed that we had not eaten there before and needed a rundown of the way things worked.

I wouldn't go again which is a pity because the food really was great!! :(

This warm and funky tapas restaurant has the tables packed in rather tightly and the noise level is high, but the delectable food and attentive service more than make up for it. My husband and I shared 3 tapas dishes. The field mushrooms wrapped with spicy bacon (jamon) in a lemon butter sauce with almonds was terrific, followed closely by the frites -- tasty round balls of, I believe, potato and corn(?)fried golden brown and sprinkled with a light topping of sweet red capsicum and green onion. The skewered barbecued king prawns were pretty good as well, but the crispy duck with hoisin glaze from the main dish part of the menu was a bit of a disappointment being somewhat dry and not terribly crispy. Still, 3 out of 4 winners, plus a lovely dessert as well.

We especially liked the churros, finger-shaped Spanish donuts which were served warm and tasted like they had been soaked in an orange liqueur (but I could be wrong) and were drizzled with a generous amount of rich chocolate sauce. We also had a very chunky rocky road ice cream which was a nice complement to the churros. I didn't explore the wine list, but drank two glasses of refreshing red sangria. I'd definitely be happy to come back here, especially with a couple of friends so we could sample some more dishes.

Duende is great for tapas with a group of friends, as you get to try a lot of different dishes. My favourite is the swordfish - superb. The service is outstanding and the wine list extensive with a lot of Spanish and french wine. My only gripes are that it can be very noisy, and wines by the glass are extremely limited.