TV chef Manu Feildel fails to quack market – again

My Kitchen Rules host Manu Feildel has lambasted many cooks on television but has faced his own food hurdles off-screen, his latest Sydney venue proving a lame duck.

Duck In Duck Out, which opened at World's Square last year, has shut. "We closed due to the market. I'm not at liberty to say anything else at this stage," says Phil Davenport, Feildel's business partner at Duck In Duck Out.

Feildel's journey as a restaurateur hasn't been smooth seas. The short-lived Aperitif in Kings Cross closed in 2011 after than less than 12 months under his watch, and his Paddington bistro L'etoile followed in 2014. A Melbourne restaurant, Le Grand Cirque, which he opened with the Made Group, shut after four months following lukewarm reviews.

But Duck In Duck Out looked to be on the money. It was at the more affordable end of the market, its opening followed successful test marketing as a pop-up and it focused on a universally popular piece of produce with menu items such as confit duck burgers and duck salads.

Its location near Chinatown was also believed to be part of a grander plan to take Duck In Duck Out into the Asian market. The online food reviews were pretty good, which makes you wonder if Sydneysiders should have given it more of a quack.