Dukes Bar-B-Que Aiken — Restaurant in Aiken County

Had lunch today at Dukes- first time visit. Got there by 2:00 & unfortunately some of the staple items (ribs, mashed & sweet potatoes) were empty & never refilled. There was a very short line to get in but it moved quickly - the wait was no more than 5 minutes. Once in, the buffet line moved quickly.

The food was only OK. The food choices were limited & generally uninspired unless you want fried chicken. There was plenty of that. Several pans were empty & remained so. No excuse for paying full price & having empty pans with at least another hour still to go.

My lunch mate got a grilled chicken breast which was too tough to cut with the flimsy plastic knife & overall too dry to eat. The only type of chicken wings were hot ones - not terrible hot but one was spicy enough for me. My lunch mate liked them. At least we could get beer.

The salad bar is probably the best selection, with plenty of choices & good dressings (I recommend the Basalmic vinagrette). Forget deserts - banana pudding & lime-marshmallow salad are somewhat of a homage to comfort food but REALLY average.

Suggestions: real flatware PLEASE! - the flimsy plastic things packaged with a teeny tiny "napkin" are next to useless. If I were ever to return I'd need to bring my own knife & fork. keep the pans filled - there are little enough choices as it is. How can you not have any potatoes except for potato salad? and while there was meat (pork?) on the buffet there were no buns or any kind of bread so you could at least make a sandwich. it would be nice if pans were labeled as to their contents. maybe at least add in a softserve machine to make up for the lackluster "desserts".

Overall I was pretty disappointed after hearing all the excitement about the opening. The place is new & functional with lots of tables altho they are a bit too close together for comfort - not enough room to keep chair backs from hitting chairs at neighboring table. Skinny people don't eat here - the rest of us need more room

They just don't seem to care to go above providing a very basic "feed trough" quick turnover experience. The cheap plastic flatware packages, no bread, limited food choices & yucky desserts do not seem to me to be worth the price or the drive. I did not eat there before the fire & maybe that's how they did things then but now they have an opportunity to do a whole lot better this time around.

It's WAY down Whiskey, so a bit of a trip from downtown area & all the other better dining choices. There was nothing about it to induce me to make the trek again or recommend Duke's.

Interestingly enough I just looked at the posted photos & many of the items in the photos were nowhere to be seen on the buffet line.

After all the buildup I'm sorry to say it was a pretty underwhelming experience, but there do seem to be a lot of people who like it in spite of...

5 years ago (pre fire) I would have given 5 stars EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! Now I would give 1 maybe 2. Immediately when we walk in the door, the little SnickleFritz at the cash register IMMEDIATELY made and tried to convince us to leave (party of 9) at 7:20 pm. She said “if you didn’t know, we close very soon and shut down the bar in just a bit (40 minutes) so if you won’t be done by then, you may not want to stay”… then she went on to be very rude about multiple things… Food was ok, nothing to write home about anymore… but if there is one thing I can advise the owners or hiring/firing staff…, get that rude little disrespectful thing out from the front line and put her on RR duty or Trash duty… but as a Veteran Patron and consistent supporter of Dukes for over 20 years, I will NEVER step foot back in this place ever again because of her disgusting and blatant disrespect towards everyone.

Response to Owner:

I did NOT request takeout! I asked them if there were anymore bone in hot wings and the girl at the front told me we aren’t putting anymore out to which I replied if you don’t have all of your items out and plan to restock them, then why are you charging g full price… she said “that’s just the way we do it… I said, “let me speak to a manager” she said “go ahead, he’s right over there and rolled her eyes at me…” so then the man went on to explain they were in fact out of bone in wings which I have no issue with being told negative news, as long as it’s done respectfully and courteously, which he did. Again, I did not request take out, I was just initially looking for an option to be able to get those hot wings that she said they weren’t putting anymore out because of the “time” not because of being out of stock. I don’t have ridiculous expectations, but short sarcasm to us and our 80 year old grandmother and inlaws while checking in, then rolling eyes and being what was clearly just “rude” makes for a very disappointing experience coming from what used to be such an awesome and family friendly restaurant. You went up on price, and down on courtesy, new beautiful building, but lost your charm. I’d choose old dukes, crammed tables and shoulder to shoulder and heavy parking, but good family atmosphere and nice employees, and never once told or rushed about time, not once,,, over spread out, room to move, not as good of food (amount or quality) and pushy employees with could care less attitudes. Unfortunate, but all anyone can do is post their experience and quit patronizing their used to be “go-to” favorites and branch out to find more. Take care, and hope it turns around for you. Thanks for your reply, no matter what, I do respect and...

Traveled to Aiken for work and stopped in Dukes for some (what we had heard) delicious barbecue. $18 for the buffet, which is pretty typical for any buffet. The sides are all standard for most any barbecue joint (beans, green beans, corn, taters and gravy, etc) with pulled pork, sausage, and fried chicken as the entrees. My travel companion had the fried chicken, almost exclusively, due to his dietary restriction of no pork - many if not all the items had some amount of pork in it.

When asked what the chicken was fried in, the staff member replied “grease”. When followed up with “do you mean soybean oil, vegetable oil…” the staff member doubled down on grease. The sausage had almost no flavor, very little seasoning and mostly tasted just like grease as it oozed off the sausage. The pulled pork was insanely dry - drier than the New Mexican desert.

For the sides, I had the taters, corn, cabbage, beans, and a slew of other items. What most stands out to me were the beans and cabbage. The beans tasted like they were heated cooked down ketchup and frankly had no taste of the traditional barbecue of either the Carolina’s or around the rest of the nation. I would’ve preferred they open a can of Bush’s baked beans and served that.

The ambiance was fine, no major issues. The salad bar was arguably the best thing about the meal.

I tend to be open to different barbecue in the places I visit with all of the different styles. I am always welcomed by the beautiful smoker aroma, but that was not present at Dukes. I’m not sure if this is because they do not smoke their meats in house or if they have an alternate means of cooking their product. Ultimately I was very disappointed in Dukes and will not be visiting on my next...