Duck City Bistro — Restaurant in Davenport

I would like to preface this review with the knowledge that I was invited here by good friends who love the place and I had a lovely time with them and would go again without hesitation because of their company, but I would have a better food experience and smaller bill with what I learned. Plenty of people enjoy the atmosphere, the food, and the chef and that's fine; I don't want to take away from what people enjoy.

That said, this is my opinion. First off we walked in and were seated and the table was nice, although covered in paper. I know they write on the tables and that's their thing, but I felt that along with the italian restaurant looking floor and the bricks on the wall that said a bunch of different things, including "butt!", it was poorly done and tacky. For the price point I expected better decor and better chairs (sitting on that for 2.5 hours it needs to be comfier! My butt and legs went numb.)

We were ushered up front to see the specials and it was a lot of show by the waiter and at the end he clanged the lid on the plate after he showed you the beef and it was a foot away and a bit startling and unpleasant. He also bragged that they only serve Heinz ketchup, but any restaurant that is an upper class place ought to be able to make ketchup better than Heinz. The entrees themselves looked fine, but I've seen better plating and presentation. A restaurant that comes to mind that's around the same price point is Iowa City Chophouse, which sources local and organic and has better decor and entree presentation.

We ordered onion rings and their duck fat fries. The onion rings were stringy and cool when they got to us and weren't that good. I had been hyped on the duck fries and had even made my own duck fat potatoes at home. For $11, what I got were slightly soggy fries that tasted mildly of duck and old oil. It tasted bland, frankly, and cut mostly with another oil, my guess is canola. I was honestly surprised when I tasted those and missed my potatoes that I'd made at home which were significantly better and I could make so much more of for the price.

A positive, a friend of mine ordered the portabella mushrooms and they were fantastic, and the provided french bread (which didn't come to the table until a few minutes after the appetizers arrived) dipped in it was amazing. If I go back, I will order that as my entree.

I ordered the prime rib (the waitress looked at me weird when I asked for it rare) and with it a garlic salad. My partner ordered the surf and turf and the lobster bisque. The bowl they got had some lobster chunks in it but it wasn't quite worth $9. My salad was over bittered with garlic, not pleasantly sprinkled as I'd expect, and it was drowning in dressing and I only ate a few bites. The lettuce was also basic restaurant supply, what I would expect from McDonald's.

When our entrees came out, half the table (table of 8) got theirs and started to eat while the other half waited another 5 minutes for their food. The time between salads and soups and entrees was a bit long. The surf and turf came with a personal grill that you caramelized the sauce on, which was cool. But once you removed the delicious teriyaki sauce, the meat was bland and so was the rice. My prime rib didn't even have pepper on it, let alone any seasoning. The only thing that made it palatable was the teriyaki I borrowed from my partner. The potatoes on top were forgettable. It came with no sauce, either.

Ultimately, for the price I shouldn't be able to make my own food better at home, but I do. I am not trained in any way, anything I know is from my tastebuds and the internet. I have made far better steak, potatoes, onion rings, salad, and rivaled the bisque. It was largely flair in a place that didn't command class or enforce a loose dress code. For the price, it should be local and organic, with a dress code, and less tacky decor.

Nevertheless, I shook the chef's hand and thanked him as was the polite thing to do. This restaurant isn't irredeemable, but it's only fancy to people who aren't food...

I want to start off by saying our server, Lea, was fantastic; she is the only person who deserves praise. I took 9 of my most important clients here because they were interested in trying it. Reservation was easy to get, and we were excited. Walking in, the tile floor almost took me to the ground with how slippery it was. Okay. Our private room was upstairs and down a lumpy carpeted hallway. I understand this is an old building, but it smells musty, it’s dark, and messily decorated.

I met my clients in the room, my 60 year old coworker behind me (she just wanted to tag along for the visit). We had to set up a projector and screen for a presentation, and the man helping us only spoke to my coworker who was A) not presenting and B) not paying. I was never greeted, looked in the eyes, or listened to by this gentleman. It was quite honestly disrespectful and appalling behavior from a staff member. He left after we set it up, so I don’t know the purpose of him being there. Lea took our orders and never left a cup get too low; she was great. The chef came up and gave us the menu (?), which we can clearly read on the UNPRICED paper menu in front of us. It was weird, theatrical, and it lasted too long… my clients were severely uncomfortable. Our private room was absolutely freezing due to either zero insulation or the vents not working, but don’t worry, we had one tiny space heater to try and keep us warm!

The bathroom we used was small, had a hole in the wall, a toilet full of scum stains, and a sink with different colored scum stains as well. I am from Chicago, and I have been to pretty much ever high-end establishment. Paying $120 per person, I would expect a whole lot better… maybe even a cleaner space? I don’t know, maybe that’s too much to ask!

Food was fine. Genuinely nothing special.

The price we paid for the absolute mess of everything that went down, beside our server, made me genuinely sick. Oh, and to make things even better, my coworker and I saw a dark brown object crawl under one of the private room love seats as we were leaving. Take that as you will… We looked at each other and went, “What the hell was that? Did you see that too?” Needless to say, we still bring it up in every conversation we have. I am so embarrassed I brought my clients here. Honestly, I don’t want anything for my horrible experience. You couldn’t pay me enough to come back and have another average meal for $120 a person.

If you’re looking to come here for business, a date, or impress...

We went to Duck City for dinner tonight while staying in Le Claire. Unfortunately, it was a very disappointing experience. Our server was apparently new and had little training. She was unable to answer simple questions about the menu. We ordered the mussels and pomme frites for appetizers as well as the garlic salad. For our entrées, I ordered the ahi tuna and my husband ordered the smoked pork chop stuffed with ham and Swiss.

Our mussels came in a bowl with no spoon to serve them, no bowl for the shells, and no little forks for pulling them out of the shells. The sauce was good, but not a good match for mussels. We asked for the spoon to dish up the mussels, and our server said, "sure, I'll take care of that for you" - then came back a few minutes later with only the little forks. We asked 2 more people for a spoon, until we finally asked a bus boy, who was wonderful and brought one immediately.

The pommes frites were the only really good thing. The garlic salad was good, but nothing to write home about.

The server came back and asked me what temperature I wanted my ahi tuna? I was confused - the menu calls it sushi grade ahi tuna, so I want it raw, as it should be. When I got it, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. It didn't really have the great flavor I've had from ahi tuna at many other places. The wasabi that came with it definitely wasn't real wasabi, as I had a huge chunk with the few bites I had, just to add some flavor, and it didn't light me up as real wasabi will do.

My husband had 2-3 bites of his pork chop, which was the size of his head, but overcooked. Of course, that was after waiting a few minutes to flag down someone to bring a knife to actually cut it with, since all we had been given was forks.

The server came and saw we barely touched our food, but just asked if we wanted a to-go box. We quickly said, "no."

We contemplated giving dessert a try. We asked her what the pineapple croustade was exactly and she said, "pineapple with a flaky...let me get a menu" (which we had already seen and had no description), so we just said we would just pass on dessert.

We will definitely...