Black Duck Tavern — Restaurant in East Providence

Last week my buddy and I rode our bikes from Barrington into East Providence to see the Jason Bonham Led Zeppelin Evening at Bold Point Park. The original plan was to hit the Narragansett Beer Garden before the show to fuel up. My buddy is a bit less of a bike rider than myself, so after the 7 mile ride in and him seeing the distant beer garden way over the bridge and across the water, we agreed to just duck into (pun intended) this place that was much closer to the venue. Being it was right before a concert, the place was understandably pretty crowded. We got seated right away and checked out the menu. Great selection of beers and cocktails. We both found drinks we really enjoyed. The menu is on the limited side, but perfect for a pre-concert chow down. Apps, wings, salads, burgers, chicken, etc... We both got the Mushroom, Bacon and Swiss Smash Burger and agreed it was one of the best we've had in a while! The waitstaff was in the weeds, but still attentive and efficient. The bartender helped out by running our successive rounds of drinks to the table, rather than leaving them sitting at the bar as I've seen so many times at other places. A little bit of a wait is to be expected. It's an hour before a big concert right down the street, and in case you haven't heard, most places are hurting for staff right now. Simmer down, Karen! Plan ahead next time. Get there earlier so you can enjoy yourself instead of complaining about the service! We had a great experience. We're bringing the wives back tonight before the Jason Isbell show. In fact, we will go the The Black Duck Tavern EVERY time somebody named Jason is playing at Bold Point Park. We'll also make it a stop before any Comedy Connection show (which is connected next door). Cool vibe. Great drinks. Delicious...

I gave 2 stars instead of 1 because the calamari and Buffalo cauliflower were delicious and my burger was a perfect medium. We had a group of 5 last night, the place was pretty busy and seemed short staffed (like everywhere else, I get it). HOWEVER, being short staffed is not an excuse to be blatantly rude to customers. It’s just not. I’ve worked in customer service my entire life, I know there’s a way to say things and a completely inappropriate way to say things. We were all having a great time, our first round of drinks was delicious, the apps were great. The waitress came over to ask if we needed anything, the 5 of us briefly discussed what round of shots to order, our waitress was immediately visibly irritated and said “I’m really busy so….taps hand on table DECIDE”. Now, if we were taking an exceptionally long time I could understand maybe saying something like “Excuse me just a min guys, I’ll be right back for that round of shots”….this is very basic customer service 101.

They also ran out of lemonade, not a big deal, however she was rude about that too. “We’re out of lemonade so….” can easily be replaced with “I’m hearing we are fresh out of lemonade, would you like to try X drink instead? Or is there something else I can get for you?” And then get that person their drink, instead of making them wait 20 min while the rest of their table has theirs because you ran out of a basic mixer. Again, customer service 101

The world is short staffed, I get it. However being short staffed is NOT an excuse for poor service. Slow service, sure, but not rude. I can honestly say I’ve never been so taken back by the way a waitress spoke to us as I was last night. Really disappointed. Probably won’t be back. Food was good though, so they have that...

I’ve been here several times, good food, good drinks. I recommend it to lots of people. My 1 gripe is once you’re seated it takes A server at least 10 to 15 minutes to initially come to the table. It hasn’t happened once or twice, it has literally happened every single time I’ve been there (at least 4 times). When I was there last week there was somebody there who came in the same time as I did. I waited more than 15 minutes for a server to come to my table. After I had gotten my drinks the customer came in to ask if anybody was serving the tables outside, they had been waiting longer than me. That is really the only negative, but it’s very frustrating. So if you’re not in a big rush, and you’re not starving, go to the Black duck because the food really is good. They really really need to work on their service when people initially sit down. I have to note that the first time I was there and the waitress took quite a while to come over to us, she did apologize and take the drinks off the tab without us asking. That was really nice of her. Other than that no one has even ever acknowledged that we have been sitting...