Wild Duck Cafe — Restaurant in Eugene

I wanted to like this place. Honestly I did.

We walked in got seated quickly. We even asked to change to a booth and we’re accommodated quickly.

The place wasn’t busy. Half the tables were empty which was surprising for weekend dinner time, so we figured everything would run smoothly. The owner was friendly and kind and personally thanked us for choosing his restaurant which was as a great start. However it went downhill very quickly.

Our serve Ava started off with a very surprised look when she was told to help us as we had been there for over ten minutes and hadn’t had our order taken. She asked if we needed a check ( there was no plates or food on the table) and we said no. We need to order. She then divulged into telling us that she has little experience and the place is understaffed and super busy…and asked us to have patience with her…

Cool. That’s great. Probably not great to say to customers. But honest. Sure. I’ll give her that.

We give her our order. Great.

Forty minutes pass. No refill on our waters that have been empty for the last twenty minutes. No appetizer. She checked on us one time in that 45 minuets. And we had to ask for a water refill.

An hour later. No appetizer, no food I actually had to walk to the subway that was 267 feet away to get us something to eat because we were so hungry. A few minutes later after I had gotten us some chips the food finally came… Well, most of it, my mothers food was still missing and as we received our food, we were not given any utensils to eat it. Mind you we have been at the restaurant for an over an hour now and did not have any utensils.

When finally given our food, we could not even eat it… my brother, who was starving was grabbing the mac & cheese with his fingers because he didn’t even have a fork to eat.

My mothers then asked for a spoon for him and we were given one. The last of the food came 6 minutes later..: missing the side. Which was the fries. The fries came another 5 minutes later. So in total all the food came to us 1.20 minutes after we ordered.

She did apologize however it did not feel genuine. Nor were we offered any kind of small gesture to make up for the inconvenience.

When we finally finished our food we had half of a large sandwich left. We ask for a box for the large sandwich and the fries. Ava acknowledges this and brings us back the smallest box that can’t even hold half of the sandwich…at this point we just chuckle. Because how terrible the situation was…

My mother then asked for a bigger box by telling her that the sandwich is not going to fit in the box…is there a bigger one? She then disappeared and came back with a larger box…but here’s the part that made me write the review.

When she came back to the table she threw the box down towards me. I smiled.

We had been nothing but respectful to this woman. And she crossed the line.

Once she threw that box down towards me is when I decided to take the time to make sure that my voice was heard.

Disrespect is not tolerated. As someone who visits Oregon often we will never eat here again. We will never suggest this place to anyone. The fact that we got disrespected by staff when we had done nothing wrong. We even had to ask for our own silver ware after the food arrived!

I truly suggest training here. Training. Training. Training. It was unacceptable. And I truly wish the best to Ava. We still tipped her however she did not deserve it at all.

As someone who has worked in the service industry, we even tried to help by setting all the plates organized and picked up all of our trash to make clean up as easy as possible. I understand the hardships of serving. But this experience was one to remember in the worst way...

New Wild Duck owners Charles Haasenritter and family, including his son Kilohana, a duck running back, have restored a traditional hangout while decades old stalwarts such as The Pad, Taylors and Duffy’s shuttered their doors. After joining the others and closing in 2022 after COVID, the Wild Duck reopened in September of 2024 with new owners, the Hassenritter family, who brought a new menu with Hawaiian selections and over 30 different other dishes from burgers and fries to eggs Benedict. A little after a year since reopening with the expanded menu, beer, wine and liquor selections and a number of new decorations including Ducks, scoreboards and other one of a kind memorabilia, the free parking has also been expanded making sitting under the famous mural featuring Ken Keysey and the Floydian Slip a must when I visit Eugene. At former Duck football coach Don Read’s remembrance in April, we gathered to remember 50 years ago below the mural and drank cold beer and ate delicious food, unlike the dorm food 50 years ago. We joined a Hall of Famer at the event I will always remember! Even though the crowd packed the place and our food took a while longer to arrive, every wing, fry, pretzel and artichoke dip bite was warm, crunchy and delicious. GO DUCKS! New Wild Duck owners Charles Haasenritter and family, including his son Kilohana, a duck running back, have restored a traditional hangout while decades old stalwarts such as The Pad, Taylors and Duffy’s shuttered their doors. After joining the others and closing in 2022 after COVID, the Wild Duck reopened in 2023 with new owners, the Hassenritter family, who brought a new menu with Hawaiian selections and over 30 different other dishes from burgers and fries to eggs Benedict. A little after a year since reopening with the expanded menu, beer, wine and liquor selections and a number of new decorations including Ducks, scoreboards and other one of a kind memorabilia, the free parking has also been expanded making sitting under the famous mural featuring Ken Keysey and the Floydian Slip a must when I...

My mother and i stopped by here for a quick bite on our way to Seattle. There were 2 other patron groups in the entire restaurant and, presumably, 2 staff members having an after-shift drink, and a single on-shift waitress. We ordered the turkey, bacon avocado sandwich on toasted sourdough, fish &chips with sweet potato fries, and a double vodka water with lime. We waited 30 to get our order taken , another fully 30 minutes for them to deliver my drink (which was so gross i couldn't finish half of it) and then another 20 for our food. The wait, despite the abandoned state of the venue, would have been forgiveable if the food had been anything beyond entirely unremarkable, bordering on mothballs. My fish & chips legitimately looked and tasted my Gorton's frozen fish and were grease-logged to boot. My mom's toasted bread looked a step above stale on one side and utterly soggy on the other; the bacon she'd specifically requested to be crispy was limp and practically raw in some parts. We ate 2 bites each and decided it wasn't worth the wait for boxes on some slim chance we could doctor our meals into any semblance of palatability in our hotel room later tonight. So we paid our tab ($42.50 plus a generous tip) and left within 5 minutes of receiving our meals, with still 5 hours of travel time ahead of us. We're still hungry and will have to spend more $ somewhere else later today to eat. Frankly, we would have been better off hitting...