Duke's Brewhouse — Restaurant in Florida

A buddy and I stopped in for an early lunch, got there shortly after 11am (opening time) ordered a bacon burger with a side of hushpuppies and a chicken sandwich. Okay it took longer than expected (30ish minutes) for the food to make it to our table but since we were there so close to opening time it wasn't awful. The burger itself was cooked to well done. The toppings on the burger were supposed to be bacon and onion straws I was lucky I guess as I got a bonus chunk of chicken and some fries in my toppings not what I ordered but not the worst thing I suppose. The hushpuppies however were very disappointing, 1st batch came out and were obviously cooked too hot since they were a dark brown almost black in color yet the inside was still raw liquid dough. Server quickly returned them to kitchen and a 2nd batch was returned about 10 minutes later, this batch was visibly burnt on the outside blackened and smelling like burnt toast why they were ever brought to the table is mystifying. Server came by and started to ask if they were better than 1st batch but cut herself off when she saw them in the basket. I cut one open and at least it was cooked through and through. I declined any further attempts at the hushpuppies and asked for our check. The server apologized but did not even offer to remove the 99 cent upcharge for the hushpuppies. Oh yeah also had to swap out dirty silverware and replace an empty ketchup bottle by snagging new ones from next table over. How the ketchup is empty 10 minutes after opening is a mystery for a well run place not so much a mystery here.

TLDR; slow kitchen, sloppy food preparation and presentation. Inexperienced or uncaring service staff. Location has potential and the menu is interesting, will give it one more chance in a month or two and hope some needed improvements are done.

Edit: I was contacted by the establishment very quickly after posting this, it is obvious to me now that my experience was most likely an outlier. I am looking forward to my next visit. Since the management clearly cares I raised my review...

At entry, I was confused. We stood there for such a long time, I had to reconfirm with my partner if it was self seating. There were four employees standing at the register, one finally asked if we needed two kids menus and then seated us. I ordered an angry orchard, the waitress informed me that their keg wasn’t working, maybe it was empty she said? She let me know they were going to see if they had another keg, and never again mentioned it until my other drink sat empty for 10 minutes and I had to ask for a refill, and then at that time inquired about the mystery angry orchard. Apparently, no, that keg was dead. She asked my mom if she wanted the lime for the corona, and said she was so glad she didn’t want it because that would mean she would have had to go to the kitchen to cut it. She said the quiet part out loud! We wanted somewhere light and fun after a rough week, we brought my mom along, and it was pretty disappointing pulling a long blonde hair out of her fish and chips. Our nachos were lightly sprinkled with cheese, but overloaded with a can of black beans. The wings were supposed to be “wet” but man were they dry. Shockingly dry. After handing the empty plates to the waitress that kept ignoring them as they piled the table, we asked for to go boxes and the check. The waitress brought the to go boxes, ignored the check, we asked again for the check. She brought the check and my partner informed her he had the payment and not to go, and she said “ya” and walked away immediately to the next table. We eat out quite a bit, I enjoy reviewing the establishments we try. I almost felt bad about this one, but it was an awful experience. Due to the hair in fish and chips, the manager said he would discount the fish and chips, no big deal that he didn’t, but he gave us a few drink cards and discount cards. We should have left them on the table, you couldn’t pay me...

This place by far has went down hill. Worst service experience in Brandon. I understand things take time to make but 30-40mins on some boneless wings and fries. The food was cold the sauce felt as if it was microwaved as it was the only hot item on the order. They was training a new crew member but yet another waitress had to point out the fact that we needed refills while waiting for our food. Then it was like we was inconveniences coming to the restaurant when we asked for thing the young girl training had no idea and the one training her felt like her conversation in the corner was more important then taking care of the customers when it was like a ghost town and service should have been way better seeing how there was only a total of 9 people in the whole restaurant 3 at our table 2 at the bar and 4 at another. The 4 at the other table the waitress they had she was very grateful she definitely deserves to be notice as she was cleaning sweeping and her customers was well taking care and attended too. The staff we had I’m sorry she doesn’t need to be training when she needs to be retrained on things herself. The manager had no answer for the way things was all she could do was offer 5$ off on next visit cards I think she needs trained on how to handle things too. I tipped the other waitress that was doing all the work around the restaurant and got us refills great young lady she definitely a keeper if she could have some team players she would not be doing everything while other stand around. Please improve service and food quality as I’m sure cold chicken means it wasn’t sitting in a warmer if so it was past it time use for food quality it yet your waitress that was the trainer was more worried about a hamburger not being cooked a certain way due to food safety think food safety starts in the kitchen and keep food in reasonable temperature for...