Dua Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in Jacksonville

So a few friends of mine told me to check this place out because I like to check out places in Jacksonville when I'm in town. So I decided to check it out. When I first got to the place, the place looks pretty decent. It was very pretty. One part of the restaurant was pretty full so I was seated in a different section. The section I was in didn't have a lot of people in it. As I waited there for almost 5 minutes somebody actually finally came to ask me if anyone had come to see me I told him no. I waited another 10 minutes get even water and another 10 get a menu. I had five servers bypass me and I was literally right in the middle of the room. Finally somebody came and gave me some water. I asked for a drink to see if the bartender knew how to make it and apparently they didn't which I can understand because it's not a lot of people know how to do it. What surprised me was that they didn't even go to check or Google it to see if they had the ingredients because it was a very simple drink. But they suggested one of their signature cocktails. So I gave it a try. To be perfectly honest it was okay. It was good but I probably wouldn't order it again. Although I probably would suggest it to others who might like it. Then I started to wait for my server to come back to actually take my food order. Another 10 minutes waiting then finally my server came again. I was hungry when I got there but I had lost my appetite because I was waiting for so long. So I just ordered an appetizer. After another wait I got my food and I tried it and it was good. It wasn't great to me. I noticed also that I was never given silverware or napkins or anything like that. So after a while I went ahead and asked for a box I was going to take the food and give it to a friend of mine. Which by the way she said that she ate maybe a bit of it then she just gave it to her dog. After a while they gave me my check. What I find absolutely interesting it's the fact that I waited quite a while for anyone to acknowledge me when I first sat down, to even get me some water, to even take my order but when it came to the check they showed up quickly. The place is beautiful. The atmosphere is very nice. The food was okay to me not something to write home about but it was okay. But the service what's below average. I wanted to enjoy this place so much because I heard great things so my standards were really really high. But alas I had a very...

The atmosphere of the restaurant was nice yet very hot for some reason, and we were excited to attend the Love Island watch party. Unfortunately, the service and treatment we received made the experience incredibly disappointing.

From the moment we arrived, it felt like the staff was prioritizing white patrons for the best seats specifically the ones directly in front of the TV while trying to seat Black customers in the corners or less visible spots. We had reserved high top seats days in advance online, which is how their reservation system works. When we arrived at 8:30 for the 9:00 show, the middle seats at the bar (with the best view) were wide open and the had already seat three other white women in front of the tv at that end, but we were seated at the far corner with a poor view of the screen.

Seeing the middle still empty, we moved there. Later, two white women came and the host asked one of us to move back to the corner so they could have the center seats. My friend explained we had arrived first, there are no assigned bar seats, and that she wasn’t moving. The staff claimed those seats were “reserved” which contradicted what we were told when we booked. Still, we compromised and scooted down so they could add a chair. But the entire situation left us feeling like we weren’t being treated equally.

To make matters worse, service was incredibly slow. We only got to place our order once when we arrived and then again much, much later clearly because they were slammed. Still, there was very little communication or follow-up.

When my second drink finally arrived, it was served in a used glass that had visible lip gloss on the rim. That’s completely unacceptable. On top of that, the bartender didn’t seem to know how to make any of the themed drinks that were advertised for the Love Island watch party so we had to pick something else, which felt unprofessional and unprepared.

This experience was frustrating and honestly disheartening. We came for a fun night and left feeling disappointed and unwelcome. I hope the management takes these issues seriously—especially around seating fairness, cleanliness, staff preparedness, and basic...

I was very excited to try this place out, friends and I made reservations, party of 7 on Friday night for my birthday. We arrived and were sat on the restaurant side, the place is beautiful. Unfortunately this was the only upside of the experience of the night. The appetizers came out missing items, or cold and chewy (regarding the calamari). It took a laughable amount of time for this dinner as we arrived at 7:30 and by the time everyone in my party had gotten their entrees it was almost 10p despite them all being ordered at the same time. We received the wrong flavor of hookah. Missing items that were ordered. The drinks that were ordered took so long so be delivered to the table, all of the ice was melted and the drinks were watered down and visibly separated. When I told the waiter that we were upset and missing items that were ordered nearly an hour and a half prior, he wanted to bring them out but at this point we had been sitting and waiting for everything for 3 hours, and I was frustrated at the poor experience we have had. I asked him to bring boxes for the remaining food we wanted to take home and to bring the checks. another 20 minutes of waiting, still no boxes or checks have been brought! He comes over to table again, asks if we need anything and I reiterate that we need the boxes and checks as soon as possible. The checks came out and were incorrect, the food we never received were still on them, the incorrect hookah that was supposed to be removed was not. When he came back and we pointed these out he was visibly upset and annoyed that we wanted this to be rectified as the night had been a major fail. The 15 minutes it took to bring the amended checks back and he threw the bill folds on the table, walked away and came back another 10 minutes later to run our cards. By the time we were able to leave, my entire dinner party was extremely upset and apologetic because they felt this place very much dropped the ball on the service of my birthday dinner. I will not be back. I will not recommend this place to anyone. It was incredibly disappointing, especially for a place priced at the rate...