The Crooked Duck — Restaurant in Long Beach

Been going to The Crooked Duck for 9yrs. I absolutely (Loved) this place. I went there with my husband many many many times before bringing my best friend making this a regular spot to eat an amazing breakfast…. I then started to bring other people. That’s how much I truly enjoyed this place.

I decided to take my mom two days ago here to The Crooked Duck. She had never been and it is beyond rare we get to go out to breakfast. I was beyond embarrassed by the service and the food. My heart sank and I shuttered when our food arrive. Random cold potatoes on a platter the server told us not to touch because it was scalding hot. What??? Why??? That had never been a thing! She stated it was to crisp the cheese on top. Why??? That is NOT a norm!!!! We take our fork and flip the clearly dry as a bone omelette open to see the most burnt dry omelette I have ever seen. Inside NO cheese!!!! The chef apparently, as stated by the owner tried to cover the burnt top with cheese. Something that is not the norm. Cheese is to be inside. But inside there was (tiny tiny tiny chopped bits) 4-6 pieces of zucchini and 3-4 pieces of bell peppers, and maybe 5 pieces of onions…. Nothing else. Where was all the veggies in a VEGGIE omelette. It was soooooo embarrassing because I had talked about this place for hours to my Mom prior.

This is an omelette listed for $16+ which we ordered and then last minute they charge you extra… 50¢ an egg. So, $1.50 on omelettes. They do it to egg dishes yet not to the pancakes and French toast… 🤔 so are they not made with eggs? The owner comes up to the table after offering to let us know that tariffs and the bird flu makes him up the charges. Yet it’s nowhere on the menu indicating it. Only after you have sat for 10min going over the menu then ordering. Yet…. At stores the egg shortage have been lifted all over the South Bay. So, an almost 20$ after tax omelette with no veggie and 90% no cheese other than the 2”x2” of burnt cheese on top to hide the burned dry omelette… yet some how cold.

What perplexes us…. How did you get a omelette to our table in 2min. Why because we believe it was premade and tossed in a skillet into the oven. Then slapped cheese to hide the burnt top. I wouldn’t feed my dog this food. I’m so so very saddened by the quality, the service, and the establishment for cutting corners. If you’re able to fit at a table on your laptop…. Then you should be in the kitchen as the owner overlooking your patrons dishes coming out. I would be embarrassed.

Last,

Next time… do not follow the customers out to their car and put your hands on their vehicle as you apologize and reiterate everything we assumed holding our door open as I’m starting my car not allowing my mom to shut her door!!!!!! I did not appreciate it at all. You made us feel so uncomfortable and my mom shouldn’t have had to call you back and schooled you on tariffs!!! That if you buy in the US it doesn’t affect you… so, as you said your egg location is in the US and we would assume all the rest of your produce has to be US purchased as well. So everything in the end… start your finish was horrific.

You lost my family of 4, my mom, my brother and his family of 4, my best friend and her family of 5, and my grandpa’s step son and his wife… along with my mom. We will not return ever again. As I see in your reviews others are feeling...

I don’t know what today’s experience was all about but it was only my second time here and I came back because my first time was amazing. This time I brought a friend for their first time here and it was everything opposite of that from the moment we came in…

We waited awhile until somebody came by to seat us, once we were sat, they put us at a dirty table that still had crumbs and goo on the table. He wipes it down, asks for our drink order and we both get the same latte. They bring them out one at a time with five minutes apart, the design on top looks bizarre in comparison to every other drink I’ve seen and previously had my first time.

Then we wait forever for someone to take our order, I don’t know who our server is at this point. I had also nearly finished my latte by the time someone else came around to see if we had ordered yet so I asked for another drink. Nobody told us what the specials were, I ordered a special last time and liked it so I was looking forward to hearing about them and assumed since they didn’t say anything they didn’t have them this time. It wasn’t until I heard the servers telling every other table around us what the specials were for me to even know they still had what I got last time … this time I only ordered sides off the menu bc I didn’t know. It took another 10-15 mins until my orange juice arrived and it only arrived because I flagged down another server and told her it’s been so long and I hadn’t gotten it. She went around the corner and came back in seconds with it. Why did that not happen the first time with our server?? Who IS our server?

The whole time we had tables coming in on each side of us and we’re seeing them all get waited and taken care of in timely manners meanwhile we were actively there and spent most of our time just waiting for someone to help us. It wasn’t even getting busy until we were trying to leave at this point. Bizarre experience and now I don’t want to go back at all because what was that?? I wanted to ask one of the servers who our actual server was but she walked away before I even had the chance.

Disappointed because I thought this would be my new spot because I live in walking distance but after this...

Came here as a party of 2 on a Monday morning, around 11:30am. The wait was not long at all, and there weren't very many people inside. Although usually, if you go on a weekend, I believe it gets very crowded around this time. Mind you, this isn't my first time here. The parking lot in front of the restaurant is very very small. The place is slightly hidden on PCH, so be careful when driving down. There's a lot of street parking nearby, however, if you go in the morning/afternoon. The closer it gets to 5pm, the less spots there will be. Crooked Duck has a notice on their menus to be kind to the surrounding neighborhood and not block their driveways, which I thought was really nice. Now, the first time I came here, the food was alright. I believe that was mostly because I was dumb and didn't look at Yelp to see what popular dishes were served here. This time, I decided to listen to Yelp first. And I'm SO GLAD I DID. The "Crooked Duck Omelette" is the one pictured below. I didn't realize that by "duck chili" they meant an omelette with duck, beans, and cheese. I'm not a big fan of beans but my friend loved it! She had ordered the "Chicken Fried Steak" and shared half of it with me, which I ended up eating the majority of! A lot better than what I was expecting. (The pictures of it on Yelp made it look very meh.) Even though we were tucked away in a corner, our server still waited on us very professionally and checked up on us often. We didn't feel neglected at all. At the end, the server handed us a bill and also a small present! (I think it's a seasonal/holiday thing) The present was a red envelope with a mystery coupon inside. If we came back sometime from January-February, with the envelope UNOPENED, the server would open it and allow us to use it then! I thought that was a very sweet deal and a fantastic idea. Overall, my friend and I thoroughly enjoyed our time here, the wonderful wait staff, and the delicious food. We will definitely come back to...