Duke's Seafood South Lake Union — Restaurant in Seattle

This place was highly rated so my friend and I were excited to try it. It's right on Union Lake, which is gorgeous and we were there for dinner. My friend ordered fish and chips for the main course, and I ordered the stuffed prawns. We were expecting greatness after reading the reviews and deciding on the restaurant. His fish and chips looked like it came out of a frozen section of the supermarket!! It wasn't what we are used to....we are from Vancouver Island BC. I am thinking we must be really spoiled because I am going to show a photo to compare what we get here for much cheaper. He got fries with his order. There were 7. Honestly, it looked like something from a children's menu. I had the stuffed prawns. This was an entrée. It was absolutely delicious. But the portion size was underwhelming. He ordered a Mai Tai. The presentation was great. It was very strong. We both thought way too strong and didn't taste like Mai Tai's in Hawaii. I ordered a Martini. There were only 3 choices on the menu. I'm not a big drinker, but I like the occasional martini if I am celebrating. This one was also very strong. To the bartenders credit, I asked him if he could make it " more like a cosmopolitan " and he tried. My friend ordered an appetizer. I think it was bacon wrapped scallops. He intended to share. We both thought for the price, there would have been at least 4 to 6. There were only 2!! When the bill came and I realized that my 5 stuffed prawns and 1 martini came to $91 Canadian from the exchange rate, I nearly cried. I was so disappointed 😞. So was my friend. We didn't say anything about the food because it didn't taste bad. No one else seemed to mind the portion sizes 🤷‍♀️. I will say the atmosphere was fantastic. The view of Lake union was gorgeous, and the bathrooms were very large and beautiful. The staff were friendly. The plates were shaped like fish. I likely won't go back because it's not in my budget, and if I am spending that kind of money, I'm expecting a feast so large I can barely walk out the door lol 😆. All jokes aside, there are better places to spend your hard earned cash in this economy. Note: The 2 plates shaped like fish are from Duke's and the other plate of fish and chips is from Tofino, Vancouver Island, BC. You can see how the fish is battered and deep fried to...

My husband and I drove 3 hours to go to Duke's to celebrate my college graduation and Father's Day. I was especially looking forward to eating there because I have Celiac disease and they advertise many gluten free options. Unfortunately, we both had a horrible experience.

When we arrived, there was no flatware on the table which was fine; I figured they would eventually bring it. We sat down and waited 15 minutes for them to bring water. The waiter came and took our drink order 30 minutes after we sat down. At that time we put in our appetizer order along with our drink order.

I ordered a martini and after drinking some of it, I noticed my glass was chipped; of course I had drank from the chipped side. Our appetizers came. We still had no flatware. My gluten free bread came; it has a toasted hamburger bun that was burnt on one side, my husband's bread never came. We asked the server for bread for my husband and silverware. We waited for for 15 more minutes while our chowder got cold and finally silverware came. ​We ordered the chowder which was extremely over seasoned and had a very weird flavor. There was no salt and pepper on the table so we had to ask for that. When our appetizers came we ended up getting someone else's appetizer in conjunction with ours and had to tell the waiter to take it away.

We waited an entire hour for food to finally arrive. I ordered the salmon which was a flimsy piece of fish not worthy of the price and the sauce was swimming on my plate. I complained to the server and he sent a bartender over to listen to me who in turn sent the manager.

The manager arrived and was very apologetic and said he would make it right. He brought me a new plate with sauce to the side (see the sauce picture below). I felt compelled to at least eat half of the fish since it was $38, but still couldn't eat the sauce because it was so thick. The food was simply poor quality and honestly I have had better salmon at Applebee's.

We waited for our check (20 more minutes) and finally the server came over and told us there was no charge for the dinner; a very nice gesture, but we were more than willing to pay and honestly it didn't make up for the awful experience we had.

Needless to say, my husband and I won't...

Good quality food, great views, spotty service.

I arrived around 6pm on a Tuesday and was seated inside next to the window immediately. There was a wait for the patio but it was already getting chilly so I opted to stay indoors. I waited about ten minutes with no greeting before I got up to ask someone to send my server over, and whom I interacted with a total of twenty seconds my entire visit. The support staff that filled my water and got my servers were very nice and helpful though.

Ok but the food. The bread basket was excellent, half of a warm sourdough boule with butter - I didn’t expect to eat it all and yet the tangy, crunchy on the outside and pillowy chewy on the inside I couldn’t help myself. Also ordered one of each of the two oysters they had that day, a Kumamoto and something else. The Kumamoto was sweet and creamy and delicious as usual, the other was SO small (which is saying something compared to the Kumamoto as those are pretty small already) I could barely taste it. They came with a nice cocktail sauce and some sort of granita/shaved ice.

Also got the half wild child salad with a crab cake, no blue cheese. Salad was fine, fresh citrus, candied pecans - but the crab cake was delicious. All meat inside, well seasoned and creamy, the breadcrumbs on the outside made for a very crispy crust but didn’t weigh it down. It was smaller than I expected for a $15 supplement though.

For dessert ordered the pier pie. A layer of coffee and a layer of chocolate ice cream on top of a chocolate cookie crust. I ordered it since I love the Miller Ale House’s Captain Jacks buried treasure pie (Oreo, heath bar, caramel and fudge) and this was less interesting in comparison.

Come here for perhaps special occasions where you have money to drop and are craving seafood, but note that service may be hit or miss depending on your server.

Parking for this location is available in the lot attached to the restaurant, I believe anywhere from 1-3 hours is...