Duke's Grocery — Restaurant in Washington

Big letdown, I'd say. I came here with my wife because I love a good burger and I heard this was the spot. We got the truffle mac and cheese as an appetizer, and that was pretty good. For the entree, I got the burger (and added egg and bacon) and she got the Caribbean Queen wrap. The burger, itself, was very plain, in my opinion, not a lot of flavor. The toppings made it a good burger, but far from a "great" burger, like I had read. The Caribbean Queen was totally dry and flavorless. The "pineapple salsa" was just a couple chunks of dry pineapple. My wife took one bite and I took one bit and we sent it back. Our server asked no questions about why we were sending it back, just took it. When we got our bill, the wrap was on there. I had to convince him to take the wrap, of which we had two small bites, off the bill. He begrudgingly relented.

The truffle mac tasted pretty good and that brings this up from a one star experience to a two star experience.

UPDATE: Aw shoot, here we go! Yes, I absolutely WILL make time to respond to the ridiculous response from Duke's to my original post.

Responding to the response from the Duke's employee whose job it is to respond to Google reviews. Wow, you are ridiculous, whoever you are. Are you the waiter? Ownership? Media manager? Cook? Custodian? Pretty impressive how well you remember one plate of food from what looked to be a busy night of business on a weekend. You say she ate more than half...the wrap comes cut in half, right? So you're saying she left less than one of the two sections remaining on the plate? A lie. I watched her take one bite and I took one and we sent it back with more than a section and a half remaining of the wrap. And do you make a habit of not charging people who eat more than half their food? Hey everybody! Duke's is having a special where you can eat more than half of what you order and then not pay! It's a real great business policy! Seems sort of contradictory that you wouldn't charge us for the food and then publicly accuse me of lying in my review. The act of "taking something off the bill" is usually intended to appease a customer with the hopes of encouraging them to give your establishment another chance. You, on the other hand, took the item off our bill and then accused me of lying, so not only did we not pay for the food but we'll never come back AND I'll post this review on other forums. Great business acumen! And, what, no response to my comment on the pineapple "salsa"? True or false that you just plopped two chunks of pineapple in the wrap and call it salsa? I'll wait.

Using premium beef on your burgers is good, but seasoning your premium beef is even better. I've seen this same comment from others on Google review but seeing how sensitive you are to receiving honest feedback, I'm guessing you probably were just as dismissive of those comments as you were of mine.

FINALLY, as you can see, I've left three other reviews through Google and they're all 5 stars. I'm giving you this low rating because we had a bad experience, not because I'm inclined to give low ratings to businesses on...

“Adequate food. Exorbitant prices”

At least that was my initial review. But then Duke’s grocery reached out to me with a thoughtful reply which makes it necessary to qualify the hastily written comment above. I normally only review places that I think are 5 stars. But, in order to advance in Google Explorer world, you need to accumulate more points than would be mathematically possible for me to only review the places that were, in my opinion, 5 stars. I realize that Duke’s is a small business and not some faceless corporate entity and what I said reflected a few bad experiences I’ve had that make me not want to go back, and quite frankly didn’t warrant my time explaining the two stars that I originally gave them. However, I want places like Duke’s to succeed. So let me try to add some constructive criticism, and be a real person. So, Duke, listen up, I have been three times, over the course of a year and a half to both locations. Each time I left feeling unhappy. One time the Mac and Cheese was ice cold in the center. Another time I ordered the burger medium rare and it came back well done. I realize that these things are not the server’s fault so I only tipped my baseline which is 20%. The last time I went was in December, on one of the days where it was beautiful, my friend and I were in the neighborhood and I decided to give it a final try. We sat outside, after asking if it was okay, and then got sporadic service at best. At one point I had to go inside to get another bottle of water, and this was mid afternoon lull, by no means was anyone in the weeds. And still my burger came out overcooked. So what am I going to do, send it back? We both know that they can’t uncook it. I don’t like wasting food, and I was starving, which was half the reason I agreed to go there again in the first place. So, I made a deal with myself that I was done with Duke’s grocery, and the great thing about DC is that there a ton of new places to try all the time, some good, some bad, but most somewhere in the middle. I don’t mind paying money for food, it’s one of my favorite ways to part with cash. But growing up in Vermont, with a dad who’s been line cook his entire life, and personality in my own life having worked front back and all parts of the house in between, all I really want out a restaurant is good value. I’m headed to the Inn at Little Washington next month to take my line cook father out to a 3 Michelin star restaurant and it’s not going to be cheap, but I sure as hell know it will be worth it. One of the kids back home I used to baby sit 20 years ago, is now a sous chef there. My experience at Duke’s has been mediocre, and I won’t be back for a while. I will upgrade my rating to three stars, however, because everyone should decide those things for themselves. And at least Duke’s Grocery cares enough to respond to my stupid google review. So...

I really wanted to like this place but the service really soured my experience. I have detailed my experience at the bottom but left the facts at the top. In short Duke's is a great bar serving tasty bar food, but as a restaurant, Duke's fails in the customer service arena.

The atmosphere at Duke's is something between bar pilar and 18th St lounge, I am honestly unsure how to describe it. Per the new DC norm, edison bulbs softly light up the bar which is surrounded by cozy seats peppered across their dining area. Music is good and the general scene is bustling with people, so get there early.

My group came for dinner vs drinks and to that regard the food was pretty good. They seem to be known for their burgers so I'd recommend that if its your first time at Duke's...just be careful not to load up the burger with extras, I did and ended up regretting it because there was just too much on the burger to really enjoy it. Their burrata plate was a bit decadent... Serving syrup glazed bread with candied walnuts with the burrata plate. I wish I got this after my meal vs as an appetizer. On the drinks side they seem to lean towards craft cocktails vs beer. One good thing to note though is that they have a juicing machine that serves up grapefruit crushes for the Dewey throwback crowd; proper.

Finally, the service... I had a bad experience on this end so take it with a grain of salt, but in short the wait staff treat Duke's as a bar not a restaurant so don't expect the service that comes with a general meal at a restaurant.

Here is my story: After waiting for a table outside on what seemed to be a beautiful evening, for about 30 min we were notified that a spot had opened up outdoors; great, we were sat down and quickly placed our orders. Everything was going well until half way through our meal when a quick rain storm pushed through the area. We were under an umbrella so we just squeezed in a bit tighter and kept eating, that is until the server told us he was taking down the umbrella... What?! We asked if there was indoor seating for us and he says "no, you will need to find your own seats. They said apparently the umbrella wasn't designed for rain..only for shade...again..What?! So after collecting our own dishes we walked into the bar to attempt to find space to eat. After some searching we found one a spot we could rest our plates but again..it was on our own.

I get that it is hard to reseat people at the drop of the hat, but not a thing was done to attempt to fix the issue, which is what really soured my entire dining experience. I will give them another shot at some point, but for now Id much rather head elsewhere for...