The Duplex — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

Everybody loves a good brunch outing but let me say how me and my party did not have the best experience this Sunday. It started upon arrival when we waited several minutes to be acknowledged. Our reservations were at 2pm And we weren’t seated until almost 230. Place was very overcrowded and I’m guessing reservations were overbooked which led to the long wait time. Once seated we ordered food and drinks, a person in my party asked a specific question about the most popular menu item the lobster roll. The waitress ensured her that it was a fan favorite and she would enjoy it. When the roll came out it wasn’t what was explained or expected so she decided to send it back and see if it was something else she wanted. The owner was then sent to the table to explain how much they pay per ounce for the lobsters put in the rolls. We never had an issue with pricing even though the food didn’t reflect the prices. We asked about the branzino fish and was told it was in stock just to find out after ordering that it was out of stock. Another person in my party ordered wings half hot and half bbq, she told the waitress the hot wings were extremely salty and asked if she could have only bbq she was accommodated. The menu was misleading as well because when asked about the garlic aioli sauce for the house fries they played clueless as if it wasn’t stated on the menu. We showed them where it says it comes with sauce and they start telling us how no one else complains about it like it’s our fault the menu is misleading. Another man came over to the table I’m guessing the manager and asked how could he enhance our experience with free shots, dessert or even a gift card for our next visit. Although we just wanted to eat and enjoy the music she agreed to the gift card. The waitress came over with the bill and the lobster roll had been taken off as agreed to but there was a $2 dollar charge for the half hot and bbq wings. I asked the waitress why was it still there if the hot wings were sent back and she said she was going to remove it from the bill. We look around and the man who offered the gift card approached the table yelling in a very disrespectful tone saying “yall have to pay for something, I had to pay for half and half so do yall” he was insinuating we weren’t gonna pay the bill which was never the case we simply had questions about it and if she didn’t have the answers she should have let someone else answer. so I’m like if she’s not able to remove it from the bill why not just say that or say she needs management approval. Instead she said ok and that she was going to reprint the bill just to send that very unprofessional and disrespectful man to our table. Every word I said he cut me off and kept asking can he speak when I hadn’t fully explained our request. I felt as though we were being spoken to like children when everyone at the table were grown adults. He lied and said he asked us for an email address to send the gift card to when 3 people at our table never heard him ask for an email address we were under the impression that he had something written up on hand not through email. Long story short I did not appreciate as a paying customer being yelled at going back and forth over $2 and the overall miscommunication and misinformation of the staff, owner and manager. I requested to just pay the bill so we could cut the back and forth. The manager rudely dismissed me and refused to answer any further questions from the person in my party he agreed to give the gift card to and she also never got a chance to give him her email to even receive a gift card. Overall if I could give the service and food 0 stars I would, the only good thing about this place is the dj very good music selection but I definitely...

I don't remember a worse experience I've had in the past 34 years of going to Chicago restaurants. From the start, our group was treated with rudeness and disrespect. My brother, a restaurant connoisseur and someone who has never left meat uneaten, could not take more than one bite out of his tough undercooked brisket. My husband, a brisket lover and also someone who has never left meat uneaten, also left his brisket. My shrimp curry dish had no curry and one very difficult shrimp with no proper utensils to break into. We had one 4-year-old with us and when we asked someone for recommendations for a kid, we got a rude reply "we have no food for kids"! We ordered her mac and cheese which was more like burnt soup with a few noodles. My teenage boys who we've dragged to restaurants their whole lives and who know what they like, said "below average" when asked how their food was. The sides consisted of stale white bread, super sweet bean soup with a few beans, and undercooked elote. My sister in law ordered a salad but as she can't eat mangos, politely asked if they had any other dressing than the mango dressing. They said yes but only brought her shredded cabbage with no salt, pepper, or dressing. Now the food was BAD but not nearly as bad as the service. We were greeted rudely. I for one had a couple of sips left in my bottle of water which is always on me and was told "no outside drinks"! What is this, an airport? The first thing we were told was that we have only 2 hours. How many hours did they think we were gonna stay? 1 hr and 15 min into the evening, with a full drink in my hand, we were told our time was up! They made such a big deal when we asked for another chair for the 4 year old; see we hadn't counted our 4 year old niece when we made the mistake of making the reservations for 6 rather than 7. They told us that all the chairs in the restaurant were accounted for and the chair this little girl was sitting on had to be given up to other customers. Ok, that's fine. We can put her on her mom's lap. But no they did have a chair afterall; they just had to tell us that to make us feel uncomfortable. We noticed that the tables around us were getting welcome drinks and when we asked about that, they said "oh, we thought the 2 people who were here first already got it." They did not and even if they had, what about the others who arrived later? There was no service by design. We were supposed to put in our order through our phones and if we had any questions, well I guess we were supposed to Google it? If we needed another drink in the middle of eating, we were supposed to pull out our phone to place a separate order. No worries though, we were still charged a mandatory 20% tip! I texted my friend who had told me about this place and she, who has never wronged me with restaurant recommendations, told me "I wish you had called me today; we went there last night and had an awful experience". Lastly, the ambiance was not much better than the food or the service. It was so loud and the design so unattractive. I give this place 6 months tops. Don't waste your money here; they're hundreds of better places in Chicago in this...

Booked a brunch reservation for my fiancés birthday on Jan 20, this was also during restaurant week. We chose this place because my fiancé came in early December for brunch and LOVED IT. This recent visit though, was a complete bummer.

I knew music would be playing but I had no idea it would be that loud. This wasn’t really an issue for us, we could communicate just fine using louder voices. The place was lively and relatively full. There was no one dancing to the loud music though? And it didn’t look like anyone was really paying attention to it? Everyone was deep in their own conversations.

Anyway, I figured because my fiancé talked it up so much, that the crazy prices for sides would be worth it. 9 bucks for 4 pieces of bacon? I said screw it, maybe it’s really good bacon! If you like the chewy, fatty bits of bacon and love unseasoned food, this is the choice for you! I also ordered the chicken sausage thinking they’d be small. It was 5 bucks for 4 pieces I believe. Another underwhelming and under-seasoned breakfast meat. They were big pieces but so so bland!

When my fiancé visited in December-he ordered the vip steak and eggs that comes with sauce on top. This time it only came with a dollop of herbed butter. It was also plated with a salad instead of toast.

Why list it a certain way on your menu, and serve it a different way? The menu was another thing we were confused about- their website menu does not reflect the QR code menu seen in the restaurant. Additionally, we found no information at our table or on the online menu about Chicago restaurant week, but we were aware of it offering some sort of special because it was listed on Open Table’s description of The Duplex. We had to go out of our way to ask our waitress to tell us their restaurant week specials. (It was also underwhelming to us but seems like a good bang for your buck if you enjoy unseasoned food)

Lastly, I ordered a granola bowl with fruit on top. Disclaimer: don’t expect it to look like the photo on their menu! I got MAYBE 2 cut up strawberries in my bowl. I know this is usually a given but in my granola bowl it had raspberries instead of mint leaves, which I prefer. HOWEVER, the raspberries were MOLDY! Black parts on the berries with white fuzzy mold in some spots. The photo I captured only shows mold on one raspberry but each one was bad, the rest were just coincidentally placed moldy part down. I brought this to the attention of our waitress and she said they would remake it… I can’t prove it but I’m sure I just got the same bowl with the raspberries plucked. I scooped out bits of the bowl that looked suspicious and carried on- I didn’t want to fuss over any more on my fiancés birthday. He said his food was okay, but his cocktail was amazing. He ordered something with whiskey I think.

Posting photos from our recent visit and my fiancés steak and eggs from December for reference. Also the moody raspberry is on the bottom section of my granola bowl.

Very disappointed to say the least. Pretty...