New York, Day 2, Part 2: Duke’s

Once the Dining Duo had recovered from our own version of the New York Marathon, we made our way out of the hotel and headed for Duke’s, which we’d noticed the night before on our way to Hudson Place. The atmosphere is very casual with bright lighting, multi-colored Christmas lights, loud music, fairly tacky yet fun and interesting decor, and lots of TVs visible.

Figuring we’d earned it with our long day, we each ordered an adult beverage – Jennifer selected a beer, going for the Sam Adams Oktoberfest. Surprisingly, considering her loathing for regular Sam Adams, she really like it and was glad she’d been brave and tried something new. Sheila ordered the house margarita, and was underwhelmed with it, especially after she found out it was $8.50. No way it was worth that, especially when compared to some of the drinks that were to come …

No appetizers for us, although there are several of the soup/chicken tenders/chips & salsa variety. Jennifer went for a sandwich, after much debate settling on The Roadhouse – chicken-fried steak with avocado, pickled jalapenos, bacon, jack cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and ranch sauce. It was served on a toasted bun with french fries and cole slaw. And it was even bigger than its description might imply – the thing was HUGE! She was initially concerned about how she’d manage to eat it, but she’s a trooper and managed it quite well, and was barely pulled away from it long enough to share a bite of it with Sheila. Jennifer thought the blend of ingredients was great; she’d had her doubts about the avocado but felt it was a nice touch. And, of course, “melted cheese makes everything better.” The cole slaw was good, but the portion was teensy (maybe to balance out the huge sandwich?) The only disappointment was the french fries – we weren’t that fond of them, feeling they were too similar to Burger King’s.

Sheila unwisely did not order a sandwich or any of the fried entrees, instead getting the chopped veggie salad with the thought that the day’s nutritional consumption had been light on anything other than carbs or fat. Alas, this is not an establishment that emphasizes their salads apparently, and it really wasn’t very good. Supposedly it had grilled zucchini and squash, asparagus, sweet onions, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, artichoke hearts & mixed greens, with a sherry shallot dressing, and the optional grilled chicken. The first complaint was that the onions were definitely not sweet – they were raw red onions (gross!). Lots of iceberg lettuce which wasn’t listed as an ingredient, and the asparagus was few and far between. On the positive side, the grilled zucchini & squash were delicious, the dressing was very good, and there was a generous amount of chicken.

Since we’d been so good at passing up the tempting nachos grande appetizer, we felt we were deserving of dessert. Oh, please, we were going to have dessert no matter what else we’d had. Jennifer went for the Mississippi Mud Pie, and although she really liked it, it had a coffee flavor and wasn’t like the Mississippi Mud Pies with which she’s familiar.* The portion size was very generous and it wasn’t overly sweet. All in all, much better than the cake she’d had the night before at Hudson Place.

Sheila briefly considered the Chocolate Brownie Sundae (with vanilla ice cream, natch) but was immediately swayed to select the fruit cobbler once she was told that it was peach. Once again, she was in for a big disappointment because the cobbler turned out to be not peach, but apple cranberry. Boo hiss. Apple cranberry is fine and good, but not when one is expecting peach, and especially not when one is expecting peach and has also had an apple dessert just the night before, thereby filling her apple dessert quota for the next month at least. The crust was also thought to be gaggingly** doughy, and this by someone who loves doughy food.

The service was very nicely paced and we weren’t rushed at all. There were some language difficulties with the server (is the word for “apple” close to “peach” in Russian?) but other than that she did a great job, especially with water refills.

Food **
Service **
Atmosphere **
Overall **

Duke’s New York
560 3rd Ave.

*Sheila thought she was crazy because she was only familiar with coffee-flavored versions so the recipe was Googled & lo and behold, they’re both right – there are coffee and coffee-free versions of the pie. Now we know.

**Yes, Sheila realizes gaggingly is not a word.  She made it up.  She’d had a big-ass margarita and was crabby over the non-peach cobbler so she can make up words.