Today was my lunch pick so, of course, had to find some place new and different to try. I had first thought of the new India's Kitchen place in the Galleria, but that sounded difficult logistically since not everyone in the group likes Indian food, so instead I selected the Blue Duck in Maplewood which opened just a few months ago. The restaurant is located on the northwest corner of Manchester and Sutton (old Monarch location) and has its own parking lor, but a sign in the corner of the lot says it is not for restaurant parking. Once we were inside the hostess said that lot was indeed for their customers and to ignore the sign.
We arrived slightly after 11:00 am and it was empty and we were seated at a booth near the middle of the dining area. They are going for an open, minimalistic artistic feel inside (painted window frames on the walls), but for some reason they were playing some very old 1950's country and popular music. For example they played "Move It On Over", but it was the original Hank Williams 1947 version, not the 1978 version by George Thorogood which is almost 40 years old itself. We all wondered who they were trying to appeal to with that unusual music selection.
The menu is fairly small but we all knew what we wanted. Three of us ordered the DLT sandwich (duck, lettuce and tomato), my son ordered the breakfast burger, and my mother-in-law ordered the grilled cheese off the kids menu. Despite being empty it took a while for our food to arrive, but when it did they all arrived warm and freshly prepared. The DLT sandwich looked very nice with the side of potato salad:
Once I tried to pick it up I noticed it was very greasy and it fell apart once I removed the toothpick. The duck meat itself was very flavorful, tender and well smoked, although it was a little fatty. I liked the egg in the sandwich, but my wife noticed it was covered with black pepper which she did not appreciate (she has an allergy to black pepper.) She ended up removing the egg from her sandwich. She also noticed the small salad she selected as her side had some red pepper in its dressing which she also did not care to have. She wished they would describe these types of seasonings in their descriptions so people would know what better to expect.
My son liked his breakfast burger although he said it was a little salty. It was very tall, but he was able to cram it into his mouth initially. By the end, however, he ended up eating it with a knife and fork since it was falling apart and pretty messy too. The deviled egg potato salad was very good and
we all agreed that was a good side (better than the salad or the small bag of Billy Goat chips.)
The service started out okay, but once just a few more customers arrived it took a while for the one server (who was also the hostess) to come over and check on our drinks and such. She was friendly and helpful, but they could possibly use more than one person to cover the entire dining area.
One interesting thing to mention were the restrooms which are located off a long hallway in the back. They have some fancy and unusual modern sinks along with one of those high powered hand dryers. The toilet stalls also had real doors on them, So they are not your typical divey bar and grill restrooms.
Overall I will have to say the food and overall experience did not meet my expectations after reading mostly positive reviews in the RFT and Yelp. The menu listings have a lot of great sounding choices, and the DLT had some very good smoked duck meat in it, but that was about the only thing that stood out positively. Perhaps they are still working out the kinks in everything, since I always welcome another good restaurant option in the Maplewood area. With all the other nearby options they have a lot of competition and they should learn to perhaps enlarge and improve their menu and also provide more service and less weird old music. I still wish them luck and hope they can become another interesting place to eat in Maplewood.
Food/Service/Value
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