Lots of brand new places cropping up at Yonge & Gerrard until the new condo tower, and this is one of them! Also Duke's is located directly across from the Eaton Chelsea hotel so convenient if you are staying there.
Duke's is meant to have a "Muskoka" feel, meaning country cottage type vibe. The place just opened a week ago and it was already packed at 5:30pm on a Tuesday. My brother and I were seated at a long communal table, which was okay until others arrived and crammed us up. There were lots of 2 and 4 seater tables available though.
The menu is fairly typical but has some interesting additions. I had a shrimp & bacon bibimbap dish which was actually really tasty and came served in a hot iron skillet. My brother had the "Dirty Bird" aka fried chicken. It was honestly the biggest piece of fried chicken I've ever seen, it was a white boneless cutlet the size of my head! My brother is a big guy and he couldn't finish it. Came with a huge portion of tasty fries underneath.
Great beer list here too and decent wine selections for a pub, glasses starting at $6 which is very reasonable.
Service was excellent considering it's just opened, and the waitress explained they had lots of extra staff on hand until they get up to speed.
The breakfast/brunch menu looked great too. Good place with a casual vibe. I dig it!