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| - I'm baffled by the positive reviews of the food here. I wanted to like this place, on account of the vibe and impressive beer selection, but the food made that truly impossible. We came on a Sunday night and ordered a salad and pulled pork platter. Our appetizers were the fried banana peppers and the caprese salad. The fried banana peppers are just not something you want to eat a whole plate of - after about 5, the spicy, briny flavor and oodles of friedness just get to be overpowering. The caprese salad was drowning in dressing. The entree salad wasn't bad, but not impressive. What really stole the show was the pulled pork entree. The moment it arrived at our table, all we could do was stare. I've never seen pulled pork look wet and gray like that. It's not that hard to make food look edible, so when it looks bad right out of the gate, you know it's probably going to be awful. And awful it was. I've known my boyfriend for over a decade and this is the first time I've ever seen him send a dish back. He apologetically explained to the server that it tasted like it had been microwaved, and the server admitted that this was actually how they prepare it. Microwaving their pulled pork is apparently standard operating procedure in the kitchen. Based on how wet it was, I'm guessing it's microwaved in a plastic bag and dumped onto a plate. I've never heard of a restaurant where microwaving entrees is part of the protocol in the kitchen. The server admitted that some things on the menu had recently changed, and this was one of them. It sounds like management is trying to save on food costs by cutting corners. But this was truly egregious - no restaurateur with any respect for their trade could possibly condone what's going on in the kitchen at Duckworth's.
All I can guess is that things must have been MUCH better once upon a time here, considering the good reviews this place has gotten. Whatever they've changed, they need to change it right back, stat.
(Note: the manager did take off the entree in question from the bill and the staff was generally OK, but even the service/hospitality of Duckworth's didn't really impress)
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