Critic's Review
Tucker Duke's is sort of a Floridian chain started by a guy named Brian Cartenuto, who was on a show called "Cutthroat Kitchen". Their Tallahassee location recently burned down and there are some accusations by investor's that Brian's bookkeeping wasn't very good. They recently won the Burger Battle, which impresses me as much as when a Mom tells me that she has a beautiful daughter for me. But, I thought I'd give it a try. I didn't want a burger; there are 500 pictures of their burgers and anyone can make a burger; but I saw they had Jambalaya so I thought I'd check out their cooking prowess.
Outside seems detached from the place; it's right next to a Subway and there was little distinction between Tucker Duke's and the Subway. When I walked inside it was much, much different.
First there was a screaming baby. And I do mean screaming. I then noticed that there is no comfortable seating in the entire place. A couple of small tables against the wall, a big community table in the middle and a bar. I decide that the bar was the lesser of the evils.
As I grabbed bar seat, a hostess hurried up to me from behind "Just yourself", she said. "I'll get you a menu". Really? I need to see a hostess to be seated at the bar?
A gruff server seemed annoyed that I was drinking iced tea. It was delivered in a big plastic cup with no lemon or sugar. "Can I get some lemon please". They didn't have any lemon by the soft drink station; she had to go on some journey to find me some lemon; she found me a few slivers.
I looked around. No sweeteners. "Can I get some sweeteners please?". "What do you want?", she asked. "Sweeteners". I had to tell her that I wanted sugar, because they don't have a sweetener setup. I ordered the Jambalaya and looked around.
There have sort of a rude tone to their message, sort of like Canyon. No Cell Phones. No Strollers. No Whining. How did the screaming baby fit it? Music was very, very loud. "Habits", "King Kong" and "Dangerous" played. Not bad music, but way too loud for a restaurant.
I looked around me. A bunch of young 20-somethings, mostly with tattoos and ball caps, eating burgers off of aluminum trays. What fun. I feared that I'd be eating my $15 lunch with plastic utensils.
The food came out in 10 minutes. It was delivered in a nice bowl, which was a relief considering what was expected. The limes were an obvious concern; there are no limes in "New Orleans" Jambalaya.
While the dish looked good, it was surprisingly bland. Considering that the entire point of Jambalaya was the spice, it was disappointing. The chicken and shrimp had no seasoning. It was pretty clear that whoever made this didn't bother to taste it to see if it was right. Even the sausage, if it was in fact sausage, didn't have much taste. I just felt like I was eating a bowl of stuff. They seemed to have used short grain rice, which is just wrong for Jambalaya.
It was hard for me to enjoy the food as I kept thinking that all it needed was a bit more spice; none of which was available. Getting something here was impossible as the servers are just a joke. There were several flies that made things even worse; when it got to the point that the flies were looking to land on the food it was time to ask for a box and get out of here.
I boxed my own leftovers and she gave me the bill. It sat for quite a while before she took my card. As I was waiting someone was sweeping under my stool. I'm cashing out babe, you can't wait 2 minutes? What a clown show.
Conclusion
Tucker Duke's is a hangout for kids run by kids; it reminds me of Charm City Burger with loud music. Service is a joke and you can probably get a good burger here, but I didn't enjoy 1 minute of the experience here, from the screaming baby to the swarming flies. I couldn't wait to get out of here from the moment I walked in.
$15 is too much for Jambalaya at this place. That's a real restaurant price. This isn't a real restaurant.
