Duncan's Pub

"I asked our buddy at the front counter where to go for food, and he recommended Duncan's pub" my coworker said. We both looked down and noticed that Duncan's was the place with ads emblazoned across the front of our hotel key-cards, promising good food, and a free dessert with every entrée. After checking online, and seeing that it came highly recommended, we headed out. At first glance, Duncan's is a dark little building squished into Amherst's main street. It's so non-descript, in fact, that my coworkers actually made me hop out of the car and check that it was still open before they parked. Open it was; upon entering the door one is greeted by a dimly let but tastefully decorated restaurant, with cozy (albeit sometimes crowded) chairs, and a very visually appealing bar in the corner. The menu was certainly not standard pub fair- I can't remember the last time I saw escargot on any menu, let alone at a little bar. The prices are also a little higher, but, as we soon found out, do you ever get what you paid for. I ordered the Greek chicken linguine, a pasta dish involving chicken breast, olives, and peppers in linguine, all topped with Greek dressing and feta cheese. The meal was fantastic- the olives and peppers still had a sweet, fresh taste to them, and the feta was soft and tasty, all complimented by perfectly bite sized chicken breast pieces on top of good quality pasta. At around 16 dollars after taxes, the price was as fantastic as the dish. After dinner, our hotel key cards entitled us to a free dessert- the waitress explained that the desserts change daily as they are freshly made in-house. The selection when we were there offered a choice between blueberry cobbler, chocolate-orange cheesecake on a pretzel crust (which I chose), or strawberry chocolate cheesecake on a coconut crust. The dessert was fantastic- rich and creamy, with chunks of chocolate (rather than a chocolate base) nicely joining the orange flavour. Each of my coworkers tried one of the other two desserts and reported that they were both also fantastic. The waitress told us that the desserts usually run about six dollars- worth it for sure! Overall, Duncan's was really, really impressive. Every menu item sounds delicious, and the food I got to try was fantastic. The service was incredibly friendly, and the food was all freshly prepared. It's certainly neither cheap- with my meal being one of the cheapest options- nor is it quick. We probably spent about 45 minutes between waiting to receive the bills, and waiting to pay, and they should certainly work on reducing that time. I can certainly see it being a great place for a dinner meeting, date, or get together where you plan to spend a lot of time talking, perhaps while enjoying a slice of cheesecake. Overall, well well worth pulling off the highway for.