The Duke of Wellington

You come for the atmosphere and not the food, although the food is decent by pub standards. Gets pretty jammed on the weekends. Good mix of booths and tables. Usually some live music happening. Had a traditional pub vibe. Staff is accommodating and friendly. They also do breakfast on the weekends. Parking lot patio area.

«fantastic music venue, great vibe, great food, top service»
The Duke is one of my two favourite places in Waterloo, Duke’s, and Angie’s diner next door. I went to both of them every day for the six days that I was in town. You need go no further! Angie’s for brunch and Duke’s at night for dinner and drinks and truly fantastic live music.
The vibe at Duke’s was great and people were friendly and every night the music was excellent. Go, because they have a roster with the same great people playing there, different each night and one better than the other. I enjoyed the variety and it just didn’t matter that I was on my own. There was so much going on, such great entertainment that you can be there on your own and love it. Pretty much every night I was staying on til the music wraps up at 2.30am.
I was first there on the night of a big ice hockey game. It was a Monday night and the place was full and buzzing. There were tv screens on all the walls and although I’m Australian and a woman of 57, and know nothing about ice hockey, and not much about sport in general, in that great atmosphere, to my surprise I really enjoyed the game.
And even more surprising for me, right after the game musicians started setting up and I tell you, they bowled me over! Fantastic stuff. The first guy played some amazing Spanish guitar. Two others then joined him and they played all sorts of great music, taking requests and going back in time to The Beatles, and they did that well too.
And the wait staff at Duke’s are great .It’s so busy, I don’t know how they keep track of things. In particular, I was impressed with my waiter, on the night of the game, Stuart. Despite the crowds, he gave such good, professional but warm and friendly service. He took the time to re-​direct me as I tried to place an order and made great recommendations; an excellent burger that if I recall properly was at half price that night. Try the chicken wings too. I had them another night and loved them. And of-​course it’s a great place to enjoy a beer.
A couple of nights after the game, I was at Duke’s with my 24 year old son who is at Waterloo Uni on exchange; he happens to be a musician, and he loved the music at Duke’s.
After he left, I went for one of my favourite spots at Duke’s on a little platform. There was enough seating for a couple of circles of people; there was a group of people in the 20s already there and a couple of other people to the right. As I went for the space between them, imagine my surprise to see that one person in the bigger group of young people stood up and called out «Oh look, my favourite customer!» It was my waiter from a couple of nights before, Stuart. He was on his night off and was with his friends, other locals, girls and boys, one friendlier than the other. He promptly invited me to join them. And it was a lot of fun being with them. How friendly is that?! My Australian friends who have travelled in Canada tell me that’s Canadian for you! Really friendly.
Thanks Stuart. Thanks Duke’s!
Go to them! The musicians are tops and so are the staff. It’s a great pub in a great town.

Cant go without my breakfast skillet. Take it up a notch by getting them with duke chips, makes it.

Favorite pub in town! Whether a Friday night for a couple of pints it suday morning for a hot brunch, the duke never fails to deliver. The live music and welcoming atmosphere make every patron feel as if they are personally being invited for dinner.

One of my favorite places to go for breakfast (especially after a night out)!
The atmosphere feels like you are a in a real pub and they have great live music on some nights. It does get pretty loud so I wouldn’t suggest coming here if you were hoping to have a nice quiet evening! The food is average pub fare.

This is a good place to go for drinks, although on nights that there’s live music, the place is way too cramped.
Don’t order the food. I assume that when a place has a huge menu with a variety of food types implies that most of it comes pre-​made or frozen.

I am really in a rock and a hard place when it comes to The Duke. The last 3 times I have been there their service has gone completely downhill. The food is great (for the most part) and they have multiple vegetarian options, especially on their dinner menu. Typical pub fare. They also offer a breakfast menu which I became very fond of. Unfortunately there is some sort of miscommunication between patrons, servers and kitchen staff at the morning here. In my more recent visits I have asked for my breakfast sandwich to have no bacon and instead tomatoes (you are charged extra for this, and mayo as well) I guess someone wanted to be nice because when I turned the sandwich over i saw multiple pieces of bacon. I did not eat my food. Previous to that our waiter didn’t write down our order and our meals were backwards, which became more of a problems because I don’t eat meat. Our drinks tasted off too, i had a tequila sunrise and my partner had a ceasar. Neither of us drank them as they were both off tasting, and mixed terribly wrong.
Don’t get me wrong, i love this bar. Great atmosphere, friendly people, good music and something for everyone. Sadly, after all this mishaps I won’t be returning.
I give the food 2/​5, the service ³⁄₅ and the atmosphere ⁴⁄₅

The Duke is a good pub. You can go anytime and have a decent meal and get some drinks and it will not break your budget either. They’ve got a good selection of drinks and the cocktails are well made. I’ve gone for breakfast there quite a bit and I must say that it is consistent and tasty. If your meal has home fries, remember to upgrade to the Duke chips. The only thing lacking from the breakfast is some fruit and health/​low fat options. The lunch/​dinner menu has plenty of reasonably priced meals and having sampled some curries, fish-​and-​chips, and burgers, they seem to do a good job with everything.
The Duke definitely has some interesting architecture and décor. It gives it a really great ambiance and every time I’ve been it’s been busy with people like a pub should be. There is a solarium, which gets tons of light at the front, and a neat skylight that shines onto the back of the pub. There’s also a patio out front, weather permitting.
Lastly, if you like English football (EPL), this is a good spot as they do show games on several TVs.

Highly recommend the Reuben sandwich, best in town! Wonderful with a frosty pint.
I enjoy the live music during the week, and it’s a great place just escape the hectic pace of life.

A pub in Canada with a little bit of everything. Have I tried everything? Certainly not with just one visit thus far!
However, their chicken fajita wrap and service was great.
Our waitress was ‘straight-​up’ with us. She told us what not to get: today, cream of broccoli soup because it’s really not «creamy». Okay… So that was helpful! I stuck with the salad.
Apparently, one of the locals who went got the bangers and mash (sausage), which is standard for him. It’s very good, apparently!
Two people in our group got the haddock (fish) and chips. It looked vERy flaky and moist. They agreed that it was. Both the plates were cleaned up.

A brunch and day drinking favourite!
Between the solarium for cold days, and the sunny patio in the summer, there is nowhere I’d rather be in Waterloo when I’m looking for an afternoon pint or a greasy breakfast in the morning.
They get a great turn out for all the soccer games, it might be all the televisions inside or it might just be that soccer fans love waitresses in pleated skirts (the staff uniform).
The solarium (no televisions in here) probably seats 40 – 50 people and makes even cold miserable winter mornings seem bright and cheery.
They serve a mean brunch (though make sure you’re not in a rush because the service isn’t snappy). An absolute MUST is upgrading to the Duke Chips, it’s $ 0.49 and so worth it!
Their patio in the summer gets lots of sun and is the perfect spot for an afternoon pint, or two, or three!
I can’t speak for the evenings but this place is the ideal pub during the day.

An institution as a local pub. Lots of parking at Waterloo Town Square. Food is good and service attentive. Décor is drab but remember, it’s a pub!

This is one of my favourite spots in Waterloo for comfort food dinner. I love the shepherd’s pie and bangers&mash. When I came down with suspected swine flu last year, my boyfriend actually went and got shepherd’s pie for me and it instantly made me feel better!
Service can be a little slow – they do get busy at dinner.

went for lunch. drab décor. service was average. food, i guess was above average. i’ve tried the shepherd’s pie and buffalo chicken wrap. both ok though nothing spectacular.