Brunch at Duke’s Chophouse, Rivers Casino

I’m a millennial and most of the stereotypes about me aren’t true – except brunch. Is there honestly a better meal than brunch? It opens the doors to so many kinds of foods so when I saw Duke’s Chophouse in Rivers Casino, Schenectady was going to start offering brunch I wanted to give it a try.

A couple of things come to mind when I hear the word brunch, one of them is alcohol for breakfast, but honestly, I usually enjoy the more heartiness of the meal since it lasts for two meals. For the brunch at Duke’s Chophouse, we started with some oatmeal bread with maple syrup butter. It came out hot, the butter was soft, and the bit of sweetness from the syrup was lovely. Then, the meal wasn’t as exciting.

I ordered the bagel and lox and my mother ordered the fratata of the day with an arugula salad that had shaved apple, berries, lemon balsamic vinaigrette and grilled ciabatta bread. My bagel and lox was deconstructed and the salmon was pretty good. Granted, they didn’t do anything to it so I would’ve been more surprised if it wasn’t. It was served with chive cream cheese which I liked, I would’ve rathered a stronger flavor but it was good. The bagel wasn’t toasted the way I would’ve wanted. It was like they fried it on a flat top to get the top crusty and then ignored the rest of the bagel leaving it bready and chewy.

My mother’s fratata was even more disappointing. She complained that the egg was dry and overall, it was pretty flavorless. We both agreed, though, that the home fries made up of potatoes, onions, and peppers may have been the best part of our meal. I understand this is a relatively new option in the area but based on that first brunch, I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat that again.

NOTE: Though I was not compensated for my post, I did receive the meal complimentary