Duchess of Monroe

Bathrooms are disgusting– most of the things don’t work. Also, stood at the counter for 5 minutes with no service. I wouldn’t call it fast food

Dirty! Asked for soup and sandwich (chicken salad) not toasted and it was toasted, potato & bacon soup.(disgusting) the soda machine shot soda straight out all over my clothes. No apology, sorry, just an Oh! The slowest fast food anywhere!!!

Terrible drive-​thru service. Over 15 minute wait for one burger order. Burger was poorly assembled with the whole mess falling apart. Won’t be back.

You know how the little thing can make for a good or bad review?. This is one of those times. I love Duchess fries, but here they were old and soggy. When I mentioned it twice to the lady behind the counter, all she said was «large fry-​$ 2.97». Completely ignored my complaint. Probably couldn’t understand me cause I sure couldn’t understand her with an accent thicker than pea soup. Final thing to tick me off was when I said the first order of fries were soggy but obviously you don’t care. Wasn’t worth a fight for $ 3, but for $ 3 you lost a customer.

Food is always consistent. Their prices have gone up bit in the past few years. The drive they continues to be a problem here. It’s always faster to just walk in and order instead of waiting in the drive thru.

Awful. After waiting 25 minutes for a simple two burger take-​out order, the food was cold. Horrible service. I witnessed many people complaining about incorrect orders while I waited.

I love this dive.
I love the crisp iceburg lettuce and perfect tomatos on a fresh, soft hamburger bun!
I love the perfectly-​seasoned chili that they put on their dogs.

Great place!!!

It doesn’t help that this Duchess is the only fast food restaurant around for miles open after 9pm on a Sunday. I’m just getting off of work at that point and I’m starving. I usually go for whatever the specials are except for the burger special. There are things I like about Duchess and things I don’t. Maybe I should keep a running list. First, if it’s not on special, it’s a little pricey for fast food, but they do make it fresh which not many other fast food joints do. You just gotta love the places where there is a time stamped on your food which is about five minutes from now. Anyway, although I don’t like the fries at Duchess, a lot of people do or they would have changed them. They are always hot. I do prefer the onion rings and once again, they are always hot. My absolute two favorite items at Duchess are the crispy chicken sandwich and the hot dog with the works. I love the fact that the soda machine has over 100 flavors, but I’ll just stick with my caffiene free diet coke with lime. The service takes a while sometimes. I’ve been three cars back in the drive through and at that point you are looking between 9 – 11 minutes of a wait. If I see five cars in the drive through and I’m really in Duchess panic mode, like I need the food now, I will drive over to the Milford Duchess off of exit 40. (it’s on my way home anyway)
If the food was a little less expensive and the wait in the drive through wasn’t so long I would give this place a four.

Not so much as review as a first impression seeing as I have only sampled a small portion of the menu.
Was in town for a work and stopped for a quick bite. While this was an ‘order at the counter’ type of establishment, there still was a small town diner feel as the food comes out on plates and daily specials were listed.
I went for a chicken combo meal. The fries were pretty good but definitely the frozen type. The fries were crisp and hot. The crispy chicken sandwich was just okay. A bit on the dry side and really needed condiments to keep the sandwich palatable. I regret not going for a dog or a burger.
One cool item of note… they have Coca-​Cola Free Style machine that lets you select from a menu of hundreds of fountain sodas from a touch screen. A gimmick yes, but I’ve always liked mixing my own concoctions at the fountain.

I will be buried with a Big D Cheeseburger with lettuce, mayo and bacon bits, not strips. I have so much history with this place that I don’t know where to start. After every little league game, Sunday school (aka Molestation Survival Class), day trip, etc, my family would make a stop at the Monroe Duchess where I would rock Operation Wolf while the fam waited for our food number to be called. It was my first job on the books. I rose from register, to fries to manning the drive thru. It is where I bought my first bag of weed, then mushrooms. I even lost my virginity during one of my days off on sunny April afternoon. I worked there for two years, and not once, did my exposure to the food change my opinion of it.
If you had the opportunity to order from the Monroe Duchess in-​between the summer of 92′ to the fall of 94′, we may have crossed paths. I had bleached blonde hair (pre-​eminem), some acne on my cheek and my maroon hat turned to the side. I went for the don’t fuck with me cuz I may spit in your food look. Of course I believed that to be reprehensible, but by working at an establishment like this, you are already primed for ridicule, and this was my best defense.
The food here is great. The menu expands faster than the universe, and while I’m stuck on my Big D, and Hot Dog combo, my friends and family explore a little more frequently. I’m not about to get a veggie wrap here, but it’s offered if you really want it. I love Duchess so much that I started site for it on this Asian website called Friendster, here is the link:
Read the blog. I channeled the inner voice of Duchess to get the message across.
The memories here are endless. Nothing beats the annual week of $ 0.99 Big D’s. It is up there as one the best weeks in the world, along with Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, and Burning Man in Nevada (I know what you’re thinking, fuck me, no, fuck you, eat this shit, and then tell me you don’t feel like you’re ripping off the restaurant.) When a Big D is 99 cents, you will eat one every day, and your arteries will understand why. I live in California now, and I miss this place more than I miss my own family. Don’t get me wrong, if coming back to CT meant the end of Duchess, my parents would deny I ever existed.
I love you Big D.