Duners Restaurant

Food - 5/5 Service - 5/5 Value - 4/5 Atmosphere - 4/5 What a place! Such an unassuming little building in the middle of the country! A storied and historic restaurant with a frequently rotating menu. A white table cloth service that is also relaxed and cozy, with an extensive wine list and perfectly executed dishes. Perfectly cooked duck and veal. Well crafted (and strong!) cocktails. I can’t wait to come back again and again to have every seasonal dish of the year! They truly have something special going on here and it feels like one of the area’s best kept secrets.

The staff at Duners did an amazing job hosting our parents’ 90th Birthday party. The food was wonderful, the room was perfectly set, the Coconut Cake was divine and the service was perfection! Thank you to Matt and Sasha for making the family event so memorable!

Fantastic food! Good service and wonderful staff. It a busy Sunday evening and a little loud, but we enjoyed our dinning experience!

Great tasting food. With family had steaks, pork chop , and Halibut. Several drinks and wine. Dessert too . +$500 for all of us , drinks/wine took us to this level. Big night celebrating reconnection with family.

Such great food options! The crab cakes were among the best in the area! The service was exemplary, and we complimented our server on her taking great care of us. We'll visit again.

Excellent food and service! The poached pear salad, bacon wrapped monkfish, and pumpkin cake were to die for! However, their complimentary bread was rather dense. Perhaps under-proofed or made with expired yeast. The consistency wasn't airy like you would expect, but thick like playdough. You can even see what I'm talking about in my photo. I could only stomach a few bites. Hopefully that's not how they always make it.

We had an early dinner. Our server, Sasha, was fantastic - attentive, but not hovering, and very knowledgeable about the food on the menu. We ordered the Rainbow Trout Stuffed with Oysters & Spinach, served with Basmati Rice, Shallot & Caper Brown Butter and also the Duck Breast with Malibu Carrots, Risotto, and Red Wine Gastrique. The risotto was not to my liking (too much cheese) so it was replaced with mashed potatoes, which were very flavorful and delicious. For dessert we shared the Flourless Chocolate Cake which was served with whipped cream, and crème anglaise with a raspberry sauce - loved this dessert.

My wife and I greatly enjoyed our New Years Eve dinner at Duner’s. Needless to say the restaurant was extremely busy, the hostess was very accommodating and even cleared/re-set our table so we wouldn’t have to wait too long. Sasha our waitress was extremely friendly, knowledgeable, and allowed us to enjoy our dinner at a leisurely pace. My wife had a very nice glass of Chardonnay after she was accidently served champagne…she enjoyed both. I greatly enjoyed the Paris to Manhattan…yum! Sasha brought us a basket of homemade bread and whipped butter. I can usually judge the quality of the future meal by the quality of the bread…small details! The bread was warm, yeasty with a nice firm crust, I had to stop at three pieces otherwise I would need to skip dinner! This was a good sign. We started with the Blackened Shrimp Tostada, it was so delicious I could have eaten a few several of these…maybe next time! For entrees we had the Jumbo Lump Crabcake and the Grilled Bone-in Pork Chop. The pork chop was perfectly prepared, and the bourbon sauce really complemented it nicely. The Crabcake was mostly crab with very little filler, my wife being from Maryland is a bit of a crabcake aficionado and said it could have used a bit of Old Bays! We shared the Lemon Sour Cream Cheesecake, it was homemade and very thick, rich and flavorful. All the desserts looked amazing and homemade. The only shortcomings, loses 1 star, at Duners was the ambience. It looks more like upscale diner that a restaurant serving quality food. With that said we will definitely return to Duners next time we are in town. See you then.

We had a birthday dinner with 14 people. Reservation was 7. We were there until 1030. Took 2 hrs+ to get food. The pork belly was the best I've ever had along with the bok choy and noodles. Medium rare ahi tuna wasn't seared and was well done. Pork chops were too salty to eat. The pesto pasta was way too salty. Our waitress was friendly but didn't have an opportunity to request another glass of wine or a cocktail. The room was so loud we couldn't communicate. I realize it was a big group but if you aren't equipped don't give a reservation. We spent 1000$ and expected more service

Let me start by saying I USED to love this place! I would eat here as a student at UVA for very special occasions and always had fond memories. However, we returned recently after many years and the experience was very disappointing. Our waitress forgot about us for long stretches of time and the meal dragged on and on as if we were forgotten. We had our children with us (12 and 9) who are used to eating out and are very patient but we still had to approach the waitress and ask for our orders to be taken. And even then, after ordering it took them >30+ minutes to bring out their food....and we're talking buttered noodles with some parmesan cheese since they didn't have any child friendly options. I had to ask our waitress to please check and bring their food ASAP and when it did arrive it was cold! It was just a series of service errors....culminating in like a 3+ hour meal for 2 just courses. Ridiculous. The food does taste good but they gotta get their service game together. Maybe the server was new but it just felt like she wasn't sensitive to our needs at all. And then, what's really shady is that AFTER we left, I get an Open Table email that our reservation (which I had personally checked in for with the host) was miraculously cancelled. I emailed the restaurant and they had no response. I think it's because they didn't want us being able to leave a bad Open Table review. I doubt we'll go back...which is sad for me because it always had a special place in my heart.