huli Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 I ordered from The Sahara and I thought it was pretty good. In fact I ordered a few of the western items and something Middle Eastern, because I enjoy Middle Eastern food and have yet to find something really good in Chiang Mai. I was amazed at how similar the burger was to The Duke's Burger. The meat wasn't fresh ground as we do at The Duke's but it was a decent, maybe Northern Farm burger patty. The bun resembled the old style buns that we used to make. The pickle was similar to the pickles at The Night Bazaar shop and even the large tomato and the fresh cut fries seemed familiar. All in all it reminded me of a mini-The Duke's burger at a mini price, slightly more than our 99 Baht burger with cheese. The Caesar Salad dressing was very similar to The Duke's with stone ground mustard as the binder and a flavor. I have only once seen a restaurant use stone ground mustard in the Caesar dressing and that was from the restaurant I worked at in Hawaii where I got the recipe from. The croutons resembled the croutons the girls make at both The Duke's restaurants. They are not my croutons but I usually let them get away with this style because they are flavorful. The bread was slightly similar to The Duke's foccacia but was not aged dough. So I asked my managers about a couple of recent cooks that have left our employment and sure enough one of the girls is cooking at The Sahara. She was a good cook and I was sorry to lose her but you can't keep them all forever. I have to say that and she is doing a good job and I thought the food was good except for the pizza. This particular girl never worked in the pizza station and the pizza I got was not great but it was only 99 Baht, a great deal. I love pizza, any pizza. She is probably not the lead cook for the Middle Eastern food but good cooks usually learn fast because most kitchen work is endless production. What I thought the star of the show was was the Middle Eastern kebobs that I got. The yellow rice was fluffy, fresh and delightful and the pork on the kebobs were marinated and delicious. The spicy sauce and the dill sauce were good as well. The really great thing was the price, so cheap. I'm am not sure why the restaurants in Chiang Mai feel they have to cater to everyone from westerners to Thais to someone wanting the exotic. Clearly they feel as if they are leaving out a portion of their business by not including it all. While this might have been the case 20 years ago, today in Chiang Mai a restaurant can exist on it's singularly delicious and defining cuisine. On another note for anyone wanting another taste of The Duke's, the Rider's Corner at the north end of Moon Muang has another good cook that is the lead there that used to be cooking at The Duke's. Philip is the owner there and it is a great place to hang out and have a couple of beers. My wife and I went to Sahara yesterday for the deluxe burger lunch after I read about it on TV. I will grant you that the beef paddy was on the dry side but overall it was quite good. The place is beautiful, and the menu has a bunch of Middle East stuff that I am eager to try next trip. My overall observations are in line with the post above. The mustard must have had horseradish in it because it was really hot, and good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venturalaw Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 While On was a good cook, The Duke's has about 27 kitchen staff, she was only one of the best. Her two bosses, she worked in The Night Bazaar, the GM and the kitchen manager, are better cooks and there are about a dozen of the other chefs that work just as well. She had some personal issues with her bosses and I was sorry to see her go. I'm glad she has found a good job and I am glad that she is keeping up the standards that were taught to her. Too many times I find that workers who leave The Duke's, particularly kitchen workers, start slipping and "forget" some of the basic principals of cooking. I can not take complete credit for her training as the GM of The Night Bazaar was the kitchen manager on the river when she was hired and everyone basically works as a team. As far as taking credit for the good burger at Sahara I can not do that. While it is my chef and my recipe, The Duke's uses only fresh ground beef for our burgers. Our buns have also changed since On has worked here and now they are richer and slightly softer. It was still a good burger and I would suggest to anyone on the west side of town to check it out. I am always concerned about the food at The Duke's and, yes, I always check out other restaurants to see if there is anything The Duke's can do better. The only game in town? The Duke's has never been the only game in town. My big problem and probably the biggest question is the fixation on Thaivisa on The Duke's? Who has made The Duke's "the standard?" Why is it that every time someone mentions burgers, pizza, ribs, steaks or anything else on our menu that The Duke's has to come to play? "It's better than The Duke's, it kicks The Duke's ass, it's as good as The Duke's or The Duke's is better." I don't see other restaurants being held to this standard? Every new western food thread, regardless if it has something to do with The Duke's, The Duke's has to be brought up. The thread can be about Indian food and The Duke's is mentioned. My feeling is if you don't like to eat at The Duke's or if you don't like the food or if you don't like me then don't come. Why bother? We surely will not miss you. Some fun facts about The Duke's. The Duke's did more than 32,000,000 million Baht in business last year at our 2 locations. That's right, we severed more than 90,000 customers at our 2 location in Chiang Mai. Business was up last year by 15% over the year before and this year The Duke's is up over last year by another 15% for the first 3 months. Got it? Probably one of the busiest if not the busiest western restaurant in town. The Duke's has almost 60 employees at 2 locations and one lady supports herself by just buying vegetables for the 2 locations. The Duke's spends about 5,000 to 10,000 Baht a day in vegetables. Most of the staff has been at The Duke's for years, some as long as 6 years. While floor staff has a tendency to turn over, the cooks have been at The Duke's for an average of 4 years. About half of The Night Bazaar staff started in the river location. The Duke's pays all its taxes. That's right. Every Baht of that 7% that folks complain about on our bill goes for local government . In fact because we pay our taxes, we are opening up a new shop and the revenue department sent over a team to see if we needed help with anything. The head of the revenue department is a customer at The Duke's. The Duke's has one branch in Bangkok and will soon be opening another branch in Terminal 21 and they will be branded as The Duke's American Grill Restaurants, a fast casual concept. The Duke's will be opening up up a The Duke's American Burger Grill within the next few months in Chiang Mai. One of the reasons I sponsor/advertise on Thaivisa is because The Duke's has many many great customers that frequent these pages, including the owner of Thaivisa and many of the administrators. The Duke's has thousands or regulars and one of the reasons The Duke's is so successful is because we have a really solid base of great customers. If you don't count yourself among them then why bother? I am far from the most perfect person and while it might be easy to toss a few eggs my way my staff relies on me to make this place run and to keep things together. I hold them to a high standard and I expect them to work up to it. At The Duke's all the staff works hard. If they are not a hard worker then they do not make it here. For that reason some of them are highly sought after by other restaurants and the hotels. Fortunately most of the good workers stay around. That's again to all the great customers at The Duke's. People will/must wonder, he is so large,so big why does he find the need sweat the small stuff?? I did write funny, so keep it coming but in no way did anybody have any idea of what pompous meant until today !! enjoy! Pompous doesn't even begin to describe it. The two longest posts by far in this thread are by the person who whines "My big problem and probably the biggest question is the fixation on Thaivisa on The Duke's?" Then he proceeds to wax on endlessly about his alleged financial success completely ignoring the fact that this thread is about ANOTHER RESTAURANT. Unbelievable. Or, perhaps not so unbelievable after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theDukes Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 Just the facts. Why do you insist on bringing The Duke's in on every western food thread? Fixation? Jealous? You should be. Some more fun facts. The Duke's is also one of the largest deliverers of food for Meals on Wheels. The Meals on Wheels guys spend so much time at The Duke's that they are considered employees. Remember, you read it on Thaivisa so it must be true! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingthing Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 Dukes - if you like it, eat there, if you don't, don't. Big successful operations are always easy targets. Let it be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keo Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 Some fun facts about The Duke's. The Duke's did more than 32,000,000 million Baht in business last year at our 2 locations. That's right, we severed more than 90,000 customers at our 2 location in Chiang Mai. Business was up last year by 15% over the year before and this year The Duke's is up over last year by another 15% for the first 3 months. Got it? Probably one of the busiest if not the busiest western restaurant in town. The Duke's has almost 60 employees at 2 locations and one lady supports herself by just buying vegetables for the 2 locations. The Duke's spends about 5,000 to 10,000 Baht a day in vegetables. Most of the staff has been at The Duke's for years, some as long as 6 years. While floor staff has a tendency to turn over, the cooks have been at The Duke's for an average of 4 years. About half of The Night Bazaar staff started in the river location. The Duke's pays all its taxes. That's right. Every Baht of that 7% that folks complain about on our bill goes for local government . In fact because we pay our taxes, we are opening up a new shop and the revenue department sent over a team to see if we needed help with anything. The head of the revenue department is a customer at The Duke's. The Duke's has one branch in Bangkok and will soon be opening another branch in Terminal 21 and they will be branded as The Duke's American Grill Restaurants, a fast casual concept. The Duke's will be opening up up a The Duke's American Burger Grill within the next few months in Chiang Mai. Fun fun fun! How much of the 32,000,000 million Baht was actual profit? How does that one lady support all those vegetables? Does she have huge biceps? Do you compost/recycle your vegetable scraps, or do they end up in the bin? Who's the worst kitchen staff member you've ever had? Was it the one that served me a cold calzone on a cold plate 3 years ago? Do you think you have a high floor staff turn over because of the way you treat them? Do you pay tea money as well as tax? Where will the Burger Grill be in CM? What kind of prices can we expect? Personally I miss a Spanky's Phili cheese steak burger with extra chilli - 120 Baht. That was a tasty burger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keo Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 32,000,000 million? 32 billion or 32 million? 555! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venturalaw Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 32,000,000 million? 32 billion or 32 million? 555! That is funny. He keeps complaining about being brought into threads, and then attempts to monopolize. For the record, I wasn't the one who brought up the dukes. Most frequently however, when a post is about other restaurants, someone (often him) posts about the dukes, as though it's a standard, or lack thereof, of comparison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lannarebirth Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 (edited) Anyway, I think the reason The Duke's gets mentioned is that it set a very high standard here in Chiang Mai for western cuisine. Clearly the management there takes food quality and the training of staff very seriously and it shows in the product they deliver with such consistency. Yeah, that Sahara Deluxe burger was pretty tasty and good value, but will it be next year; who knows? Anyhow, Mr. Duke; if you don't already, I would take comparisons to your establishment as a compliment. Edited April 23, 2011 by lannarebirth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meadish_sweetball Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 Ah, burgers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdinasia Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 Just the facts. Why do you insist on bringing The Duke's in on every western food thread? Fixation? Jealous? You should be. Some more fun facts. The Duke's is also one of the largest deliverers of food for Meals on Wheels. The Meals on Wheels guys spend so much time at The Duke's that they are considered employees. Remember, you read it on Thaivisa so it must be true! As often as I send the MoW folks to your place, they SHOULD be on staff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heybruce Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 Does anyone know how late the kitchen stays open at Sahara? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Conners Posted April 23, 2011 Share Posted April 23, 2011 This thread seems to have run it's course.... // closed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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