The Dukes Seafood

06/09/2026

When the Dredging Match prep takes the whole kitchen side! Phew 😅

02/09/2026

🦪 MERSEA DREDGING MATCH THIS SUNDAY! 🦪
⭐ EVERYONE WELCOME ON PACKING SHED ISLAND FROM 12 ⭐

Pre order your platter boxes & scallop and bacon rolls with us! There will also be a bar, free kids activities with sweeties & prizes to be won, a fantastic raffle and oyster demonstrations!

A really great, traditional day celebrating some of Mersea's finest heritage!

01/09/2026

Friday 4th September - early closure notice

Please note we will be closing at 2.30pm on Friday, for a private event to celebrate the life of my wonderful nan, who sadly left us in July. We know you'll be understanding and we will open again with normal hours on Saturday morning. Thank you!

22/08/2026

21/08/2026

⭐ This weekends menu ⭐

21/08/2026

Bit of Dover Sole prep! 😋

16/08/2026

A little message 💙

I don't often write posts like this, but I wanted to share something honestly with you.

Running a small independent business in hospitality at the moment is tough. The cost of ingredients, staffing, utilities and pretty much everything else is still increasing, and we're constantly trying to balance those costs while trying to keep our prices for you, as reasonable as we can.

Every day, there is a small team working incredibly hard. We're certainly not perfect, and occasionally we will get something wrong. If that happens, we genuinely want you to tell us while you're here. If we don't know there's a problem, we can't put it right — and we'd always much rather have the opportunity to do that.

What has been a little difficult recently is the difference between what we're hearing in person and what we're seeing online.

We regularly have lots of customers come up to us and tell us they've had a fantastic meal, pop their gead through the door on the way out and say how they loved the seafood, enjoyed the service or had a lovely time. Those comments genuinely mean so much.

But very few of those experiences make it onto our reviews.

Unfortunately, when someone is unhappy, they're often much more likely to review online — sometimes without mentioning anything to us while they're here. We've even had customers thank us, tell us everything was lovely, and then later leave a review that doesn't reflect that. That's particularly difficult because we haven't been given the opportunity to understand what was wrong or try to resolve it.

I completely understand that everyone has different expectations when it comes to prices, food and service, and everyone is entitled to their opinion. But behind a small independent business are real people. My staff read the reviews too, and when they've worked incredibly hard through a busy service, seeing only the handful of unhappy experiences represented online can be pretty disheartening.

Please, I ask you to think about this and maybe do us a favour.
If you've visited us and enjoyed your food, please consider leaving us a review. You don't even have to write any detail, but it makes an enormous difference to a small business and helps give future customers a fair reflection of the experiences people are actually having.

And if something isn't right when you visit? Please tell us. Give us the chance to fix it. We would always rather have a conversation with you than discover afterwards that you went home disappointed.

We're incredibly grateful to everyone who continues to visit us, recommend us, bring friends and family, and support what we're trying to build.

We're working hard, we're listening, and we're doing everything we can to continue serving great seafood at fair prices.

Thank you for supporting a small independent business. 💙🦪

07/08/2026

MERSEA ISLAND OYSTER DREDGING MATCH 2026

We are pleased to be working alongside the dredging match once again this year to offer competitors and visitors alike both food & drinks on the island after the match.

To pre order your Dredging Match Platter Box (£12) or Hot Bacon & Scallop Roll (£9), email us at [email protected] by 3pm on Friday 4th September.

See you there!

02/08/2026

Summer vibes with the sea bass today ☀️