Tandem — Restaurant in Carrboro

On March 2, my partner and I emailed Emma Sabouh (who according to LinkedIn is the owner of Tandem. After a few back-and-forth emails to discuss details, we agreed upon the following:

The reservation would be for a party 20 /Seating: seated outdoors on the patio, or inside the lower-level common dining area, (because we had a few guests that could not walk upstairs to the private dining room, above the kitchen)/ We would confirm indoor or outdoor seating closer to the May date in case weather conditions did not permit us to sit outside/ The event was scheduled for May 13, 2023 at 4:30PM/ Tandem would offer their REGULAR menu

Fast forward and on May 13 (the morning of the event) I called the restaurant to AGAIN confirm our reservations and to see about sitting indoors since there was a 60% chance of rain that evening and to notify the group that my partner’s mom would be there around 4pm with decorations for the table. First, the young lady that answered the phone, who I had never spoken with, said that we couldn’t sit indoors and I asked if Emma was available since I had spoken to her for the last two months (and we agreed that if the weather didn’t cooperate we would move inside). After a brief pause, Emma comes to the phone and basically says we couldn’t sit inside, but the decorations are fine. I said ok, because at that point it was too late to change the venue location with such a large party.

That evening all 20 of our guests arrive, some from out of town, and others closer to the area. I asked my sister to text me when everyone was seated so that my partner and I could be last. That would also allow my partner to make a grand entrance (she has worked hard and deserves this moment). My sister texted me around 4:45pm and says that everyone is there, but that the menu looks different and WAYYY more expensive from what we sent via the graduation invitations. We sent the regular menu with our invitations, because that’s what Emma said she would offered). As my partner and I are walking in I’m thinking to myself, WTH is going on? Emma never mentioned that the menu was going to change and she definitely didn’t say it would be more expensive. Nevertheless, we arrive onsite and that’s when all HELL broke loose, here’s why:

Emma sat everyone UPSTAIRS, in the private dining area (even after we agreed that we wouldn’t be able to reserve that space because some of our guests needed special handicap accommodations. One of the guests had to leave, after she drove from an hour away because she couldn’t walk upstairs. The menu was changed/reduced, and Emma never shared with us any of the 3 times we spoke (she didn’t even mention it that morning when I called). The prices were marked up, tremendously! A dish that was originally $28 was $41! The 50 times that the two waitresses came into the room to serve us that evening, they saw the cake and never once said “Hey! We have a $75 cake fee if you have your own cake”. If someone would’ve been considerate enough to inform us, we could’ve simply took it back out to someone’s car. Instead they opted to sticker shock us and added the $75 “have your own cake” fee to our receipt. RIDICIOUS! When it was time to pay, the waiter came with one check. I ask if we could split the bill, which was over $1k and she responded, “that’s going to take too long” (yea! At that point everyone was livid and I made sure to make a note to call Emma on Monday to let her know about our HORRIFIC experience. Lastly, I decided to call Emma a few days later. After speaking with her, it’s pretty apparent that this establishment either lacks the appropriate leadership or perhaps they just simply don’t care. What a terrible look to ruin someone’s significant graduation dinner. On the call I thought Emma would be apologetic, but she simply said, “go leave a bad review”. I told her that I wasn’t going to write a bad review I was going to write a truthful one so that people know what to expect if they plan to make large party reservations...

Tandem catered our reherasal dinner, cocktail hour, and wedding reception, and they did an excellent job. The food was a priority for us, so we were willing to spend a good portion of our budget on it. Emma was very thoughtful and very prompt to respond to emails. In the planning stages, I generally felt well cared for. There were only two times when I had difficulty: Several months before the wedding, we were told that we would be able to rent bowls from Tandem for $12 a piece and steak knives for $2 a piece. I had gotten quotes from rental companies, and with delivery fees it seemed to even out, so I decided to go with Tandem's rentals. A few weeks before the wedding, I asked Emma for a final quote so that we could make the remaining payment. In this new quote, the bowls were suddenly $20 and the steak knives were $2.50. When I asked her why the price had increased (with no prior notice), she stated that “the cost of the product has increased” because the bowls were from Asheville, and somehow the rental for steak knives had increased as well? With only a few weeks until the wedding, I felt blindsided, because time was running short to make different arrangements. I ended up buying 30 bowls of a similar size from Costco and selling them back to my venue, because Tandem’s price change was just ridiculous. The other difficulty with communication happened only a couple of days before the wedding, when Emma asked for a list of our rentals (most of which were provided by our venue), and we found that we were missing many items that would be necessary for the food service. This was very stressful for me, and I wish that the conversation had been initiated earlier. However, in the end, Emma was able to provide the needed rentals for a reasonable price.

For the rehearsal dinner, we had a buffet for 15 people with salad, Moroccan chicken, 72-hour braised beef, salmon with dill beurre blanc, smoked Japanese eggplant, seasonal vegetables with couscous, and mini desserts (cheesecake, chocolate mousse, strawberry cake). The quality of this buffet was OUTSTANDING. I could not have asked for a better array of dishes; truly, there was not a single item that was not above average in flavor. They delivered the trays on time, and the food stayed warm throughout dinner.

The cocktail hour was also impressive. We had three passed appetizers: spring rolls, duck confit figues tartine, and eggplant caviar bruschetta. They were all delicious, but it seemed like the eggplant bruschetta was not passed around as much as the others, because we had a TON of leftovers and guests complained that they never had the chance to try it. We also had a raw bar with fresh oysters (sweet and delicious!!), shrimp cocktail, and mini crab claws. The crab claws were quite expensive, but they tasted soggy and not fresh, so I wish that we had not gotten them.

For dinner, we had three plated options: filet mignon, bouillabaisse, chicken, and butternut squash risotto. Everything was delicious except for the bouillabaisse, which was unfortunately what I had ordered. I should have just used one of Tandem’s signature or suggested dishes for the seafood entrée, but my family likes bouillabaisse, and we had a French cuisine theme going, so we had requested it specifically. The fish was cooked well, but as a white fish I didn’t think it was very flavorful. The mussels, clams and shrimp were all overcooked, mushy, and stringy. The broth had a nice, strong saffron flavor, but I just had this sense that something was missing. Looking back, I should have recognized that bouillabaisse is difficult to execute at scale. However, I had also trusted Tandem to make every dish equally excellent, as they had promised.

All in all, I am very happy that we went with Tandem. Looking back, I would have done a few things differently (would not have gotten the crab claws or the bouillabaisse), but as everything else was spectacular, I think we made a good choice in hiring them for...

Bitter taste after a celebratory meal.

I have visited Tandem for dinner a few times, and my expectations have been met every time except the most recent one. I came here with my family to celebrate my recent graduation. We like to celebrate accomplishments and landmarks with a nice meal with fresh ingredients, cocktails, and ambiance. Our most recent experience at Tandem fell very short of these expectations — not because of the quality of food, but because of the disingenuousness of the restaurant.

Price-Gouging: We made a reservation for 4 and were informed (on OpenTable) that there’d be a $50/pp cancellation fee if canceled less than 48 hours in advance. Fine — graduation weekend, high demand for tables, that’s steep but understandable.

We arrive for our reservation and are seated on the patio, supplied with cheap patio furniture and folding chairs. This is not akin to the rest of the interior dining room and feels like an afterthought. We are handed menus that have only a few starters and a few mains respectively, which was pared down from their normal menu. The selection is passable but missing some standout items like the shrimp, pork belly starter, and steak main dishes. Disappointing. The coup de grâce came when we realized the prices — HEAVILY inflated, to the point of price gouging. For example, the eggplant main dish is normally $28, as listed on their menu on the website and normal menu. For Saturday night, it was $41. Every main dish was at least $13 more than the normal price. I have never felt so misled and gouged in my years of dining at respectable, well-established restaurants. It’s one thing if you post a special event (Graduation Weekend/Mother’s Day) menu on your website, and inform diners when they make a reservation. But it’s absolutely unacceptable to pull a fast one and A) charge an exorbitant cancellation fee of $50/pp, when Tandem normally doesn’t charge a fee; and B) inflate the menu prices by about 50%.

The food: consistent, fresh, and of normal quality for Tandem. All the food was good and on par with the quality that Tandem turns out.

Service: Disorganized and slow. In addition to the massive transgression of inflating the prices for dinner, the waitstaff was disorganized and slow. Starters came out well before and drinks came. Waitstaff started explaining dishes that were not ordered.

All in all, it’s a shame that the food at Tandem is good because the ethics of this establishment is seriously messed up. I will be taking my business somewhere else at least until they reconcile their transgression and apologize to all diners from that weekend. I feel ripped off and taken advantage of. If the Tandem staff thinks their behavior is okay, they should not be in the restaurant industry. No other restaurant in the Triangle did anything of this nature for the Graduation...