Bull McCabe's Irish Pub with the TanDurm Kitchen — Restaurant in Durham

Revising my review, been going to Bull McCabe's for over 5 years at least once a week for trivia and weekends out. Had my first bad experience here in 5+yrs of weekly visits, and a notably disappointing one.

I'll say as usual the food was excellent, the service otherwise was fantastic from the servers who were working hard on a busy night. Jocy, the manager, had an attitude and took out whatever is stressing her out on elderly customers tonight in a poor showing.

My elderly parents were in town visiting, my dad wanted to watch an NFL playoff game. I suggested McCabe's. We find a table on the covered patio, under a heater. Order full meals each, two rounds of drinks. During the meal two guys came in and sat behind my folks, they asked the manager to turn the heater off. Without asking us they turn the shared heater off. Alright no biggie, we'll let it go, warm enough. Half hour later it's getting pretty chilly, we've already put coats back on, but getting a bit much. We ask if they can turn the heater back on and the manager says no, the other table asked for it to be off. 60 seconds later the two guys at that table leave for the night. When we see the manager she curtly goes 'yeah yeah' and waves us off before they put the heater back on. For context it's 30-40s out, we sat at our table because it had the heater on.

Now two hours in, two other guys come and stand at a table behind me, in between our table and the TV my dad was watching over my shoulder. He asks if one of them can stand one side or the other. I turn as it's loud and kindly clarify, he's been watching the game behind them and was just asking if he could stand to either side and I thanked him. 15 minutes later my dad asks if the dude can pick a side, sit, or a different table as he kept moving back into. The guy get immediately confrontational, goes "I'm not your dude," and stands up to our table ready for a fight, asks "are you asking me or telling me?", my dad says I asked you before and I'm asking you again. He's about to fight us at this point, so my dad gets up and goes inside to find the manager. She comes out and immediately says we're adults and figure it out. I explain we asked three times and there's no reason for it to get escalated into anything confrontational just mutual courtesy. Instead of trying to solve the situation, e.g. suggest the two guys move to a different table (there were several), stand a foot to the side (there was plenty of space), she squats between my parents to prove she can watch the screen from there. The only reason to do this, would be to prove my dad wrong, but she's not sitting where my dad is and the guys have moved during all of this. My dad asks her name and asks if she'd sit where he's sitting if she really wants to do that. She gets offended that he's telling her what to do and says this is the second complaint we've had, first the heater. Before walking away.

The entire situation was bizarre and unnecessary. Poorly handled by Jocy, the manager, the entire evening who escalated rather than de-escalate...

We live nearby so my husband and I wanted to visit for a couple of beers and a burger. The beer was a sour wheat and tasted terrible to me, but the waitress said I would have to purchase a second beer, she would not replace it. Well, that really sucks! I could not consider paying again to have a better beer which made it really impossible to enjoy the rest of the visit (even if it is a matter of personal taste, customer satisfaction should be enough to change it out, and beer was principally why we came on the hot afternoon). My husband said the kitchen/cook looked unsavory anyway , so this prompted us to just cancel our order and just fold on a bad experience. Both beers were full, the waitress would only take the burger off. I explained that we were gaining nothing--not like we had drank 2 full beers and then afterwards asked for a refund--actually we were forced to pay for 2 beers we were not going to drink at all because of such a bad experience at the restaurant. Still, she did not see my point (we paid 10.50 for a bad time!) but what is more important than seeing the customer's point, is addressing the problem to the benefit of the customer, in my case not making me pay again for the same product. A good place would readily exchange it, and maybe even engage you with extra samples to try out different ones, they would go beyond your expectations even! You would leave feeling like they are problem solvers and that they care about pursuing excellence at their craft and service. Maybe you would be so impressed you would write a good review! But that's how it is with these sorts of places, they suck because they suck and better restaurants are better because they're better ! So here's one of the only bad reviews I have...

Cough, cough, wheeze. Pardon me I had a little dust, no overcooked beef stuck in my throat. The last time my mouth was this dry was the dirty thirties, I voted for FDR, Steinbeck gave us grapes of wrath and Oakies were marching away from the "dust bowel" (aka this burger patty).

I arrived promptly at this establishment and stepped from my 1932 Packard motorcoach in a celebratory mood. I was elated at the passage of FDRs new deal. Surely these policies would right us from this great depression. I quickly ordered a pint of ale from the bar-keep. He told me of a special they have, called a hamburg. I do recall one from years ago, approximately 1928 at a White Caste in Detroit during my business travels. Bar-keep, good sir, a hamburg at your leisure, pink in the middle if you dont mind (called medium now a days). E-gads, I hadn't taken but 3 sips of my ale and out comes my hamburg; my fellow patrons we discussing the upcoming Olympics in fascist German, surely we would prevail over this great evil. Smashing service for a place staffed with young gentleman and a few ladies of questionable stock. Nevertheless I bit into this beef abomination of dust and immediately was transported back to the good old days when beef was moist, tender and from the great plains (pre dust bowl).

Fellow travelers and citizens be warned the burger is not a delight I can recommend. Perhaps it could be done justice if it had a pink center (rare as they call it). Regardless of circumstance they bar keep was a pleasant chap and we will soon be celebrating 1934 as it is...