Eastcut Sandwich Bar — Restaurant in Durham

tl;dr - If your party is more than 4 people and you're planning to eat inside, plan to eat outside or eat somewhere else. You will not be allowed to have a chair at the end. You will not be allowed to connect 2 tables together. You will not be allowed to have more than the allocated number of chairs on one side (e.g. 3 instead of 2). The staff will come to you and you will be forced to eat outside (and hopefully they'll show up before you order, unlike what happened to me).

I like the Buff Chick here, so I suggested this place for lunchto my friends. Our party of 5 (including me) arrived at the restaurant with the intention to eat inside as it is over 90 degrees outside. There wasn't a table that could comfortably fit 5 people, so we figured we could take one of the many 4 person tables and put a chair at the end of it. We sat down for 10-15 minutes as we took turns and ordered our food on my phone since we thought it'd be easier to have it on one tab. Immediately after I got the confirmation e-mail, one of the employees came up to me and says "Hi. I'm so sorry but you can't sit here at the end. It's a fire safety hazard." So I asked if we could combine the tables and she said no. Then we asked can we just scoot and have 3 on one table side and she again said no, citing fire safety rules. So I said, "Oh. So we're being forced to sit outside?" and she said "Yeah. I'm sorry."

After we were forced outside, some other man came up (I assume it was the manager?) and proceeded to say "Yeah for fire safety reasons, you can't sit inside with 5 people." We asked a couple of questions, such as if we couldn't combine the tables, or what happens if there are more than 4 people who wants to eat inside, or me stating "I'm pretty sure I've seen photos and seen children in the past inside that were like 8 people and they connected the tables" and he to all he said "no ma'am. We don't/can't do that here."  I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of him coming outside to reiterate what's already been said other than the sour the mood more.  He ended the interaction with "Well I hope you can enjoy your meal" and left. We did get the food, though the person bringing the food out to us went to the wrong table and was confused (makes sense; we were forced to move our tables) and they did miss the chip and the ranch dip. I didn't really dare ask my friends how the food was since I'm pretty sure the review would've been biased because of how frustrating this whole thing was.

To make clear - I get the whole fire safety issue, but I wish this was made clear before we ordered. It felt a little bit slimey to wait until I gave them money to kick us out. I do hope it was because the staff was busy and they couldn't get to us in time, though, they came pretty quickly after I got the confirmation email (I wish I timestamped when they came to kick us out). It's also unfortunate that they were entirely unwilling to work with us at all to come to a solution that would've been OK. It's also confusing to us that the restaurant has pictures on Google that contradict their stated policy (i.e. can't connect tables) and also that they don't have any table at all that can accommodate more than 4 people (even if it's only 1 more).

Unfortunately, I do think this'll be the last time I'll visit this place and will actively tell people to avoid it. Maybe take-out is still good, although the Buff Chick today tasted...

A tasty new sandwich place of the beaten path.

I live and work very close to Eastcut and it seems like they sprang up overnight. Located just off of University Drive in Durham near the Southsquare Target, they are very close to lots of things, but very easy to pass. It was so nice to hear of a new lunch & dinner place opening up close to the South Square area. My office often orders from the lunch places in the area and having a new traditional sandwich place nearbye is perfect.

I ordered the Avocado BLT salad(Greens, Avocado Smash, Bacon, Tomato, Pickled Onion, Blue Cheese, House Croutons, Fresh Dill, Ranch) with a side of curly fries. The salad was actually larger then I expected and packed with goodies. Everything was crisp and fresh and the to go package was in nice order with certain things separated into their own containers. The curly fries were incredibly good. The right amount of soft and crispy and paired with a spicy mayo dipping sauce. It was excellent.

I also sampled a coworkers Dagwood Turkey sandwich (House-Roasted Turkey, Swiss, Avocado Smash, Bacon, Shredded Lettuce, Tomato, Eastcut Vin, Basil Mayo, Sesame Roll ) which was very tasty and something I'd easily get myself. I also tried some of their sweet potato tots, which were very good and paired nicely with the spicy mayo.

Eastcut features a variety of beers and wines and even frozen rosé. Obviously I couldn't sample any of these things heading back to work but I certainly will on my off time when I revisit here.

Their staff was courteous and very helpful with getting a large lunch order packed up and ready for the time specified for pick-up. I was helped by Brad, who made sure that we had everything our office needed for our take-out order and was kind enough to follow-up and make sure we all enjoyed our orders. The ambiance of the restaurant is casual with a nice sandwich shop style appeal to it with a little bit of a hipster vibe. They are currently turning the old greenhouse outback into a large outdoor seating area which I cant wait for. Overall I was incredibly pleased with my order and eager to go back and would highly...

I find myself increasingly frustrated with Eastcut. The first time I got takeout I was so excited... the food was delicious, the eggplant cutlets were an awesome answer to providing a large selection of vegetarian options (which saves this from dropping below a 3 star review). I was hooked. I'm not sure what has changed, but my last few experiences have left things to be desired. The fries have been cold/soggy, even when eating there. The sandwiches no longer seem to be assembled by someone taking pride in them. The prices have gone up as the quality has gone down. The only option for ordering is to order from your phone, which uses ToastTab, requiring a $1 upcharge. That's annoying, I'd like the option of paying cash directly. There is a recommended tip for ordering to eat there... but the service was literally just dropping the food on the table... We were on our own for water or anything else. IMO, that isn't a level of service that demands a tip, much like tipping a cashier at any retail store is not normal. Please just raise the prices so that you can pay whatever reasonable, living wage you need to without the facade of service. I'd really like Eastcut to return to the experience from early 2021 (and likely before), and if/when it does, I'd love to come back with a...