Elmo's Diner — Restaurant in Durham

I have happily been going to Elmo's for 22 years, after leaving Emory's Medical School and coming to Duke's Nursing School. By far, they are one of the finest diners or eating establishments in the Triangle of North Carolina.

My first career prior to my academic one was in the restaurant industry in Memphis where I did just about every position first in one of the early Friday's restaurants, and then in multiple Dobbs owned fine dining restaurants there in that era: The Mississippi River Company, the Spaghetti Store, a popular cajun restaurant, and several more. I was even once a kitchen manager for MRC. My sister runs West Street Diner in Germantown TN today, there now longer than I have been in North Carolina from where I just returned.

This sharing is just to give credence to the following statement: no restaurant in the area here in North Carolina has as fine a management team as Elmo's in Durham (Kemmi and Amy and others whose names I do not know). No other restaurant is close. Because of that, customer and employee loyalty is huge, and it means everyone serving you is motivated to do their best. In addition and perhaps most importantly, the food is excellent in most every case, and if you share an issue, it is received well. Back in 2004 I think, I wrote a comment on a receipt there so it wasn't missed by management, and through the years, because of the welcome of this method, I have used it a few times so as a customer, I felt heard. Elmo's is a place where if you ask for the wait staff to keep the coffee cup full, you don't have to keep asking. Only once can I recall that ever failing to happen, absolutely outstanding. Almost 100% satisfaction is very hard to beat.

What do I like best? the people, especially the various managers who have done such a fine job through the years; the employees, like Meghan, and others, some of who seem to be in the "life long" category. The food - these are my favorite things they offer there in order of ranking and my own peculiar taste, the first being my favorite: they are famous for their malts, and to request a little extra malt and a little extra chocolate for me, no problem. Breakfast/brunch, especially their pancakes, grits, biscuits, etc. Their salads and their sandwiches, always top of the line prepared, with plenty of variety. The grilled salmon, my go to dinner through the years. The deserts. The coffee. The Orange Juice.

In general, don't miss this wonderful place and the people that make it run. You won't be sorry. Dr. Fred...

I am a Durham native and frequent Elmo's diner as a place to take my out of town visitors. In December my friend from NYC visited Durham and I wanted to show her around some spaces that feel close to the heart and culture of Durham for me.

Well, while we were eating I noticed that the turkey sausage I ordered was undercooked. I waited a beat yet noticed that our waitress - Gwen if I recall it well - was chatting with her colleagues. I walked over with a smile and explained that the turkey sausage was not cooked thoroughly.

She tended to me right away, yet I was and still am genuinely concerned with what happened next and still thinking of the health codes that were threatened by such actions.

The waitress came to the table with a small plate, and as I am eating my food she reaches her barehand into my place and removes the turkey sausage then walks away towards the kitchen.

I was in utter shock, and felt violated in numerous ways. Ive heard people close to me who have decided against going to Elmo's for various reasons yet most of them are a matter of opinion.

To make matters worse, my friend asked to speak with the manager on my behalf and the manager told us that she was new and ddnt know what to do. I told her me either, and she offered for them to cover my meal. I did not even get to eat the meal so they did not do a good deed - simply what was expected for obvious reasons. The first manager immediately brought over my friend's bill, although we had just received the food. We both thought that it was inappropriate to have received the bill when we hadn't even decided on our next steps. Another manager came to the table about 20 mins later and apologized again. I shared with her that I felt that the waitress would have not done that to a fellow white associate, and asked that they also cover my friend's meal for convenience.

I left feeling perplexed, unseen and hungry. I was fine after a few minutes, yet the impression lives on and I hope that in sharing this, they staff can emphasize their efforts on teaching when someone is violating health codes, food safety measures and general etiquette.

The waitresses actions were disrespectful, tasteless and unsafe. For me this feels like a matter of health and safety.

I've sat with my intention for a few months and finally decided to write this review after someone suggested we connect there and my apprehension led us elsewhere due to the...

Unfriendly service! On the way to Duke this morning we stopped for breakfast at Elmo’s Diner. We read the reviews prior and decided to give it a try. Upon entering around 7:30am Friday morning, we stood by the hostess stand for over 5 minutes. A couple servers walking past and didn’t look to see if anyone was waiting to be seated, no hostess on duty (guessing since we never saw one), more employees passed by and still not acknowledgment of “we’ll be with you” or good morning, nothing. We decided to stay because we aren’t familiar with the area nor other breakfast restaurants and we weren’t in a hurry.

Finally we were seated in a terrible uncomfortable lumpy booth, the restaurant was maybe 20-25% full so we could have asked to be moved, but we didn’t. The server gave us menus, never saying pleasantries, just what do you want to drink? We ordered a soda and iced tea with extra ice, she delivered the drinks with maybe 2 cubes of ice. If you want a plastic straw you need to ask…so maybe she wasn’t happy we asked. I told her this was our 1st time here, she didn’t care nor say welcome or pancakes are our specialty etc…nothing.

We ordered 2 eggs, sausage & potatoes which were average, then we ordered 2 eggs, ham & waffle, which were terrible! The ham was EXTREMELY salty and cooked so well done it tasted and looked like jerky, you could pull a tooth out with the rubber tough texture. The syrup was so bland with zero maple taste nor even a sugar taste…maybe it was sugar free? Not sure but bland is the nicest comment. The waffle was bland but okay. We both ate 1/2 our meal. The iced tea was so disgusting I had my husband try it to see if at this point…all these things wrong… is it ME? He said the tea tasted like coffee grounds, I drank 3 sips. Our server was nowhere around until she delivered the check. $26 plus tip. The price would be fine if the food was even averagely good.

My guess is they have a regular crowd of locals and they have ZERO interest in new business. Our next trip to Duke, we will go elsewhere. If we thought it was just “our” server we’d try again, but looking around, none of the employees seemed upbeat nor happy...