Fairview Dining Room — Restaurant in Durham

Probably the worst dining experience of my life. In fact, reading this... you wont believe it. I'm writing this almost 3 months after the event, as I wanted to calm down. I've had good experiences at Fairview in the past and I'm sad to say that I'd never go back.

In was February 21st and my wife had booked a birthday lunch reservation for us 2pm. I'm not kidding when I say this, we arrived at 2:02 and they said we were late and couldn't eat there. I replied "are you kidding, we drove nearly 45 minutes here and we are 120 seconds late." They replied, "I'm sorry we are not. We have a strict rule and we called you to let you know that." We had not received a call from them until 20 minutes before and no message was left. I then asked to see the manager.

I shared my frustration with the manager and the manager said it's an issue they have had for a while. I said they should not accept reservations after 1:45 and they said they tried that, and it didn't work. I cant believe the Duke Golf Club, which is connected to one of the best universities in America, can't figure this problem out and turned us away for being 120 seconds late.

It then got worse. The manager then told me that while she understands my frustration, I can’t be swearing at their hostesses. I never swear and look poorly on those that do so. I was speechless and I told the manager as much. It seems the hostess had told the manager that I said something in appropriate to get her manager on side.

I have no words for this experience.

The manager did offer to let us dine there, but she said the menu would be limited.

At that point my wife didn't feel comfortable and we left. As it was now past 2pm nothing else was open so we drove 45 minutes home and I had my birthday lunch there.

I've never been more disappointed in an establishment or the character of the staff within it.

NEVER AGAIN...

This is one of the first reviews I have written, but I feel compelled to do so because my service experience in the Fairview has been consistently bad the last several times I have eaten there and I really want it to improve so I can continue to eat there with colleagues, job applicants, etc. While the servers are very friendly when we order, there is one person in particular who works bussing plates, and each time I have gone he has tried to take my plates and those of the people I am eating with away before we are done. Even when we have said we are not yet done, he comes back two minutes later and again tries to take the plates. Sometime he literally puts his hands on them before we say we are not done, other times, he asks, then asks again. One time he tried to take our bread plates and we had not yet even touched the bread. Given the price we pay to eat here, it very much feels like we are being rushed out. I do not have this experience at other restaurants, and it is becoming awkward taking job applicants and others here because of the consistency of this problem. I thought perhaps the problem was the table was needed, but this happened just the other day when the place was practically empty. Please talk to your lunch busing staff (and servers to some degree as well) about not rushing people and not constantly asking if people are done with plates. And by the way the SAME person the other day then went and grabbed the leather check wallet before we had put our credit cards in it, again because we were having a leisurely lunch and were not ready to pay. It was awkward, and then we of course felt compelled to pay right then. This one person does this the most, but the servers have done variations of this as well. For some reason there seems to be a culture of rushing people out. My only experience is at lunch, not...

I have eaten lunch at The Fairview Dining Room for many years. In the past year, both the food and the service have gone downhill. Food is either not cooked as requested or the wrong food is brought to the table! As an example, the last time I and a friend had lunch at the restaurant, we both ordered salmon well-done. My friend's salmon was undercooked (which can be a health hazard), and mine was practically nonexistent (a very small piece). The second time the salmon was brought to our table, it was still undercooked for my friend, although mine was the proper size this time. The kitchen finally got it right the third time. Our reservation was for noon. We got to eat lunch one hour later. In addition, the server never came to our table to replenish water and only came at the end to see if I needed hot water for my tea. Not one staff person, including management, offered to compensate us for awful experience.

In the past, wrong dishes were brought to the table, and the service was just as poor.

When sitting anywhere near the windows, there are also flies. We have had to swat away flies every time we sit in a certain section of the restaurant, which leads to a concern that the restaurant is not very sanitary.

I would suggest not patronizing the Fairview Dining Room. There are plenty of wonderful restaurants in both Durham and Chapel Hill, where the staff takes customer services seriously, you eat at the appropriate time from being seated, and you do not have to worry...