GRUB Durham — Restaurant in Durham

Went for lunch, can't wait to come back for breakfast (served til 3pm). Totally cool vibe, lots of space both downstairs and upstairs, and the rooftop is awesome. Bar up there that must open sometimes maybe at night, but was closed on a Friday afternoon.

Pro tip for upstairs is that there is a water station up there as well as inside, plus utensils and condiments are up there too. Plenty of people were leaving their dishes to be bussed, but there was a dish bin up there, so we bussed ours ourselves.

All around, absolutely delicious, and priced reasonably -- $23 for the two of us before tip (I know some people don't tip for counter service, but I generally do. They do bring the food to where you're sitting, even upstairs).

My fiancee got the BLT, house chips, and sweet potato fries. I got the Cubano burger with sweet potato fries. Both the house chips and the sweet potato fries were especially good. We didn't have cocktails this time, but are excited to come back and try them. They look awesome (as does all the food we saw on other peoples' tables).

My only complaints may have been enough for some pickier people to have only awarded 4 stars, but didn't bother me that much. I had 2: first was that it did take quite a bit of time to get our food, but it was worth it, and it did come out o ly a few minutes after it had been long enough to start bothering me. The second is that I asked for my burger medium, but I believe it would definitely qualify as medium-well or even well-done. There was no pink at all. I'll just ask for medium-rare next time. It's always kind of arbitrary anyway... but now I know how they do it there.

Other than the actual burger patty being overcooked in my opinion, everything else about the burger (toppings, bun, etc) was close to making it one of the best burgers I've ever had (and it definitely would have been if the patty was cooked less). To me, those are very minor and picky complaints, though, so I still think the overall experience deserved 5 stars. I will definitely be back and am very much looking...

Went here on a Wednesday around 1 pm with a group of 3. Walked in and there was a line of 3 people long to order. I noticed there were probably 4-5 open seats at the bar so I asked if we could sit there and was told we could only order at the register and THEN we could sit at the bar or find a seat" They had it set up where you must order your food and then you can find a seat to eat. This was fine until as we were standing in line 2 couples came in behind us. This made the line go out the door because the register has a small amount of room between it and the main entrance. Immediately a woman behind the counter yells out loud "You're either IN OR OUT, not both keep the door shut to keep the fly's from coming in." This made the 2 couples squeeze in in front of us to the side. One of the couples went and sat at the bar without ordering. Still being #3 in line we waited and before we got to the front the same "IN OR OUT" lady takes the order from the couple at the bar. This annoyed us as they skipped not only the entire line but got served immediately. Fast forward to when we ordered. We got 2 waters with our order and was forced to get bottled as we were told " we don't serve tap water in a glass". This would also be fine except for the fact that the couple who is sitting at the bar, who has already ordered, has 2 water glasses in front of them. I was very frustrated at this point as I am not sure if they were trying to be loose about rules or if this was on purpose. The food did take about 40 minutes to come out but did taste great, this doesn't make up for the rude service...

Cafe style. Meaning you order at the counter and they bring the food out to you. It was very busy when we arrived, with no open tables. We stood in line for probably 15-20 minutes to order. Luckily a table opened just after we ordered. And the food didn’t take too long to come out. All the employees were very friendly, wearing masks, and they were quick to get tables cleaned up as people left.

I ordered the cowgirl bowl, and a buttermilk biscuit. The grits were a little more “wet” than I prefer, but it wasn’t packed with flavor, but it was good. The meat was cooked perfectly. The biscuit was phenomenal. I had the iced rocket fuel to drink, no cream or sugar added, it had coffee ice cubes which is fun, but it didn’t have a very strong flavor. Average as far as iced coffee goes.

We also had a brioche cinnamon roll, which was very delicious. I could have eaten two of them.

As a first time visitor it would have been helpful if they had some more signage. Such as which door to enter. The “order here” sign was kind of small and not super noticeable. There was also uncertainty as to how to get a refill on a hot coffee. Or how to just order another drink. Did we have to get back into the 15-20 minute line? We didn’t realize it was cafe style/seat yourself until we arrived. Some other customers appeared puzzled as well.

All in all a good breakfast, the outdoor seating was really fabulous, and all staff were friendly. Would be better and more enjoyable on a slower day. It also appears that they take reservations for large groups if that’s...