Hope Valley Diner — Restaurant in Durham

Very good food and wait staff, very poor management! I refuse to support a business that doesn't strive for great customer service. Durham offers too many great restaurants to settle for one that has awful customer service.

My husband and I came here for dinner this evening. There was a man at the host stand who barely said hi to us and also told us he had never hosted before, in a frustrated tone. We later saw that the host staff was running late, and the man who sat us was probably forced to step in until she got there. While we were waiting on our drinks, this same man said very rudely to the staff behind the bar, "We all know that doesn't belong there! Please move it!". One of the staff snarled back at him and said she'd only sat it there for a minute and she would move whatever was out of place.

I ordered a $7.99 omelet and he ordered the seafood platter for $14.99. The seafood plate only had 4 shrimp, 2 scallops, and 2 pieces of small catfish along with the green beans and onion rings. My husband expressed his concern of the small portion to the waiter. The waiter checked with the manager and returned to us to confirm that this was the appropriate portion. The manager never came over to express an apology or to offer a helpful solution.

My husband approached the manager and introduced himself as the person who expressed concern about the seafood portion. Her name was Annie and she was behind the counter at the register. He expressed that he was more upset that she didn't come over and address our complaint more than being upset over the small portion. She said "I'm sorry that is what we charge and there is nothing I can do".

I joined the conversation after hearing her unhelpful reply and assured her there were plenty of things she could do to make it right. I explained that she could begin by asking us what she could do to make it better. She continued to point at our receipt and say "this is the price, and I am unable to change it". She even told us we weren't the first to complain about the seafood portion size. I told her that I understood seafood was expensive but she could have offered more green beans or bread since those are low cost additions. However, she made no effort to provide good customer service or welcome us back with a free appetizer. I asked her if she was okay with 2 upset people leaving her restaurant and never coming back and she said she was okay with it.

Arguing with the customer is very unprofessional and by the end of our conversation we had an audience in the restaurant. Very poor management and a very poor atmosphere. We will not be returning to this restaurant and will not recommend it to anyone based on the service we received on top of experiencing the tension...

I'll try to keep this review short, but I have so much to say about my positive experience with Hope Valley Diner. If you are in the Durham-area and you are looking for an event cater, I recommend that you look no further than Hope Valley Diner. This restaurant goes above and beyond and absolutely exceeded my expectations. We worked with Lynn Gardner to create a menu for a family BBQ and a family Banquet that would accommodate 70 people. She was so patient and professional especially when we played with numbers to create a menu that would fit within our event budget.

When it was time for our BBQ to begin, Lynn and two sous chefs arrived forty minutes before our event to set up. My family is very particular about food and they had absolutely no complaints. We had hamburgers, hotdogs, turkey burgers, turkey hotdogs, corn, baked beans, watermelon, potato salad, and cole slaw. Everything was delicious! Throughout the BBQ, the sous chefs were going around and clearing tables, interacting with my family members so pleasantly, and were actively making the BBQ a remarkable experience with their impeccable customer service.

We had a second, more formal family event in the Hope Valley Diner banquet hall. I love the hallway that leads to the eloquent space. We were able to fit 63 people in the banquet hall comfortably. Again, we were very impressed with the customer service and the delicious food.

Coming from out-of-state, we were taking a chance by choosing Hope Valley Diner to cater our family event two days in a row for a BBQ and a banquet. This was one of the best experiences we have ever had with caters when it comes to customer service, food, and quality of the event hall. If I'm ever in Durham again, I know exactly where I'm...

Flaky and unprofessional. I tried to coorespond through email about setting up a tasting for my wedding. The process began back in April, we had very spotty response time, if any response at all, with emails. They asked for days that we could come in, we responded with availability, and then hear nothing back. After a couple email follow ups (all from our end, never theirs) and not hearing anything I almost gave up until I decided to reach back out ONE more time in September and actually got decent response back, even talked with someone on the phone within a couple days. We set up a date finally for our tasting for the end of October, even though it was a pain to find days that worked for both them and us. HOWEVER a day before our tasting we get an email from the manager requesting we cancel our appointment (after trying for at least five months)because the catering liaison is out sick and I guess not a single other person is capable of handling a consultation? we were trying to be understanding even though very disappointed, because people get sick and we were assured rescheduling would be put at top priority when the employee returned. That was three weeks ago and have not heard anything. We are giving up because honestly if this flaky coordination of wedding catering is how things are run, we do not want to take any chances of dealing with a company like this for our wedding and then end up with no food for our guests come the day of. We should have given up after the unprofessional ignoring of our first emails back in April and May instead of wasting more time. If you want someones business, don't ignore them or cancel on then and then not reach back out...