Kickback Jack's Durham — Restaurant in Durham

Based on eating dinner here five times in the past week… TLDR: Food is excellent & staff is all fantastic. Great vibe, great beers, cheers! I’ll be back next time I am in town, for sure!

Favorites: Dry rub wings with Mango Cart beer Grilled Chicken Fresh Berry Salad with Wicked Weed sour beer

Staff Shout Outs Jordan and Sade were super on top of it every time I went in, absolutely wonderful vibes, and always a genuine pleasure to connect with beyond the stellar service. They made me feel like I was visiting a friend’s house. Jay held it down in the kitchen each night sending some slamming’ delicious dishes my way + he always had great energy, and was just really cool to talk to. Z had me literally laughing out loud at the bar, gave me great recommendations, and is just all around rad. Corey manages the whole operation super well and strikes me as the kinda guy I wish was my boss back in my restaurant days.

Context: I was staying at the hotel across the street for a week because I was in town for work. Had no car and was extremely hungry when I got in the first night after 10 PM. The fact that kickback Jack’s was still open was an absolute godsend. Given that I was probably the last order of the evening and they were already starting to clean up, I was not expecting for the salad. I ordered to come out, literally super fresh to the point where the lettuce was snapping crisp and the berries were popping plump. Everything was so great the first night that I just kept going back every single night and having even better experiences each time as I met more of the fantastic staff members and explored the menu a little bit further. Literally everything I tried was very well prepared with fresh ingredients and totally delicious. Being all alone and out of town for so long can you get a little bit lonely but I genuinely felt like I made a bunch of very cool friends over the past week. Based on my personal extensive experiences, I can’t recommend this establishment...

If you're ordering takeout for multiple people, this may not be the place for you. Their system is not set-up to take multiple orders under one name. I made four separate orders with Uber eats and they put the food all in one bag and sent it to one person's room. This is the only restaurant I experienced that Uber apparently puts four separate orders under one ticket because it's under the same account, even if you order the meals at separate times, pay a separate and different price for each order, and specify the order is going to separate rooms by providing the name of the person and their room number. Uber automatically puts the order on one ticket in their system allegedly. This has only happened at this restaurant. I've ordered from multiple restaurants and that never happened. Which is why I say their system is not set-up to take multiple orders under one name.

I've ordered in person and had the same issue where they combined the orders, even when I paid for the items separately. I ordered my food in advance another time and they didn't have the quesadilla bread. Not to mention every time I order my food in advance it can be two hours in advance and when I get there, I still have to wait for something to be made or for one of the hostess to get someone from the back to hand me an order that's ready and sitting on the rack in the front with my name on it. Makes no sense, when she can literarily read my name on the bag and hand it to me instead of walking in the back and having to find someone to hand me an order that she already saw that its ready. Sometimes that process can take up to 10 additional minutes. I've timed it and it's not an exaggeration. In short, do not order take-out for multiple people and if you do, allow extra time in your schedule, to deal with a mistake. Also, the Cajun...

Loaded cheese fries were very good. Firecracker shrimp also worthy of all praise. Now for the not so good...there was no notification that the restaurant had been out of flats for days, so we received all drummettes. The wings were a decent size so that is a plus. But the honey Buffalo were mute on flavor all sweetness and no seasoning spice or contrast. They were edible but not good enough to keep wanting to eat. We also got some of the dry rub wings which came burnt and also without the dry rub seasoning. (Also all drums) we mentioned the issues to the waiter who said he would take care of it and left the table. A few moments later a manager showed up and asked how is everything..well since we had aired our complaints with the waiter (who said it would be taken care of) we responded fine the waiter is taking care of it. The manager then looked at us confused and said the waiter told him to come see our table and that he didn't know why he was confronting us. We then realized the waiter communicated nothing to the manager and just passive aggressively sent him to our table. We explained again about the wings and instead of understanding we were met with confusion. He then asked if he could take the burnt (now cold) wings to the back, add the dry rub then put them BACK in the oven. We stated we no longer wanted the wings and the manager unhappily took them but offered no apology nor parting words. The wings were removed from the bill which was good but I doubt I recommend or return. Good luck to those who go. May your luck be...