Nanas — Restaurant in Durham

Where should I begin with this terrible experience? So many things that left me and my fiancee' with such a terrible impression. How do you run out with three of the main entrees featured on your menu? Then, why did the server not explain that to us right when we were seated, instead of waiting until we were ready to order and then realize we were going to have to change our plans? While I understand that most of the dishes you prepare once the order has been taken, it should by no means take 45 minutes to bring food to the table. Two of us ordered fish which cooks in less than 10 minutes, one ordered a entree version of the risotto, and one ordered the braised beef. How did you terribly fail at cooking the fish at the same time as the beef? Once we finally were served our food the fish was cold and the beef was lukewarm. It for some reason took 20 minutes to "run our cards", but boy was it a surprise when the server returned our cards to us and we explained he had charged the wrong cards the wrong items. How do you mess that up?! If you offer to package our leftovers for us, please remember to bring them to us once we have paid for our meal and obviously are ready to leave. All of us assumed the other person had gotten them from the server, but apparently he just forgot to bring them back to us. We each had at least half a meal left. Very disappointing. *These next few things were due to some hard rain the night of our visit, however, could have been handled much more professionally. * The power went out for a minute which left it pitch black inside the restaurant. There was water leaking through the roof all over the restaurant. Two of our dining party slipped on the way to the restrooms in the front section because of how wet the wood floor was. Nobody was bothering to keep it dry or clean it up. What a mess. The valet couldn't even bring us our vehicles because they didn't want to walk through the water...so both me and my good friend had to carry our fiancee's to our vehicles. What's the point of a valet if they can't do their job? To top off our horrible experience, we requested to speak with the manager that evening but apparently "he wasn't available". So we left our numbers with the hostess after being reassured someone would be in touch. Three days later without hearing from anyone still, we tried to reach the manager. To this day we have yet to be able to speak to a manager. Nana's is a disgrace to the enlightening Durham restaurant scene. Management must either be non-existent or a joke. Every restaurant has their bad evenings, but to have this many problems in one evening is an...

We live in the neighborhood and have been excitedly anticipating Nanas' opening. We have walked in several times and both times were able to sit in the bar area, but I made this reservation almost a month in advance, expecting to finally have a proper seat in the dining room. My father was visiting from out of town (which happens literally never), and I wanted it to be a special experience. In short, I was very excited to dine at Nanas with a proper reservation at a reasonable hour (7:15 PM)--on a weeknight, by the way, not Saturday or Sunday. So, I was extremely disappointed, to say the least, when we walked in at 7:20 and the hostess informed us, "What we can offer you right now is a table in the bar area. Our dining room is full." I said "But we have a reservation." She said, without a hint of an apology, "We reserve the tables in the bar area just like we reserve the tables in the dining room, we don't just hold them for walk-ins, and the table we have available for you right now is in the bar area." I said, "How long would we have to wait for a table in the dining room?" She said, "Our reservations are 1hr45 so you'd have to wait 1hr45 at least." I almost walked out, she was so rude. A second hostess (there were three standing there) even pointed across her to a table on the screen and said "but what about..." and the first hostess cut her off and repeated that all she could offer us was a bar table. We were led to a high-top right next to the bathrooms. Not only was it noisy and uncomfortable, we then waited over 40 minutes to place our order, since there was only one (perfectly nice) server working the entire area. We finally asked the guy who offered us bread to take our order. Meanwhile, it was obviously a lie that the tables in the bar area were reserved, since the one next to us sat empty the entire night. (Not to mention, it was abundantly clear that not everyone in the dining area had been seated at 7:15--ludicrous to suggest no one would be getting up for two hours.) Food was very pricey and not good enough to make up for the bad service. Read OpenTable reviews and seeing other people are also having this experience. Growing pains, maybe, but still not what you expect from a fine...

My boyfriend and I had an all around terrific time at Nanas for our anniversary. We started with a Trinidad Sour and would love to try more cocktails on our next visit! The menu changes seasonally, and we greatly appreciated the orientation as well as dish and portion suggestions from our server. We were thoroughly impressed by everything! Our server warned us that fresh bread would come with our meal (and the focaccia was spectacular), but we couldn't resist trying the dinner rolls, which were as soft and buttery as you would imagine. The grilled peach, mozz, and peach molasses appetizer was refreshing and also came with a surprise of tasty toast (we used it to soak up the divine peach molasses from the plate). The shrimp risotto was creative and had the sharpest, rich cheesy flavor with perfect texture. The foam on the surface reminded me of molecular gastronomy, but the portion was not skimpy--perfect to share as a starter, as our server mentioned. We also loved the entrees. The whole trout daily fish special was particularly memorable. Even the side of kale and yukon potatoes that came with the fish was delicious and noteworthy on its own. Finally, we finished with the hot chocolate souffle and carrot cake sundae, both of which were absolutely amazing. Based on our evening, I cannot recommend Nanas enough.

The space is upscale with modern, elegant design touches, all of which creates a festive atmosphere, ideal for a special occasion. I also would be remiss without highlighting the service--our server perfectly balanced attentiveness and offering to answer questions with allowing us to take our time and enjoy the experience (I don't recall his name, but in case a manager/owner sees these reviews: he has a striking beard and is...