Plum Southern Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Durham

Disclaimer: Long Review Upon entering Plum, my party and I were asked by a young lady, "Did we have a reservation?" I replied: "No, is this a reservations only restaurant?" She replied, "No, but it's better if you have one." She said something inaudible to a man that came over and she immediately zoomed away.

The male employee, told us that he would look to see if there was any available seating because they were full due to reservations for the evening. He offered us seating at the bar, which was empty.

At that moment, we were about to leave for two reasons. First, there was no availability. Second, the manner in which the young lady addressed us. She was very standoffish, as if she did not want us to dine at the establishment. Her tone was dry and she did not appear friendly. Her eye-contact with us was very minimal.

Despite this experience we decided to sit at the empty bar.

Upon arriving to the bar and choosing a seat. Samson, the bartender, immediately greeted us and introduced himself. That was pleasant. He asked us if we have ever dined with them before, he explained their menu, and gave us drink menus. Samson, was on point.

I went to the restroom. After returning to the bar, one member of my party identified and told me, "that's Lisa she came over and introduced herself as the owner."

We ordered. While waiting for our food another young lady came over and asked if we "have been taken care of? Did someone already take our order." We said yes. The food came out timely. The food was exceptional, especially the brisket taco. It was piled high, which I was thankful for, and it was fresh and you could tell the care that was put into crafting each taco. The house-made flour tortilla was impeccable! The tuna toast was good, but mine had too much mayonnaise on it for me. The banana pudding was great! It was sweet, which I personally enjoyed, but if you paired with the two mini shortbread cookies it balanced well. The strawberry shortcake biscuit wasn't overly powering with sweetness. It was good but the biscuit was tough to cut through with the butter knife.

All in all, the issue was our initial encounter with the front of the house greeters. If we did not "make it past the door" we would have patronized elsewhere. I would suggest that the front of the house greeters are staffed with welcoming and friendly employees, because they are the first individuals that patrons meet.

If the owners read this, how often does the...

This was my weekend to decide where to have dinner and drinks. There's so many places to try and I picked a place close to where we were having drinks afterwards.

As you walk there, it's in a little plaza area with a good amount of parking. You can't tell from the outside what to expect instead, when we walked in, I was impressed with the atmosphere and look/feel of the restaurant! A bit of modern farmhouse feel to it, super cute. We were immediately seated.

Our waiter came over with water shortly after we got seated, gave us some time to figure out what we wanted. We ordered two drinks (Criminal Cocktail and The Last Word) and put in our starters (Summer Melons and Three Sisters Panznella). When our drinks arrived, we put our entree order in, we got NC Apple Cidar Pork Chops and Beef Stroganoff, with the Pork Belly Deviled Eggs and Brussel Sprouts. Our starters came pretty quickly and both dishes were plated beautifully, with unique tastes and it was delicious. When we finished, it did take a while for someone to grab the empty dishes and our entrees arrived before they cleared the dishes, which was fine but there wasn't anymore room on the table until it was cleared. Our entrees were really good, I couldn't finish my food but I was excited to take the leftovers home to eat later. As we were pretty much done with our food, there was another long lull again waiting for our waiter/someone to come, so I opted to just ask for the check as soon was i was able to get their attention and also asked for to go containers for our food as we needed to leave for our next reservations for drinks.

Overall, the one atmosphere and the food was pretty good! The service wasn't the best but it wasn't bad, it's just the flow of everything was a little bit all over the place. It won't stop us from coming back.

(See Photos section...

Had a reservation on a Sunday evening, the restaurant was not filled. The ambiance and decor is good, but that's where the good things end, especially if you have a child. No highchair or booster seat available. The staff said they would try to figure something out, nada. No kids menu (which is fine) but no option or offer to make anything on the menu a bit more kid-friendly (no the pasta cannot be made without bacon). Felt like we were bothering the waitstaff for the couple things we needed (could we have a straw for said toddler, they brought a cocktail straw [lol what] first before we had to clarify that he needed a normal sized straw). I don't expect a restaurant to bow down to a toddler when we visit an establishment but I was pretty surprised that Plum was this ill-equipped.

A couple of people in my party have allergies- warning, there are no menu substitutions allowed here. I feel like this is ridiculous, you can't sub in a potato that is offered throughout the menu or just have double of the other side that is already being made? Nope, just had to remove it but pay for the full menu item.

Finally, the service and actual meal. Took a really long time to get the food (past the 25+ minutes they ask for when ordering the half chicken) and wow it was bland! My group commented that Red Lobster cheesy biscuits are better than the option here. No real check ins until the hostess (?) came to see how we were doing. When bringing the bill they said the service charge doesn't go to the servers.....what?? I'm not an expert but I think it's there to help the entire staff.

Overall this is a place that acts like it's too cool for you but falls way short on meeting any kind of basic/reasonable...