The Big Bean Durham — Restaurant in Durham

Very upsetting experience there today.

We have always loved the Newmarket location. The food and service was excellent and fast.

The Durham location really needs to get their stuff together. First, we got there and were lied to that the wait would be around 25 minutes. 45 minutes later, we finally were seated right next to the back door and it was freezing because they had the outdoor seating open and used the door to access the patio. People were sitting out there with blankets. We asked to change seats and were told to move to the bar. As we were moving to the bar they sat two girls right in front of us and the unapologetic host said it would be another 15 minutes to change seats. The waiter apologized. So we returned to the freezing corner. An hour later, still sitting next to the door, freezing, watching others get food around us and takeout orders leaving the kitchen, still no food... We ordered an omlet and a quesadilla. We arrived there a little before 11. It was now past 12:30. As we were walking out the door they handed us our food to go and still charged us full price, despite all of this.

My advice is first of all, don't lie to people about how long the wait is. Get organized and stop overloading your kitchen. If you have to stop taking togo orders so that you can promptly serve the people who are waiting hours in your establishment, then management should make that call. Also, your tables aren't turning over quickly because you leave your patrons sitting for way too long. I'm sorry, almost 2 hours for breakfast is ridiculous. By the time we got home, the food was cold, the homefries weren't even cooked all the way, and we were still frozen from sitting by the back door.

Totally unacceptable, unapologetic, and pathetic display.

Customers, do yourselves a favor and go to the Newmarket location or...

Worst customer service

so the host, who was also I think the manager, told us a 25-30 minute wait for a table and we were fine with that and put our name down.. then we went and shopped around downtown and got a text that our table was ready but when we got there he told us that we could sit at the bar and if we wanted to wait for a table that we would be put at the end of the waitlist and have to wait another 30 minutes. we saw 2 open tables and asked if we could sit there and he said no that he was putting other people (behind us on the list) there and then scolded us like we were 5 years old. he then looked at me and said “I don’t have time to argue with you, so if you want to leave you can come to the host stand and give me...

Took my 4.5 yr old son with me last weekend for the first time. We sat the bar and enjoyed the atmosphere:) We ordered the Big Bean I believe that came with pancakes. I never usually ask for something to be recooked but the pancakes were so dense and raw and slimy even. The girls at the bar quickly rushed in a new order but the second batch were no good and I just kept quiet that time knowing the batch of batter had to be off out back. Not sure who is cooking but they should have felt the weight of this raw pancake. My son was sad and it kind of stunk treating ourselves to a Saturday breakfast we couldn’t eat. We will return to though just not craving pancakes of any...