dame's chicken & waffles

not worth it, too loud poor service. we arrived at 3 pm on saturday 5/25/2013. we were told an hourwaitwith 2 tables open and the bar open. then told we could sit at the bar. had i seen 96 food score rating, i would have left before the 2 of us had ordered. service slow at best food is marginal. the atmosphere is loud and someone burned something in the kitchen filling the place with smoke. food is overpriced. go to a waffle house and get better food, prices and service. don't stand in the long weekend lines for poor service. we had to ask for our server twice before we got our check and had to ask 3 times to get a go box. too many other nice places to eat in durham take a pass on this one!!!!!!

we had very bad experience.waitwas ridiculously long and waiter did nothing to ease the discomfort. being "trendy" is no excuse for just plain bad service. making peoplewaitunnecessarily long times is bad service and these folks need to address this issue. the food was mediocre, certainly nothing exceptional.

it's hard to decide how to rate this place. it's probably the best food in durham... however i've been probably 10 times, and had horrid service every single time. it's worth going, but be prepared for a longwaitand bad service, but exceptional food.

the chicken tastes like it coated in stovetop stuffing. :( mac n cheese tasted vinegary. longwaittoo.

great food, unnecessary wait. let me begin by saying, i've been several times and love the food. it's the service andwaittimes that force me to give it 2 stars.

the food here us great. schmear may be the best thing i've had in a long time and they do the fried chicken well too. i'd say the only thing i didn't like was the mac and cheese because they used the breading from the fried chicken, so it stands out. other than thay, i'd say the sweet potato waffles are the best.

now, on to the bad. waits seem to be on average, an hour or more! in my opinion, it's the management and the kitchen staff's fault. there needs to be better training in place to turn tables faster. there's no reason things need to take as long as they do. most times i think about going and see that line outside, i just change my mind. it happens often.

reservations seem to be a joke. we've made them in the past and still had towaitmore than 40 min for our table. what's the point? don't offer reservations if you can't accommodate us.

i've also seem people that work there sitting at tables, while there's a wait. that just doesn't make any sense.

the last straw that prompted this review is their policy on take out. i really wanted some chicken and waffles on saturday and i was told they don't do take out when there's a wait. wow. that means take out is probably only available 25% of the time they are open because it seems there's always a wait. doesn't make any sense and they are the only restaurant in my experience to have a policy like that. needless to say, i was not happy. the competitor that got my business was, i'm sure.

all in all, it's hard to take a stance on this place because the food really is good. it's just not good enough to deal with the wait, all the time. there are too many options and they really need to fix this. maybe they don't have enough tables or they need to re-train staff...i don't know the source of the problem, so i can't propose a solution. all i can say is that as long as they remain slow, it will take a lot for me to visit them again.

this was my first time ever at dames, and i will say this will not be my last! we got there early so we didn'twaitfor a table, our waitress was so helpful with the menu and taking care of us- the food took a little longer than expected to prepare but was well worth the wait. such a wonderful meal and the mac and cheese was amazing! if ever in durham def. check this place out!

the food is good but could be better. thewaittime and service were just plain bad. this is among a fairly long list of restaurants i choose to neither "like" nor "dislike" on urbanspoon because i like to think that on a different day or time or with a different waiter i would've had a better experience, as many reviewers have. then again, there are a lot of bloggers and reviewers who had the exact same experience or worse. i feel like what this place really needs is some healthy competition from another chicken and waffles purveyor. there's clearly a market for it in durham.

horrrible service. ridiculouswaitfor everything. "10 minute wait" to be seated turned into 40, then waited 20 to order, waited 40 to be served, waited10 for a box, waited 10 for the check. we were at our table for over two hours start to finish without the slightest apology from the server or manager. decent food when it finally arrived, but totally not worth the frustration. never going back. just hoping to save others from having the same bad experience.

as good as it gets. i had the chicken and waffles with mac & cheese as a side. the chicken was outstanding and that may be the best waffle i have ever had. the homemade flavored butter is a really nice touch and there was no doubt about the mac & cheese being the best i've had. i don't even like mac & cheese and absolutely get that again. there is a lot of effort & love that goes into every dish on the menu. i can'twaitto go back.

busy place for a reason. tried going here once or twice before, but thewaitwas always too long. found out i could reserve a table online and instantly made a reservation. i am a big fan of chicken and waffles and looked forward to trying the the combinations at dame's. we arrived 10 minutes early for our reservation and we were ready to wait, but we were seated immediately. i ordered a backyard honcho and the waiter recommended trying it with the sweet potato waffle instead of the default. i took his recommendation and was quite happy with the combo. the food and customer service were excellent. the place is busy, but no one rushes you out the door. very happy with the experience.

tried chicken and waffles for the first time at dame's, and it was great! loved the variety of flavor options in waffles and shmears. my only complaint was a very longwaitfor the food, but with a party of 12 i suppose that's to be expected.

got my "fix" again today at dame's and as usual it was pure heaven on a plate!! service was excellent, and the food..... well, there are not enough words to describe the utter perfection. hands down the best fried chicken i've ever had and always consistently delicious!!!!


-----18 jun, 2013-----

dame's in durham is my favorite place to eat in the entire world!!!! best food i've ever had every single time i go. my favorite thing on the menu is "the buff brahma", it comes with two chicken cutlets, i get a sweet potato waffle with orange honeycomb shmear (but without the whiskey creme sauce) it is absolute perfection!!! i could eat there everyday and never ever get tired of it. it's extremely addictive!!! this place is super busy and yes, you should expect at least an hourwaitif you show up near supper time with no reservation. don't be surprised if there's a line of people waiting either.let that be a indication to you of just how awesome their food is!! it's soooo worth the wait!! i have been there at least half a dozen times in the past 8 months and it's an hour drive for me, one way!!! but each time i have been the hostess was very nice and thewaitstaff stayed on top of everything really well, even considering how crazy busy it was. this is the only place i've ever taken my dad to eat where he did not have a single complaint!!! if you only knew how that in itself speaks volumes!!!

food was good, service wasn't. the main hostess was very rude and had such an attitude with everyone. this isn't the first time either. she made sure you knew that you were going to have a longwaitif you didn't have reservations and don't even try asking her questions. if you don't mind the service, then go for it. the food is still delicious.

while the food is good there is certainly room for improvement when it comes to customer service.
if you ever visit the restaurant and don't have towaitan hour plus to be seated consider yourself lucky. if you can walk in and not be told they are fully book for the day you're lucky. of the numerous attempts made to try dames i have only been lucky enough to get seated once.
i have walked in 30 minutes before closed looked at multiple empty tables and was turned away told they have reservations for the day. yes reservations showing up 30 minutes or less before they close.
of the one chance i got seated:
the waffles and schmears are great. if i attempt another visit i would stick to just that. the chicken has great flavor but was over cooked an dry. while this may not always be the case it was for myself and those with me. it's hard to say i dislike any mac and cheese but dames certainly is as the bottom of my list. it has rosemary added to it for flavor which is ok, but rosemary can easily be over done and over power a dish. mac and cheese is great on its own, no need to ruin by trying to make it fancy.

bottom line go for the waffles an schmears only and good luck getting a table.

good food, terrible service. i've been reading great reviews about this place, so when friends and i went the on sunday, we had a lot of expectations. unfortunately, we were left disappointed and we are almost certain we won't return. here's why:
1) we were told that they're full and that we would have towaitfor an hour. ok. 1 1/2 hours later, we were still not seated. by them, it was already 2:30pm.

2) got seated, waited for 15-20mins to get our orders taken. waitress after waitress went past our table, we were ignored. two families who came after us were already served.

3) waited almost 1 hr for our food. then manager came to tell us that they're out of classic waffles. the two families were already beginning to leave. at that point we just wanted to eat (it was way past lunch time, already 3:45pm!!!!) so we went for what ever is left.

4) complained to the manager. he was diplomatic enough, but after all of the above i think we deserve more. waitress was happy to chat with her colleague while we should have gotten our drinks, refills etc. got a complimentary meal voucher for the next visit. don't know if we will ever utilize that though.

extremely poor service.

ps: if i may add, as we were eating, they were beginning to clear the restaurant. so chairs were put up on tables around us, as we were having our meal. i thought that was rather rude.