Magnolia Grill

Not worth the time or money. We just came home from our first visit to this place....how disappointing! They have a rule of no substitutions, which I have no problem with, but when I requested the lamb dish and asked the waitress to hold the couscous, she came back and said the chef refuses to serve that dish without couscous. So I ordered a trout dish and asked for it with no risotto, as I do not care for that either. I was told that the chef will only serve the dishes as stated on the menu. I settled for a trigger fish dinner that came soaked in some liquid with heavy pepper. Huge prices, with small selections! Parking is terrible. We had to park at least 1/4 mile away, as the parking lot is very small. The waitress had an attitude and was not accommodating in anyway and super slow. We spent 3 hours in the place, and only 45 minutes of that was eating. $135 before tip was our final bill for 3 plates, one desert ($9 each), 1 glass of wine and 3 beers. A little pricey for a place that is poorly decorated (the art work is a joke), the chef is a snob and the waitress needs to learn how to earn tips.…

Terrible Arrogant Service from the Owner. We mostly loved the food. But, one dish was very salty so we sent it back. We went on to dessert. After we got the bill, the dish we sent back was still on the check. So we mentioned that we were surprised to see the item on the bill and that they must have forgotten to take it off.

They told us the "policy" of the restuarant was to charge for any rejected item if the chef tasted it and still liked it. So we told them our policy was not to pay for something we disliked so much we could not eat it. AND we asked how we would know their policy - was it on the website or the menu? Of course not. So they called the owner who also wanted to charge us but finally agreed since we were not going to pay for it to take it off the bill.

How stupid a man he seems to be. Since he took the item off we did not like anyhow, why not be gracious and create our loyalty instead of being an arrogant foodie whose concern was the cooks sense of taste rather than the happiness of the customer. So now instead of taking all the people we would have brought since most dishes were very creative and delish, we think the place is a joke owned by a man with no sense of customer happiness and will never go back.

So Mr. Owner, does you policy work well for the customer or is your policy designed to frustrate the customer and make you happy?…

Not worth all the hype. My girlfriend had heard a lot of buzz about this place, so we decided to give it a try. To begin with, the staff was unfriendly to the point of hostility, especially when learning that we'd just turned up without a reservation. We decided to wait for our table at the bar -- where a surly bartender served us a couple of wretched vodka martini's with overripe olives.

After an hour, we were seated. Our waitress then served us a ceviche appetizer which was delicious, and then steak and pork chops as our main course. The food was fine, especially for the price. However the wine selection was extremely thin, and service again took far too long.

The atmosphere itself was not much to write about either. Parking was scarce, so we had to park in a pretty seedy looking, poorly lit area of Durham. It's always hard for me to eat when I'm worried about whether or not I'll have a ride home after the meal.

Overall, it wasn't worth the drive from Raleigh. This place has a sign over the entrance billing it as one of the "50 Great American restaurants". Uhhhh.....no.…

Disappointed. Maybe it was worse because I'd heard the hype ahead of time, but I would definitely not classify this as one of the top restaurants in the area. First, the pros: 1) the bread was delicious 2) the service was fairly good 3) my husband had the thick pork chop and liked it a lot 4) the prices were not outrageous (mid $20's for entrees). Now the cons: 1) it was freezing in the restaurant when we arrived and I had to keep my coat on for the first 20 minutes 2) they had a grand total of TWO red dinner wines available by the glass and neither of them were cab, zin, shiraz, merlot or pinot. They were obscure. I described to the waitress what kind of wines I liked and she said, "I will bring you such&such." She brought it - a TINY glass - and then she never once asked if I liked it. I didn't like it at all. I don't see how a "nice" restaurant can get away with such limitations on red wine. 3) my meal was VERY uninspiring. I had flounder which was mushy and nearly tasteless. Seemed like the kind of fish that has been frozen too long. The sides were nothing special. 4) I picked the restaurant because of the menu posted on their website. Turns out that particular menu had not been available for a whole month, but they'd neglected to update their site.

All in all it was not a terrible meal, just a terrible disappointment, considering my expectations for a special night out. A few months ago we ate at Elaine's in Chapel Hill and that was MUCH MUCH better.…