04/13/09

Good food; service? Not so much.

by rossstocks

The salmon was awesome. There is no denying that. But...

We had a reservation for 6:30 and arrived slightly early. We waited at least 3 minutes at the door before our presence was even acknowledged. It was acknowledged by a young waiter who was coming to get menus and said, I'll come back and seat you as soon as I finish what I'm doing." How nice of him. I then watched him deliver those menus, disappear into the back, return to take a table's orders, disappear into the back, and return with wine and glasses for yet another table.

In the meantime, another employee, an older man about my age came up and told us someone would be with us shortly. I replied that we had indeed been so informed. Throughout the evening, I never saw the older man wait on any tables. It's perplexing why he could not have seated us.

As our first young waiter was returning with his bottle of wine and glasses, he moved toward us, and noticing my focused gaze (glare? perhaps) he remembered that sometime earlier in the evening he had promised to seat us. We were finally seated, joy of joys, at one of his tables.

Another person delivered water and bread in a reasonably timely fashion. Our waiter returned to us, also reasonably promptly. We had questions about the menu, which he answered, and we ordered a half bottle of wine. They were out of that wine. How do you run out of something on your menu at 6:30 on a Saturday evening? Lack of preparation would be my guess. We instead ordered an Australian Shiraz which we thoroughly enjoyed.

When the waiter came to take our orders, my date and I had a miscommunication. Unbeknown to me, she wanted to share a salad. It took us a moment to get our act together, and in that moment, our waiter decided he didn't have enough time to wait for us to get ourselves sorted out, and asked, without really asking, if we needed more time and was already turning away when we said, yeah, sure.

Several minutes later, we must have appeared more ready, and our waiter returned and took our orders. We ordered a salad and a first course to share and separate entrees. He never brought us our first course.

Once we had finished eating, we sat for many minutes, ten, fifteen, maybe more, with empty plates in front of us before someone (I don't remember if it was our waiter or someone else) cleared them off.

When our waiter returned to offer us desert, we had already decided to take our desert business across the street to Amelia's and declined and asked for our check.

The waiter brought us our check, we already had our credit card out and immediately put it in the holder. But the waiter had already left and was now taking orders from a large party up on the mezzanine. Realizing it was going to be some time before he returned, we snagged another waiter, lied that we had an appointment, and got him to take care of our bill.

I hope our young waiter realizes that his paltry 10% tip was a reflection of his service, and doesn't think, "Oh they're just lousy tippers; I'm glad I didn't waste any more time on them."

Still, the salmon was to die for, and with me at my age and the waiter as slow as he was, it began to seem like a real possiblity.

• Pros: Easy free parking
• Cons: terrible service

04/09/09

a sublime experience

by green2828

If you are from durham or traveling through it like i did twenty years ago for the first thyme You need to stop and try mary bacon's timeless restaurant . I was amazed to find flavors that i have rarely tasted for the past twenty years and i know what i am talking about! The sauteed diver scallop with penne rigate,lightly coated with mustard butter,who would have thought of that?... sitting in a more than perfect provencale tomato sauce that is stil hard to find even in provence ,and i love provence the flavors are singing to me like the cigales and memories in my youth .Thank you Mary for keeping my memories alive with your sublime food , I will send every one i know and recommend your restaurant . People need to know that there is a place where they can feel young again, food is magic and you will find that magic at anothertyme .see it for yourself ,dont take my word for it ..

• Pros: Rare Flavors

04/05/09

Great Thyme! Great Food! Great Service!

by Madigail

New to Durham and came across AnotherThyme last week when in Brightleaf square, and so glad we did! We have been back twice since. The largest wholistic menu we have seen so far and there is not a bad thing on the menu. The wait staff is extremely knowledgable and eager to share there knowledge of an extensive wine list and menu that is sure to please the pallet. Go check it out, you wont be dissapointed.

• Pros: Best Selection!
• Cons: None

02/22/09

Mary Bacon Still hasn't got it

by patrickdan

I am a 35 year resident of Durham and in the past a frequent patron of SomeThyme and AnotherThyme. I had not been to AnotherThyme in some 15 years. The last time I went with my wife we waited a long time for the food, served by inattentive waitstaff. So Saturday I went back to AnotherThyme with a group of 10 friends. I did not suggest the venue, but was willing to go and see if things had changed.

The wine selection was decent with average to high per glass prices. The Shiraz had good tannins and fruit. My wife's Pinot Grigio had some strange floral tones and a little of a steely after taste. My entree was gumbo and had good spiciness, but had a muddy under taste like an old etufay. Others had the Chiapas Burritos which were OK but would have been cheaper [and faster] at Cosmic Cantina.

Our real complaint is the 20 minutes to bread, 45 minutes to salads and 90 minutes to dinner. We really did not have that complicated an order. Seems like things don't change. Better to be at home with the friends with us cooking. We would save about 300 dollars and not sit half starved for the evening.

A big pass

• Pros: easy parking
• Cons: took 90 minutes to get dinner

01/07/09

Good food, not great... but service that leaves a lot to be desired

by edrock

I enjoyed dining at Anotherthyme a couple of years ago. In fact, my first experience was back in the 1980s, and it was good; but my recent visits have left me doubting I will return.

On the evening of August 16, I dined there and found the waiter to be very condescending and almost put off to have to wait on my table. When I presented a Restaurantdotcom gift certificate, he tried to weasel out of honoring it, saying it said it wasn't valid on weekends. After examining the gift certificate, he smigly congratulated me on having one from before the change was made. I shurgged that experience off as a tempremental and arrogant waiter.

But then when I visited again on December 16, a second gift certificate was denied. For weeks since then, I have been working with both Restaurantdotom and with AT for resolution, speaking to both the assistant manager and manager and leaving numerous unanswered messages for each of them. Finally, today I called again and spoke with the manager, who says I'm just out of luck, maybe try calling Restaurantdotcom again.

I've called them many times, and each time I get a busy signal--no recording or anything. I even sent them an email, which went unanswered.

As I understand it, the point of Restaurantdotcom certificates is to get more business. My experiences with the certificates at AT have left me with a bitter taste. The very least Anotherthyme could have done would would have been to offer to have me bring in another certificate and credit me with the 25 bucks I had to cough up unexpectedly on December 16.

And when I tried to leave feedback on their website, I got a 404 page not found message. Customer service like that is apparently why they need to use coupons to entice people to visit.

• Pros: Flavorful food
• Cons: Arrogant waiters, bad service

09/21/08

Good atmosphere, mediocre food and service

by grinwell

I went with a companion on a not-so-busy Saturday night. We were seated promptly, but after that it was difficult to get the attention of our waitress. Throughout the night, she would promise things like bread and drinks but we were continuously left watching other tables (served by a different waiter) get the service we craved. When the bread came, we were surprised that it came cold.

I ordered the "Asian fried tilapia on Thai noodles." What I got was a bed of cold Japanese soba noodles drenched in vinagrette and topped with three batter-fried filets that you might find at Long John Silvers. The dish came off as a failed experiment--the taste of the fried filets did not mesh well with the vinagrette noodles and was awkward to eat. I probably should have asked some questions, but the dish was far from what I expected.

My companion got the AT Fried Chicken and was thrilled to get "free-range" fried chicken. She was overall very pleased with her dish, but I thought that the dish was very plain and stingy for the cost (two very small breaded filets on a bed of mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli for $16).

The dessert menu looked good, but we were already late for a show (thanks to the slow service).

Overall, I found the experience disappointing. I had heard good things about AT, but the mediocre service and food made it unlikely for me to return.

• Pros: Ambience and location (near Brightleaf Square)
• Cons: Mediocre food and service, poor value

06/14/08

Overrated

by cgb1116

Pretty much the food that you get here you can get almost anywhere else in Durham for less. The service here is baffling - at its worst it is appaling, but at its best, you're only looking at what suffices as the bare minimum standard for service in any other restaurant, and by any other restaurant I mean other nice restaurants, chain restaurants, fast food restaurants, and vendor stands. Your experience may be awful or average, but it will never be outstanding. Common occurences are waiting more than 30 minutes for a table despite having reservations. Slow to nonexistent wait staff that behave as if they are annoyed that they should have to deign to serve you so much as a glass of water. On more than one occassion, after being served an acceptable but definitely less than stellar meal, myself and my other dinner guests asked for coffee and desert menus, only to have the wait staff tell us that no, they will not serve us anything because they need the table and promptly hand us the check (which was sadly the only prompt part of their service.)

Bottom line is you can get the same food with better service at a far more reasonable price elsewhere. This place is overrated, but because it has the appearance of being expensive fine dining, it remains a romantic date location.

Pros: Good atmosphere, reputation can be used to impress dates/dinner guests

Cons: Average food, terrible to average service, undeserved reputation, overpriced.

02/14/08

not really veg-friendly

by vegtaste

My partner and I went because of rave reviews elsewhere for the vegetarian food. I'm vegan, so I expected at least something on the menu. There was exactly one vegetarian entree, and I needed to request a modification to make it vegan, and unfortunately my date was less pleased and ordered bruschetta to speed out departure after seeing the trouble I was having (which is actually very unusual in a restaurant of their caliber and price range). When the item arrived, I was unimpressed. Overcooked vegetables over pasta and sauce that I could've made in my kitchen in less time with no effort. The wait staff was actually very friendly to us, and offered to comp the meal (before I'd yet made any complaint) after seeing for herself the quality of what I getting. It really struck me as incompetence, not a lack of creativity. Perhaps this restaurant should have been reviewed by an actual vegetarian before earning the distinction of serving vegetarian food.

• Pros: looked like the meat-eaters had options
• Cons: no serious veggie selections despite the claim

12/01/07

Good food

by dwe1978

If you're looking for an upscale restaurant, check out Anotherthyme. I've been there twice and have had two very good meals. Not great but very good. I had the salmon and my date had the burrito. There are a wide variety of choices (more than are listed on the website). I also like how they take reservations. My only complaint is the price of dessert at $6 each. The price of the entrees, from around $12-20 is pretty good. But like many nice restaurants, they give you less than say Olive Garden. (But quality is more important to me than quantity.)

• Pros: Neat choices of food
• Cons: Expensive desserts

09/19/07

Yum, yum, and yum!

by euncapher

My friend Becca and I ventured to Anotherthyme one evening for dinner. We ordered the hummus. YUM! I then ordered a chicken dish that had mozarrella, roma tomatoes, and a balsalmic vinaegrette type of dressing. YUM! The flavor was exactly what my taste buds had in mind!

The service was great! The food was exquisite! I would definitely go back to try another one of their dishes.

• Pros: Tiny cozy restaurant, great flavor, staff is friendly
• Cons: Pricey, could use a few more choices on the menu