The Big Bean Durham

I really wanted to like the food at the Durham location of the Big Bean. It sounded so good on the menu and the Newmarket location is wonderful! Then we got huge pieces of eggshell in our breakfast burritos that totally took away our appetites and the pancakes we ordered to have blueberries baked inside them just had a bunch of plain blueberries thrown on top. I’m not sure if the cooks today just didn’t care about cooking or if this is an ongoing problem with this location, but we are very unlikely to try eating here again. We’ll go back to ordering from The Works or the Juicery instead.

Food is good, reasonably priced but nothing out of ordinary. Service is friendly, enthusiastic but rather slow. Place was too crowded (limited social distancing) when we visited.

So good!! We go every Saturdays! Their iced coffee is delicious. The owners are very caring and engaged with their staff and patrons.

Very upsetting experience there today.nnWe have always loved the Newmarket location. The food and service was excellent and fast.nnThe 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.nnMy 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.nnTotally unacceptable, unapologetic, and pathetic display.nnCustomers, do yourselves a favor and go to the Newmarket location or anywhere else.

Fabulous food and service. We went here before we dropped our son off at college. Great atmosphere with college students around. We had the French toast (huge slices of bread) , the pancakes (1 fills a whole plate) , the eggs Benedict (amazing ham) and a club sandwich (very filling). I highly recommend!