Counting House

The ambience in the restaurant was really great. It was easy to get a table on a Saturday at brunch. The staff was friendly and helpful. However, the food is a little overpriced and I didn't feel that the biscuits and gravy platter that I ordered was as good as it could have been especially for the amount I paid for it. The biscuit was hard and stale. The sausage gravy nor the biscuit was warm, but almost cold upon receiving it. The only part of the food I enjoyed were the grits. The house lemonade was okay, but not worth the $3.50 I paid. I will say though that I love the overall experience of the 21C and Counting House.

Had such a great experience with Blakely. She was an amazing waitress and so informed about our food and drinks. She made sure our guest will an allergy was comfortable and could eat everything he desired. Shout out to her and the chefs who made that possible. We had an amazing meal, and created a memory that will last lifetime.

Great food and the service was awesome. The waitress was very respectful of our time and made sure dishes arrived in a timely fashion

artisan restaurant......not big portions but beautifully crafted and very tasty

One of my favorite restaurants in the triangle. The menu changes often enough throughout the year to keep me coming back. I love bringing my friends in to show them what Durham has to offer. The service from Lauren this evening was stellar, drinks were also top notch. As always, I will be back soon!

Great taste; great presentation. Party of 4 at 6 PM. Really enjoyed the evening.

The waitress said she forgot about us so we arrived with a reservation and got our food (soup and sandwich) nearly an hour later. I had to put more $in the meter so we could see the museum aspects of the hotel. Although the service was friendly, the time it took to work through the meal was extraordinary. As a second attempt to dine with good food, it was determined we cannot go back again.

Restaurant is decorated lovely. Service is awesome. Food was terribly bland and cold when it reached the table, disappointing.

Fantastic bartenders and servers. Made for great conversation and knowledge of the menu. The staff made the experience fantastic.

Interesting art in hotel. Comfortable seating. Upscale with reasonable prices. Food was good. Will definitely return and recommend to others.

The taste of the food was spectacular. Everything was on point service, atmosphere...
We took friends for anniversary they loved it.

we arrived a bit early for our reservation because we had theater tickets. The website said the restaurant opened at 5 PM there were many people in the bar who had obviously been there for a while. The hostess asked us to wait to be seated because she had other tables to seat for the theater so we went to the bar for a drink, the bartender took our order and then went to do other things, never to return. Another bartender came and asked if we wanted to eat in the bar or be seated and asked our drink order again. About then, the hostess came to seat us. We ordered our drinks for the third time, when the original bartender came into the dining room with our original order. We were confused by this time.
The food was well prepared and offered excellent flavor combinations.

Great venue, servers were in tune to our schedule to see a show that evening. Original drink order was slow but everything improved after. Guessing the bar just got slammed at that time.

The gazpacho was exceptional! Would highly recommend. Our meals were excellent as was the service!

I will have to say that I also rate myself and my wife a 3 because we were 20 minutes late for our reservation, we did call and let them know, and had tickets for the DPAC. With that said, the appy of octopus was outstanding. The waitress asked us if we would like our food to come out when it was ready since we had theater tickets, which was fine. I did not think my wife would get her entree 5 minutes before mine. Her swordfish was outstanding. My pork was really good flavor wise but not hot. The food looked really good the chef really knows what he is doing and service was great. Not sure what went wrong but I would give them another chance for sure. Even though we were late we had enough time to eat and the place was fairly empty. The wait person told us what took a long time to cook so that was not a problem.

I have had lunch at The Counting House several times, and it has always been great. On this visit, I met a friend for lunch. The food was good and our server was excellent. Although the restaurant is always crowded at night, during the day when I have been there for lunch for some reason it has not been crowded, so it is a great choice for good food and quiet conversation. Plus, it is always fun to visit the hotel (21c) and check out the contemporary art exhibits.

The catch of the day tasted just a bit fishy-. The scallop dish was very good. We ordered white wine and the server took it away from the table, rather than put it in an ice bucket on/near the table as usual, and did not remember to come by very often to refill glasses. I have never experience that system.

A very solid entry in Durham’s dining scene. Tucked into the bottom of an already fairly unique venue in the form of a hotel/art museum, Counting House serves an inspired menu from local and regional sources. Seafood and vegetables take center stage, accompanied by thoughtful preparations of traditional beef, chicken, and pork. Sauces are flavorful, combinations unique, and portions actually surprisingly generous. Rigatoni was delightful and carried some wonderful interpretations of sauces that could easily be overdone but worked beautifully together.

Likely to be crowded on weekends, make a reservation or come in during an off-day. Noise level moderate toward high depending on the time of night.

Check out the unique museum on the 3rd floor and the bank vault lounge in the basement!

The kitchen was a bit slow, for which the server apologized. Otherwise, the service and food were excellent. We found it a simpatico locale for celebrating a birthday.

Delightful dinner in a beautifully renovated historic building. The food selections were divine and delivered promptly so we could move along without feeling rushed to the show. BRAVO!

Chef outdid himself. Our selections were exceptional.

Kudos to Chef Thomas Card, his staff and cuisine. One of the finest meals we've ever had- a varied menu w/options for special needs, so there is something for everyone. This was a dining "experience" not just a meal. The Chef's offerings were creative and skillfully designed to please one's palette with the blend of ingredients, flavors, herbs & textures that made the food just melt in your mouth. The Blancha Octopus was firm but tender and great flavor along with the "Pear & sweet potato" starter that also just melted in your mouth. The roasted cauliflower was out of this world & enhanced by the sweetness of the plump raisins. The pan Seared scallops were tender & cooked to perfection with a great blend of accompanying ingredients. It left me/us wanting more. The service was outstanding-pleasant, friendly and attentive. We'll be back for more (with friends)!

Really enjoyed the food, drinks and service. Very very good.

Small menu w/limited choices for our basic meat & potatoes crowd. More adventurous diners would probably enjoy.

Dinner with friends.

Fantastic food and drink. Lovely setting with interesting art. Great brunch!

The chef was very accommodating and created 2 delicious vegan dishes for us. Food was exceptional! I’d highly recommend.

A terrific dining experience this time: great grouper special and scallops following excellent gazpacho, salad greens, and octopus for starters. This was a lovely dinner.

We like sitting is a side room where the noise level is less. Hostess gladly met request. All of the food is interesting, although the burger looks so good I am going to try it next time. The menu for a Saturday night was a bit light on choices we thought. I doubled up the tortellini appetizer.

Had a very enjoyable Fourth of July celebratory meal at the Counting House. A tasty meal, great ambiance and excellent service made it a fun day!

I was disappointed that the restaurant was so empty since I was bringing a friend that had not dined there for her birthday. The other thing I was disappointed about was the dress of the wait staff. Our individual waitress looked very nice and was a bright star, but the other wait staff did not look professional in my opinion. I'm not sure I would bring my business clients to the restaurant if the staff did not dress more professional.

I also had to wait a long time to get my car from valet parking. Long enough that my two friends thought that maybe the car had been stolen and I started to be concerned as well.

The art atmosphere is great. Attention to detail. Needed more wait staff. Maybe some who are real foodies. Needs one chocolate offering for desert. Food was artfully presented.

Food was unique and delicious. The menu changes every season.

Sever was a bit rude to my mom, who was celebrating her birthday. Everything ended up being ok, but I don’t appreciate snobby service regardless of how good the food is.

While the food was artful and ingredients were uniquely paired, I was very disappointed with the flavor. I had the hen and it was served a bit cold and the flavor was extremely bland. I also tried oysters on the half shell, but the server did not describe the sauces that accompanied them, so I wasn't sure what I was eating. Cocktails were delicious, but the food could use some work.

Excellent service and food. Art collection upstairs and downstairs plus old bank vault with mirror hallway behind it. Looks like it can be reserved for cocktails.

We were heading to a podcast at DPAC & enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the Counting House.

We went for our anniversary and we loved it! The food and the service were both top notch. We will be back!

Where we go to Durham for a show or we will go to Durham for dinner from Raleigh. This is a first choice of places. Always many good things to choose from on the menu. This past weekend I could have chosen just about everything on the menu for great dining. Wait staff was great.

This is the second time we have had lunch at Counting House. Our meals were outstanding and the service was excellent. The French fries are to die for. We will be back!