We celebrated my birthday here and we had a good igloo experience. The food was good and the staff was friendly and answered all questions we had.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Jenna West
We paid for the VIP igloo experience and really wanted to love it. But honestly, very disappointed. Waiter and manager were friendly, but the experience wasn’t worth the price. I don’t share this to be rude, but I hope to caution somebody looking to spend $$ for a good meal/atmosphere, there are so many other wonderful local options!
1. The server was very disorganized and kept taking food in-and-out. One plate and one glass at a time. Any requests (such as a blanket or forgotten drinks or food) had to be asked/reprompted 3x+. With the biting cold outside, the constant unzipping made it impossible to keep the igloo warm! Also made it hard to continue conversation as the waiter was constantly present and needing help as she struggled with the door zipper over and over again.
2. The food! for the price of the experience, I was looking for quality dining. First I ordered a flatbread which the server said they were out of. So I changed my order to a fried burrata. It sounded good so I was excited to try. Then after about 30 mins she came back with a flatbread… despite having told me it was out and me ordering something else. The flatbread crust was dry & flat - tasted like a pre-packed shelf-stable crust from the grocery store? The cheese options on the cheese board were slim, the Brussels sprouts were really burnt. We ended up ordering the burrata later, but it was served without any crackers/bread so it was awkward to eat a large ball of fried cheese.
We ordered the steak, medium for both my husband and I. It came veryyyy well done (not an ounce of pink). We aren’t ones to complain at restaurants so we ate about half before the fire alarm went off. We had to evacuate and stand out in the street in 30 degree weather until everything was cleared. I understand this was out of their control, but they did very little to remedy that 20 minute block of time that left our food very cold. They offered to reheat it, but that was the last thing I wanted for my very well-done steak.
For our dessert, my husband ordered a chocolate cake (it was literally a slice of birthday/sheet pan cake with dry icing). I ordered the crème brûlée which they were out of. The waitress said they had an apple crisp which I ended up ordering. As pictured above it was a weird bowl of cooked apples floating in sugar syrup with pecans on top? Very odd, very yucky.
3. Anyways, all this to say, the staff was nice, but not well trained and veryyyyyy slow with all service, yet somehow ever present. The food sounded good on paper but the execution was more budget vibe. A lot of foods weren’t available, hot drinks were served cold, we were constantly missing food and drinks we had ordered. Atmosphere was pretty - but I would suggest popping up here to look at the view instead of doing the igloo experience at all.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 2
Service: 4
V Moore
Food was ok, for the price point ($60 a plate) definitely expected better. We were served all our courses at once (food went cold quick) and was told the creme brulee wasn't available due to the restaurant not being able to afford the current eggs prices. Our server was none attentive and extremely short, no suggestions and took a very long while to bring drinks and we waited 20mins for the check. They have room temperature tap water pitchers on the table. They don't have any salt or pepper shakers on the table and I had to ask 3 different ppl for pepper and after about 10 mins they brought a ramican of white pepper. Spoke to the manager and he said he was going to cover our drinks to compensate for the cold plum and apple crumble that was supposed to be heated and honestly it tasted terrible. He kept trying to offer us another heated one togo but it didn't taste good and we have a hour commute home, so we declined. He said he was removing our drinks off the check and never did. Great concept but it wasn't set for fine dining like the price point implies, there was trash and menus at the bottom of the pool, very poorly executed and poorly managed.
moretta randle
I really enjoyed the igloo experience. The ambiance was everything. I had been trying to do this for a few years now am happy that we finally did.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Emma M
Everyone who worked here was so sweet and obviously the igloo concept is cool and magical, etc. etc. BUT oh my gosh, the food was not good and not magical. It was, in fact, quite bad and horribly over priced.
Many ingredients listed on the menu weren't in what we ordered (no dried fruit in the salad, no ricotta in the lasagna, no ice cream or stone fruit in the crumble). Each dish was so mediocre that I truly wonder how they can justify the cost.
I wanted to love it, but this was just so bad. I wouldn't recommend it.
Edit: seems like the food is super inconsistent. Other reviews have photos of the same dishes we got but they look completely different...
Vegetarian options: Plenty of veggie options but they were so lackluster and thoughtless. I don't know what the vegan options are but I can't imagine they're good.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 5
Linda Criscuolo
The igloo was a unique experience. The decor could have been nicer. There were no cloths on the tables. Everything was plastic. The heaters never really made it that warm in there. The food was mediocre. Most of it was not hot enough. The martinis were 17.00 a piece in a plastic martini glass. It was supposed to be a pre fixed menu but they up charged us for the ribeyes 15.00 extra which were tough and very salty we spent more money there than at a typical 5 star restaurant in Raleigh. Not worth the money.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 2
Service: 4
Richie Speight
Very limited menu and they were out of 2 items 😕 but the sweet potato hash and French Toast was delicious.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 4
Paul McGowan
Fun party place!
Sheila B
We had a Wonderful time celebrating our Daughter's 25th birthday. Jonathan and Ty our wait staff were Awesome! The food, service and ambience were all outstanding. What a beautiful place to have right here in Durham "The Bull City."
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Samantha Irizarry-Santos
I am SO DISAPPOINTED!! I went There last night , 7:30PM igloo reservations, for a date night with my partner. Our server was new, and she did her best. Atmosphere was fine. The view was pretty. The drinks were horrible, I ordered Amaretto sour, and lemon drop . They both were very bad. So much sour mix, and the lemon drop was all lemon juice from the bottle! Now, to our dinner. The taste of dinner was OKAY, for the price that we paid for all the courses, was NOT worth it! The food was so cold! It seemed like they put our food in the microwave, let it sit out for 10 mins and then was brought out! We had our meal sent back and once the manager came back with the “new plate” it was still COLD. Our bill was still $350 even after “ a discount” added to our bill. I am Disappointed in the amount of money we paid for this horrible service, COLD food & drinks! Let’s top it off by, ending the night with the fire alarm going off, and we had to wait another 15 mins for our dessert! I will Never return!
Let me start by saying the igloo and whole set up was beautiful. Our server was fairly new, and but handled our table of 4 pretty well. Now… the food …was terrible. Our food was cold and when we complain and sent it back I’m sure they just put it in the microwave and sent it back out to us. The drinks at the bar were disappointing. Even went for a second round and it was even worse. For the price you pay for this whole set up and for the food and drinks to be terrible..I will not be returning. To top it all off.. the fire alarm went off .. waited outside in the freezing cold .. just to come back and get dessert in a bag which was not good at all.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 1
Pauline and Patrick
We were excited to reserve one of the festive holiday igloos for our party of nine guests on November 30, with out-of-state family visiting Durham for the first time for Thanksgiving. Parking was straightforward and finding the igloos were a breeze. However, the novelties wore off after having to wait for over an hour for food, without any updates or apologies given for the extensive wait. One of our guests, after ordering the additional fried egg to top off her biscuits and gravy, was told the eggs were included and scrambled within the dish. Albeit odd and the menu said otherwise, we trusted the server; however, when the dish came cold, there were no eggs to be found. Additionally, many side items were forgotten and we had to exit the igloo to flag down a server.
Our server was apologetic and noted that there was a kitchen issue that day, but with the prices and the lower quality of the cold food (which did not match the price value), we don't believe this was a worth-it experience, at least for the purposes of coming to eat here again. No apologies or explanation were given, other than being told once that the kitchen was having an off-day, which I believe is also reflected by the same sentiment of reviews from parties that dined on the same day as us. Would recommend potentially just ordering drinks and come having eaten before or have plans to go out to eat after.
Also, we ate in the igloos on a very chilly yet sunny day for brunch - be prepared to either feel cold in the shade or feel incredibly warm whether or not the sun is out. There is a small heater in the igloo too. Pros were that the music was festive, and the views were great. Wish it was a better outcome for hosting our guests and hope that management takes this issue to heart.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 2
AngB
We went out with a group of friends and had a great time visiting the igloos for the first time!! We had a 630pm reservatio to enjoy all the lights. The igloo was perfectly warm, the food was good (with exception of the plum crumble) and the atmosphere really nice. Service could have been a little better and food was a little pricey but all of us said we can't wait to come back.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 4
Kimberly Larkin
This was our 1st time coming for the Igloo Experience. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Our server Bryan was fantastic. Dood was excellent. Look forward to visiting again next year.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Lisa Braziel
Came here with the kids and the server Jasmine was the best!
We celebrated my birthday here and we had a good igloo experience. The food was good and the staff was friendly and answered all questions we had.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
We paid for the VIP igloo experience and really wanted to love it. But honestly, very disappointed. Waiter and manager were friendly, but the experience wasn’t worth the price. I don’t share this to be rude, but I hope to caution somebody looking to spend $$ for a good meal/atmosphere, there are so many other wonderful local options!
1. The server was very disorganized and kept taking food in-and-out. One plate and one glass at a time. Any requests (such as a blanket or forgotten drinks or food) had to be asked/reprompted 3x+. With the biting cold outside, the constant unzipping made it impossible to keep the igloo warm! Also made it hard to continue conversation as the waiter was constantly present and needing help as she struggled with the door zipper over and over again.
2. The food! for the price of the experience, I was looking for quality dining. First I ordered a flatbread which the server said they were out of. So I changed my order to a fried burrata. It sounded good so I was excited to try. Then after about 30 mins she came back with a flatbread… despite having told me it was out and me ordering something else. The flatbread crust was dry & flat - tasted like a pre-packed shelf-stable crust from the grocery store? The cheese options on the cheese board were slim, the Brussels sprouts were really burnt. We ended up ordering the burrata later, but it was served without any crackers/bread so it was awkward to eat a large ball of fried cheese.
We ordered the steak, medium for both my husband and I. It came veryyyy well done (not an ounce of pink). We aren’t ones to complain at restaurants so we ate about half before the fire alarm went off. We had to evacuate and stand out in the street in 30 degree weather until everything was cleared. I understand this was out of their control, but they did very little to remedy that 20 minute block of time that left our food very cold. They offered to reheat it, but that was the last thing I wanted for my very well-done steak.
For our dessert, my husband ordered a chocolate cake (it was literally a slice of birthday/sheet pan cake with dry icing). I ordered the crème brûlée which they were out of. The waitress said they had an apple crisp which I ended up ordering. As pictured above it was a weird bowl of cooked apples floating in sugar syrup with pecans on top? Very odd, very yucky.
3. Anyways, all this to say, the staff was nice, but not well trained and veryyyyyy slow with all service, yet somehow ever present. The food sounded good on paper but the execution was more budget vibe. A lot of foods weren’t available, hot drinks were served cold, we were constantly missing food and drinks we had ordered. Atmosphere was pretty - but I would suggest popping up here to look at the view instead of doing the igloo experience at all.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 2
Service: 4
Food was ok, for the price point ($60 a plate) definitely expected better. We were served all our courses at once (food went cold quick) and was told the creme brulee wasn't available due to the restaurant not being able to afford the current eggs prices. Our server was none attentive and extremely short, no suggestions and took a very long while to bring drinks and we waited 20mins for the check. They have room temperature tap water pitchers on the table. They don't have any salt or pepper shakers on the table and I had to ask 3 different ppl for pepper and after about 10 mins they brought a ramican of white pepper. Spoke to the manager and he said he was going to cover our drinks to compensate for the cold plum and apple crumble that was supposed to be heated and honestly it tasted terrible. He kept trying to offer us another heated one togo but it didn't taste good and we have a hour commute home, so we declined. He said he was removing our drinks off the check and never did. Great concept but it wasn't set for fine dining like the price point implies, there was trash and menus at the bottom of the pool, very poorly executed and poorly managed.
I really enjoyed the igloo experience. The ambiance was everything. I had been trying to do this for a few years now am happy that we finally did.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Everyone who worked here was so sweet and obviously the igloo concept is cool and magical, etc. etc. BUT oh my gosh, the food was not good and not magical. It was, in fact, quite bad and horribly over priced.
Many ingredients listed on the menu weren't in what we ordered (no dried fruit in the salad, no ricotta in the lasagna, no ice cream or stone fruit in the crumble). Each dish was so mediocre that I truly wonder how they can justify the cost.
I wanted to love it, but this was just so bad. I wouldn't recommend it.
Edit: seems like the food is super inconsistent. Other reviews have photos of the same dishes we got but they look completely different...
Vegetarian options: Plenty of veggie options but they were so lackluster and thoughtless. I don't know what the vegan options are but I can't imagine they're good.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 5
The igloo was a unique experience. The decor could have been nicer. There were no cloths on the tables. Everything was plastic. The heaters never really made it that warm in there.
The food was mediocre. Most of it was not hot enough. The martinis were 17.00 a piece in a plastic martini glass. It was supposed to be a pre fixed menu but they up charged us for the ribeyes 15.00 extra which were tough and very salty we spent more money there than at a typical 5 star restaurant in Raleigh. Not worth the money.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 2
Service: 4
Very limited menu and they were out of 2 items 😕 but the sweet potato hash and French Toast was delicious.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 4
Fun party place!
We had a Wonderful time celebrating our Daughter's 25th birthday. Jonathan and Ty our wait staff were Awesome! The food, service and ambience were all outstanding. What a beautiful place to have right here in Durham "The Bull City."
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I am SO DISAPPOINTED!!
I went There last night , 7:30PM igloo reservations, for a date night with my partner. Our server was new, and she did her best. Atmosphere was fine. The view was pretty.
The drinks were horrible, I ordered Amaretto sour, and lemon drop . They both were very bad. So much sour mix, and the lemon drop was all lemon juice from the bottle!
Now, to our dinner. The taste of dinner was OKAY, for the price that we paid for all the courses, was NOT worth it! The food was so cold! It seemed like they put our food in the microwave, let it sit out for 10 mins and then was brought out! We had our meal sent back and once the manager came back with the “new plate” it was still COLD. Our bill was still $350 even after “ a discount” added to our bill. I am Disappointed in the amount of money we paid for this horrible service, COLD food & drinks! Let’s top it off by, ending the night with the fire alarm going off, and we had to wait another 15 mins for our dessert!
I will Never return!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 3
Restaurantji Recommends
Let me start by saying the igloo and whole set up was beautiful. Our server was fairly new, and but handled our table of 4 pretty well.
Now… the food …was terrible. Our food was cold and when we complain and sent it back I’m sure they just put it in the microwave and sent it back out to us. The drinks at the bar were disappointing. Even went for a second round and it was even worse.
For the price you pay for this whole set up and for the food and drinks to be terrible..I will not be returning. To top it all off.. the fire alarm went off .. waited outside in the freezing cold .. just to come back and get dessert in a bag which was not good at all.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 1
Service: 1
We were excited to reserve one of the festive holiday igloos for our party of nine guests on November 30, with out-of-state family visiting Durham for the first time for Thanksgiving. Parking was straightforward and finding the igloos were a breeze. However, the novelties wore off after having to wait for over an hour for food, without any updates or apologies given for the extensive wait. One of our guests, after ordering the additional fried egg to top off her biscuits and gravy, was told the eggs were included and scrambled within the dish. Albeit odd and the menu said otherwise, we trusted the server; however, when the dish came cold, there were no eggs to be found. Additionally, many side items were forgotten and we had to exit the igloo to flag down a server.
Our server was apologetic and noted that there was a kitchen issue that day, but with the prices and the lower quality of the cold food (which did not match the price value), we don't believe this was a worth-it experience, at least for the purposes of coming to eat here again. No apologies or explanation were given, other than being told once that the kitchen was having an off-day, which I believe is also reflected by the same sentiment of reviews from parties that dined on the same day as us. Would recommend potentially just ordering drinks and come having eaten before or have plans to go out to eat after.
Also, we ate in the igloos on a very chilly yet sunny day for brunch - be prepared to either feel cold in the shade or feel incredibly warm whether or not the sun is out. There is a small heater in the igloo too. Pros were that the music was festive, and the views were great. Wish it was a better outcome for hosting our guests and hope that management takes this issue to heart.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 2
We went out with a group of friends and had a great time visiting the igloos for the first time!! We had a 630pm reservatio to enjoy all the lights. The igloo was perfectly warm, the food was good (with exception of the plum crumble) and the atmosphere really nice. Service could have been a little better and food was a little pricey but all of us said we can't wait to come back.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 4
This was our 1st time coming for the Igloo Experience. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Our server Bryan was fantastic. Dood was excellent. Look forward to visiting again next year.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Came here with the kids and the server Jasmine was the best!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
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