We were in East Durham on May 25, 2025 for the Irish Festival, so we went to Five Furlongs. We were here last year and had a positive experience. This year, not so much!
First of all, the bar room is beautiful, with cool Tiffany bar lights. The dining area is small but nicely decorated. All around, a nice atmosphere. We wanted to sit at the bar and were seated right away.
The lady behind the bar sheepishly greeted us (barely a smile) and offered menus. We were surprised we weren't offered cocktails at all. As she went about her business, we both noticed she was miserable. This continued for the rest of the evening. No smile, no customer service demeanor.
After about 10 minutes a young man came over to us and finally offered cocktails, which came quickly and were made well (Doubles).
Our food order took about 30 to 40 minutes to come out and at one point the bartender made an excuse that the kitchen was very backed up because it was such a busy day. This was not reflected in the dining room we were able to see.
I ordered the onion soup. The soup was covered with delicious baked cheese, it should have been more browned in my opinion, however the broth was very bland and watered down. The worst I have had in a while, and I didn't finish it. My wife ordered chicken fingers and a quesadilla, and she liked both.
While we were waiting so long for our food, we enjoyed the NY Yankee game on the TV directly in front of us until another guest sat at the bar and asked the bar tender to put on the Met game. Now in my opinion it is common bar curtesy for a patron and the bar tender to ask if anyone else is watching something, which we obviously were! This did not happen, so I asked to change another TV back to the Yankees. The bartender went to a TV 3 positions down the bar and when he was unable to get the channel to change threw the remote down and WALKED AWAY! Now I was pissed and when he came back, I said, "I wasn't kidding, please put the Yankees back on". He again went to the TV almost completely out of view and was able to change the channel this time. Why he chose a TV so far out of our field of view I have no idea as three of the other five TV's all had on a soccer game which no one was watching. Again, the bar was not full at all!.
Now when we go out on the weekends we usually have several drinks as well as full dinners. I was so angry at this TV situation and the bad soup that I didn't finish my drink and we finished the evening early.
Then I received the check, our bill was an outrageous $88.00 (2 doubles, soup, chicken fingers & a quesadilla) I was astonished for appetizers and one drink each.
Overall, the service was poor and the food mediocre! Not worth the dollar value at all. We will not be back. read more