The only plausible murder in this sham of a "show" was of good taste and believable acting. If anyone can be bored to death, then the Dinner Detective is to blame for the crime. Detective Noel chewed the scenery with her soap opera one note delivery born out of community college summer acting programs or a month as an intern at summer stock. Someone tell her the pink hair trend is over and her forty-plus year old self should catch up. Why do they need a 23 minute preamble before the actual "show"begins? For 75$ why did they serve crappy Duncan Hines boxed cake? C'mon. The entree was ok, a saving grace, and the friends at my table were fun and understood how stupid it all was. If you need a particular brand of torture and a reminder of why "dinner theatre" is a lie and an affront to actual quality entertainment- have at it. But I warned you. read more

Worst experience EVER!! The Raleigh Dinner Detective "dinner" experience was probaly the worst experience I've had since covid. The manager/owner didn't care that there was an issue only gave a "how dare you call and complain" attitude, when all we wanted was a simple apology and confirmation that it would be fixed. This was supposed to be a fun dinner outing, but they ruined the evening!! We booked for a birthday dinner experience and checked in only to find out that they "miscounted" the seats and did not have a place for us to sit. SERIOUSLY, THIS IS A DINNER EXPERIENCE! How do you not have enough seats??? They had to bring out a separate table to seat us, which meant we would not get the FULL EXPERIENCE. There were no actors at the table, no QR codes, no clues under the chair. When speaking with the manager/owner on the phone, she was aggressive and rude. The manager claimed that it was a "human" mistake and that we had to have more "grace" while they fixed it. Then she said we should leave as we weren't the "right kind of people" because we didnt have enough grace. As customers we tried and wanted to have a fun experience and were so disappointed that we did not get that experience. To further complete the disastrous experience, the food was not as promised when we booked...the "chocolate mousse cake" was basic dry yellow cake with chocolate frosting. The host tried, but the whole experience was lacking. I would definitely not suggest this experience if you want to be entertained and have a decent meal because even with reservation you might not get a seat! read more

The Dinner Detective - Bad dessert! - Dinner Theater Near Me - Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Ok, I would tell you everything, but then you might be in danger, so I'll just have to be careful to not reveal too much! Here's an idea though of what to expect... Important: CASH bar only! Their website says an ATM is right there. Two of our group went hunting for it and never found it. There IS however a bar in the lobby of the hotel itself (Marriott RTP) that does take a card. Also important: Be prepared to laugh and not take this too seriously. It's about having fun, being entertained, and trying to solve a mystery. You can choose to participate or relax and let it happen. Most everyone (ourselves included) thought it was swell fun to participate. We've been to events like this before, and this one was pretty darn well done! Easy check-in. Very organized. Ahead of schedule all night. We were assigned a table where a salad, rolls, unsweetened iced tea and water were waiting for us. On a side table were a few communal apps of the cheese, veggie, deli meat variety. Overall food was simple, but well executed. Nothing fancy. Nice variety of rolls. Ranch dressing tasted right out of a bottle. Choice of fish, chicken or portabella. (you have to make that choice ahead of time) Three of us had fish, one chicken. Fish was perfectly cooked with a sweet butter sauce, green beans and chunky mashed taters. Simple but tasty. Husband liked his chicken with sweet potato mash and green beans also. Later, cheesecake was brought out along with coffee. Dislike1: I purchased a Living Social for this event around six months before we were actually able to go. Scheduling it was totally aggravating. They only allowed so many vouchers to be used at each event. I'll spare all the details and just say it drove me nuts for awhile, but glad that the Christmas present I gave to Son was finally able to be used in April. Dislike 2: NO drink refills of the cold variety. No more tea or water was presented. (how about leaving pitchers out then?) Coffee refills were offered, which was nice but not everyone does coffee. Dislike3: Ridiculously high prices for photos. Ask for a third of that gals and maybe you'll sell more! Dislike4: No reason was given for who "won" by being the best mystery-solver We were told who won it, but not why. Didn't sit well with some in our group. So 3 1/2 stars would be more like it, but I'm rounding up because I love a good fun mystery, and this was indeed very fun. Actors were entertaining. Do know this is much more FUNNY than a serious mystery. Be prepared to laugh! read more

The Dinner Detective - Salad - Dinner Theater Near Me - Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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Paid $80/person for a Valentine's dinner and my wallet and I are now crying. Food was literally 1 star - my boyfriend couldn't eat his overly dry chicken without swallowing each bite down with water and the chocolate cake tasted like they'd cut slices and let them sit out for 3 days - all the edges were bone dry - no one at my table ate more than a few bites. We were told to show up at 6:45 for the 7 pm event. Got there and were told no checking in until 7 pm...which left us with a salad at 7:30 and no meal until 8:15. Absolutely ridiculous. The show itself was so boring - 3 people die and at the end are asked to figure out the murderer but are you figuring out who murdered all of them or just one? (because it was different) There is little guidance, plot was terrible....just an awful night. We were hoping for a fun and different way to spend Valentine's and it was such a big letdown. SAVE YOUR MONEY!!! (We have done another mystery dinner in another state and it was a blast) read more

Fantastic service, great performance and audience interaction. Loved everything about this experience. Will definitely do it again

Wut? Remember when one of the neighborhood kids would make up a game, but the rules would end up being so poorly thought out that you ended up wandering away to do something else out of boredom? That's Dinner Detective. My wife and I have done murder mysteries before and this was horrible. There isn't much structure, so you show up, are told to make up a name, and then told to mingle to find out who the killer is. You end up chit-chatting but the room was full of folks, so even if you knew what you were doing, you would have no way of interrogating enough people to winnow through the non-actors. So you end up with a few forced conversations that you have to walk away from when you realize someone isn't an actor because they are so awkward and bewildered about the format. Enter a few actors who give some instructions that you're supposed to talk. And there are a few "cut scenes" of two main actors who interview people "at random", but are obviously not at random because these people are either *not* bewildered or are actors appropriate to a second floor conference room in a hotel off the 501. You are given some physical clues. The clues are difficult to figure out because they are generally non-sequitors. In other words, they aren't very good puzzles. You end up trying to talk to the actors, but it's hard to get any information from them because the clues are so weird and the actors generally stonewall your questions. That, and everyone else is trying to interview them. And the actors didn't know their back stories so the conversations seemed like you're talking to a lunatic with no memory and few opinions. [Update: I found out after-the-fact that I ended up interrogating the "killer". I did it for a long time, so now I feel even more like this was a waste.] Dinner comes and it is bulk hotel food - chicken/fish dish you get at a conference, some wilted salad, and some bar-food like appetizers. Cash bar tended by a junior bartender who didn't know how to make a martini. But we're here for the mystery, right? There are more cut scenes and they are cheesy, super drawn out and slow, and add very little to the puzzles. The end comes and you're supposed to guess who did it. The story is so slow, the clues are so difficult, and the actors are so non-helpful that nobody really cared who did it. "This blows", we whispered to everyone but the obvious actors at our table. Everyone nodded and frowned. "Aren't you going to guess who did it for the prize?", the hostess called after us after we donned our jackets to leave. Nope. IDGAF. And we walked out the door feeling the best we had all night by being away from that place. The murder mystery was poorly designed, the dinner format doesn't really allow people to interact with enough people, it is poorly led, amateurish, poorly catered, and a waste of 3 hours and money. I guess you can't win 'em all. read more

Decided to see the murder mystery show for my birthday weekend. We arrived just a bit before 5:45 as instructed on our tickets but they were not ready and was sent to the bar to wait until 6:00 p.m. A group had already started to form. We never received official word to go upstairs but then everyone started migrating upstairs at 6:00. We were told to select a fake name and enter for hors d'oeuvres. Fruit was good but egg rolls were soggy but tasty. We were then told to mingle... this is probably fun, if you are an extrovert and enjoy talking to random strangers but for me - it did not make sense since we had not been given a story line or reason to mingle/suspect those in the room. I don't want to give anything away but the actors talked a lot and most of the time did not keep my attention. They did give each table the clues which helped. Those who paid the upgrade to have their family member serve as a suspect - maybe they enjoyed it but I didn't think much time was spent on all the upgraded clients to be worth the up charge. Honestly, the show only got good when I thought my table mates were actors (we did have two actors at our table) and the one couple played along as if they were the murders. One of our table mates guessed the murder but did not win the "prize." Overall, the food was just okay, the acting was bad, and I wish I spent my birthday money at a stronger murder mystery (I did see a murder mystery in Vegas two months ago and I think I had higher expectations). read more

Bad food and excruciatingly boring. The mystery can be solved without the clues just by noticing who left the room. Pathetic. I would have paid not to go, had I known. read more

Bought the Groupon and then had to pay a bunch of additional fees. A groupon redemption fee of $10, plus a tax fee. Plus gratuities. Plus bar drinks. Overall it cost about 135 for my husband and I to attend this show. We ate chicken the tasted microwaved and the snow was in a conference room in a hotel- not a show room. Paid a lot but felt cheated. Not to mention, there is no way to speak to them directly. They only have an email account and then a general box office that plays a recorded looping script. read more

I felt compelled to leave a review here as the experience was so bad, I hope I save someone else from wasting $100+ on date night. FYI, the one we saw was at the Sheraton in Chapel Hill, but I liken this to a group of traveling gypsies, moving from one hotel to another until the word has gotten out that it sucks. Then they move on to dupe someone else! First of all, I had high hopes when we arrived. It was very organized and set up nicely. We were told to use another name, but no information was given about what to choose or whether we needed to develop a background for this character. The "death" was bizarre at best. No storyline, props outside of the weapon, or any backstory were given at all. The "clues" made no sense. A hostess then came in and told us to get up and interrogate other people. This exercise was pointless, as no one knew what to do and we ended up chatting much like speed dating. Since no one knew what was going on except clearly the people being paid by this production, it was easy to spot the planted people. There were maybe a handful of laughs. Most of the gags were cheesy and had nothing to do with the storyline. My big beef of the night was the storyline. It had potential, but it was far too convoluted and had four different murders involved. The clues were complex and random. No one at our table had any clue what was going on. The storyline was all over the place and made it impossible to connect the dots. At the end of the night we were supposed to fill out our guess as to the winner. I selected someone and was shocked to find out this person was the actual killer. No one at my table had any guess as to what was going on and we were all baffled and disappointed at this stage of the night. One person was named the "best investigator" although no reasoning was given, and she was awarded a prize pack including a DVD, some assorted items with the show's logo, and- two tickets to come back. Kind of makes you glad you didn't win anything, because coming back would be a punishment and not a reward. The couple next to us had hired a babysitter for their date night and had only gotten two hours of sleep the night before with their infant. We looked at each other at the time to fill out the guess cards and the wife said "Wow, this sucked." The end of the storyline- you guessed it- had nothing to do with any of the clues given. In fact, when the killer "confessed" this person adopted another persona and storyline altogether. That was the point at which my tablemates actually threw up their hands and said "get me out of here." My boyfriend confessed he had spent $160 on this. Perhaps if it had been $45 it would be worth it, as the food was actually decent. That being said, it was a total waste of money. We got out of there as quickly as possible, stunned they'd ask for tips after such a poor performance. I could grab five teenagers out of any high school, give them two hours of training, and their performance would have been better (especially if it was a storyline that actually made sense.) When the "killer" adopted another unrelated persona at the end, my boyfriend said "That was the point of the show where the cast clearly acknowledged it sucked and that it was time for us to leave." It was like the actors didn't even care. You could have gone to any community theater show and a nice meal out for around the same cost and enjoyed yourself far more. I am shocked at how bad this was, and also felt really bad for the table of Bachelorettes who may have actually had the worst Bachelorette party in history with this amateur hour show. "The only real death that night was the death of theater. The only mystery was where my money went." -My boyfriend's summary read more

Awful. The food was rubbery chicken. The acting was AWFUL. We brought a huge group and were literally embarrassed. We were sober....maybe the good reviews had several drinks, that's the only thing that would have helped. Spend your hard earned money elsewhere folks!!! read more

So, first I should say that overall, it was a really great experience. I would've given 4 or 5 stars had a couple of things been done differently. The show was funny (don't take it too seriously) and my friends and I genuinely enjoyed our time overall. The first issue was that the room was HOT. I am 7 months pregnant so I thought it was just me, I literally had sweat pouring down my face, but then I began to look around the room and noticed others fanning themselves with papers, so I asked the waitress if something could be done about the heat and they did turn A/C on. Unfortunately I had waiting a good 30-45 minutes to ask and I had gotten so uncomfortable I couldn't sit still in my seat. Second, is something another reviewer has mentioned. I was sure someone at my table won... We were actually seated at the table with the murderer and so we had it figured out about 20 minutes into the dinner and each clue just continued to confirm our suspicion, so not only did we get every clue, we also asked the murderer questions that no one else could've possibly gotten because we were seated there. The front and back of my paper were full, of 'details' of why I suspected the murderer so I was certain I or someone in my table had won. Anyway, we did not win, and we all felt quite cheated, especially since they didn't give a 'number' of clues/reasons that the winner had won or anything like that, which would've helped settle our minds if she had ACTUALLY won. Even the murderer came back to our table and said he was sure I had won from my number of clues. He couldn't believe our table hadn't won, as we'd been grilling him all night. We want to go back, however we will probably choose a different company due to that. Third, the chicken is awful. Get the salmon- it was amazing! read more

Completely disappointed with this company! This was prepaid in advance over $100 as an anniversary gift for my husband and I ... a date night. Our daughter had to have an unexpected surgery and I called them 3 days before our show to try and reschedule. They tried to charge me an additional $80 to reschedule to another night and would not refund any of my money. They tried to say they already made the meal - really?!?! Gross! If the meal is cooked 3 days ahead of time I would not want it anyway! They were not understanding and only cared about making a buck! I would not reccomend spending ANY of your money to go here. read more

Went this past Saturday for a birthday celebration and after reading the bad reviews I was hesitant and a bit worried. I am happy to report we had a fabulous time. We pretty much laughed from start to finish and walked out still cracking up and talking about the fun we had. There were a few disappointments, such as the appetizers were gone by the time we got up to the table. It's like the people went thru and loaded up their plates without any consideration to others and it was never refilled, even after I asked. The food was nothing to write home about, it was decent, but we didn't really go for the food. Also, online it says that they offer coffee & tea and when asked we were told no. So the service was abysmal but the entertainment was hilarious and worth the evening. Over the top and silly? Yes and yes! Quick and witty? Absolutely. It was like a loosely scripted improv show and I have to say the male detective was on point and quick! He could fire back and go with whatever was happening in an instant. Were the other characters over the top? Yes, but I think that is the whole point! Needless to say I would definitely go back when they get another new show, since I already know the outcome of this one, although it might be fun to go again and see how that show morphs and shapes up with a different audience. Go, have fun with it, don't be an uptight wad, and you might be surprised at what a great time you had! read more