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Bull City Burger And Brewery
107 East Parrish Street
Suite 105
Durham, North Carolina, 27701
United States
(919) 680-2333 | map
bullcityburgerandbrewery.com
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by GarthDanielson:
Reviewed by GarthDanielson from Virginia
4.05/5 rDev -0.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5
4.05/5 rDev -0.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5
This place is great. Pretty cool vibe, when you first walk in, the bar is to the left, and you file straight through to the back of the restaurant to order. All the brewery equipment is behind glass on your right. Burgers galore, with some really interesting options. The food is great! They have 6-8 beers rotating, as well as a rotating cask. Also, there is a wine self-service station that you use a prepaid card to access. The servers are fast and polite, and you really can get in and out fairly fast despite the place being packed almost every time I've been there. Growlers for the beer are available to go. This is a great place to hit if you are in the RDU. Awesome place!
May 20, 2014More User Ratings:
Reviewed by Griffin2 from Virginia
4.09/5 rDev +0.2%
vibe: 4.25 | quality: 4 | service: 4.25 | selection: 4 | food: 4
4.09/5 rDev +0.2%
vibe: 4.25 | quality: 4 | service: 4.25 | selection: 4 | food: 4
We visited Bull City Burger and Beer on 3/31/2023 on the way to Charlotte. The offer a nice variety of beer styles. I tried the Change in Plans West Coast IPA & the Pratt Pilsner, both were really good. The staff was very helpful, and our drinks and lunch were delivered pretty quickly.
Apr 06, 2023Reviewed by Brianbosox from North Carolina
4.59/5 rDev +12.5%
vibe: 4.75 | quality: 4.75 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.75 | food: 3.75
4.59/5 rDev +12.5%
vibe: 4.75 | quality: 4.75 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.75 | food: 3.75
These guys make the most reserved representations of a style of beer you can ask for. It's never about dumping hops into a bottle. It's about balanced, quality beer that always pleases the palate. The only reason these guys don't get the recognition for their beer is that the burgers are the best in Durham. Whenever possible, I stop over and get the beer, as I am not a burger guy.
May 01, 2020Reviewed by jophish17 from Georgia
2.8/5 rDev -31.4%
vibe: 3 | quality: 2.75 | service: 2.75 | selection: 2.75 | food: 3
2.8/5 rDev -31.4%
vibe: 3 | quality: 2.75 | service: 2.75 | selection: 2.75 | food: 3
Went on Sunday afternoon, place was pretty dead. Typical pub vibe. The beers I had were pretty average, nothing that I wanted to have a second pour of. Food was decent, they pride themselves on organic ingredients but the burger was run of the mill in my view. Good location downtown makes it easy to access but I wouldn’t seek this out again.
Sep 26, 2019Reviewed by aleckpa from North Carolina
3.83/5 rDev -6.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | food: 4.75
3.83/5 rDev -6.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | food: 4.75
I went on a Friday night at around 8:30PM and there was still a decent crowd. I was surprised by this place because I thought it was sit down, wait on, etc. Nope. You walk in, grab a menu, and order your food and beer. They give you a number, and you go sit down at either a 2-4 person table or long community tables. They also have outdoor patio with picnic style tables (even in winter with heat). They bring the food out to you, but you're not necessarily waited on.
The food is all fresh, organic, etc. The burgers delicious and the PERFECT size. Not too big, too small. Now, the beer. The beer was OK. Nothing to brag about. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't come to this place for the beer. I think the beer does compliment the burger well though.
This is an excellent social setting to have great food and enjoy some beers perhaps hitting up the rest of Durham.
Jan 17, 2015The food is all fresh, organic, etc. The burgers delicious and the PERFECT size. Not too big, too small. Now, the beer. The beer was OK. Nothing to brag about. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't come to this place for the beer. I think the beer does compliment the burger well though.
This is an excellent social setting to have great food and enjoy some beers perhaps hitting up the rest of Durham.
Reviewed by SFNC from North Carolina
4.25/5 rDev +4.2%
4.25/5 rDev +4.2%
Very good beer and interesting beers. It says volumes thatthe place was jam packed on a Monday night. The IPS that I sampled was atypical but very tasty. Well worth trying if you're in town.
Dec 12, 2014Reviewed by Yetiman420 from Ohio
4/5 rDev -2%
4/5 rDev -2%
Stop #437 on my world brewery tour.
Really needed to eat dinner here instead of coming late in the night. You name the "movement" in food and these guys are probably on it.
Had a noble hopped pale ale, smooth Octoberfest, and a black lager. Nothing jumped out at me on their beers. It was really cool to see all of their servers are in the Cicerone beer program.
Oct 17, 2014Really needed to eat dinner here instead of coming late in the night. You name the "movement" in food and these guys are probably on it.
Had a noble hopped pale ale, smooth Octoberfest, and a black lager. Nothing jumped out at me on their beers. It was really cool to see all of their servers are in the Cicerone beer program.
Reviewed by ONovoMexicano from New Mexico
4/5 rDev -2%
4/5 rDev -2%
Had dinner with a flight of beers here back in late May/Early June 2014. One thing that really stood out to me was the play area towards the back designed specifically to keep kids busy while their parents eat or drink. This is just brilliant. This should be in every restaurant and more importantly, in every brewery.
I was impressed by what I remember were lots of local ingredients on the menu and that helped to temper the seemingly higher prices and smaller portions. Yes, you may be disappointed by your portions here. But you won't be disappointed by the food.
We had the pickle chips to start and they were very tasty if far too few to feed our big group. We ended up ordering another of these. I had the burger with pimento cheese because when you see pimento cheese on a menu and it's linked to a burger you order that shit and don't ask questions. It was fire.
As for the beer, which of course is why I really decided to eat here, the lineup at Bull City was very respectable. The standouts for me were the Parrish Street Pale Ale with its tad of sweetness and a floral taste and aroma and the 27701 Durham Mild Ale with it's huge, robust flavors despite the tiny 3.5% ABV. I enjoyed all of the other beers with the one exception being the smoked rye beer that had none of the smokiness or smoked ham flavor I like in a beer and was cloyingly sweet.
I also appreciated the bench-style seating and kind of free-for-all, line-through-the-restaurant ordering system as it made me feel more than comfortable about our nutty group of children running around.
The service was fairly quick and polite, there's wine for those of you foolish enough not to enjoy beer, and an outdoor patio as well (if I remember correctly).
Overall, a great stop for us in Durham.
Aug 17, 2014I was impressed by what I remember were lots of local ingredients on the menu and that helped to temper the seemingly higher prices and smaller portions. Yes, you may be disappointed by your portions here. But you won't be disappointed by the food.
We had the pickle chips to start and they were very tasty if far too few to feed our big group. We ended up ordering another of these. I had the burger with pimento cheese because when you see pimento cheese on a menu and it's linked to a burger you order that shit and don't ask questions. It was fire.
As for the beer, which of course is why I really decided to eat here, the lineup at Bull City was very respectable. The standouts for me were the Parrish Street Pale Ale with its tad of sweetness and a floral taste and aroma and the 27701 Durham Mild Ale with it's huge, robust flavors despite the tiny 3.5% ABV. I enjoyed all of the other beers with the one exception being the smoked rye beer that had none of the smokiness or smoked ham flavor I like in a beer and was cloyingly sweet.
I also appreciated the bench-style seating and kind of free-for-all, line-through-the-restaurant ordering system as it made me feel more than comfortable about our nutty group of children running around.
The service was fairly quick and polite, there's wine for those of you foolish enough not to enjoy beer, and an outdoor patio as well (if I remember correctly).
Overall, a great stop for us in Durham.
Reviewed by raleigh_blue from North Carolina
2.55/5 rDev -37.5%
vibe: 3 | quality: 2.75 | service: 2.25 | selection: 2.25 | food: 3
2.55/5 rDev -37.5%
vibe: 3 | quality: 2.75 | service: 2.25 | selection: 2.25 | food: 3
I've been routinely disappointed with the service here, sometimes waiting 40 minutes to be served, including having my family of 4 have our order lost, twice. When I complained I was told, "it's not fast food" which after waiting 40 minutes felt just like being trolled.
The beer is potable. The food is on the plus side of edible with some rare glimmers of tastiness. Portion size and quality has been on a steady decline since they opened. The seating is haphazard open picnic tables that aren't bussed frequently enough and not at all friendly to parents with small children.
There are many many other better places to get a burger, including chain restaurants such as Bad Daddy's.
Jul 28, 2014The beer is potable. The food is on the plus side of edible with some rare glimmers of tastiness. Portion size and quality has been on a steady decline since they opened. The seating is haphazard open picnic tables that aren't bussed frequently enough and not at all friendly to parents with small children.
There are many many other better places to get a burger, including chain restaurants such as Bad Daddy's.
Reviewed by jerefreakinmiah from North Carolina
4.63/5 rDev +13.5%
vibe: 4.75 | quality: 4.75 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.75
4.63/5 rDev +13.5%
vibe: 4.75 | quality: 4.75 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.75
Always enjoy coming here. Local ingredients, inventive, yet edible options on the menu. For added ambiance, you can peek into the brewery from the dining area.
The beer is good and at a good price. My favorite beer that I've tried from them so far was the Olden Horny, a cognac barrel-aged.
Parking may be hard to come by at times, but it's worth it to walk two or three blocks to hang out at the bar or on the back alley patio.
Jun 21, 2014The beer is good and at a good price. My favorite beer that I've tried from them so far was the Olden Horny, a cognac barrel-aged.
Parking may be hard to come by at times, but it's worth it to walk two or three blocks to hang out at the bar or on the back alley patio.
Reviewed by bigkingken from North Carolina
3.83/5 rDev -6.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4 | food: 5
3.83/5 rDev -6.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4 | food: 5
Admittedly, this was the second time I’d visited Bull City Burger and Brewery. The first time I had just flown into town for a job interview. I was a bit harried, a bit worried, a bit tired, and a bit in no mood to have a swinging good time. I wrote it up, thought I had published it, and moved on. Then, a few months ago, I tried to find said review so I could give my opinion of the place to a friend in passing conversation.
No dice. It wasn’t there.
But that’s all the better for Bull City, because I was much more impressed on my second visit. Perhaps it was just frame of mind, perhaps it was ordering a burger without pimento cheese, which I don’t think I actually like very much. Whatever it was, I only have nice things to say this time around.
As advertised, this place makes everything they serve except the ketchup. And it shows. I ordered a standard beef burger topped with bacon marmalade, sauteed onions, and aioli. Yes, all of that is just as delicious as it sounds. Plus, the burger came out nice and pink and juicy and exactly how I like it. You can taste the difference in freshly ground local beef. Thus, here you can taste the difference.
The beer once again did not blow me away. Everything was fine, but nothing stood out. They did have some higher gravity options – a barley wine as well as a barrel-aged version – but both tasted mainly of alcohol with little depth or complexity. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it all and will happily return and drink it, but I don’t forsee myself taking any growlers home at this point unless they make a killer seasonal.
And finally, there’s the atmosphere. I’m not a big fan of the lining up at the counter and then finding a seat with a number for the runner to find you. It works pretty well for their limited space and likely cuts down on the number of people filling up the few alleys between tables, but it makes it difficult to know how to order a drink.
Do I go to the bar? Do I go back up to the food counter and wait in line? Can it all get on one check? If I just want a drink now while waiting for my wife before ordering food, how do I go about that? Will people give me the stink eye for taking up the end of a table with just a beer?
Perhaps with more practice I’ll figure it out, but I opted to sit at the bar and get the traditional service from the bartender, which was excellent, I might add.
In short, if/when I move to Durham, I’m living as close to this place as possible.
Apr 03, 2014No dice. It wasn’t there.
But that’s all the better for Bull City, because I was much more impressed on my second visit. Perhaps it was just frame of mind, perhaps it was ordering a burger without pimento cheese, which I don’t think I actually like very much. Whatever it was, I only have nice things to say this time around.
As advertised, this place makes everything they serve except the ketchup. And it shows. I ordered a standard beef burger topped with bacon marmalade, sauteed onions, and aioli. Yes, all of that is just as delicious as it sounds. Plus, the burger came out nice and pink and juicy and exactly how I like it. You can taste the difference in freshly ground local beef. Thus, here you can taste the difference.
The beer once again did not blow me away. Everything was fine, but nothing stood out. They did have some higher gravity options – a barley wine as well as a barrel-aged version – but both tasted mainly of alcohol with little depth or complexity. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it all and will happily return and drink it, but I don’t forsee myself taking any growlers home at this point unless they make a killer seasonal.
And finally, there’s the atmosphere. I’m not a big fan of the lining up at the counter and then finding a seat with a number for the runner to find you. It works pretty well for their limited space and likely cuts down on the number of people filling up the few alleys between tables, but it makes it difficult to know how to order a drink.
Do I go to the bar? Do I go back up to the food counter and wait in line? Can it all get on one check? If I just want a drink now while waiting for my wife before ordering food, how do I go about that? Will people give me the stink eye for taking up the end of a table with just a beer?
Perhaps with more practice I’ll figure it out, but I opted to sit at the bar and get the traditional service from the bartender, which was excellent, I might add.
In short, if/when I move to Durham, I’m living as close to this place as possible.
Bull City Burger And Brewery in Durham, NC
Brewery rating:
3.61 out of
5 with
112 ratings
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