We’ve all seen Alivia’s just about every time we drive down Main Street.  I’ve dined at just about all the places around it, but on the first really pretty day (in this case, pretty=sunny and snowless) of 2010, I decided that it was time for a brunch date at that intriguing little green building across from Brightleaf.

This post comes a few weeks after the meal, but I hope that speaks to the quality of the experience that we had there.  We must have gotten there after the typical brunch crowd …

So Tsunami technically isn’t in Durham but in Chapel Hill, in the Falconbridge area. It’s on the section of 54 where the city lines play hopscotch with each other, so I figured it was close enough to count. That’s my excuse for posting the review, anyhow.

Tsunami Sushi is a small Japanese restaurant that offers all the standard menu choices, including sushi, bento boxes, tempura, and teriyaki. The atmosphere was fine, if a bit plain, with elevator music playing, green walls, and red paneling. Service was a tad slow for a …

According to this post in the Carpe Durham forums (which more people should use!), there is a new Indian food truck parking outside Sam’s.
Anyone have more info?

We’ve eaten at Silver Spoon many times over the last year or so, but almost always for breakfast. When you walk in the door, you’re greeted by smiling wait staff that almost always will call you “sugar”, “hon” or some other endearing term. It’s usually filled with a wide range of people, all regulars I’m sure. Everyone seems to know who everyone else is and you’ll get a smile from anyone (including customers) you make eye contact with. In a time where everything feels so rushed and impersonal, Silver Spoon …

Since becoming a Northern Durhamite a couple of weeks ago, I’ve become painfully aware of our limited takeout options within a 4-5 mile radius. Don’t get me wrong, we like living further out, but I do miss the plethora of options I had being closer to city center. Where we are now, we have several options for fast food, sandwiches, mexican and take-out chinese, but that’s it.
Driving home this weekend I noticed a sign for a new retaurant next to Chik-fil-a in the old Bull City Deli building (prior to …

We normally don’t post about stuff like this, but restaurant.com is temporarily offering 80% off of  its $25 gift certificates, which are normally $10-12.50.
$2-3 for a $25 gift certificate is a very fine deal, and there are some decent Triangle restaurants that participate.

Apologies for the lack of pictures but this one taken from El Rodeo’s website. I had a hard drive failure last week and lost my most recent images. Oops.

El Rodeo is a twothree-restaurant chain in Durham; their other restaurants are in Brightleaf Square and on North Duke Street. This one is located in what I can only assume used to be a national chain restaurant, as evidenced by the booths’ upholstery—an atrocious, sports-themed pattern. The rest of the large space is decorated with the sombreros that denote a Mexican …