Gulf Rim Cafe

As many folks know, the best dishes start with the best ingredients. This is one area where the Gulf Rim is excellent: good food prepared with care. I generally order off of the specials menu, but the staples are consistent and reliable. Try the smoked salmon dip... exemplary! I like it for lunch, but also go in the evenings sometime for dinner and drinks. Tuesday is half price beer night, and Wendesday is half price bottles of wine. That's the best deal in town on Wednesday for food made from scratch and a good pairing of wine. Highly recommended. more

Well we were seated rather fast, the only positive I have from our experience. Though, I wish we had been seated somewhere without a view of the kitchen. The cooks looked as if they just rolled out of bed and put on yesterday's dirty clothes. Not a good sign being that it was almost 7pm. 2 of the items we attempted to order off the rather small menu were unavailable. Our food took way to long to come out, which the server apolagized for. It was clear this happens often and I hope for her sake she's on her way to better things. The health score was a 91, not so great, but after reading other reviews I guess its better than their previous 85.5 It seems all together this is a poorly run operation, I will not be returning. more

Dear fellow restaurant eaters: I recently went out to dinner with my wife to the Gulf Rim Cafe. Within moments of our arrival, the owner came over and sat down at our table. He proceeded to drink 4 glasses of wine and talk about anything and everything. I do not drink. We intended to have dinner alone for a private little celebration. Then, as we watched what we think was the cook, who was in a dirty t-shirt and jeans, handle first fish, then meat, then my wife's chicken, we were mortified. She is severely allergic to fish. They served it to her and we had to refuse it. The owner acted like it was not his fault. But of course he was drunk. Then, I noticed the health department rating, 85%. This is how people die each year from allergies to food-owners to don't care. I do not recommend this restaurant to anyone who values their health. My wife could have had a severe allergic reactino to the fish had I not seen what was occurring in their open kitchen. I'm still considering reporting this to the county health department and filing a formal complaint against this restaurant-absolutely the worst meal and uninvited companionship I ever encountered. more

The food varies from mediocre to strange depending on what you order and the service is consistently poor and slow. Two of our parties plates were left sitting on the counter for more than 5 minutes; the waitress looked at them frequently but apparently decided she would wait for the full order before delivering to the table -so cold food for two of us. Ordered the Flying Mayan which is listed as sweet potatoes and black beans in a tortilla with guacamole, sour cream and salsa. Who would think it would be filled with garlic mashed sweet potatoes? Mashed! Did they overcook the sweet potatoes and then decide to go with it as an experiment? Very strange. Maybe the fish is better but for price I will go elsewhere. I hate paying too much for bad food and service. Pros: Central location Cons: Expensive for what it is, slow service. more

November 2009 - Shrimp and grits with andouille was very good, a little unique style. Look forward to trying the crawfish etoufee next time. Entrees very reasonably priced. Pros: Shrimp and Grits, easy parking more

I would like to say how much i enjoyed my last visit to Hillsborough's Flying Fish. I took my fiance to dine there on valentine's night. We weren't able to be seated right away, as they were very busy, which is a good thing as my fiance and i decided to wait at the bar. There we met the bartender Claire, who served us Flying Fish original valentine themed cocktails. Once we were seated our server Deirdre greeted us imediately, and was very helpful with assisting us with the menu. Once the food came it was presented wonderfully and was insanely delicious (I had the ""Surf and Turf""), as were the deserts featured that night. I decided to ask to speak to the manager, to compliment them on our great experience. To my surprise I found out that the manager was our server. It was so interesting to meet a restaurant manager so involved in every aspect of the business (I mean she got us our ketchup, and refills). To sum up I very much enjoyed my visit and would reccomend this restaurant to anyone looking for great food and great atmosphere. Thank you Flying Fish. Pros: Great location, great service, high quality food. Cons: I didn't find this restaurant sooner. more

I am the manager of The Flying Fish and would like to respond to the previous review. There is no possibility that the reviewer got sick from our stew. Our seafood is always fresh and top quality. If our stew had been bad, other people would have reported illness, but no one else did. We received a threatening letter from the reviewer demanding money without any documentation of medical treatment. We will not be blackmailed, so we did not reply. I am always happy to take care of legitimate customer complaints, but this is clearly not legitimate. more

I got food poi$oning from the seafood chowder here. Granted eating seafood has inherent risk., but I was treated very rudely by an employee when I called to warn about potentially tainted food. I wrote a letter to the owner about the employee to which I never received a response. Pros: does have a unique atmosphere Cons: food poi$oning more

We love this restaurant. Every time we eat at the Flying Fish it gets better. We have been around--we lived in New York and Los Angeles--and this is our favorite restaurant in this area. We love the scallops, the shrimp tacos, and the mojitos. The music they play is always cool, and everyone who works there is really nice. The vibe is definitely casual, but the food is top-notch--creative and interesting, but not pretentious. Pros: Food and service excellent. more

We love this restaurant. The food is unique, more labor intensive and varied than many. We love the outdoor dining option. Their service is friendly too. Try their Sunday brunch too, excellent. more

UGH. The fish was over cooked, the top shelf margarita had a bare hint of tequila, the fries were terrible (should have listened to the other reviewer!) and the service was below par. Our dinner came a scant 5 minutes after our appetizers. the waitress just picked up the app plates and moved them aside to plunk down dinner. We ""commented"" on the quick delivery and she shrugged her shoulders. On telling her that the wahoo was overcooked she did consult with a manger who offer to take half off the price of that entree. The comment was ""well you know how tricky wahoo can be!"". Even at $10 it wasn't worth it - the ""thai"" sauce tasted like it came out of a jar. After rushing our food out it took this side of forever to get settled up. Our plates were never cleared. We won't be back. Pros: cute casual decor Cons: service, most food more

I have been to this restaurant twice for dinner and four times for lunch. Dinner might be a little crowded sometimes but the service, food and price exceed my expectations. Our kids even enjoyed the food, which is a major plus. I have yet to order something that I didn't like. Hillsborugh needs more restaurants like this. Pros: Food, Price Cons: sometimes crowded more

We tried Flying Fish on a recent visit to Hillsborough based on favorable reviews. We didn't have the good experience some. Relatively high prices for drinks served in paper cups. Service was slow and barely adequate. We ordered soup/sandwich and a seafood platter. It took 35 minutes to be served and the place wasn't all that busy. Seafood was basically good, fries horrible. Limp, undercooked, greasy. The ""chef"" should be ashamed to serve them. Inedible. The waitress was perterbed when we told her the truth about the meal when she asked. We were polite and simply stated the facts and were ""iced"" because we didn't rave about the overpriced, barely average meal. We will not return. more

We ordered the skewered scallops and the fish stew I was told the Thai style squid was a sweet dish instead of a hot one so we did not get that. The stew was terrible. There was simply no flavor. The base appeared to be water and plain tomatoes. It lacked garlic, wine, fish stock, fire roasted tomatoes and salt! The process of stweing brings out flavors so I must assume this dish was never actually stewed. The scallops were alright but where was the poblano flavor in the poblano sauce? Finally steer clear of the Jicama slaw. No flavor, just Jicima - and the Jicima is grated too finely. I will however be heading back to Flying Burrito... Pros: Martini List, Good Prices Cons: Flavorless Specials more

My husband and I are regulars at The Flying Burrito in Chapel Hill, so when we heard they had a new restaurant in Hillsborough, we had to try it. It was great!! I had the shrimp tacos and he had the seafood stew, both were delicious. Our waitress was friendly and attentive, despite being extremely busy. Our margaritas were fantastic as well. We now have two favorite restaurants!! Pros: Fun atmosphere, Unpretentious, Delicious Cons: a little loud more