The Wood Oven - Nelson Bay — Restaurant in Nelson Bay

Avoid at all costs!!! Do not recommend The Wood Oven, Nelson Bay, it was horrible! Worst Italian food we have even put in our mouth (an embarrassment to the Italian community to be honest).

They consider themselves a restaurant, yet you have to get up and go order and pay at the counter before your food comes out. Smart on their part as I (and I’m sure many others) would complain and not pay for the terrible food placed in front of them. It reminded my husband and I of primary school camp where you got sloppy pasta served to you with no flavour. Oh, and let’s not forget to add in here the service we received! “Did you book a table” - the restaurant was empty when we first arrived. I said I spoke to a lady and asked if booking was necessary, she assured me it wasn’t and would keep a table free for the time we wanted. There was only one other family of 3 the entire time we were there so I’m not sure why I received such attitude.

I firstly asked for the spaghetti meatballs, I got told they didn’t have it. Should have left at this point, but we didn’t, unfortunately. So I ordered the Boscaiola, oh my! What did I do! Worst decision EVER!! It was as though they just poured the white sauce into the pasta and gave it a quick toss over the heat. There was no flavour whatsoever! I had two mouth fulls and that was it for me as the smell and after taste was making me gag! My husbands “homemade” Bolognase fettuccine, did not taste homemade at all, it tasted like a can of diced tomatoes had been mixed through it.

The garlic pizza was flavourless and dry, we forced ourselves to try and eat as much as possible so it wouldn’t be another dish to go to waste.

It was the biggest waste of money I had spent on my entire holiday ($80.50 - including drinks) which my husband and I chose to erase that whole hour out of our memories as though it never happened or experienced...

My family & I booked a table for 4 for the 30th December for 7pm. We arrived at approx. 6.50pm & although there was a front section where you wait to be greeted / seated, no one was there. We waited for a couple of minutes and I then walk in / stuck my head in to ask if we are required to stand outside or just head in. We were advised to wait outside & approx. a minute later a lady named Suzie attended to us. We were seated inside next to the fridge (later in the evening my son in law was wacked in the back by a customer who accidently dropped and smashed their bottle of soft drink on the floor). Anyway, i asked the lady (Suzie) if we could sit outside (we booked 2 days prior) and was advised simply "No". When I asked why, she explained that all outside bookings are for larger groups, which I accepted & we sat at the table provided. Approx. 10 mins later Suzie was moving tables around outside and created a table for 4. As it was very warm inside and an absolutely beautiful fresh breeze outside, I walked out, seeing the lady was either a bit stressed or out of her depth, I walked up to her, smiled and said, I can see your absolutely flat out and it seems a stressful night, she cut me off and said with a straight face "I'm not stressed", so I asked if my family could have that outside table for 4, as 10mins ago she advised me it's only for larger bookings. She said "No" as it was booked for 7pm. I accepted it & walked back inside. At 7.30pm no one was still at this outside table. In the meantime we were served our pizza's 1x vegetarian & 1x meat lovers. Personally i give the pizza's 10/10, as they are not heavy bases & the toppings were tasty. At 7.40pm Suzie removes 2 of the 4 settings on the outside table & gave the table to a couple (lucky them). So if ordering I would recommend takaway as the service is terrible, but I did enjoy...

Had a reservation for 2 plus a high chair. Got seated outside when it was an extremely windy evening and didn’t even have the option to reserve a table inside.

I don’t understand how you can call yourself a restaurant but have to line up to order your food before you eat.

After waiting in line for 25 mins and also witnessing one waiter drop a side of garlic bread down a womans back (without apologising! I might add) I finally got to order 2 chicken schnitzels.

After waiting another 10 minutes (so a total of 35 mins) our food arrived. I have never seen a waiter hand the food to you instead of placing it on the table infront of you.

The food itself looked like something I could have made at home with minimum effort and just chucked on a plate without caring about presentation.

I should also mention the portion size was quite small for $22 dollars a plate and the chicken itself was chewy and hard to cut into.

I don’t know how the owner and head chef (if they even have one) sleep at night knowing they are ripping off customers with appalling food, quality and customer service. I know this isn’t Sydney but have some dignity in the food you serve to customers!

I might also add after I was HANDED my meal not one waiter came around to politely ask how our meals were (probably because they already know the answer!).

For anyone thinking of trying this place, think again!

Honestly either eat anywhere else, but if you are feeling like average food you might as well purchase some quality ingredients and make yourself...