Restaurant At The Woods — Restaurant in Birmingham

I first visited this restaurant around 18 months ago for a lovely breakfast before going to a concert at the cbso centre. The food came in a reasonable time, good portion size and the taste was nice. The service was friendly.

Based on this experience, I recommended the venue to family for a meal before another concert on 27th Dec. I have no idea what has happened in the last 18 months but the experience left me feeling embarrassed at recommending the place.

We booked a table for 7 (5 adults, 2 children) at 1.30. We arrived 15 mins early however our table was ready and we were seated quickly which we appreciated. The waiter explained the light system to place an order, which is a great idea. Sadly, everything went downhill from here.

We placed our order around 1.25. The drinks arrived in a reasonable time. At 1.55 one of our party was informed the kitchen had ran out of French toast and he needed to choose something else. He asked why he was being told this half an hour into waiting for the food, chose an alternative and asked for an update on how long the food would take. The waiter did not apologise and never came back.

For context, the restaurant was not busy. There was nobody on the top floor and around 5 other tables with smaller groups on the ground floor. I witnessed two small families be seated and leave without ordering whilst we were there.

After ONE HOUR the food finally arrived. Two of our group had the breakfast. They questioned why it didn't have potatoes and the waiter said it didn't come with them. When they asked to see the menu, he then changed his answer and said they didn't come on a side plate. My family pointed out that there were no potatoes on the actual plate... This was then begrudgingly rectified. No apology just very defensive.

Our friends on another table had no egg on their breakfast (which they were refunded £2.40 for) and no onion ring on the burger which they only noticed after another burger came out with the onion ring on.

Overall the food was average and for the price definitely not worth it. The waiter gave us 15% off the final bill due to the issue with the French toast but the whole experience was not worth the price paid. We had two young children with us too and the waiting time for food made this a stressful experience. This place has the potential to be really nice with the lovely decor but the food and service are definitely not worth the money. I would recommend walking out of Mailbox and taking your business elsewhere to the many food establishments who actually care about good...

My sister treated me to Afternoon Tea at this establishment and we were disappointed. The place is very pretty and we were welcomed as soon as we walked in - and offered drinks. The waiter was very friendly. He told us that they'd run out of brownies so they would be subbed with chocolate fondant puddings. The food arrived with sandwiches and scones, along with the chocolate substitutes that we were told had been 'overcooked' to make them solid. They were certainly solid!! There were also two mini buckets filled with ice cream, topped with crumbled biscuit. We were told to eat these first before they melted!! Strange. We weren't given teaspoons to eat them and had to ask. We couldn't work out why we had to eat them right before the savoury option - why not hold them until we'd finished the sandwiches?? I was brought a glass of water that I requested and a very good Flat White. We were given one plate to use for the sandwiches and had to ask for clean plates for the scones. These were brought straight away. We couldn't eat the stodgy/solid chocolate offerings and the scones were stale - rock hard. When our waiter brought the bill over he asked if everything was OK so I explained why we couldn't eat the cake or scones. He listened then went off to speak to somebody and returned with another receipt. There had been a £5 surcharge on the bill which had been removed. NO apology for substandard food or a discount to reflect the fact that we simply couldn't eat what was offered. We go out often for Afternoon Tea and never complain but I felt so disappointed as this was a birthday treat. The original waiter had vanished so we couldn't speak to him ourselves. Sadly I could not recommend this Afternoon Tea which is a shame but at £30/head it needed to be better. The service was good up until my complaint. The lack of any response except taking off a surcharge was unacceptable. The place was empty most of the time so lacked atmosphere although it was...

Service:

I should’ve realised this restaurant was a red flag when I had to ASK for a menu after waiting for 20 mins for the waitress to bring one instead of being given one when I was seated. I also had to ask for cutlery. Surely a menu the first thing you’re given and cutlery should be given already at a RESTAURANT?! Also had to wait about 20 mins for the bill to be brought to us and I’m not sure why.

Food: The food was terrible. I ordered chicken tenders for starters but they were dry and the batter was hard. I also had nachos for starters and they were mediocre at best - the cheese was cold and looked like it had been sitting for about 15 mins before being brought out to us - what should have been stringy cheese was stodgy. For mains I had the steak. The steak was cold, rubbery and unseasoned. And the vegetables? Well they looked like they had been cooked 5 days ago and reheated about 4 times in the microwave. I am not exaggerating when I tell you I could have made tastier vegetables in my air fryer than what I was served - the vegetables were almost BLACK - it was difficult to even figure out what vegetable it was because it was so over cooked and black. The “mashed potato” looked like roadkill and was disgusting. We ordered garlic bread as a side and it was so hard we were scared for our teeth. It also tasted like it was just butter on bread - there was no garlic taste to it at all. The waiter did take this off the bill but honestly it was not his fault the food was bad and I felt bad complaining to him again. I don’t know who the “chef” was but maybe a trip to culinary school is in order because this was the worst restaurant I’ve been to in a while. It’s definitely one of those restaurants that is all about the aesthetic instead of the food - unfortunately the norm these days. The only thing that was good was the coke because it came in a bottle and they didn’t make it. DO...