The Woodyard — Restaurant in Derbyshire Dales

I'm sorry to say but what an absolute rip off. It took 50 minutes of waiting between the starter and main.

UPDATE.. we were never told of such a long wait at all or we wouldn't have ate with two children. Also, tell who? Noone checked on us in the meal and we couldn't get anyone's attention for further assistance. A refund would have been appreciated as was simply awful to be honest and we did voice we weren't happy and just got sorry as staff ran off. Didn't get chance to speak! I reused my starter fork for my mains as it was that difficult to get assistance. Thankyou for the apology and I think the photos clearly evidentiate my points.

The starter sharing feta flatbread was good but we had 0 napkins, given no plates and it was overpriced. However it WAS tasty and it didn't arrive 15 minutes after ordering.

After waiting 40 minutes, we asked where our food was as noone really gave any attention to tables outside despite the cost to eat there, the response was "5 minutes". 10 minutes later our food arrived. And omg, the most basic small and boring salad came, we added vegan meat balls but it was unseasoned leaves and unsauced dry meatballs thrown on for £18 it wasn't even worth 10!!!!! The kids ate pizza which only one enjoyed and I ended up eating whilst they had my special mushroom pasta that was just water for sauce. Ironically it was good to soak awful dry unseasonal meatballs in or drink which didn't seem appropriate to do ! Just ripped off with overpiced bad food because of location AND SERVICE WAS AWFUL.

We grabbed a stand on ordering with only 1 napkin in and no alternative. Used stands were put next to the outside.bar a refilled eith napkins without removing cutlery left between uses. Servers ran off before I could ask for more and all 4 of us were disappointed. £80 of disappointment and a worse salad than weatherspoons. No real apology and the sauce on the pasta was as thick as water and of course the mushroom pasta was lacking mushrooms. I Feel robbed and we now need to find food as the salad was a poor handful of unfilling plain leaves. I said it was poor service as took ages yet they just said sorry walking off. Noone cared and we left. Gutted absolutely...

Our experience here wasn't the best. Initially we were drawn by the smell of smokey barbeque to the restaurant. The setting was great however when we came in, it was slightly unusual for the initial server to wait for us behind a pillar on the left side of the restaurant on her laptop. I assume she might be multi-tasking but she appeared as though unwelcoming. There might be slight miscommunication done by me, as we were initially unsure whether to have drinks or food, but the unwelcoming nature of the restaurant second guessed our own intentions. We decided to have a look at the food menu while sitting but upon sitting, we were seated in a 4 person table x 2 for a group of six. This was not communicated to us whatsoever upon entering. We were then presented with the drinks menu and left to our own devices for 15 minutes unattended even when I tried to get the attention of the waiters. To add, one drink menu for six people in two separate tables. Slightly more upsetting was that a few more families got seated with food and drinks menu, served iced water and got their orders promptly attended, and they were seated next to us in a cozy secluded corner of the restaurant. We were about to leave but one of the servers to our surprised was going towards kitchen but I felt heard my complaints turned and tried to take orders in which we felt compelled to order something out of courtesy. Following that the drinks were served quickly but there weren't any service whatsoever apart from taking orders and serving.

I understand the restaurant has replied to my friends review. The restaurant wasn't full during our time there even though it was fully booked, hence i am not sure why the service was poor from start to finish, and wasn't standardised to everyone as others got orders and attended to promptly. I am hoping to be treated the same as other customers there. I left it a week to actually gather my thoughts on this after leaving on a sour note but still cannot justify any other...

*EDIT It can be quite apparent that the "owner" becomes EXTREMELY defensive when responding to less positive comments even to the point of shaming customers. There is no sincerity in wanting to improve despite numerous recent complaints from various people. I would suggest avoid this place entirely and to the owner maybe you need to go out there and open your eyes more to the service industry. Absolutely appaling and the worst ever experience in the F&B industry. AVOID AVOID AVOID "INTERESTING" EXPERIENCE..

We came across the place walking towards the car park after a lovely day out at Bakewell. It looked really nice from the outside and food smelt good so we were thinking if we wanted to have some food alongside drinks/ coffee. Went in, decided to sit inside rather than out as we were told no food was served outside. It was still early for dinner so the restaurant wasn't full and we thought to ask if we could sit at another table because the got given 2 separate tables. Staff declined as we were a walk-in which was fine but it wasn't said it a very nice manner. At this point it started turning sour, was given ONE drinks menu to share between 6 of us, no food menu and no further service whatsoever. We waited for awhile and felt really awkward whilst other tables were being served even though we arrived before them. Ended up only having some coffees as none of the staff came to talk to us or offered any more menus. Although we were considering to get food the whole experience was so poor we were put off by it and decided to get dinner back at Nottingham and had a great experience instead.

Therefore an "interesting" experience for us. Can't comment on food as we weren't given the option (menu) to try any and can't comment on service (none existed). Coffees were standard and that was about...