The Woods — Restaurant in Metropolitan Borough of Solihull

I came for a birthday treat.

When we sat down we scoured the menu and I decided on sausage and mash. Unfortunately we were told there are no sausages. While I was choosing something else, the table next to me were told there were no crumpets. Quite a few meals on the menu included these items so I found it bizarre that they had ran out. When my food arrived (chicken panini) it was fairly standard, nothing special, but with a high price of £8. There were no crisps on my plate as the menu stated and when I asked where they were I was told they had also ran out of salted crisps. I was given some vegetable ones instead, but I found it to be quite bad service that I wasn’t told upon ordering with both of the meals I’d requested. I could see packets of Tyrell’s crisps behind the bar and wondered why these weren’t used as a replacement. I felt bad for the waiters who had to inform everyone of the unavailable items. My mom ordered a jacket potato with chicken breast. The potato came dry with no butter and the coleslaw was very wet. For the quality of food we had it wasn’t worth the money. Added to this they took quite a while to get to the table. I wanted a cake, so I went up to the bar to order and I asked what was in a particular cake and the assistant couldn’t tell me. It was a Frankenstein cookie with no information as to what it actually was so she made her best guess. It was actually chocolate orange which I wasn’t expecting. It’s not my favourite and had I known I probably wouldn’t have ordered it. Anyway, it was okay, a bit dry. Not knowing ingredients or even what the cake is is not ideal if people have allergies. The setting of the place is beautiful and quirky, very instagrammable but I’d recommend staying for a coffee and a photo only. The tables are incredibly close together meaning you can hear almost everyone’s conversations, but I do appreciate it’s a small shop. Overall for how nice the place looks I would expect both the food and service to be a...

I’m uncharacteristically leaving a review because this is genuinely lovely place for lunch, with friendly professional staff, and a couple of issues that i want to offer respectful feedback on in the hope it helps you to be more successful.

The atmosphere, created by the decor and hard working staff, is superb. I ordered bacon and poached egg on granary, was offered malted, that’s absolutely fine. However it was served on white. I ordered decaf caramel latte. It arrived with no caramel, so i wonder if it was decaf. The caramel was supplied free of charge on asking. The coffee was very nice.

The quality of all ingredients of the food was excellent. For some reason the bacon was shredded. I appreciate the creativity but it actually made it complicated to eat and was not visually appealing. I feel it also hid the very good quality of the bacon. It was also a little underdone, rubbery fat. The two slices of toast were one on top of the other with two eggs and the shredded bacon piled on top. This was presumably to make space for the unnecessary and unwelcome salad. Anyway that’s not how people eat and doesn’t show off the food well. My first action was to reconstruct the plate so that i could eat it.

I sat at a dirty table, that’s fine, my choice. Three members of staff visited during my stay. Two noticed and volunteered that they would return to clean it but did not. I rotated the table to feel more comfortable.

Finally, there’s a typo on your sandwich board or it’s some play on words that’s gone over my head. ‘Somethig to waffle about’? Missing n. And are there two spaces in ‘to Waffle’?

Anyhoo, this is very nice place with lovely staff. Just a little more attention to...

Just awful. I don’t like to leave such negative reviews especially during this current economic climate and to a small business. We ordered two teas and two hot paninis. The teas were served in a teapot which was for tea leaves but two teabags were squashed into the tea leaf holder, which stopped all the flavour of the tea to come out. My tea cup came with a chip on the lip. The paninis finally came after half an hour of ordering when by this time the teas were cold. When the paninis were put in front of us, they looked so undesirable. They were supposed to be toasted and served with a salad. The salad looked like it had seen better days and looked like it was recycled from every other plate. The only thing that was warm was the melted cheese, the rest of the panini was not toasted or warmed in any form. The two young lads that were working or should I say claimed to be working, didn’t have a clue with what they were doing or even supposed to do. All these things I can accept. But the final nail in the coffin was when the staff behind the counter coughed into his hands and didn’t wash his hands after. After the the third time if him doing this. We had to get up and leave. I do not blame the youngsters working, but I feel it’s bad management with lack of...