Fernwood Tavern — Restaurant in California

Our evening at The Fernwood was easily one of the worst dining experiences I’ve had in the past few years. We had dinner outdoors on the back patio. It was a gorgeous setting and amazing ambience with live music and a view of the forest.

We ordered two drinks, a pizza and salad. The pizza arrived without the salad, not a huge deal. We were told when the pizza was dropped off by our server it was on its way. We didn’t get the salad until much later after we asked the host if he could check on it- by the time we got it we were mostly finished eating the pizza, which was annoying, but on its own, not a huge deal.

The pizza itself— it had this weird chemical (maybe metallic) taste that we both kept trying to pin on an ingredient or part of the pizza.. it was one of those things that we couldn’t figure out for a while and didn’t know if it was intentional or not until we both had two slices and realized simultaneously there was something very wrong with the pizza. Our server came by and we explained it to him, also acknowledging that we had eaten two slices and hadn’t figured out what the taste was. We thought maybe one of the prep surfaces or baking sheets had gotten sprayed with cleaning solution accidentally, or maybe the toppings were stored in an old can? We also tried to explain that we weren’t trying to get free food but it seemed like a thing we should communicate for the kitchen, etc. After all this, he asked if we wanted to take the rest of the pizza home with us, lol. No offer for the rest of it to be remade or substituted, so maybe he didn’t believe us, or communicate this further. And without any offer of trying to make it right, he asked if we could close out our tab because his shift was almost over. Yikes.

At the end of the evening, he closed us out and offered 25% off the pizza. We paid, but on our way out realized even with the chemical pizza discount the bill was rather… high. So on the way out I asked our server if he could tell me how much he charged for the pizza. He looked it up and said he charged us $47 for the pizza?! Turns out that when we asked if we could split a Good Karma pizza ($30) and a pepperoni pineapple pizza ($30.50), he charged us for every individual ingredient in the good karma pizza (pesto, goat cheese, etc) instead of the actual price of the pizza on the menu. It was sort of unbelievable that someone would do this, and not tell us (and we almost paid it!).

Anyways, after we told him we were not going to pay $47 for the pizza, even with the chemical taste discount, he comped the pizza instead of correcting the price. We still paid for the salad and drinks. We left with a bitter taste in our mouths, both figuratively...

We've been numerous times to the tavern when we go camping. This time while waiting, I wanted a girlie drink but couldn't see any on the menu. Luckily Eric made one up for me and it was yum! It was so yum I could've had another in a to go cup but we brought so much grog already.

They smoke their own meats so I tried the HOT WINGS. Yum! It was smoked then fried so you get that yummy smokey taste. It will not be as juicy as like the just fried ones cuz I think you loose some moisture from the smoking process. Still, it was finger lickin good!

My friend ordered the STEAK, OMG, it was so juicy and done exactly how she wanted it. I wanted more but I had the TRI TIP TACO. It was pretty good too. Hubby had the FISH & CHIPS but I think they forgot to season the fish or the batter cuz I didn't like it at all. It was tasteless. The fish tasted somewhat fresh. I asked my other friend about her POLENTA STACK and she said it was good. The only thing she would've liked it for the mozarella balls to have been melted. I didn't try the PIZZA so don't know the taste. It was huge though! I had the STICKY PINEAPPLE CAKE. It's definitely sticky, moist. It had cream cheese frosting but I wanted ice cream. They don't do substitution cuz it was so busy on a Sat night. I went to the store next door and paid $6 for 2 scoops and brought it back with me.

We had about 20 folks so they will only split the check once and an automatic 20% gratuity added. I had called weeks ago to make sure we can split the check but when I mentioned to our server, she said this was not the practice. I had to say I did call in advance to check. In fact, I even asked for a separate table for hubby and I to be right next to the table of 18 folks. She finally did split the check.

We had an awesome bluegrass band that was there. So entertaining! Yay! After their set, you can feed the jukebox there. $5 buys you 12 credits.

Overall, it's a great fun...

This place was a highlight of our time driving down Hwy 1. We got here at the perfect time before it started getting busy (right around 6pm on Sunday. The wait staff was very friendly and accommodating to set us out on the beautiful patio next to some heaters which kept us warm. We ordered the Truffle Fries as an appetizer, and the shoestring fries that they use made them the best truffle fries I’ve had. They were perfectly seasoned and had some sprinkles of Parmesan on them. We also ordered the French dip sandwich that my husband and I shared. It was really good. My son had the quesadilla and they were able to add chicken to it. I highly recommend this place! If we come back, we will probably look into renting a tent or a cabin at the resort. It looks like a great place to stay in a beautiful part of...