Woods Hill Table - Concord — Restaurant in Concord

We went to this local place that I have wanted to go for a long time to celebrate my birthday. The concept, the environment and the set up are fantastic. The food, with one glaring exception, was excellent. I made a reservation for four 2 days prior. My wife and I arrived about 5 minutes late and we were told the hostess was just checking on our table. When we were seated the hostess apologized for sitting the 2 of us at a table for four but to make ourselves comfortable. She was surprised when we said we were expecting another friend but that we would be 3 instead of four as one was not feeling well. We settled in, were offered tap or bottled water and then waited. And waited. The water came, but zero attention otherwise. When our friend arrived our waitress Cameron came pretty quickly. She asked if we had been in before and gave us the story of the concept and took our orders. She said bread would be right out. It wasn't, and neither were the glasses of wine we ordered. The salads came after a while. They were spectacular. The beet salad was exceptional. Still no bread, but the busser came to clear the bread plates! We asked for our wine and bread which finally came. Then another very long wait for the entrees. The plates did not all come out together, my plate was served first (I expect the women to be served first) and my wife had to wait for her plate. My sirloin was excellent, cooked perfectly, tender and seasoned deliciously. My friend's halibut was also excellent. My wife's medium well hamburger was both late and very rare. We got a busser to get our server, another server came and promptly handled the situation. A man brought her burger back out and explained the cook had plated the wrong order, so sorry, and he'd be back to check on the order. Well, it went from rare to almost medium, but no where near medium well. No sign of the guy who brought the plate back out. We finally asked for someone to ask him to come back. He was apologetic for not getting it right, etc. I asked his name and job: Michael it turns out, is the General Manager.

In the end they did comp the burger and the Assistant GM, Kayla came to talk to us as we checked out. She listened attentively and hoped we would give them another chance. She also promised to reach out to me personally tomorrow. We will see.

For the price point and the ambience I really expect far better service and attention than we got. The staff were all very nice and lovely, but largely unskilled for a place of the caliber they are marketing. As I looked around it appeared there was a lot waiting at a lot of tables - really feels unprofessional to me. This place is not new, these kinks should be worked out by now. Hopefully the owners will get this right soon because I love the concept...

So we’ve been to Woods Hill Table many, many times over the years. Pre-pandemic this was a really fantastic place - excellent food, good service, really solid all around. Unfortunately it’s gone downhill to a point where you really just can’t eat here anymore. If this is the new standard, I fear this restaurant is not long for this world. We went tonight and not a single thing seemed to go right. The hostess didn’t greet us and seemed aloof and unaware. We got seated and someone offered us water (not our waitress). By the time our waitress eventually came over to engage with us, we were ready to put in our drink order and our entire food order… I don’t think we saw our waitress for at least 15 minutes after we sat down. The first courses land, but still no drinks. I flagged down one of the other front of house people, and they ran to grab our drinks 25 minutes into the meal. No one in the front of the house seems to know what anyone else is doing — there’s lots of “helpers” but no coordination. You get some food from a runner, and a steak knife shows up 10 minutes later by someone who isn’t your server or the original runner. The whole service experience was super frustrating. Then there’s the food itself. I don’t know how else to say it - it’s just bad. And for the price, it’s a bit shocking. The burgers were gamey and overdone, the fries were so salty they were inedible. We sent back the crispy Brussel sprouts because they were cold and not “crispy” they remade them and they came back out exactly the same way. We just gave up on that battle (no one actually asked if the remade dish was satisfactory anyway). The bolognese was just not good, pasta was over cooked, no flavor. They sent us a wrong dish that we didn’t order, etc etc etc. I remembered this place getting good reviews and we’ve personally had many excellent experiences here over the years… the only thing I can conclude is that turnover in staff is the issue because it never used to be like this? Anyway really disappointed we wasted our night out here and won’t...

I have been to Woods Hill several times and I have been disappointed each time. I had sworn it off, but last week I gave it one more shot before writing this review. The short version of this review is you get 3 star food (maybe a tad generous) at a 5 star price with 1 star everything else. On my most recent visit, I split the grill roasted broccoli, the roasted beet salad, had the shrimp and scallops for my entree, and tried the caramel chocolate torte with chocolate ice cream: -The broccoli was reasonably good, though the sauce was a little creamy for my taste. Some of the broccoli was unevenly cooked. -Half the beets (there were two varieties, so all the beets of one of the varieties) were cooked improperly and were rubbery. -The scallops were gritty -The chocolate ice cream was dreadful. And I mean dreadful. It didn't taste like chocolate and it wasn't creamy. The torte was passable. The service was appalling. Our waiter was mostly invisible throughout the night with seemingly interminable gaps between courses. We were not offered refills on our drinks. On a plus side, the restaurant now offers free bread (at my previous visits, you had to pay if you wanted bread). But, the bread they now offer is like chewing on warm cardboard. The olive oil they serve for dipping is quite good, though.

The ambiance of the place is pretty neat, and the dining room has good energy. It is a little loud for my liking. I also prefer not to witness people sitting at the bar making out, but it's hard to blame the restaurant for that.

The ultimate downfall for Woods Hill is the price. You can easily walk out of there having spent $100 on disappointment. You can get better farm-to-table food at a lower price 10 minutes away in the same town. To sum it up: I wish the building were still a...