Wood Fire Trattoria — Restaurant in Dowagiac

I can only give this place one star for the atmosphere and beyond that it’s not worth even wasting your time going. Tonight we went with another couple for the first time. It’s smelled great walking in so I had high hopes. Walking to our seats I see a cook on the line eating with his hands from a plate next to where he was working. I get it they need to eat so I let it go. The service moved at a glacial pace. One of the appetizers wasn’t available but again no big deal it happens. We finally get drinks and they tasted like cough syrup. The appetizers finally come and they were ok (which I’m glad since it was the only thing I got to eat). Salads arrive after a while. They must store them in the fridge because the croutons have no crunch and are just rubbery mush. Whatever I didn’t come for a salad. After we had been there for over an hour our food finally comes. The filet and lobster. I dig into the mashed potatoes and they are cold. I move to the vegetables and cold. The lobster was also cold and rubbery. I didn’t even bother with the steak. Every person at the table had an over cooked steak. I sent my whole plate back. If I’m paying these prices I expect it to be warm. The waitress comes back to tell me that they are out of filets. But they could get me something else. We are now an hour and fifteen minutes after getting there. I’m not going to wait for my food to come out after everyone else has finished their meal. Do you think the manager ever came to the table to check on things. If you guessed no you would be correct. But don’t worry they discounted peoples meal because their steaks were overcooked and mine was taken off the bill. And because of our experience I was given a dessert. Mind you even after the discount one persons meal was over 80 dollars. When there are so many other places you can go within a 20-30 minute drive do yourself a favor and make the drive. We prefer supporting local establishments but this one we will not be supporting. They have been around for a long time and I’m not sure what their future looks like when they provide this type...

Meh. While not necessarily a poor experience, for the money it only gets one star. One appetizer, one beer and two dinner specials, $113 including tip. Restaurant has an open kitchen design which adds to the atmosphere. There is clearly a new part and old part to the restaurant. Go for the new side. Old side was cold and many patrons were wearing their coats.. Wait staff needs training or oversight. Observed waitress remove dirty plates and put on same tray with prepared food .... that was to be delivered to another table. Never should happen and she should have served to hot food first. Lobster cake appetizer was all cake and seemed out of a box and was precooked since it was delivered to the table about two mins after placing order. Plank cooked infused Chilean Bass at $39 was infused with so much flavored oil it was like eating and oil soaked sponge. Fish texture was fine...but wife felt nauseous and didnt eat the while thing. Smoked prime rib medium rare at $36 seemed to be one or two day old prime rib, "smoked" to hide its age. "Smoke" seemed like it was out of a bottle. I ate 6 oz, had 3 oz of grissle and packed the rest for the cats. Medium rare was more like medium well. Mashed potatoes were cold and the salad seemed out of a bag. Our waitress was attentive and pleasant. Greens beans were good. Owner is involved and roams the dining area and bar talking to guests...or at least the ones that he knows. He talked to every table but ours. While Im not looking for a friend, it was noticed. Maybe he was just busy. Overall, not planning to return unless for a drink at the inviting bar area...or if friends happen to invite us. Surprisingly cute downtown. Google has listed as a $$ restaurant...as some have also shared, plan on $50 / person total, especially with drinks or appetizers. Although they have some lower priced pastas and burgers. Maybe should have tried...

Went to Woodfire on the Saturday evening before Mother's Day, arrived and ordered drinks and food. After drinks were brought to the table the server did not return to the table for 30minutes. Overall, we waited ~2 hours for food. After about 1.5 hours after questioning why the wait was so long our server mentioned some people had called off sick and wait times had been long all day. She also mentioned she was the manager and was having to work as a waitress, which normally she would not do. I would question why she did not inform us of the wait times due to the staffing when we first arrived, it would have at least let us know why things were taking so long and why she could not return to our table often. She said "your food will be ready soon, but while you wait I could bring you some more bread". We said that would be great and then she said she would have to charge us for the bread since we only get bread upon arrival, but nothing additional. This was disappointing, especially since the bread had been cleared from the table earlier, before it was even finished. Additionally, I would think brining some bread would be minimal cost and a nice gesture for waiting. I truly believe since we were a party of 6 we were neglected because gratuity is automatically added, so we could be ignored more while other smaller parties could be served. Overall poor management and...