Woodfire Dundee — Restaurant in Dundee Township

We all traversed the inclement weather on the evening of December 19th to West Dundee to have one last hurrah together. Our group of 8 was supposed to be 9, but 1 missed out or did he….. we trickled in 1 or 2 at a time until our table of 8 was full. Our server a disheveled man who looked beyond miserable, beat down, and sounded like it came to our table with his Eyore voice and slapped menus down and asked for our drink orders and we asked for more time since some of us had only just sat 30 seconds prior to him coming to the table. This was the first and only pleasant part of Matt J.’s personality if there is one during our dining experience and he still seemed annoyed at bare minimum. Now before things got too much further, I simply asked our server when he brought my drink, “if anyone upon arrival had asked for the check to be split or could be split and if not could he”? He said and I quote” We don’t do that here” and proceeded to follow that up with “I don’t make the policy I’m just the messenger”. I alerted the table with the news, I don’t think the entire table heard me and we’ll get to that. All drinks and food had been ordered, after this interaction he proceeded to get worse and worse, each time he came back to the table he made little comments if another drink was ordered and his anger was boiling over. The food and drinks most if not all the table seemed to be happy with their choices. I had the chicken ceasar salad and it was good. The drink was ok I had the limoncello martini, I wouldn’t get it again. The pizzas I saw going around the table looked good and the dough/crust I tried from another guest was nice and chewy, not too thick not too thin. As I watched the group and server interact throughout the meal, our server you could tell was most annoyed and maybe having the worst day I just don’t know. He was rude, short, and curt he kept grabbing things and grazing one of our members head with the glasses and plates and the pizza trays to the point he was like what is going on. So after all was said and done, this server brought out a singular check, two members of our group were like we would like this split please who didn’t hear the initial conversation when I asked. The server again started in on “We don’t do this here and that it wasn’t going to happen” he also then said parties over 8, we then said well we are just at 8. This too did not go well, so we asked him to leave the check and we would figure it out. Now it wasn’t just that he was rude and seemingly displeased with everything this evening, he made us ALL feel unwelcome nearly from the get go and throughout the meal. It felt like we were a hinderance to his night that we somehow we were ruining it for him. It took us about 20 min to figure out that one of us would just pay the bill and everyone else would pay that person. If we could have tipped the bussers/kitchen staff/bar staff for making our things and cleaning up what Matt J. did not we would have. We weren’t even brought water until we all had to ask. So unbeknownst to me the person who decided to take the check and cover the group, left a small tip, but at least he left one. The server took the bill and card walked away with it and ACTUALLY had the audacity the size of Texas to come back over and talk smack to our entire table after processing the bill!!! First and foremost if Matt J. had even a ounce of customer service skills he would have deployed some empathy and said look “I’m sorry it’s not my policy, but it’s one we enforce” or said “Hey, I’m not in charge here, but I’ll ask” that would have been one thing. There was nothing written on the menu, nothing written on the entry door about the verbiage of will not split check at 8+ group, nor was anything spoken to the group as we were seated. Matt J. Had every opportunity to bring the KM or GM over and I was damn near close to asking for the manager after his little outburst. Do better, be...

VEGETARIAN MUST VISIT!! One of the best places for wood fire pizza and pasta in the chicago suburbs area. Everything on their menu is fresh and made in house (verified by manager), including desserts like Tiramisu. All pasta’s are homemade with FARM FRESH EGGS.

The pizza was thin, soft and crispy, perfectly cooked. The goat cheese and sun dried tomato pizza was something I haven’t had before and will never stop having now. I highly recommend trying this, its very unique and flavorful. The blend of cheese and tomato is perfect, not one overpowers the other. The wild mushroom was also amazing. The use a melody of mushrooms so you get all different flavours and textures, and there is not too much cheese and it doesnt taste dry after a while (I’ve had a lot of mushroom pizza’s that’s just get too dry and boring after one slice, however this was perfect). The marrissa (spicy) pizza was also delicious. It has honey drizzled over it which gives you a perfect blend of sweet and spicy but not overly sweet. Definitely try if you like spicy.

If you’re a fan of gnocchi, you MUST TRY their basil pesto gnocchi. The gnocchi is very soft and cooked with perfect texture, but the sauce is the home run. They use fresh basil and you can literally taste it in every bite, it just lights up your mouth and reminds me of the fresh pasta sauce from Italy. One of my favorite dishes.

The tiramisu is not the best I’ve had but its very good, if you like tiramisu you will not be disappointed. The manager actually gave it to us on the house as a treat because we complimented the food so much. He said they make it in house every morning and it was their last piece left.

Overall, wonderful place for dinner. Prices are high but it is definitely worth it. I will be coming back many times. If you are considering...

Update: We have returned multiple times and all of the food has been fantastic. The duck fat fries are perfection. Keep in mind due to how busy they are on some nights they will not accept take out orders at all. Plan accordingly.

Enticed by the elusive promise of delicious wood oven pizza the three of us went for dinner at 5:45 on a Saturday. We were seated immediately. The decor is modern minimalist. Wood floor, industrial exposed beam ceilings and no fabrics or sound absorbing materials means it gets loud when full. Check SoundPrint website for details.

We ordered the pig and fig pizza, the prosciutto and Parmesan pizza and cacio e pepe pasta. The

The pig and fig was a replacement for the wild mushroom pizza which had been 86’d.

The pig and fig was bacon, prosciutto, with a drizzle of fig jam.

The prosciutto and parmigiana with arugula is available either with marinara or as a Bianca (olive oil and garlic sauce). We ordered both pizzas as biancos due to food sensitivities.

They were both excellent. The toppings are fresh shaved parmigiana, fresh shaved prosciutto and high quality arugula. The stand out here is the pizza dough which is cooked beautifully- crispy, crusty with little bubbles on the outside edges and a nice chew but never tough.

The cacio e pepe is served on fresh made pasta. And it definitely shows. The pasta is tender with that distinctive al dente texture and a bit of spring to the noodles.

Highly recommended.

Skip dough, billy bricks and the other pretenders in the area. This is...