Stonewood Grill & Tavern — Restaurant in Florida

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Main Question: Is the food here worth the money?

Main Answer: Absolutely! I would like to make it clear of that anything that is criticized in this review still deserves five stars because regardless of my preference, the service, atmosphere, food and everything all together deserves more than five stars.

Service: William, the server, made this visit an amazing visit and just wow! This gentleman was fantastic. If you decide to visit, ask if William is serving. I haven't had service like that at a restaurant in a very long time. Now, given that they were very slow and not busy at all, I understand the extra special service. However, he still did an amazing job that just was the icing on the cake.

Food: I had a small side salad for which they made special for us with spinach leaves, red onions, croutons, cherry tomatoes, cut cucumbers and no dressing. This salad was fantastic. The onions were cut perfectly. The care that was taken for the cucumbers was absolutely outstanding. Not one peace of spinach lettuce was wilted. This salad is the salad other salad dream about becoming.

My guest had a cheeseburger. It was cooked to perfection. He was very happy with it.

I had both a French dip which was absolutely delicious. I will say that I asked for provolone cheese and I received Swiss cheese but that didn't stop the French dip from being delicious. I also had steamed broccoli with no butter. That was cooked perfectly.

Now, the next part. The potatoes. The potatoes were way over whipped. You could tell that they were cooked too long. It didn't stop the taste from being very good but they were Pasty and not very visually appealing.

Additionally, I was still hungry after the French dip so I ordered a deconstructed chicken pot pie. That meal came out within 2 minutes of ordering it and was amazingly fast. It, too, was absolutely delightful.

We ordered pretzel bread. These pretzels were perfectly cooked and absolutely delicious. Now here, I would have hoped that William, our server, would have picked up the hint that I didn't want any oil or butter on them when I specifically asked for none on my food but unfortunately that was not the case. So they did come with butter around the pretzels and salt but I would have preferred them with no butter or salt on the pretzels. I don't quite what the blame for that on William since I didn't ask if they had oil or salt on them but that information was not offered either. That did not stop them from being absolutely fantastic.

Bathrooms: It was the end of the night and the bathrooms were still clean as can be. There was no toilet paper all over the floor or towels all over the floor. The garbage was empty. The counters were clean and not full of water or soap everywhere. This was a bathroom where the employees and management cares about their customers.

Make sure...

We eat out a fair amount, we moved to Bradenton FL in May of 2018, so we are always going to "new to us" restaurants.My husband had been to this restaurant before with friends, & loved it that time. Our waitress was Georgia, from the start she kept interrupting our conversation to try to take our order, & not in a nice way. I do want say that the couple we ate dinner with loved their food. I have severe allergies: gluten, raw & fresh cooked onions, & nuts. I told Georgia, after placing our drink order, that I needed to talk with her about my allergies before I can order. In today's climate, most kitchens & restaurants take my allergies very seriously. Georgia only pointed out gluten free items on the menu, which worried me that she was not communicating my onion allergy to the kitchen!! I ordered a rare sirloin steak & garlic mashed potatoes, & a side salad. She had no idea which dressing were gluten free, making me nervous, when ranch showed up on my plate, with absolutely no communication, I asked, & her answer wss yes it is gluten free??! My sirloin steak was tuff, chewy, and could barely be cut with my steak knife!! On my plate was 1/2 half of a tomatoes with breadcrumbs on it, my plate was contaminated with gluten, but the food runner & waitress simply removed it from my plate!! Cross contamination is a huge problem for food Allergy suffers!!! They clearly did not care!! Leaving me with no confidence in our waitress & the kitchen!! My garlic mashed potatoes were uneatable salty!! I aked for replacement baked potato with butter & sour cream, the potato arrived, & 10 later my sour cream & butter arrived! My husband love his salmon. However, we both ended up last night, & throughout the night with stomach cramps, gas, & diarrhea!! My all-time favorite dessert is creme brulee, after my terrible meal I did not order creme brulee, I was worried that they would mess up that too! Our friends loved their meal. To add insult. The 2 bills came, & they were completely messed up. Our friend went through the 2 bills separating the items that went together. He let Georgia know that the bills were wrong & which items he marked that went together. Rather than accept and correct her mistake, she was arguing with him that the bills were correct, he had to go over each item again with her until she finally agreed there were errors. When we got the corrected bills, she laughed and said she put the men on one bill & the woman on the other bill!! I just think that a more professional waitress & a concernd kitchen are absolutely imperative to a great meal In a great restaurant, & and none of that was true last night!! It's 5am & I am awake because of gas, stomach cramps, & dairreah!! I will...

So today was the biggest most important date of my life I got married today. And the staff that took care of me and my guests for my wedding lunch were not focused on us at all. First off they assign a single associate to manage myself and my wife and guests totaling 17 people. And one guy not the servers fault at all, was also managing a entire section in the main house. If it's a mid day lunch wedding and your getting a automatic 20% tip you should be purely assigned to the biggest guests of the day. The managment here had 45 days for prep and we spoke to then 3 days in a row in advance befor the big day today and during one of them days we specificallywere told by the hoasts to call back the next day because the manager could not be bothered at this time. Me and my wife's table was sticky and no attempt was made to clean our table. The staff threw the spare tables in a corner in the front room and it looked tacky, the door was left open so other guests could peak in and be nosy. The staff couldent have offered to throw a simple white table cloth over the tables seeing as how the room according to the managment team was "preped the night befor" like come on. I didn't exspect much when I walked in this location we gave a chance because we hada great Thanksgiving here last year. Over all il never point the finger at the sever this is a managment problem that must be addressed. After the lunch spoke to the manager who claimed he was the "regional manager" I said im not one to complain but there was 0 focus on the biggest dine in yall gonna have all day, I get it if the main team doesn't come in untill dinner service but your a manager you call employees in if you know 1 sever is getting $150 tip like let's be real most people don't make that much that often as a sever anywhere in this area. I'm extremely dissapointed the manager didn't even show any remorse or sympathy for the lack of respect for the guests and us the wedding couple , he didnt even offere a reduction for the lack of respect that we chose to share our special day with them that should be a honor for any restaurant, that anyone of any class would choose them for there special day.. And I strongly strongly strongly recommend to anyone if you come here ever with more then 7+ you need to go else where the staff is overwhelmed and the food is average at best with local restraunts in the area even with a fixed menu. Over all my family has officially stated we will and shall never set foot in this...