Wildwood Firewheel — Restaurant in Garland

Read the edit below.

Sometimes the food is hit or miss, but when it is good it is really fantastic. Regularly eat here, would recommend.

Edit: I've taken my review down to one star, last time we went we were asked if we had a reservation in response to my, "Hey, how are y'all?" Literally directly in front of a female front of house manager, who also intently just looked at my fiance and I instead of responding to MY GREETING AS A CUSTOMER. The restaurant was almost entirely empty, it was before lunch rush. I sheepishly replied, no, I do not. What I should have said was, "A reservation? At Wildwood Firewheel? LOL." No, I don't have a reservation to your almost entirely empty restaurant, anywhere else we would have just left at that interaction: but we frequently used to stop in for lunch or snacks and had a particular hankering for the cheese blocks and the dragon dip. They tell me the only available seating is "on their patio?" (looking at the empty restaurant,) which- in my dozens and dozens of visits, did not even know existed. I quickly found out why. The patio is in the same condition some of their silverware and 80% of their menus- absolutely deplorable. Literally creaking and groaning in the wind, drafty, and it happened to be raining that day, so, also literally moist. We just kind of sat and looked at one another, pretty defeated. I'm not an in-your-face kind of person, not worth mentioning because I've run restaurants before, I know how it goes. I think they forgot about us, or maybe they didn't want our business as a gay couple, whatever it may have been, we waited maybe ~7 minutes and were not greeted by a server. (Again, empty restaurant.)

We left via the side door out the patio, and upon pulling out of the parking lot saw a manager and one of the female staff that failed to greet us speaking at our table. Too little, too late. Shame on you guys, turned loyal customers into someone that absolutely will turn people away from your establishment. It's been going downhill for a little while now. Too comfortable, maybe. Slacking on training, maybe did away with some standard operating procedures, don't know. I recommend Cheddar's right up the street, very consistent if mediocre.

Train your people better. If you're going to pretend you're some crazy fancy restaurant, you're going to need to invest at minimum several thousands of dollars into that building, the silverware, the furniture, and ABSOLUTELY on training. Tell your staff to stop wiping the menus with degreaser at minimum. You can't read them. Let's start there. And if your sanitizer towels are doing that to printed menus, it's way too high of a concentration in the buckets, which would just indicate more incompetence. But don't...

....... CRITIC'S REVIEW ...... Humm... issues with food - but waiter and manager (Gabby) are spot on professionals. When there is a problem, how you handle it is a key indicator of how much you care about your customers! These people CARE!! (Because of how well my issue was handled, I'll go back soon for another test.)

Fries: I asked for extra crispy and they got it perfect!! (Most places never get them crispy - even when you ask.) Really nice, hot and crunchy just the way I like them. Yum, yum!

BBQ Bacon Burger: Nice sized patty and they will cook to order... but over cooked mine. Ordered med-well with a char and got dry well done. Asked for double stack of the shoestring onion rings, got them but were a little thick (but still nice). Bacon was cooked correctly (crispy and no raw fat) and the cheddar cheese was nice too. The BBQ sauce was a bit off and hard to profile… and invisible (I had to get a side portion to put on it to even know it was there.) Reminded me of a KC style sauce... not very Texan style. The patty really didn't have much flavor or seasoning (salt/pepper likely missing too). Tasted a lot like bland grocery store ground beef. Not getting burgers again.

ISSUE: The menu description listed all the ingredients put on this burger. Nothing stated there would be 10 pickle slices (each 1/4 inch thick) hidden under the lettuce on the bottom bun!!! I hate pickles, and for the first 2 bites thought the nasty flavor I was experiencing was from the BBQ sauce. On my 3rd bite I got a huge piece of a pickle and immediately spit out the entire bite realizing what it was. I picked the burger apart and found all of them (see photo).

I sent for the manager, explained the issue and told her I would not pay for that. WOW! What a perfect response! She agreed to take it off my bill, sincerely apologized and humbly explained that she has new people in the kitchen still getting up to speed and the pickles are supposed to be a side garnish only. (She was so nice I actually felt bad for her because I understand - it's hard to get people to work at all these days.) She offered to remake my burger, but I declined. She offed a free desert to make up for it. A perfect way to try to make a dissatisfied customer happier. Very professional.

Atmosphere: Fun and inviting. Good vibe from a 2/3 full restaurant at 6pm on a Saturday night.

See my Yelp profile page for a BEST IN...

Very nice place. Even when full, it is not noisy, the ambience is professional, but not stuffy. The staff is attentive, but doesn’t hover. The menu is diverse, with something for everyone. Pricing is fair, maybe even a little inexpensive for what I saw on the menu. Instead of the usual heavy appetizers, we went with the Lettuce Wraps and they were great. The sauce was just spicy enough to complement the lightness and freshness of the wraps. I had the Grilled Center Cut Filet, done Medium, and it was perfect. One of the best steaks I’ve had in a long time. The Wildwood Mashed were freshly made (or whipped) and they were flawless. Excellent food. My wife had the Atlantic Salmon. Its presentation was great and was cooked just as she asked. Someone at the table had French Fries which I had to try. Disappointment. If Burger King can make a crispy fry, why can’t many fine restaurants? They were dark and limp. My test of a restaurant is their Chocolate Cake. Do they make it themselves? Get it from a local bakery? Or get it from the same big 7-layer Chocolate Cake Factory in 7-Layer Chocolate Cake Town Ohio where everybody else gets theirs? Bingo – 7-Layer Factory Cake. Except theirs was different, I guess they went with the less expensive model that apparently used Hershey’s syrup for the frosting between the layers. It made for an un-appetizing soupy mess. I took it home though. By the time I got it home, all the syrup had drained off so I made a REAL chocolate butter cream frosting and saved the cake. Overall, the experience was great. (I nit-pick on restaurants because these are easy fixes, yet few do them, probably because few of us speak up about them.) I would highly recommend Wildwood and would go back again and again and again, just to try everything else...