Woodlands Restaurant — Restaurant in Guilford Township

I reserved about a week and half in advance for hubbys birthday dinner. I did some google searching for a nice, romantic, delicate location and good menu and I decided on Woodlands Restaurant because we've never been there and on their website, it looked amazing with beautiful lighting and setting. And the menu looked so delicious. After that, it was a no brainier and I made the reservation. Today (well I suppose yesterday the 5th) came the day to the birthday dinner. It was a rough start. I realized we were going to be late so I called and gave heads up. We finally made it and got seated. Jack (the owner?) was welcoming and nice. It took about 7-8 minutes for our waitress to even come to our table to take our drink order (she just kept telling us I'll be there in a minute each time she passed us). Jack brought us our drinks and then ten or so minutes later she finally comes to take our order. In the mean time...nothing looked the same as it did in the pictures. Sure the room was clean and big...but I didn't feel any type of intimacy setting I was looking for and found online. The menu was absolutely not what they showed online. To make this long story some what short: took about and hour and ten minutes to finally get out food- which they had to re do hubbys stake cuz it was all cold. Which turn I waited for his second attempt and then mine got cold. The whole evening was a mess. Thankfully we knew the cook, Josh, who is absolutely wonderful at what he does, and Jack made up for all the mess. Will we go back. No. Would I recommend? Eh...maybe. I'm giving it a 4 star rating because of...

We reserved a table for 8 at 8:15 on Valentine's Day. Arrived at 7:50. We got seated over an hour later- a little after 9. We felt bad for the host because several waiting patrons complained.

When we finally got sat, for dinner mind you, after 9 PM, we had to wait another half hour to order.

We waited over an hour for our food. Yes, we got served dinner after 10:30. During the wait, no one asked how we're doing or explained the situation. Furthermore, all the wait staff moved terribly slow as if there was no rush. Casually walking around and not allowing our food order with the drinks.

The water server not only touched her pitcher to our used glasses, but also dunked the tip of the pitcher in so water in our glasses was mixing with that of the pitcher.

The food was just ok. Gnocchi was fine, but the duck was between dry and ok. The pasta sauce tasted like a store bought can of ragu. I heard the salmon was good.

We waited 2.5 hrs after our reservation to eat, and during the majority of that time we were mostly ignored or even demeaned by the wait staff. We get it, you don't want to be here late; neither do we.

To put it blunt, this was the worst restaurant experience I've ever had, and we like to go out often.

The kicker? The host came by and offered to have us back tomorrow and he'll buy a drink for us or take a % off our order. It was the most apathetic attempt at a half apology you can get. He clearly didn't care what we thought and didn't bother to ask.

I'm shocked at how many good reviews exist...

We had dinner at Woodlands last night and were very disappointed with the meal. Four of the six of us had the prime rib. I had the king cut, the others had the queen. The food arrived on a cart with lids over the plate as if it came from a different kitchen. The food was Luke warm at best. The potato was not hot enough to melt the soft butter. My king size prime rib was more thick than wide across the plate s it was almost 2” thick. We have been to this restaurant 5-6 over the last few years and always looked forward to the prime rib. The others in my party also had much smaller but thicker pieces. It and did not enjoy it as much. Towards the end of the meal the manager came to our table and asked how the meal was. I told him that it was just OK. He asked just OK? And I said yes and told him why I felt that cut of meat was just too thick. His only reply to me was that two weeks ago someone told him that it was the best prime rib he ever ate. That was not really an appropriate response. I was not looking for a free meal or drink, but how about I am sorry you were disappointed or I will tell the chef. What some guy told him two weeks ago is of no interest to me. I for sure will not recommend the prime rib to anyone, as well as suggest a...