Wood Stack Pizza + Kitchen Metuchen — Restaurant in Metuchen

Large, beautiful interior ambience with plenty of parking.

Tried this place for the 1st time yesterday.

The hostess was inattentive & never once said hello nor asked me to wait even though I was standing in front of her booth yesterday (Saturday evening). She just kept on talking to her co-worker (another host?) and ignored me standing in front of her booth. There was no one else around me. When she finally was done speaking to her co-worker, I thought she would then acknowledge me but she still didn't say a word to me for a good 2 minutes while I stood there in front of her. When she finally looked at me, I asked for a table for two. Her 1st words to me was "Do you have a reservation?" in a not so friendly tone. I said no. She then just went about her business for a minute not even telling me to please wait or anything, then finally said "Follow me". I was really turned off to this place from my initial 1st impression.

Was seated, waited for some time for someone to acknowledge we were sitting there and was wondering if there was a waiter assigned to the table.

Finally got a waiter to introduce himself after sitting for a good 5 mins. Service was good thereafter with Oscar who was attentive and friendly.

Ordered the beef carpaccio ($16) - delicious! Just wish there was more. Also ordered the buttery bib salad ($12) - just ok. Comes with candied walnuts, slivers of apples, gorgonzola?, butter lettuce. The vinagrette they use is very light to the point that you may not even taste it on the butter lettuce. It's a good salad overall, but could use a better ratio of walnuts and other fill-ins to lettuce. Ordered the nina pizza ($17) which comes out like a personal pan size pizza with a thin crust. The crust does't come crunchy - you can hold a sliver & it will droop if you don't support it, but it was ok in taste. Not the best pizza I have had, but certainly not terrible.

A huge turn off was that they charge $1 for what I thought was complimentary bread. Had two sets which was basically two small slices - one for me and one for my aunt, the 2nd set was even smaller as it was the tapered end of the bread. They definitely should have given more especially if they are going to charge for thar tiny serving!

Overall had a positive experience and would try the other menu items. Ambiance is very nice once you get past the hostess. Please don't charge for bread! That's just tacky especially considering the price of the rest of...

This place has grown on me!

I usually stop here on the way back from NYC on the weekends since it's on my way home from the Metuchen Train Station. Really digging the rustic Italian country-side feel of this place - maybe I have it wrong but the interior decoration is fitting.

The lunch crowd isn't too bad and the bar, only place I sat at, is practically empty. Dinner is another story; place is packed, tables are full, and the bar is crowded. There have been a couple of times where I had to wait for a seat and on some occasions left. I'm there solo and I would rather sit at the bar. I also noticed that besides having a second floor, they have outdoor seating when the weather is nice. Wonder if there is an outside bar too.

Every staff member I've encountered was always pleasant and had a smile on their face! The bartenders, a few that I've appreciated, always provided great customer service; timing was perfect (never waited a long time to be acknowledged and drinks/food were brought out in a reasonable amount of time).

The food was always brought out from the kitchen just as I had ordered it - never had to send anything back - and tasted great! First time I ate there, I ordered a chicken sandwich with fries during lunch and it was delicious! Someone next to me, God bless them for letting me get a snapshot in, ordered a salmon salad and even though I'm not huge on seafood, the whole presentation had me salivating (sorry for the TMI, LOL)!

The second time there, I ordered a seasonal gnocchi and wish I could provide more detail but all I have to say is I wish I opted for the dinner portion rather than the lunch. The sauce was creamy like a rose Alfredo sauce. Dipping the two varieties of their fresh, warm bread in that sauce was exceptional!

The third and fourth time I ate there I ordered steak minus the starchy carbs - subbed them with asparagus and other veggies. Now you might be thinking why aren't you getting the pizza or pastas, which is what they are known for. I'm getting there and hopefully one day I'll get to try their The steak came out just how I asked them to prepare it - it wasn't a fatty piece

All-in-all, this place gets an all star rating from me - everything from the customer service, food, drinks, and ambiance is...

We had reservations but still waited for 30 minutes. They were short staffed I was told. We were updated every few minutes or so that our table was being cleaned, later told they were getting utensils ready then waiting ten more minutes and updated with yet another reason why we had to wait. Finally we get seated. We were a party of 5 but there was only ONE set of utensils along with very small bread plates the size of coasters, which was fine for a slice ofbread.. We figured they will definitely bring utensils soon. We proceeded to order. Appetizers served in a very timely fashion and were very good. We did have to remind them for utensils. Then came the pizza which was very good. We were very hungry and went for the pizza somehow anticipating larger plates for pizza will come any minute. For quite a while I could not catch the attention of the waitress or any other servers as I wanted to ask for plates. The pizza slices are significantly smaller than standard slices ,(which was not an issue), and were spilling over the tiny bread plates but we were hungry and eating.. Remember, we were using coaster size plates to eat pizza and salad at this point. Finally I was able to catch the attention of the waitress and by then I was really disappointed at the service yet I managed to calmly tell the waitress that we'd been eating on the tiny bread plates and before I finished my sentence, she gave me a cold exressionless face and uttered nothing! I had to ask her if she could please bring us plates. She maintained her incredulous expression and said, "Oh you want bigger plates? You want me to bring you bigger plates?" As if this was an odd request when that is the standard when eating at any restaurant. She finally did bring us plates but walked away visibly resentful. We still left a 15% tip because I know this is someone's livelihood and would not be petty to take that away. This was our first visit to Wood Stack and I am 100% sure it was our last. I would not recommend this place to any family or friends. No complaints about the food or ambiance but the service...