Woodbines — Restaurant in New York

I debated leaving this review, so in full transparency, my goal here is to be constructive and hope that it somehow leads to improvements.

I can honestly say that I have never received such poor customer service from a waitress in my life.

Two friends and I went here for lunch. The waitress took my friends drink orders and walked away from the table without acknowledging me.

I am editing this review after reading others because—I am black and my two friends are not. When the waitress walked away without taking my drink order, I wondered if it was racially driven. After reading many other reviews about how POC were treated in this establishment, I feel justified in my perception.

She also neglected to bring utensils or water, and forgot both when she returned after we asked.

My friend and I ordered Bloody Mary’s and both agreed they were the worst we’ve ever had and barely took a sip. The waitress never asked why we didn’t touch our drinks, and given her initial demeanor, we didn’t feel comfortable asking her for a replacement.

The three of us instead decided to try the mimosa flight, and asked if we could get 3 glasses so we could all taste each drink. Her immediate response to our request was, “three glasses, why?” We also asked for straws and only got two for the table.

When our food arrived, she handed me my plate instead of placing it down in front of me. This normally wouldn’t bother me, but the less than subpar service thus far, clearly indicated that she did this intentionally. She also walked away from the table so fast after delivering the food, (we barely uttered the words thank you before she was gone) that we didn’t get a chance to ask for salt, pepper or ketchup (for the French fries we ordered!).

When we needed her she wasn’t there. And she never stuck around long enough to make sure we had everything we needed. I should also mention, the place was not even close to busy. She just couldn’t be bothered.

At the end of the day, we turned to another server for the rest of our requests. She was helpful, friendly and kind. I regret that she was not our waitress for brunch. She is the only reason I am not leaving a one star review.

I wish I could leave a name, but she obviously neglected to tell us...

Their burgers and fries are really good and yummy. However, during my first and only visit to Woodbines, one of the male waiters was extremely rude and questioned my alcohol-based allergy. Although I informed him not to use hand sanitizers around me or cleaning products because it can and will trigger the mast cell activation syndrome and can trigger my lung to collapse again (recurrent pneumothorax) Although I showed him the medical documentation that I travel with, he was extremely difficult and used it anyway. I ran to the bathroom to breathe and to use my asthma pump. This made it difficult to enjoy my food so had to take it to go and leave. Although Jennifer the Hosts apologized and corrected him, it was extremely uncomfortable. Since then, I have chosen not to visit the restaurant because I recently found out that Jennifer is no longer working there, and she was the person who actually respected my disabilities and allergy to alcohol based products. Management should teach or remind its staff to respect the American Disablity Act and accomdated as required by law without prejudice, especially when medical documentation has been provided by their disabled customers. Disabled doesn't require a customer to be in a wheelchair. Many disabilities are invisible. Please educate your staff on not being so biased against Zebras like me. (An individual with rare invisible genetic disorders such as EDS and MCAS).

Nevertheless, although I had a negative experience in the restaurant with one of the male staff. Jennifer was awesome, I miss her. She always made sure my allergy to onions & alcohol-based allergy was respected by her staff. Honestly, I love their burgers and fries. Whenever I want a burger in Long Island City, I order take out from them and ask for my well-done burger without onions (onion allergy as well) 🍔 and thus far, it been very yummy. 😋 The new lady who took my order last week was very nice...

My experience was horrible. And to be honest, I felt like it was race driven. My girlfriend and I went in on Monday afternoon, day after the 4th of July. Really was in the mood for a chicken sandwich, so we came here. We get seated and wait. 2 other couples were seated 5 minutes after we were. The 2 waitresses working that section, passed by my girlfriend and I, and asked the 2 "white" couples, what they wanted to drink, while we were still waiting for water. 10 minutes go by, the other couples get their drinks and we are still waiting for water. Another 10 minutes goes by and I'm starting to get extremely angry. The 2 waitresses kept going back to check up on the other tables and STILL haven't asked us what we wanted to drink. And this is after making eye contact multiple times with both waitresses. Mind you, it's not crowded. There was a bus boy sitting at the table next to us, folding silverware. He notices we haven't been helped yet, and gets up to tell one of them. She says ok, and STILL NOTHING!!! He had to get up a second time, because he heard me say that this treatment is because of my race. Why else would they ignore 1 of 3 tables in the back (where we were sitting), and not the other 2. Finally, after nearly 20+ minutes there, we finally got our orders taken. The other 2 tables were done eating, by the time we got our food!!

And the wait, wasn't worth it. The chicken sandwich was all hot sauce basically. It was all I tasted plus it was cold, like they just took the sauce out the fridge and put it on hot chicken. And the waitress came once, to ask if we needed refills.

I will never come to this place again!!! Get yourselves a staff that actually knows how to serve people and not make them feel like the color of their skin, dictates the service. Being the only person of color there at the time, how can I think differently?? Either that or the 2 waitresses just don't like customers...