Enchanted Forest Dining Experience — Restaurant in Placerville

Our first impression of the restaurant was that it was really cute, nicely decorated, pretty dim, and the hostess was really welcoming and sweet. We were a party of 8 and the booth they reserved for us was tiny so they had to add an extra table to the end of it. How they thought we would all fit in that little booth is beyond me, but they made it work.

The food choices were okay, we were all able to find something we liked except for the kids. The kid's menu is very limited and costs about as much as ordering from the regular menu.

We were greeted by our waitress (I don't remember her name) and she seemed nice enough. She took our drink orders and came back around promptly to take our food orders. The drink menu is a little limited but standard. My husband wanted a second beer and when he asked for one the waitress proceeded to flirt with him in front of all of us which was funny. It was such an obvious gesture that my youngest who is 11 even looked at me and said "what was that all about?" after she left. We laughed about it and moved on, even if that wouldn't be the last time she did it during our time there.

The food came out and that's when things took a turn. The kid's menu chicken on a stick was so bad and dry that one of the kids would not take another bite. Typically our kids will eat what's on their plate but that was not the case here. My other kid had a crepe with chicken in it but the chicken tasted like fish (our 11 year old had the same dish and he would not take another bite as well). I thought the kids might be overreacting, so I took a bite and it was inedible. It really did taste like fish. My salad was a mediocre goat cheese salad, how you can mess that up is beyond me, but I ate it. My husband had the KING STEAK, it was more like a king medallion and we laughed at him for a solid 10 minutes about it because it was just that disappointing. The mashed potatoes it came with were sour and the portions were interesting. The steak was so dry! My sister and her husband had a pasty pie each and they took one bite and couldn't continue because it was inedible to them (again, we are people who typically eat whatever is on our plate even if it's disappointing). We noticed that a few tables near us were also complaining about their food and we realized it seemed to be a trend there, which was interesting because I had looked at the reviews beforehand and they all seemed like good reviews.

Anyway, we are not really ones to complain so we didn't say much during the meal. We ended up just asking the waitress to take our plates which were full of food, no one really ate. That's when her attitude towards us began to shift. She took some plates and came back and asked if we wanted boxes. When we politely said no, she became snarky and said "well give me those plates then" and proceeded to have us bus the table for her which was appalling but also a little funny. She was even a little rude to the teens at the end of the table when she took their plates. We couldn't believe what was happening. No offer to fix the situation, no question about the quality of the meal, nothing. I can imagine that since this is a family owned business, she took it personally that we didn't eat. However, she made no attempt at fixing the situation. We asked for the bill and she was gone for a while before she brought the bill to us. After we paid, we never saw her again. Not a departing "have a good evening", nothing, Just petty behavior. I feel sad that this is our experience as we were so excited to go there for my teen's birthday (when she brought dessert during our meal her happy birthday song was also petty as her attitude was so bad during lol!). We love supporting small businesses but not when our bill is $400, we didn't eat, gratuity is built in, and the service was not only subpar, but straight up rude. Walking to the restroom I peaked into the kitchen and that was a disgusting disaster too.

Anyway we had to go to McDonald's after because the kids...

My family and I went here for my birthday. We were a party of twelve and we all fit comfortably into their larger booth and they accommodated my father who was in a wheelchair. I had really high hopes for the evening but in the end was pretty let down to be honest.

The positives: I spoke to the owner to make the reservation and she was very kind and also very accommodating to my four year old nephew who has autism and refuses to eat the majority of foods so she allowed us to bring in his food so he could enjoy the time with us. The environment was fun although it was so dark at our table we were reading the menu with our phones. The waitress did bring us out a little table lamp that made a huge difference. The service was well. Our server was working her butt off and when I spoke to the manager about all of the issues that kept happening she handled it well and all of our interactions with the staff were lovely and cordial and the manager did her best to make it right. The food was really good and once all the dust was settled we really did enjoy our meal. It took a long time for the different phases of our meal to come out and the problem solving to happen so by the time it was time for dessert the kitchen had closed, but they kindly got together all of our chocolate fondue stuff after closing and I appreciate it.

Now unfortunately for the negatives. There was old food under the fondue burners when we sat down. One bummer was that at such a long and large table, they only had one spot to put the fondue pots so everyone had to stretch across the table to try and eat it and we were dripping hot cheese everywhere. They must have plated the sides of everyone’s food before the main entree because everyone’s potatoes were cold by the time the entrees arrived and some entrees were cold too. My husbands and mothers filet mignon was very well done when both asked for medium rare and It was hard to get the attention of our server(not out of neglect, she was just very busy). We had limited table space and dishes kept piling up and I had to keep stopping people to ask to take them and I felt really cramped the whole time. Between the waiting times and the waiting to fix things times it just took forever and none of us were really in the mood to finish our meal at that point so we boxed it up.

It honestly felt like one thing after the other going wrong and it was kind of a bummer because we spent almost $1000 and I truly don’t believe the experience was worth that.

I just think the restaurant wasn’t equipped to handle such a large party. I think if it were just two or four of us it would have been a lot smoother but it was kind of turning into a sh*tshow and it was a real bummer because I had been really looking forward to my birthday dinner for a while. The waitress and the manager worked really hard to salvage the night so I will say the staff and food was fabulous, I just think our party was too large for them to handle. I would like to come back with just my husband and try a more simple experience to see...

Amazing Ambiance! Unfortunately, apparently their refrigerator went out a few days earlier though, so they lost a lot of food. They were out of chicken and their Almond Mill (whatever that is) that goes with their Baked Scallops appetizer, which were told up front.

We ordered their Forrest and the Sea dinner, which includes Braised Beef, Baked Scallops and Garlic Shrimp. When we got our meal, there were no shrimp, which was also disappointing, especially since they didn't tell us that in advance. They said they gave us extra baked Scallops instead. I've never had baked scallops before, and was kind of disappointed. My husband and I usually LOVE scallops, but they weren't very good. I guess I like pan seared scallops in butter much better. The braised beef was very good, although mine wasn't as tender as my husbands. I would have loved to say that I absolutely loved the meal, and while it was good, it just wasn't great in my view.

The menu selection is small though, and not being "vegan", there's not a big selection for dinner unless you want pizza, but the toppings are limited and not items I've tasted before, so not sure about that either.

I'm not exactly sure what kind of food theme or country origin they're going with. The music theme seems like Scottish or Irish maybe? I'm not entirely sure, and it doesn't say on their website.

The staff however was great. They were very apologetic and comped us 2 beers for the inconvenience, which was nice.

The ambiance is amazing however. So beautiful and tons of attention paid to details everywhere, including the bathrooms! You truly feel relaxed and like you're in a rainforest. It's beautiful! The stools at the 2-person tables are super comfortable too! Love all the monitors over the bar that have you thinking you're walking through a beautiful forest! The whole place is one you'd never want to leave!

I'd probably try it again, just to indulge in something new because it's such an amazing place to go visually. I may wait until they start serving fondue, which apparently is the plan. Honestly we can't wait for that...we love a good fondue place! They're still new, and going through the learning process, which I get. I think they have great potential, and hope they continue to grow and survive.

My only suggestion would be to take a trip to the store when their out of items on their menu. The menu is too small for this issue, and all the items could have been purchased quickly....especially for a Saturday night crowd, and we were there early at 5pm. Maybe adding a few more familiar dishes would be a good idea as well. Not everyone has exotic tastes, or the will to try foods they haven't had before, and are totally...