Woody's @ City Market — Restaurant in Raleigh

I'm a remote worker, but my office is in downtown Raleigh. Whenever I come to the office I always recommend we eat at Woody's because the food is great and they have a great beer selection.

However, my past few visits have been terrible. Today I met up with some coworkers for lunch. I ordered 1lb of boneless wings and a side of bacon tater tots, something i have ordered many times. I also ordered 2 beers. Unfortunately, my food was cold and they brought out fries instead of tater tots. They replaced them when I asked, but by the time they came out, we were all already done eating, so i just had them packed to go. When my check came the food was $45! I asked why lunch was so expensive, and the waitress told me that they no longer offer sides of tots, so they gave me a full order. The wings were $17 and the beers were probably about $6 each, which means the tots were an additional $16. I didnt make a fuss because i had to get back to work, but I don't think i've ever had a lunch bill that high, especially with cold food and half of the meal I didnt even get to eat. I ride a motorcycle so unfortunately the tots ended up going into the trash.

I also had lunch here a few weeks ago with my girlfriend, sister, and brother-in-law. We had heard that Raleigh now has a "social district" where you can drink on the street. We decided to each grab a beer from a bar where we parked, and then make the walk over to woodys to eat. Once we got there, we were immediately ejected by the blue haired bartender for bringing in outside alcohol. I understood that outside alcohol is not allowed and we went outside, but the way she yelled at us was rude. My brother in law wanted to leave, but I told him he was no big deal and we should stick around. While we were finishing our drinks, she came outside and berated us further, saying that this was the first week they had implemented the social district and that we could not bring our drinks inside. I told her we dont come down to Raleigh often so we were just unaware, but it was fine and we didnt want to cause any problems. I asked if they would start allowing outside alcohol to make it easier for people, and she scoffed at me and said no because the government said we couldnt, and if i wanted to change it I would have to talk to President Biden. I thought this response was bizarre. She then went back inside, printed up some paper signs that said something about consumed outside drinks outside and smacked them on the windows.

Finally, there is a large obnoxious sign outside that says "we reserve the right to refuse service to anybody who smells like marijuana". I'm not sure what this sign is supposed to accomplish, but its very unwelcoming, and every person I have brought to the bar has commented on it negatively.

I was really letting this stuff go, but the $45 bill today just left me...

So my co-worker and I went to woody's for lunch and this was the worst lunch experience ever!!!!!!! on 5-5-2015 we chose to sit outside bc it was such a nice day. we waited about 8 minutes before our drink order was taken. When we finally got our WATER bc that is what we ordered that took about 6 more minutes, the waitress sat the water on the table and instead of taking our order hurried to the table behind us to take another drink order. She never came back and then about 15 minutes later my friend went to the bar to place our order. She was then met by the waitress and said it will be ANOTHER 15 MINUTES BC THE MANAGER TOLD THEM TO MAKE THE CUSTOMERS WAIT THAT LONG BC THE KITCHEN WAS BACKED UP! OK!!!!!!!!!! QUESTION: WHY WAS WE NOT TOLD IN THE BEGINNING?? then the waitress said I will put the order in now and get it to you fast as I can. we continued to wait which now OUR LUNCH BREAK IS OVER and we have NOT had ANYTHING TO EAT. so we asked could our ticket be altered or something for the inconvenience that occurred. the waitress said no bc the manager told her to let the customers know when they first arrive that it would be a 15 minute wait BEFORE THE ORDER IS EVEN TAKEN. I requested the manager and she came out. My friend and I was both calm and explained to her the manager what CHLOE the waitress had informed us. SHE was so focused on saying how she will talk to the waitress she basically heard nothing we said. She told us she can take the TO GO CHARGE OFF but I'm like we came here to DINE IN!!!! AND CHARGED US $1.00 BC THEY WERE NOT DISPLAYING GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE MY friend asked for at least a complimentary soda for the wait and the MANAGER SAID no bc it WAS NOT A PART OF YOUR MEAL.............. DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! THAT'S WHY I SAID COMPLIMENTARY!!! the food was NOT GOOD. the chicken sandwich was overcooked the tator tots were cold and the food had no taste. I would not recommend this as a good place to eat..... BY THE WAY THE HORRIBLE MANAGER THAT DID NOT LISTEN TO OUR COMPLAINT AT ALL IS...

Don't let the 3 stars deter you from trying this place for yourself. I want to say that it was pretty good. Customer service definitely wasn't the best, we walked in and waited almost 15 minutes before a person came, we actually had to call them on the phone to let them know we were here which is strange for a restaurant/bar not to have a hostess or somebody watching the door.

I ordered deep fried cheesecake, build your own burger, blazing buffalo wings & buffalo fries. The menu was so diverse and had plenty options, so it was difficult making a decision. Thats never a bad thing. The food was delicious, large portions, everything was hot, seasoned well & packaged well. Burger was gorgeous, deep fried cheesecake was soooooo good. The buffalo fries were okay but probably best ordered for inside the restaurant since they were a bit soggy. The only thing that was the wings. To me, they had a kick but they weren't crazy unbearable or extremely hot. However, for people not used to spicy food, I wouldn't order them.

We had them last night and now I am sitting with my boyfriend in the hospital. For people with weaker stomachs or stomach issues (IBS, Colitis, Chrons), please do not order the blazing buffalo wings. I have an extremely strong stomach & I can admit, they didn't sit well with my stomach either & I only ate 3. I've eaten Scotch Bonnet peppers raw and felt fine, so it was strange that these upset my stomach. All in all, I rate the place a 3 out of 5 stars. The food was great and the options were good, just strange customer service and the wings were a little off.

I will be going back to order more to review on my food blog because the other...