Wildwood Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in Sacramento

Food- 8/10 Service- I honestly can’t even rate this because we hardly got any. Ambiance- 8/10

I came here for a birthday maybe 5 years ago and we had great service but we were a big party of 15 at least. Wanted to try it again with my boyfriend.

The entrance is hrs to find if you don’t pRk in front of the entrance since there is a patio for the restaurant in the middle of the plaza with shops surrounding it. We walked through the patio and had to walk through the restaurant to get to the front entrance to see the host. There is signage for the host but it was very far apart to be able to follow the route.

We had no reservations and were seated right away for inside dining. The patio dining was a 20-30 min wait at 7 pm. We sat for about ten minute before we were greeted by a waitress who dropped off a bottle of water and filled our cups for us. We don’t know her name because she didn’t greet us with her name. She asked if we were ready to order and we were for sure ready to order everything even our dessert because we had a feeling we wouldn’t see her until the end of the meal.

We ordered-

Bruschetta with mushrooms/goat cheese- ammaazziing!!! I usually don’t like goat cheese but it was very subtle, very smooth and the mushrooms were cooked perfectly. The bruschetta was toasted perfectly.

spring field? salad- a normal salad- tasted great. needed some veggies

Lobster ravioli- my boyfriend loved it. Very small portion but we can’t complain because we rather had a small portion and it tasting delicious than a big portion and not great.

I had some type of corn and cheese dumplings that were like ravioli- delicious! But I only had four of them- they were bigger than ravioli size.

Ambiance- outside patio is nice with live music, majority of the people were outside. There’s a dancing area. It would have been a bit loud to be able to have a comfortable conversation but nice vibe. There were trees and lights out there. Inside was dark but a cute tree chandelier. Bar in the middle of the room.

Service- Host-very nice and sweet, smiled and attentive.

Server- she took our order and had every table that was around us as well. I am not sure if there is a short staff on servers. If there is, servers should only still be able to have a certain amount of tables to provide the best customer service possibly. Our server was very fast paced with no eye contact. She took our order and did not come back until we were done with all of our food. The appetizer and salad plates sat there with our entrees dropped off. No one ever picked up our empty plates. When we finished our entrees we stacked all of our plates off to the edge waiting for our dessert. Our server then comes up and grabs all the plates saying she will put in our dessert now. She dropped off dessert spoons for our lava cake but put it down pretty hard without looking at it or us while looking to the left of her . The entire time she was being very attentive to all the other tables checking in them multiple times. I am guessing because they all ordered alcohol and we did not. Our bill still came out to $95.

She dropped off our bill when we finished our dessert and said here is your bill when you are ready and walked off quickly. The bill has a scan to pay, she didn’t even need to come back. We didn’t even get a water refill in our bottle.

The reviews were right, the service is horrible to no service. I was hoping differently and that it was just a bad day and that my review would...

This is my favorite restaurant for a vegetarian burger, thinly sliced prime rib sando or spinach salad. Although it’s advised to have a reservation because this place is known to get really busy, we have always been seated pretty quickly on a walk in basis. The staff have all been extremely friendly with each visit. The ambiance is has a very modern and elegant feel and the art displayed changes about every 6 months that I can tell (perhaps more often). Food is always served quickly and mangers will often stop to pick up plates from the table and ask how everything is.

They have a plant based burger that appears to bleed like a beef burger, and it smells and tastes like one too. BUT, it has NO meat. Actually, the Impossible Burger is a bit better than a real burger in my opinion and I don’t even eat veggie burgers because in my experience the quality in restaurants are a hit or miss. However, Wildwood has done an excellent job of preparing this meat free plate. I’ve recommended Wildwood to friends and family for this burger and everyone that goes tells me they enjoy it.

The prime rib sandwich is not quite what I expected when I first ordered it. For some reason, I assumed I would be getting one cut of prime rib steak cooked to preference. Instead the meat is sliced very thinly reminiscent of a french dip sandwich. it’s served with cheese and thin cut fries garnished with salt and a mild herb (such as parsley perhaps?). The dip served with the sandwich reminds me of a peppercorn like gravy similar to what is served over mashed potatoes but is delicious!

My favorite meal is the side plate of grilled basil pancetta prawns. I ask that they serve it over spinach instead of arugula. Its served with a basil aioli and the spinach has sort of a warm lite dressing. I am not usually a fan or onions but the cooked shallots served in the dressing tastes great. It’s to die for!! This side plate is $15 at dinner and it’s enough to fill me up along with a side of fries which I never finish.

The prices are on the high side for most dinners, however if you are enjoying an evening out with friends or a lover, it’s well worth it for the ambiance and service alone. The downside is some cannot eat here frequently because of cost. I know they have reasonable prices at happy hour on food along with many drink specials on the weekend. They also have an outdoor patio that is cooled in the summer and heated in the winter. They have a stage on the patio but I have yet to visit while a band is playing. I hear it’s a fun...

Four-plus stars for the food. One of the best chicken sandwiches I've ever had. Salmon with blackberry paint and cornbread also excellent. Fries nice and crisp, and golden brown. The music act was a nice touch. However, perhaps it's due to the pandemic, but the service, while well-intentioned, was very uneven. Took a very long time for appetizer to arrive, When it finally did, waitstaff left dish, three plates but no napkins or utensils. Finally, flagged a busboy down and asked for same. Entrees came much more readily. But as soon as the entrees arrived waitstaff asked how everything tasted, when we hadn't had a chance to even pick up our fork. Never checked in with us during the meal. Therefore, had to ask and wait a considerable time for some sugar for the iced tea, refills for the sodas, etc. Finally, after all the table was cleared, and at least 15 mins had passed, had to run down another busboy to get our check.

Not sure if restaurant is still getting its "sea legs" after the pandemic, is short on staff, or waitstaff needs more training. We will try it again in another month to give them time to regroup, and then re-visit our review.

Update 8/22/21: - Food, cocktails remain 4-star. Excellent panna cotta with a strawberry coulis for dessert. Hostesses were on the mark; very gracious. Bussing service was much, much improved. Table was promptly and personably cleared throughout our visit; although had to flag staff down for re-fills. Musician was fantastic. However, our actual waiter, who wore her mask on her chin all night ran from being attentive, to inattentive, to downright curt.

I was raised to believe that how someone treats the waitstaff is a good indicator of how they treated people in general, and therefore, have always gone out of my way to be respectful to those that serve me. Plus, having worked on the front lines of customer service myself, I know how challenging such work can be. My husband was raised working in his family's restaurant from the age of 10 until he was 25. We both agreed that this particular waitstaff needs to brush up on her customer service skills . . . and wear her mask OVER her...