Willowtree Inn Restaurant — Restaurant in Stroudsburg

My kids and I were so excited to try this restaurant out for my daughters 32nd birthday. We are on vacation for her birthday and we love to try new high end eateries for special occasions. I am so saddened that we chose this place. We stood at the front for about five min with no one at the hostess stand. My daughter had to walk into the bar to get the attention of the owner, Kat to seat us. We walked past not one but two dated computers larger than my last car and the decor is straight out of the 80's. The view is a gorgeous view of the river however there were bright red cling hearts placed over the windows obscuring the view. Our waitress was nice enough but we waited about 30 min for warm bread. We ordered three appetizers and three entrees. They came out after about 35 min and were not at all what we expected. We ordered the baked brie with fresh fruit. We received a plate of phillo dough dark brown with a very tangy, pungent, grainy tasting filling that was not at all like brie. We were later told that the chef liked to put in AGED BRIE. This choice was inedible as the rind melted in the phillo causing a black ring inside the dough that was unappetizing and the odor was remnant of an old rotted sock left to fester. I am a fan of blue cheese, however this cheese is beyond its prime in every way. The brie was served with two saltine crackers and grapes cut in half and outdated papaya?. Our hope for the next appetizer was a little higher, we ordered Swedish meatballs. We got a ramekin of tiny meatballs that were clearly frozen pre-prepared tasteless meatballs and the sauce was a runny brown gravy. I was hoping for the familiar hint of nutmeg and sour cream brown sauce that is signature to Swedish meatballs, however this was not even close and yet it was the best thing we had tonight. We received two saltine crackers with this dish. There were three of us and we were about to fight over who was going Keto for this appetizer. Our third appetizer was a "bruschetta and mozzarella with tomato provencal". What we got was burned french bread slices with tomato and shredded mozzarella. No basil in the tomato, no salt, no flavor. it was also all placed under a broiler and the tomatos became blackened like the bread. The main dishes were not much better. Chicken francaise. The sauce was a hollandaise and not a white wine lemon sauce. No capers of seasoning was used in the sauce. The chicken used was not fresh and the crust was pre prepared and it tasted of freezer burn. We had short ribs that were tasteless and both dishes were served with roasted beets. No thought, care or skill was placed into these dishes and it showed. I spoke to one of the owners Kat and she informed me that the chef had graduated top of his culinary school 45 years ago and he is happy with the flavor of his dishes. She also assured me that everyone is happy with is food and she is very proud of him. She asked me if I was a chef and I let her know I am mearly a nurse who loves to eat and a customer. The bill was the only thing rated fine dining here at a whopping $129. They are not a destination for anyone who enjoys eating. I was so sad eating there and am truly praying that when Kat reads this she notices the multiple other people who commented the same issues to her over the past year. Perhaps, changes can be made in the quality of the food, as this location is in such a beautiful spot. My children and I are praying for you and your business and I am considering my $129 ticket as a donation to...

We were there last night...HUGE disappointment. We were looking forward to a nice evening. We got the opposite. We arrived on time for our 6:30pm reservation ..we were finally taken in at ten to 7 . I wanted the table by the water, but was told by grumpy server that there was a long wait for that table due to Covid protocol. They tried to instead split up my party of 5 into 2 different tables. Of course we refused, and they brought two tables together..it really irked me to see that the table I had first wanted be given to the next party less than a minute after we were seated. Our server was not at all friendly and gave robotic replies to our requests..kinda went like this: " we'll have the dim sums". "we're out of that". .."um ok then..he'll have burger" "we re out of burgers".. "prime rib ..?" "out".. So yeah it would have been nice (and smart) to inform the patrons of what's missing from the menu. When you leave people for 10 minutes to decide on a menu, only for for them to find out you're out of major parts of it ,not only are you wasting more time, you now have a bunch of disappointed people who are scrambling to find an alternative ,because the last thing they want is to be left another 10 minutes without an order. As she placed our sugary drinks on the Wrought iron table, it's spilled on to our feet through the tiny decorative holes . Not wanting to make a fuss we asked her for 2 cups of water since the sticky juice was now attracting bugs. She never brought the water. We got up to the bar and got it ourselves. Fast forward to the food. It was TERRIBLE. The crab cakes were complete bread, the so called New York strip was grey and overcooked. . Don't know about you but we like our steak seared on the outside and pink on the inside. Not Gray on the outside and Gray on the inside.. I gotta talk about the "mashed potatoes" ....If you're going to charge restaurant prices and serve instant mash, at least disguise it with butter and salt. The instant mash tasted like it was brought from a hospital cafeteria.

As we went to look for own check and paid the bill we could not run out of there faster. Such a disparity from the first time I went there. Sometimes you get bad food , sometimes you get bad service... but whe you get both , there is no excuse.. Honestly i cant find anything good about yesterday. At least I found...

We were told there was a 10 minute wait when there were only 4 tables seated outside. We left there along with another group after waiting and ate at SIAMSA on Main St. instead. I’ll never eat and Willow again.

Here is the full story:

Current review (5/6/18): Went there today for lunch with my mom and girlfriend. Got there at 1pm. Noticed the parking lot had few cars and thought “great, it empty”... when we entered we were told by the waitress that there was a 10 minute wait which was surprising. So we sat in the waiting area. Then another group of 2 cape in about 5 minutes after us and they were told the same thing. Turns out the woman from the group frequents them a lot and lunch there with her girlfriends frequently. She even asked the hostess if “Kathy” was working and the hostess said yes. While we were all waiting I noticed the hostess coming in and out of the outside seating area as she was serving people out there. The entire inside seating area was empty! Then a young guy caring shop-rite bags containing what looked like packages of meat came in through the front door and headed to the kitchen.

After 15 minutes of waiting my mom, girlfriend and I left. My girlfriend ran back in side to give the two woman, that came in after us, the coupon we were going to use, cause at that point we ham had all decided that we would never eat there again.

It turn out one of the woman that my girlfriend was going to give the coupon to, had just come back from possibles the rest room and confirmed that there were only 4 tables outside who were being served. My girlfriend explained to the two women why we had left which they agreed.

THE HOSTESS COULD HAVE AT LEAST SAT US DOWN AT A TABLE AND LET US ORDER DRINKS OR EVEN OFFER US A COMPLIMENTARY DRINK WHILE WE WAITED.

THEY WEREN’T EVEN BUSY! WHIS IS WHY WE LEFT!

The two lady agreed with my girl and also left!!

I can understand if your short staffed, and even run out of meat. But telling us there is a 10 minute wait while ur only serving 4 tables is crazy! There are things you could have done to keep our business. A free beer or drink and even bread while we waited would have kept us happy.

Initial review around Valentine’s Day 2018: Food was pretty good. The view was great. I had the prime rib medium rare. The rare parts tasted alittle off. The appetizers...