The HIVE Tasting Room and Kitchen — Restaurant in Woodland

I wanted to love this place so badly. I have been hearing remarkable things and the reviews appear to be stellar. 4.6 rating, I'm totally in! But, we were not impressed.

First off, I had no understanding of the way things worked. We were acknowledged when we entered however, had to ask if we can be seated. We were provided menus and told to order at the front. I ordered and gave a 20% gratuity. I prefer tipping after the experience but, whatever.

I was given a number and we sat down. I wasn't aware I had to get my own silverware and plateware. I did eventually find the silverware stand but, there were no plates. Our food was delivered rather quickly and presentation was on point. I asked where the plates were. The server said " you get them from over there. I'll grab them oh, there are none there". At least they weren't there and I didn't just miss them entirely. Temperature was cold (pork belly chicharrones) and there were a couple friends (flies)near our table. The chicharrones were chewy and not very good. Again, I wanted so badly to like them.

We also ordered the Mediterranean Board which was ok I did enjoy the hummus and the garlic roasted tomatoes. The dolmas were hard and the rice was crunchy almost. No flavor. Dolmas are my favorite so, I'm partial to authentic dolmas made by a Mediterranean grill. It came with 3 I took one bite. My husband enjoyed the artichokes and banaganoush which had a slight smoked flavor. That was interesting and tasty.

They were out of focaccia bread. Plain bread was provided. It was .... Well, not focaccia.

We don't consume spirits so, we ordered the honey cooler. There is a minimal selection of non-alcoholic beverages which was disappointing. The honey cooler was light and nothing to brag about.

The atmosphere is gorgeous and I love the decor. I did take a peek outside and the outdoor seating area looks beautiful. They have several different types of honey and other fun stuff. I wanted to try the honey but, at this point we were ready to leave.

I plan on giving this place another try especially being that I didn't understand the way it works. What would have been nice is if it were quickly explained. It was towards the end of the day on Sunday (3pm) so, everyone is probably tired and ready to go. I imagine weekdays are...

Honestly it’s a super cute venue and the food is very good(although a bit overpriced in my opinion) but my main issue was with the service. We came with a party of 8, and they let us know when we made our reservation online and the let us know that for parties of 6+, we had to pay together and there was a 20% auto grat, we had no issue with this! We got there and it’s set up so that you go inside to order. We sat at the table for 30ish min with no one coming over before deciding as a group that we likely had to go inside to order, we went in and spoke to the person at the register and said it was no problem if we all just came in to order separately since that’s how the restaurant is set up. Halfway through our order, another woman came up and pretty aggressively told us we had to go back to our table and that she would come take our order, and that we should know that we have to order together because of the email. We go back to the table and after another 15 minutes she finally comes over, we order(it’s super disorganized to order, probably because her experience with table side orders is limited, which I understand but she wasn’t very nice about it and still seemed annoyed we had tried to go inside). Drinks get brought out and some of the drinks were forgotten, then food is brought out and then no one comes back to the table again. We were hoping to order dessert and more drinks and were scared to go inside after our first experience but no one ever even walked by the table so that we could ask to order more. Eventually we give up and someone goes inside to ask for a receipt so we can all give cash to make paying together easier. They tell us they don’t know how to print receipts. So we ended up just having one person pay and figuring it out based on the menu. The irony is if we had gone in to order, I’m certain all of us would have tipped 20+% but instead we received really lackluster service that wasn’t worth the 20% auto grat, and soured the...

I was looking for a place to eat with outdoor seating area and stumbled across this gem. Place was actually a tasting room with a surprisingly variety of food choices. I like that they have vegetarian choices as well.

My friend and I had the little gem salad, beet salad, mezzo board, grilled cheese sandwich and apple cider drink.

Little Gem Salad The salad was a mix of radicchio and endives sprinkled with breadcrumbs. The endives were incredibly crisp with sweet/nutty flavor. It also had a pleasantly hint of bitterness. The vinaigrette took the salad up a notch perfectly balancing all the different tastes by adding a sweet, sour and savory flavor. It also helped the crumbs cling to each individual leaf rather than falling to the bottom like croutons. Croutons are so yesterday lol. It's almost like breading for your salad. Sinfully tasty!

Grilled Cheese Let me present to you this photo of the best grilled cheese sandwich. It hails from the Hive tasting room and it completely blew my mind. Picture two perfectly toasted slices of focaccia bread (probably dipped in butter, or at least one can hope), stuffed with melting lamb chopper, gouda cheese, dijon and caramelized onions. The sandwich is served alongside a cup of creamy tomato soup. Definitely a must try.

My friend had the beet salad. I had a taste of it and it did not disappoint. We enjoyed the mezzo board with the yummy hummus alongside the olives, veggies and bread.

Customer Service Beatrice took our order and served us. She was amazing. We had questions about the mead tasting and she answered it thoroughly. She was super friendly and professional.

Restrooms were clean and parking was ample. Not sure where you would park if it's crowded...maybe street parking. Restrooms were clean. Overall, love the ambiance. Lots of seating outside and makes me really comfortable to dine out with lots of room for social distancing. I HIGHLY...