Dr. Coburn’s Tonic — Restaurant in Woodstock

Very negative restaurant experience due to 2 hour wait time but I think it was management not the waitstaff and food was just fine, good not great. I visited this location during the week between Christmas and New Years when the town is packed with tourists - including me, so my caveat upfront is that I know this is a tough week for the food establishments in town with some closed for holidays and short staffing with people out sick or on vacation. That said, if the staff that was there had shown any kind of emotional intelligence, sympathy, and professionalism about the situation, it would have been an entirely different situation. The gentleman at the host counter managing the waitlist and seating was completely inept - he sat people at the wrong sized tables even with others available, he wasn't helpful regarding waiting space, was not proactive with any group there notifying them of a change in wait time or if they were moving up in the queue, and seemed to have no idea who or where his waitstaff was. After an hour wait (he told us 40 min) WE watched there be 4 open tables for 15 minutes and WE asked him to seat us which he then did. We sat at the table and no waiter came by for a HALF HOUR. No water, no menus, no one talked to us. Partway through this we tried to flag down the person who appeared to be a head server who mumbled something and ran off. Finally we snagged a waitress from the other side of the restaurant who was not serving our table! She was shocked we hadn't been waited on yet and she was friendly, helpful, even though she was clearly incredibly stressed and our own waitress appeared to be missing. She got our just-ok grilled cheese, tomato soup, and onion rings through fairly quickly and SHE got a big tip as the only person in the entire establishment who seemed to want to take our money. I get that it was a hard day, but the point of a restaurant business is to try to keep us happy and take our money - they...

TL;DR- Horrifying service and subpar food. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY.

With a limited selection of dine in restaurants in general, let alone during New Years week, we opted for this one simply out of convenience. It’s shaky 3-3.5 star rating aside, we were hungry. We got there right at opening with a line around corner, so needless to say the staff was slammed. We got our order promptly, and understandably, it took a while since everyone’s order went in at the same time. That was no problem. Here’s what was, with absolutely no hyperbole or exaggeration:

-ICE cold soups -Cold pasta -Fish and chips was literally (again no exaggeration) fried batter. Not one ounce of fish. It just crumbled to nothing -Zero refills or revisits from the waiter. Not once. To the point we didn’t even bother with our food issues and just wanted the check so we could leave

We could have lived with the terrible food at insanely marked up prices, but it was the flagrant disregard for anything even resembling customer service. At one point the owner walked by and we hadn’t seen our waiter in so long we asked him if he could help. He said that wasn’t his job and he’d get the waiter. No, the waiter never returned. When we got the bill we were honest and said the service just wasn’t good. This caught the owners attention and after a few minutes he literally sneered at us, and I quote, “Well with 3000 other people I’ve never had a complaint. Go ahead and write a review, it’s not going to matter.” Well as of this it’s 137 reviews and they’re not quite glowing.

So if I can dissuade even one family from the awful experience and the absolute waste of their money to a crook that is capitalizing on no other competition, who takes ZERO pride in what he does, then this was well worth it. He has a horrible attitude and could care less about customer satisfaction, which he...

If you are reading this please do not come here. I understand this is located in the center of Woodstock but it really is just an embarrassment to the wonderful community that is Woodstock Vermont. I dined in multiple restaurants in the area & this is the only place that I had a negative experience. Let me walk you through what I witnessed during my experience here. I arrived shortly before 7pm & had to wait quite some time to finally be seated or even noticed at the waiting counter. The bartender working was doing the best she could but was failing to uphold standards & failed to create a good environment for us. It was clear that she was overwhelmed & doing the work of multiple people. The wait time for food is just ridiculous. What is going on in your kitchen that is creating a wait time of 45mins or longer? The owners need to take a step back and review what improvements they can make to ensure the survival of this restaurant. New standards & practices need to be implemented because based off the other reviews it is clear that this restaurant has an issue with the food, service & more. I myself witnessed multiple people coming in after 7pm waiting to be seated. The owner then came over and said the kitchen is closed. Why are you turning away hungry customers at 7pm on a Saturday night? I was shocked by this, and it even created an uncomfortable environment in the restaurant. I witnessed the owners popping their heads around every corner but we’re doing absolutely nothing to actually help the employees. I really do not enjoy leaving negativity in reviews but I want to save as many people as possible from coming here and going through what I went through. Owners need to seriously fix this place or I will buy the restaurant myself when it goes up for sale. Good luck! Honestly I felt like I was on an episode of kitchen nightmares with...