The Wood

If I could give The Wood 1.5 stars I might, 1 is low but they definitely do not deserve 2. I really wanted to like this place but as it turns out the food we selected was some of the worst I have had in Saint Louis.  First the positives; the atmosphere, beers and service were good. But we came here to eat and were throughly disappointed. We had their nachos which were; overly salty chips, lettuce (yep lettuce), white cheese (not bad), nasty seasoned beef, a glop of packaged guacamole, some sour cream and tomatoes.  This was more of a taco salad than a dish of nachos. No option for another meat or any thing normal like beans.  For our main course we decided on pizza, which usually you can't go wrong with.  To be fair I have to say I am not a big fan of STL Style Pizza, so we asked the waitress if it was STL Style crust, she said no it was more of a NY hand-tossed.  What she didn't mention was it was loaded with liquid slop, provel cheese.  Doesn't a restaurant owe it to the consumer to call out provel if they are going to serve it? Especially if they are going to attach NY style anything to it? After our meal I asked the waitress if provel was the only kind of cheese they had she said, yes and that some people really don't like it. Well we were 2 of those people we barely touched it.  When we declined a to go box you would have thought she might have inquired more about our dissatisfaction.  Looking back at it now she was probably use to our reaction.  In all the menu was too big, it is like they are trying to be too many things without one speciality.  

If you are looking for a place to watch a game and have some drinks that probably won't be too crowded this may be a good spot.  It is a clean restaurant with nice (un-attentive) people working it. They seem to take pride in being "independent" and under new ownership/management. The website is surprisingly high tech and I think they even have an iphone app.   For these reasons it is really hard to give them such a terrible review.  But for $50 and a meal that feels as though it is burning through my chest at 1am I cannot justify anything more.  I hope this review in some way might help them get on track.  Unfortunately unless they totally rebrand the place I will not return.

You know - for what it is, it is awesome.

Great beer selection, good for large groups (DODGE BALL!) and the sweet pretzel bites with vanilla ice cream are bomb.

We have a lovely server and it was all quite enjoyable.

There are few good things to be said about the Wood. Things I like:

1.  The beer selection. GOOD beers to choose from. They've got the PBRs and such but they also have the "man beers"... you know, the kind that have a bunch of alcohol in them.

2. The bartender. She is frightening and not to be trifled with. I've seen her smile once and I've been here 3-4 times. She's on top of her game, and to be honest, I fear that if I didn't list her here, she might kill me.

3. One of the cooks. He's an old friend and one of the nicest people I've ever encountered.

Things I kinda like:

1. Trivia night.

Things that I don't like:

1. I never know if I should just seat myself or wait to be addressed. Then I am never sure if I should order from the bar or wait for a server... sometimes I just need instructions.

2. They are always out of everything. It takes me about 20 minutes to decide what I am going to order. Inevitably, they are going to be out of it. Let's get inventory together, folks.

3. The fact that trivia night allows a group of 30 people to be on the same team. That's a bunch a crap.