I am sorry to say we wanted it to be good as we often hope for Cape restaurants. I want to be careful to simply report versus get personal. We walked in, two host, one more mature women, one young lady...never greeted us, just looked at us and looked down at table setup and young girl said "right this way". As we sat, I asked the host that seated us if they brewed their own tea as I was headed to the restroom and wanted my wife to be able to order the drink. She said she had no idea, I happened to look inside kitchen and saw the brewers and said to her "yes I think you do" and pointed it out to her.
The atmosphere is very pleasant, much money spent in build out, seemless floors in kitchen and bathrooms, I happen to have much experience in restaurants as well so notice these things. I would say Trendy. When I arrived back at table, very nice server took drink orders. Upon delivering drinks, we had several questions. We asked some questions about fresh menu items. As with many restaurants, this restaurant too uses "fresh" too loosely as often they mean fresh frozen, fresh cooked, or fresh criovaced. We specifically asked about freshly prepared foods available and the server had no idea. At this point we knew that most of the problems in this area is the fault of the ownership for lack of training on the menu. This happens so often, owners build a beautiful restaurant yet do not invest in training. We asked if the vegetable was fresh and was answered "yes". I also asked if fish entries were fresh as described on the menu and was told yes, after further inquiry she said the salmon was frozen. The server simply had no idea of how to interpret our vocabulary of "fresh" items. She asked, "fresh frozen" or "fresh". I explained to her nicely, "it is either fresh or not, fresh frozen is never fresh". She agreed.
I ordered Blackened Grouper, mash, and asparagus. Wide ordered Jerk Chicken, double veggies (thinking fresh as we were told), and son ordered crab cake, with bowl of Lobster Bisque prior.
Salads came out, they were fresh and good, we thought good start. Then dinners delivered. The asparagus was not fresh, I think it was canned, it may have been previously frozen but think canned. Grouper was not fresh, over blackened, and over cooked, mash was fine, not good, just fine meaning eatable. Wife's chicken was okay, in her words doable, she had no side at this point as she could not stomach the asparagus. They were out of baked potatoes so not a choice. Son's crabcake was full of fillers, he did not eat it. They did take that off bill.
In the end, we felt lied to. Not intentionally, simply a total lack of training. They may have had some fresh items, such as sandwiches, wings, etc... we simply had no idea. Servers should be able to tell you what is fresh. The shame is, they may have had other items we would have ordered and simply made the decision that if we go there, we need to order their fresh items as we do not enjoy processed or frozen foods. Again so many restaurants purchase frozen and processed foods out of laziness or a lack of training with cooks, ownership, etc...Fresh food can be served for a reasonable price. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. They may have had great wings, great burgers, etc... we simply had no way to know and the staff sadly has no idea either. Not totally ownerships fault but mostly, any good server knows those things and takes the time to learn them.
We are in hopes that the ownership takes this feedback and improves. We want you to succeed, florish, and thrive. We just need to know what you do make that is fresh. We simply want the choice versus being misled. Please do not post fresh on menu items that are not prepared in the restaurant out of fresh ingredients, on premise. The difference is huge. As it relates to price, it is a bit pricy for the level of quality.
Just as a quailfier to substantiate my post, I own and operate 5 hair salons currently and also am a former restaurant owner, owned Dairy Queens, also was a trainer for Golden Corral Restuarants. We also go out 3-4 times a week, frequent restaurants such as Bonefish Grill, Verandah, Olive Garden, Bistro 41, Bahama Breeze. We often try local restaurants hoping for a good experience. Often we are discouraged and find ourselves heading back to franchise restaurants due to consistency in meals, service, and atmosphere as they have training for these areas. I am familiar with training, can offer seminars on guest service, and would be willing to help this owner as well if he so desired. I understand his name is Eric and was told he is quite interested in seeing reviews and acting on them. Hopefully he will reach out, I could help him immensely with only a little effort.
In the end, in this economy, average, just okay, etc... is not good enough. You need to exceed expectations, serve fresh food, and provide value. It does not need to be cheap prices, value and price have very little in common.
Let it be stated that I don't really like leaving a bad review unless it's completely called for. ( I give it two stars instead of one because our server was nice.) This place wasn't outright rude or horrible - but the food sucked. Â Sorry. Â I wanted to like it. Â It had a nice tropical look from the outside but I guess it is more of a sports bar than a restaurant. Â
We went there for lunch and ordered water with lemon. Â First thing I would change if I was the owner would be a water filtration system. Â It was horrible. Â Worse than tap if that's possible. Â I resorted to pulling a bottled water from my purse. Â
Tables- uncomfortable distance to eat unless you have a 4 foot waist- and no way to adjust it.
Food- that's why you are there I suppose. Â It was a Monday during lunch so we were not there for football. Â Maybe people only come for football? Â If so, that's cool. Â I guess the name 'Island grill' just throws people off a bit.
Simple order (one would think) - grouper with salad and fish tacos. Â
My salad was horrible. The first dressing I ordered was so bad I had to ask for an alternate of balsamic vinegar. Â Guess what? Â They were OUT. Â Out of balsamic vinegar? Â I had to order ranch as the choices kept getting more scary. Â The salad had obviously been made a day or two beforehand and stored in the frig. Â It consisted of iceberg, a bit of romaine and two tiny pieces of week old tomato. Â Very bad. Â
I tried to make the best of it and eat the fish. Â It was nothing special. Â I guess if you can't really cook fish you cover it with blackened seasoned and call it blackened.
Hubby's meal was even worse. Â I noticed he stopped eating pretty early on. Â He had ordered fish tacos. Â Not a tall order! Â Come on! Â They were raw in the middle. Â If we wanted sushi, we would go find a good sushi place with fresh fish. Â Sorry guys but someone in the kitchen is falling down on the job. Â
For a $35 lunch, I was totally not impressed and would never go back.
Upon entering we were greeted with an actual smile and friendly staff . A big plus in my book. Our server was very efficient and accurate with her discriptions of the menu items.
Myself and friend decided to share the Seafood Sliders ,which were very tasty and was brought to the table on 2 dishes with a minimal sharing fee,without any negativity.
Our one friend had the pork sliders which she raved about ,and our other friend had a burger prepared to her liking.
The seating in comfortable , outdoor seating is available ,also a meeting room for private gatherings.
We will definetly go again!!
A grand welcome to Cape Coral for sure!!
If your a sports fan TVs at every table. Not loud.
Maybe it's because it's a "soft" opening and they still need to get the kinks out but I wasn't too happy with Woody's except for their happy hour drink prices. I tried it twice on my recent visit to my vacation home in Cape Coral.I have a condo in Sandoval from which I can literally walk to Woody's so I was very excited to see they finally opened something in this plaza.
I first tried it the night of my arrival. We were a party of two and the place had maybe 3 tables full. They asked us if we wanted a table or a booth. When we said a booth the young hostess was like - well since you're only two I need to put you in the booth all the way back there. So we sat with a nice view of the kitchen. At least I saw it was clean.
We had seared tuna appetizer, a side salad, a soup and a mango chicken flatbread. The tuna tasted water logged like it had been sitting in ice for a very long time (or was previously frozen). The wasabi sauce and mango salsa that came with it was quite good but the tuna really was just tasteless. The salad was fine. The soup was tasty, the flatbread was good - same salsa as the tuna. It was "good enough" for us to try it again yesterday.
Yesterday we walked in and it was 84 degrees in the dining room. When we asked the 3 managers who were hanging around at the front of the restaurant to please make it cooler they told us it was the coolest it was going to get. We had our happy hour drinks and left.
One positive - The happy hour drinks were cheap - glass of wine $3.00 - giant rum and coke (Bacardi rum) - $5.50. They have a window where people can sit at the bar - which was part of what was making it so hot in the restaurant I'm sure - but to put $3 beer drinkers ahead of the eaters was a turn off for me. Also, the server we had yesterday for our drinks was extremely nice, apologetic and seemed to know the menu well even though we didn't order any food.
I guess we'll try it again in season when the open window won't make it so hot. Â Maybe by then they'll figure out how to deal with locals at the window and people who want to spend real money.
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