Woodlands Inn

 

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1

Danielle Y.

Washington, DC

11/6/2007

We rented out the Woodland's Pavilion for my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary luncheon.  The room was perfect for a small gathering--beautiful fireplace, amazing table setting, picturesque gardens.  Overall, we still had a wonderful time, and I would certainly recommend the venue to those looking to plan weddings or other receptions.  Dale and Lori (the event coordinators) are wonderful and bend over backwards to accomodate your needs.  

However, given that the Woodlands is rated the only five star restaurant in South Carolina and is priced accordingly, I have to say that I was slightly disappointed in the food.  The filet mignon was still mooing, and, while I enjoy rare steaks, it was too rare for many of the guests.  The chicken was also good, though hardly as good as I expected it to be.  The champagne, on the other hand, was wonderful!

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Elite '09

80

189

Missy S.

Boston, MA

4/22/2008

For our 3rd night on the road we stayed here: the only 5 star/5 diamond place in SC (and one of only 3 in the country who have that distinction, 5 AAA Diamonds, and 5 Mobil Stars)!

We were excited:an old mansion from the 1800's, converted to a luxury resort. Bed was disappointing, but the worst was the food! Read on:

They let us order room servicez since we arrived late, but that was a JOKE!....We love our fancy dinners-but this was one of those places where the salad was 3 individual inch sized pieces of Iceberg lettuce (1"x1"), with a 'buttermilk foam' and various toppings like fricken pistachios (eww)

Oh, 1 of the lil' towers fell over when the waiter wheeled the table into our room, He got all distressed and wanted to take the salad back to the kitchen to have them make another!  We were like "Oh, it's OK! OMGoodness, it was crazy to think some people might get upset about that!!"

We could only laugh (his Caesar salad was a handful of romaine, that was SHOVED into 2 square 'crackers' that had an open circle in them, the 2 cracker squares were about 2 inches apart....THAT was the 'Caesar salad, and it had a DROP of dressing squeezed onto the plate! Hubby was like "WTF is THIS?"

and i said, "Um, thats your Caesar, hun!" Oh yeah, and it had a lil' quail egg on top too.....(barely cooked) too Fricken weird.

We are not unsophisticated people, we have eaten at 4 and 5 star places many a time (and love them), but this was preposterous!

Hubby had Scallops that were fishy and weirdly prepared and I tried the Duck, (I LOVE duck, but this had a gawd-awful flavor, i can't even describe it... but it was HIDEOUS. He did eat a bit of his, begrudgingly!z

Oh, I haven't told you, I got SICK to my tummy! LITERALLY (like I couldn't eat anything else, even when i was starving and got them to make me a burger, by the time i got it i was so nauseous, i couldn't touch it, and I suffered all night.....

What made me SICK was the dessert. I made the mistake of taking a bite out of this thing, that was supposed to have Chocolate mousse in it (my fave and the only fancy dessert i truly enjoy).....get this:

THE CHOC. mousse had HUGE Salt CHUNKS in it!  BIG-ASS  granules. No, bigger than a granule! This was like margarita- chunky salt. IN THE MOUSSE!  Blecch!

and it was intentional!!!

I said to the waiter, that "I realize that salt is needed in Baking, like cookies etc, it brings out the flavor, BUT I've never in my LIFE seen salt IN a CHOCOLATE delicacy! He said, "Well, sayou should know how much brighter it makes it taste! I was like "ARE YOU FOR REAL? I'm wanting to vomit from it!

My yelpers, you need to know to stay away from this place, even if it is only the 3rd place in the country rated 5 AAA Diamonds, and 5 Mobil Stars. The AAA/Mobil people must be on crack. Crack is whack.

YUCK!

Please Keep in mind, we like fancy, nouvelle cuisine once in a while.....like a good Pheasant Sausage with a confit this, and a foam that.....BUT this food was awful!

Oh, and breffie the next morning? LAUGHABLE.....More tiny food (except thankfully I had eggs Benedict, and its impossible to make the eggs smaller when they are poached. Hubby had a ''3 egg' omelette that was definitely no more than one, maybe one and a half eggs tops.

AND, the ''breakfast potatoes'' that came with breakfast, were chopped so microscopically, that u could not spear them with a fork, you could not even scoop them ONTO your fork! There were a few brightly colored onions/peppers in them, BUT they were not bigger than a grain of sand.

I could just picture the poor chef standing over his knives, wasting his time chopping micro goods! LOL...i mean items. I don't want to call them 'goods', lest ye think they actually were just that......'good'.

btw, the saving grace for you if u end up staying here (and please let me say, with the exception of the hoity-toity waiter, the staff was very friendly and VERY customer service oriented.....I will say that, we had no complaints there!).....

but your saving grace?  That they change the menu daily!!!

I wish like hell I had tried something off their normal room service menu, of a fish and chips meal, which was made with COD

(good God, a 5 star place can't even serve top notch HADDOCK?)

Cod is a lower-echelon fish!  But in retrospect, I WISH i had tried it, it might have been good. BUT can u understand my reluctance to order something as plain as fish and chips at a 5star place?  

We were prepared to be wowed, and we were so disappointed!

Better luck to you if u dare!  :)

I would go for brunch if u ever have an opportunity.

They can't kill brunch too much, other than the TEASPOON of micro chopped potatoes they throw on your plate! (maybe ask for extra?)

The Hollandaise was spectacular though, although i had to request extra! There was only a HINT of it on my Benedict!  :o(

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