Woodlands Grill - Alton

This place is fantastic. Spectacular pizza and burger. The service was better. Perfect little spot to grab a bite and a beer after a hike.Ps…They have a part-time magician. Word.

I usually don 't do these type of ratings but i felt like for the first time this one needed to be said. Tonight my boyfriend and i called Woodlands Grill to order for takeout. A lady answered the phone, and said they are not doing takeout orders.. never heard of that before but whatever, you have to do what you gotta do. So i asked her if we could dine in, she said yes but it would be a 20 minute wait. We drive down to the restaurant, walk in, no one is at the front desk so we wait. The lady, who i talked to on the phone walks right in front of us from the restaurant and says If you are here to eat, wait over there, it 's going to be 20 minutes. No Hello, how may i help you? or anything of that kind of sorts. She didn 't even look up to talk to us, she just walked right past us and said what she said, and sat at her computer. So we waited. There was a table of 6, a table of 2, and a table of 4 already sat. 20 minutes go by and the table of 4, and 2 left because they were all done and checked out. Now, it was just a table of 6. We proceeded to wait another 30 minutes totaling 50 minutes after we were told 20 minutes in the first place. I am a server at a high trafficked restaurant and my boyfriend is a bartender, we get it, wait times run longer than you intend sometimes, but not once did she look at us, not once did she say I 'm so sorry guys, thank you for being so patient nothing. It 's almost like she was hoping we would leave. Anyways, we sit, and like i said before, it 's now us two, the party of 6 and a guy by himself who already has his food. When she comes to order our drinks, I say We can go ahead and order our food right now if you 're ready . She tells me Um no i 'm not ready in such a rude tone. When a table tells me We are ready to order as well as soon as they sit, they have just made my night a heck of a lot smoother so now i don 't have to run back and forth from their table. We were trying to make her job easier but yet she was still rude. I must also mention, a family of 4 and a family of 2 walked into the restaurant to eat while we were waiting, and she avoided them as she saw they were waiting at the front. Once one of the men went to ask her how long to sit, she kept walking away from him and as he was trying to ask her. Both of those families walked out. Money out the door. I think we can all agree bad service can ruin a meal. That 's how we felt tonight. I know first handedly how terrible it feels to be understaffed but one thing is to never be rude to customers. Other than that, pizza was amazing, and the restaurant was very clean!

When we arrived we were told they were understaffed and we would have to wait at least 45-60 min for a table due to the kitchen being so backed up. They had to turn several parties away while we were waiting. The staff was great. They apologized several times and once seated we were able to order our drinks quickly. Unfortunately they were out of several items on the menu. The mozzarella sticks were amazing. I have never seen any that large before and the homemade marinara sauce was interesting, maybe a tad too sweet but still good. The ribeye was tasty but the side of veggies tasted like they had been cooked from frozen unfortunately and the potatoes were dry and overcooked. Their special for the night was a great value at $10.00. For the price we would go back again in non-covid times and hope that with more staff this place would be a success.

I decided to come back today because we like the food and we last ate here on Saturday night which was live music night and the music was SO loud. Well today still loud music just over the speaker. I don't mind music with dinner at all but when I can't hear what my husband is saying across the table it too loud. This could easily be turned down to a comfortable volume. Today it was Octoberfest music. My husband said we are done with this place even though the food is good. He doesn't usually complain about much but he is in total agreement. Sorry

Took the family to this little place for lunch today and it was great. The food was delicious, the service by Cody was fast and attentive, and they also had a man who was doing magic tricks to entertain the kids. Would definitely recommend and we will be back