I had heard so many good things about Woodward’s Garden and the review on Bay Area Check Please really nailed down a desire to visit, so off my wife & I went for her half-birthday this past weekend.

The food was quite wonderful right down to the piping hot yeasty bread. My wife had duck and I the halibut on white corn succotash. Both were insanely good; as good as you can find anywhere at any price. Everything is obviously as fresh as it can get. The chocolate tort to finish was awesome.

The wine line is short but representative. It included not one, but TWO Sancerres. Good on you for that.

I’ve read a number of comments about “weird” service and I see what they mean; I wasn’t ever entirely sure if our server was capable of speech. She would barely look at us and even when we asked for advice about which wine to order, it was obviously quite the task for her to offer an opinion. “Reluctant” doesn’t begin to cover it. No one seems to much care if you are there or not so if you’re looking for light banter, this isn’t the place. The service, overall, was a little on the relaxed side. We weren’t in any hurry, though, so that’s fine. The flip side was that the food was served as soon as you and it were ready. No heat lamps here.

Oh! The memory lane part? My father used to own an auto repair shop up the block on Duboce where I spent all my summers from age 12 to 20. I ate more mushroom cheeseburgers than I can count at the, then, Woodward Diner run by Maybel and then by Ben and Norma. Ah, America. I haven’t been back in over 20+ years. My wife and I sat at the same table that my father and I used to share for lunch. The place really hasn’t changed one bit, it looked exactly as I remembered.

All-in-all, highly recommended; I’d go back in a New York minute. Call early for reservations as it’s small and it books up.

Maggi