As announced in today’s CT, the Woodstock restaurant in Civic will close its doors after 37 years – with the possibility it will open again in another location at a later date.
This is arguably Canberra’s first family restaurant and many of us have fond memories of going there for family birthdays etc. It was a place to get a great pizza, mum and dad could get an adult meal while the kids could order chips and chicken nuggets.
According to the owner, Mal Reid, the demise of Woodstock is due to a drop in patronage. I feel sorry for the guy – if only he had eaten there as a regular customer with his family he might have seen how far the standards at Woodstock had dropped over the years.
Reid was a victim of the staff shortages issues, having been forced to employ lazy chefs and weird emo waiters who failed to grasp basic concepts like supplying cutlery, serving water, taking orders and stuff like that.
And in the later years I certainly gave this place enough chances. The pizzas could be excellent, but then again they could be terrible depending on who was on the ovens that evening. The notorious flash-fry steak served to me on my last visit was the final straw.
So can I say i’d love to see you back, Woodstock, but do some serious re-tooling while you’re away – train your staff up and take a bit longer preparing meals if it means getting them right. There’s no excuse for serving bad food when you’ve had the same menu for 37 years.
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