North Woods Inn it for the Money

Hello Again,

I had planned to start the new year with a strong "expose" style post about the WORST restaurants in LA. After realizing how daunting that task would be (my list of bad mexican food places was already 19 restaurants long)I buckled under the enormous weight of having so much hatred to spread that I decided to drop it altogether.

So today I bring you only one restaurant's share of hated. NORTH WOODS INN in the SGV. It's a small chain of maybe 4 or 5 so maybe you've seen one on your way to Disneyland. They look like very large log cabins with blankets of snow on the roof.

My mom used to have a flower shop about ten seconds away from the NWI on Rosemead so I grew up my whole life wanting to go there. (When I was little I was obsessed with all things "American" like mashed potatoes, family board game nights, singing in the car. Then I found out that none of those things are really American as much as just corny)The main reason my parents refused to take me to the NWI was because it looked too expensive.

So FINALLY after years of wearing them out my parents took me to the North Wood Inn a couple of weeks ago.

I.
WAS.
STOKED.

Little did I know that my dining experience (and childhood dreams) would come tumbling down after a night of rudeness, grease-where-it-shouldn't-be-ness, and deceit. I will explain:

RUDENESS:
Our waiter resembled Louie Anderson sans cute cartoon affiliation and annoying voice. After overhearing us speak Spanish he insisted on taking our orders using his broken Spanish. Con Caizo (queso) or no Caizo (queso)??!! My parents, who are perfectly capable of ordering in English smiled politely at his poor attempt at being funny and ordered in English.

I ordered a steak sandwich, which doesn't come with all-you-can-eat sides. Our waiter made it very clear that I wouldn't be allowed to have any of my parents all-you-can-eat salad and that even though it would be on the table it wasn't part of my meal. OKAY A-HOLE I GET IT, NO SHITTY RED CABBAGE SALAD FOR ME, COMPRENDO MUCHO BIEN.

GREASE-WHERE-IT-SHOULDN'T-BE-NESS:
I am a huge supporter of the grease. But I think we can all agree that there are places it shouldn't be. Like swimming around at the bottom of our plates, on our (unused) utensils, on the menu and all over the salt and pepper shakers. Finished. Done.

DECEIT:
This is the clincher. Just as my parents suspected, the NWI is pretty expensive. The average price for a dinner entree is about $24 and our waiter made it very clear that it was DEFINITELY big enough to share between two people. So my parents shared a chicken entree. When we received the check I noticed a $8.00 SHARING FEE that was NOT mentioned by our waiter and was no where to be found on the greasy menu. They had shared half of a dry chicken, a scoop of rice and vegetables (don't forget all-you-can-eat red cabbage salad) for $8.00 more than what they had expected. i was soooooooooooooooooooooooo pissssssssssssssssssssssed. But now I'm over it because I'm never going back there again and hopefully neither will you.


After dinner my parents disclosed the REAL reason why they had never taken me to North Woods Inn. When they first opened the flower shop my mom put together a nice flower arrangement for the North Woods Inn as a "we're your new neighbors, if you ever need flowers let us know" sort of thing. My mom remembers getting ignored by the staff so that eventually she just left the arrangement and walked out because no one would stop and talk to her long enough to see what she wanted. The whole ordeal made her feel embarassed enough to never go back. It was sad to hear but I was glad they shared that with me, especially since sharing thoughts about the North Woods Inn with my parents doesn't come with an $8.00 fee.