In The Wood - Berkeley

Comfortable, affordable, casual dining. My sister and husband were in Hayward with his family, we needed a halfway place from Petaluma to meet up for dinner. I chose Berkeley, came up with In The Wood perfect for our needs and wants! Yummy food, friendly server. Would surely recommend it if you're in the area.

The pizza is good. Alejandra is a great server. Owner is nice.

We visited In The Woods for a quick dinner and were intrigued by the wood-fired pizzas. However, we found the Calabrese a bit unremarkable, even with the variety of tasty toppings. The kale salad was decent but not memorable, as the flavor of the red onions was quite strong. The service could have been more attentive, although they were busy during our visit. Overall, I really wanted to enjoy this place, but the lackluster interior, a menu that offered variety but lacked a clear theme, and the service style made it feel like something was missing.

The lady who manages this place is not the friendliest. We had an ok lunch, but when the check came, she gave me a pen that was completely leaking. Granted, I didn't pay attention when I was signing my check, but I assumed I wouldn't get ink all over me at a nice restaurant. It stained my hands and ruined my new gel manicure. When I asked her to please throw the pen away so it doesn't do that to someone else, she barely acknowledged me and was very dismissive/arrogant. I worked as a waitress for over 10 years, I would have felt so bad if that happened to one of my customers. She couldn't have cared less and basically said it was my fault. Not cool. We won't be back.

I arrived at the restaurant extremely hungry, but unfortunately, I left feeling quite disappointed. The "Crispy Chicken Sandwich" was served cold, soggy, and definitely not crispy at all. The tortilla chips were stale, and the Spinach Artichoke dip lacked any real flavor. Additionally, our table hadn't been cleaned when we sat down. To make matters worse, they added an automatic gratuity of 20% for our group of five without informing us in advance, which resulted in us unintentionally tipping extra. While I understand that serving five people can be challenging for some restaurants, it would have been helpful to be made aware of the automatic fees beforehand—especially before charging our cards.