Charcoal & Woodz - Surrey

This restaurant is located in the Holiday Inn, Surrey/Cloverdale BC. We were staying in the hotel, which made it a convenient location to grab a meal as we arrived at the hotel just in time for a late dinner. The evening atmosphere was relaxing after a long day travelling and the food was very good although a little on the pricey side. Would definitely recommend.

Ordered 2 simple pizzas via Skip the Dishes, never arrived due to a “glitch” with the restaurant. Offered a small 10% discount to save the sale and declined. Not worth the effort to support a local hotel restaurant that doesn’t deliver. Have heard the service is very lacking in person as well.

I am a chef and trained in hotels for many years.... Food taste was 5/10 Ambiance 8/10 for a family sports bar Attached to a hotel. Quality 3/10 Service 3/10 Value 2/10 Buffett Attendance 1/10 I wanted it to be more but it just wasn't. We went for mothers day and website said Buffett open 5 to 10. our reservation was for 7,30. We arrived an were seated quickly. Drinks took 15 minuted to arrive at our Table from our waitress who was non attentive looked and tired? In her defence she may have worked the whole of mothers day? Ok so we got up to checkout the buffet. It looked picked over with the only thing looking fresh was the chef carved roast beef and ham. So we went back to our seats to wait a few minutes and hoped we were in between seatings and they'd restock it soon. Well 25 mintues after our arrival we decided to give it a go. The fruit., meat and cheese trays were at 25 and looked un kept and picked over. The home made salmon gravlox was stocked and one of the best items on the buffett. As we worked our way down the salads were quality but nothing special.....The 3 salad dressing were made in house and very good quality. Now the hot items, The rice was at 50 and barley warmed, the fried potatoes were tastey but way overcooked and blown apart The mashed spudes were again 50 full and the salmon at least it was a full tray, basic seasoned well but way over cooked and dry. The mushroom ravioli with truffle oil cream sauce was very good with 2 exceptions. Again barley warm, it was not stocked until our second trip up then it was hot. The spoons had all fallen into their dishes and were covered in sauces and never wiped or replaced. I ended up serving my guest with one spoon from the rice. the Butter chicken was very tasty but again luke warm. The mango chutney salmon was completely un edible looking as it was scraped into a pile all mashed up, I did not try it. The full tray of Chicken thighs in some kind of a nice flavoured voulute would have been spectacular if it was both hot and not over cooked. In our 45 minutes and 2 trips they only restocked the salad and the pasta the rest was like eating someone's leftovers. Oh the beef and demiglace was really good. The desert bar was restocked right as we needed it The pastries were home style and tastey but not exicuted professionally. At 50 minutes after our arrival we were told that the buffett was closing. So much for 10 pm. We were already in the midst of a lack luster event and this was the cherry on top. Charcoal and Woodz has the ability the offer great food and amazing flavors but fell short in far too many areas to risk spending $39 per person for a $19.99 experience again. I so wanted it to meet its web sites claims of local fresh ingredient professionally prepared , with all fresh in house sauces. But it was just not able to deliver.

Good service, good food, good selection. Not a intimate, dinner for 2 type of place but very good. Wait staff was friendly and efficient.

I stayed at the neighbouring Holiday Inn for three weeks on a business trip so ate here on multiple occasions. Ambience wise the lighting is perfect. Not too light and just dark enough that it would be a great place for a date, for example. The food is generally pretty good the wings could do with being a bit meatier but otherwise on an eclectic menu, the pizzas weren't bad at all, pasta dishes were cooked well, the jeera chicken was excellent and the steaks, whilst not melt in the mouth, were of good quality and always cooked to perfection. I can recommend the tiramisu and chocolate cake desserts as well. The wine selection, whilst fairly limited and not especially high end, was concise and there are a few gems on there and Thursday is $10 off a bottle night, one of the nightly deals they have. Breakfasts are also great. The service was a bit sporadic in terms of quality. The breakfast server was very good but later in the day things seemed to drop off and I occasionally found myself waiting a while before even any drinks order was taken as some staff seemed prone to standing about gossiping despite being me being sat within view. One server did stand out though Simran was wonderful. Friendly and attentive and I could be sure that if I was in her section I would be well looked after. She worked hard to ensure her customers were kept happy and is a credit to the restaurant.