Woodlands Mansion

The Woodlands Inn is a grand early 19^th century building in a wooded setting not far from Charleston. The attractive grounds include a large, heated outdoor swimming pool and tennis courts.
Our room was large and pleasant and I have stayed in hotel rooms that were smaller than the bathroom.
The restaurant is supposed to be one of the main attractions of the inn. Its website says, «For a stellar fine dining experience, we invite you to meet the award winning culinary team and savor the spectacular masterpieces created by the talented kitchen of the Woodlands Inn restaurant.» This is a bit of an exageration. I would give the restaurant four stars. The staff is very friendly and they are obviously trying hard but they are a little over-​attentive and the food is a bit overwrought. It also seemed a shame that even though the weather was fine it was not possible to eat or even have drinks outdoors.
I would have given the Inn four stars but our room did not have water that managed to be anything other than tepid. I understand that this sort of thing can happen, even in a well run hotel. But, the staff was curiously unapologetic. We were offered a room that they admitted was not nearly as nice. When we decided against that — we had already unpacked and were only staying one night — they offered only a trivial discount.

We bought a package that included a night stay, breakfast, dinner and high tea. First of all, this is a must experience for anyone. You feel like royalty and are treated with the utmost respect.
The hotel — is small, intimate and beautiful. It does not feel like a hotel, rather like someone’s home. The rooms are beautifully decorated and you feel like you are in a different era. our room had a fireplace, huge four poster bed and a huge bath with a jacuzzi. Overall, just stunning and an experience of a lifetime. Also, in the afternoon we strolled the grounds and they brought out bikes for us to explore the neighborhood. So relaxing!
The hightea and breakfast were outstanding. They think of the little things in how they present the food, which adds so much value. We had pancakes at breakfast with pecans and I can truly say that I have never had such amazing pancakes in my life. I love breakfast food and seek it out, but to this day I have not found a comparison to the pancakes at woodlands. I may go again just for the pancakes!
The restaurant — it is a five star establishment and I would give it all five stars. The food is presented beautifully, tastes divine and the portion size is perfect. My husband likes various versions of mushrooms and told the chef that. He ended up getting a dish with all the different varieties. Talk about service! I loved my deconstructed ceasar salad and halibut. The dessert was so refreshing as it was a crème brullee with passion fruit.
Overall, try a package if you must or just get a night to stay. You will not be disappointed. We went for my birthday/​valentine and I can say it was the best birthday of my life!

It’s hard to feel your breath not taken away by this place. It’s hard not to feel enchanted — When you’re in very secluded circa 1800’s plantation mansion tucked away amonsgst the woodlands of Summerville, SC. And there are only less than 15 rooms (I think) in this home. The staff knows you by name, sends you fresh grits up to your room because they find out you’ve never had «true grits» (hee hee) before.
Ambience — highly secluded, residential area in Summerville, SC. Most definitely as «Plantation» as you’re gonna feel in 2011. Think… Somewhere In Time with Christopher Reeves — southern version. The mansion is beautiful as are the furnishings, much of which are original and/​or refurbished — touches of Victorian, Louis XIV, warm wood floors, flowers. Slow and easy is how to take it here. We felt free to hop on complimentary bicycles and explore the quiet residential streets of the area. Or read a book in the salon. Or rock on rocking chairs.
Food — they offer a Chef’s table dinner (inquire about this for your special occasion you deserve it, and if you’re gonna spend the money here you may as well) — inside the kitchen where we met the staff and chef. The amazing thing about southern hospitality in a place where they’re only attending to a handful of people is that it gets real casual, real quick. After a few courses (it was a 10 course menu with wine pairings) we needed a break, walked around the kitchen, walked around the house, came back, chatted with the kitchen. It was too awesome! We even got an invitation to have beers with the chef on his boat that’s how chill and cool he was — pretentious-​schmentious.
Lodging — Its not modern, but you knew that. Its old southern opulence. Bathrooms have full bath yup and separate shower. White tiles, porcelain, all that. Some like ours have fireplaces and a terrace (netted in of course cuz of mosquitoes). Man… I wanna go back. This place will set you back some — so go big and enjoy every nook of this place!

CLOSED — Actually went to Woodlands Inn for restaurant week where you choose from a very limited menu for 3 courses at a set price. I’ve eaten at Woodlands years ago and was pleased with the food. This time it was not good and I wasn’t pleased with the service. I ordered the pork chop and it was dry and too tough to cut with the knife they provided. I requested a steak knife and was snottily informed that this was the only knife they had. You’d think they’d get a clue that perhaps the meat was too tough and maybe ask if it was okay but nothing. For a 5 star restaurant REALLY disappointing. C’mon. The Charleston area is way too competitive in the restaurant arena to try to skate by on pretentiousness alone

You will pay a hefty bill, but the food is unbelievable. I found the atmosphere a bit over the top, however this is an experience everyone should have at least once.

For our 3^rd night on the road we stayed here: the only 5 star/​5 diamond place in SC (and one of only 3 in the country who have that distinction, 5 AAA Diamonds, and 5 Mobil Stars)!
We were excited: an old mansion from the 1800’s, converted to a luxury resort. Bed was disappointing, but the worst was the food! Read on:
They let us order room servicez since we arrived late, but that was a JOKE… We love our fancy dinners-​but this was one of those places where the salad was 3 individual inch sized pieces of Iceberg lettuce (1“x1″), with a ‘buttermilk foam’ and various toppings like fricken pistachios (eww)
Oh, 1 of the lil’ towers fell over when the waiter wheeled the table into our room, He got all distressed and wanted to take the salad back to the kitchen to have them make another! We were like «Oh, it’s OK! OMGoodness, it was crazy to think some people might get upset about that!!»
We could only laugh (his Caesar salad was a handful of romaine, that was SHOVED into 2 square ‘crackers’ that had an open circle in them, the 2 cracker squares were about 2 inches apart… THAT was the ‘Caesar salad, and it had a DROP of dressing squeezed onto the plate! Hubby was like «WTF is THIS?»
and i said, «Um, thats your Caesar, hun!» Oh yeah, and it had a lil’ quail egg on top too…(barely cooked) too Fricken weird.
We are not unsophisticated people, we have eaten at 4 and 5 star places many a time (and love them), but this was preposterous!
Hubby had Scallops that were fishy and weirdly prepared and I tried the Duck, (I LOVE duck, but this had a gawd-​awful flavor, i can’t even describe it… but it was HIDEOUS. He did eat a bit of his, begrudgingly! z
Oh, I haven’t told you, I got SICK to my tummy! LITERALLY (like I couldn’t eat anything else, even when i was starving and got them to make me a burger, by the time i got it i was so nauseous, i couldn’t touch it, and I suffered all night…
What made me SICK was the dessert. I made the mistake of taking a bite out of this thing, that was supposed to have Chocolate mousse in it (my fave and the only fancy dessert i truly enjoy)…get this:
THE CHOC. mousse had HUGE Salt CHUNKS in it! BIG-​ASS granules. No, bigger than a granule! This was like margarita– chunky salt. IN THE MOUSSE! Blecch!
and it was intentional!!!
I said to the waiter, that «I realize that salt is needed in Baking, like cookies etc, it brings out the flavor, BUT I’ve never in my LIFE seen salt IN a CHOCOLATE delicacy! He said, «Well, sayou should know how much brighter it makes it taste! I was like «ARE YOU FOR REAL? I’m wanting to vomit from it!
My Unilocalers, you need to know to stay away from this place, even if it is only the 3^rd place in the country rated 5 AAA Diamonds, and 5 Mobil Stars. The AAA/​Mobil people must be on crack. Crack is whack.
YUCK!
Please Keep in mind, we like fancy, nouvelle cuisine once in a while… like a good Pheasant Sausage with a confit this, and a foam that… BUT this food was awful!
Oh, and breffie the next morning? LAUGHABLE… More tiny food (except thankfully I had eggs Benedict, and its impossible to make the eggs smaller when they are poached. Hubby had a ”3 egg’ omelette that was definitely no more than one, maybe one and a half eggs tops.
AND, the ”breakfast potatoes” that came with breakfast, were chopped so microscopically, that u could not spear them with a fork, you could not even scoop them ONTO your fork! There were a few brightly colored onions/​peppers in them, BUT they were not bigger than a grain of sand.
I could just picture the poor chef standing over his knives, wasting his time chopping micro goods! LOL… i mean items. I don’t want to call them ‘goods’, lest ye think they actually were just that…‘good’.
btw, the saving grace for you if u end up staying here (and please let me say, with the exception of the hoity-​toity waiter, the staff was very friendly and VERY customer service oriented… I will say that, we had no complaints there!)…
but your saving grace? That they change the menu daily!!!
I wish like hell I had tried something off their normal room service menu, of a fish and chips meal, which was made with COD
(good God, a 5 star place can’t even serve top notch HADDOCK?)
Cod is a lower-​echelon fish! But in retrospect, I WISH i had tried it, it might have been good. BUT can u understand my reluctance to order something as plain as fish and chips at a 5star place?
We were prepared to be wowed, and we were so disappointed!
Better luck to you if u dare! :)
I would go for brunch if u ever have an opportunity.
They can’t kill brunch too much, other than the TEASPOON of micro chopped potatoes they throw on your plate! (maybe ask for extra?)
The Hollandaise was spectacular though, although i had to request extra! There was only a HINT of it on my Benedict! :o (

We rented out the Woodland’s Pavilion for my grandparents 50^th wedding anniversary luncheon. The room was perfect for a small gathering – beautiful fireplace, amazing table setting, picturesque gardens. Overall, we still had a wonderful time, and I would certainly recommend the venue to those looking to plan weddings or other receptions. Dale and Lori (the event coordinators) are wonderful and bend over backwards to accomodate your needs.
However, given that the Woodlands is rated the only five star restaurant in South Carolina and is priced accordingly, I have to say that I was slightly disappointed in the food. The filet mignon was still mooing, and, while I enjoy rare steaks, it was too rare for many of the guests. The chicken was also good, though hardly as good as I expected it to be. The champagne, on the other hand, was wonderful!