Fernwood Tavern - Big Sur

Fantastic food! Excellent service! And the best ice cream in town! Thank you, Jennifer! Plus, it's dog-friendly!

As for service, our server was very friendly. However, she was the only one on duty, which made the restaurant feel understaffed. We had to wait quite a while for a table, even though there were plenty of available spots on the deck. Now, onto the food. We chose this restaurant because it offered several vegan options. We ordered: 1) Tacos filled with roasted potatoes and bell peppers. We asked for it without sour cream and cheese, but they provided guacamole and refried black beans on the side instead—though it would have been nice for those to be included with the dish. The potatoes were slightly undercooked, but they had a pleasant spice. The pickled onions added an interesting twist to the tacos. Overall, I’d rate them a 3.75 out of 5. 2) A margarita pizza with vegan cheese. While I appreciate the option for vegan cheese, I’m not a fan of Daiya. It would be great to see alternatives like Violife, Follow Your Heart, or Miyoko’s offered instead. The pizza had very little marinara sauce, so we had to request extra on the side. Even with the additional sauce, the meal was rather disappointing. Our server was very understanding and kindly removed the charge for the pizza from our bill.

We arrived at 9 PM, and to our surprise, the restaurant was still open! Although it seemed a bit understaffed, the staff was incredibly friendly. The portion sizes were quite generous compared to other places we've visited. The nachos were massive and perfect for sharing at $20, while the poutine, priced at $14, was very filling. Both dishes were delicious! Although our waitress didn’t check on us frequently, we understood it was a busy night and she had multiple tables to attend to. They also offered outdoor seating with heaters, which was a nice touch. We would definitely come back! Great value for the food!

Stayed here and also dined- waiter got 3 things wrong on our order and didn't fix anything, gave us $3 off a $60 meal. My heater was broken in my hotel room (was super cold) got $10 off. The room was $230. Left my laptop charger, called the hotel for a week before anyone answered. Left multiple voicemails in restaurant and sent emails. They sent me a charger (which I paid $10 to have mailed) and they sent the wrong charger (a new charger is $150). If I could have gotten through via phone the day I left it probably wouldn't be in this pickle. Wouldn't recommend staying here as it's incredibly overpriced for the quality. Pretty shocked that it's so hard to get through to talk to anyone. Pretty shotty service all around.

I did hear good things about their cocktails here, but when I read in the paper that was in our cabin that Fernwood has live music, we had to skip on the $10 tacos at the campsite to check it out. It turns out that there was no live music. It's tough because the service industry in general cannot obtain good employees to help businesses keep going. We decided to stay for dinner since we drove here, we might as well commit. We got seated outdoors which was nice and we were facing the river. However, the heat lamp was turned on and we were broiling (we had to ask for it to be turned down). We decided to order a margherita pizza and drinks. I've never seen an Old Fashioned shaken but according to Google, it can be made that way. The pizza was a bit bland. We couldn't taste anything and threw pepper flakes on it to give it some spice. We didn't finish our pizza, but took it back to the campsite, but ended up throwing it out the next day. I don't know if I would go back but if things turn around, maybe, who knows?