Wandering Down to Woody's

Woody's Diner

24321 Avenida De La Carlota

Laguna Hills, CA 92653

We reviewed this place a long time ago. In fact, it was the third review I ever wrote. The first two places we went to in this blog are both out of business, (Bob's Big Boy and Tijuana Gillies). Not a good omen for Woody's Diner. Will the trend continue, or will this restaurant survive?

The first time we came here in 2009, we were here for dinner. It was okay, nothing too great. You can read that review here. At the time I had heard that they were more known for their breakfast, so we decided to make a return trip to try it.

Woody's Diner has been in business since 1987. They opened their first restaurant in Huntington Beach, and since that time they have opened five more. All of them but this Laguna Hills location are located in beach cities. Woody's tries to convey a fifties diner theme, but the Laguna Hills location really hasn't changed much in appearance since they took it over from Islands back in 2009. They did remove the surfing pictures though.

We got to Woody's for breakfast at about ten o'clock on a recent Sunday. There was about a fifteen-minute wait for a table. Due to the proximity of nearby Laguna Woods, the restaurant's customers are of very advanced age. We finally got seated and perused the menu. This is what we came up with.

After a long, laborious reading of the menu, Katie selected the Popeye Skillet ($8.49). This breakfast skillet came with Polish sausage, spinach mushrooms, jack cheese, and eggs, and was served over hash browns. Katie thought this dish was very average. She was not too big of a fan of the Polish sausage. The rest of this plate left Katie wanting more. Everything just kind of ran together, and nothing really popped out for her with this. With the purchase of this, you also get a choice of bread. She went with rye. I always think it is funny she goes for rye bread, but it goes very well with breakfast foods. It could not take this breakfast over the average mark though.

When reading the menu at Woody's, nothing really popped out at me as a must-order item. The Baja Omelet ($9.49) seemed to be a good safe bet. This omelet was composed of spicy ground beef, sour cream, avocado, and jack cheese. The ground beef was spiced with what I believed to be a taco seasoning mix. Not too spicy, but I did add some Chuola to this plate to bring a little more flavor out. The omelet itself was okay, not great. Very average tasting. The best part about this egg dish was the fresh avocado served with this. The hash browns were average as well and needed to be seasoned a lot more than they were. I selected sourdough toast to go along with my breakfast, and it was decent bread.

Sad to report, but Woody's was not much better for breakfast than it was for dinner. The breakfasts that we had were nothing special. Service was good, considering how busy they were. The food came out quick as well. The prices here were okay. Breakfasts average from $6 to $10. Not exactly a bargain, but no price gouging going on here either. Now we have been here for breakfast and dinner, and have not been impressed by either.

Out of five pull-string toys, (because in the movie Toy Story, Sheriff Woody is a pull-string toy), five being best to zero being worst, Woody's Diner gets 2 pull-string toys.

For more information on Woody's Diner, click here: http://www.woodysdiners.com/