Knoxville Restaurants

#1,551
#1,551
kiddiedoc said:
Took the family to Litton's tonight for my 8-year-old's birthday. The pimento cheese/onion/jalapeño burger is legit, the fries and onion rings are darn near perfect. There's a reason it remains a local favorite.
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I honestly don't get what's so great about Litton's. And I held that opinion before I lived in Atlanta (home of the holeman and finch burger). They just sort of remind me of a regular burger you'd get from Applebee's or some place like that.
 
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#1,552
#1,552
SamRebel35 said:
I honestly don't get what's so great about Litton's. And I held that opinion before I lived in Atlanta (home of the holeman and finch burger). They just sort of remind me of a regular burger you'd get from Applebee's or some place like that.
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It's not the fanciest or best, but it's an icon around Knoxville. I gave my son some options, and he wanted to see what all the fuss was about. He usually chooses sushi, but my parents were in tow.
 
#1,553
#1,553
kiddiedoc said:
Took the family to Litton's tonight for my 8-year-old's birthday. The pimento cheese/onion/jalapeño burger is legit, the fries and onion rings are darn near perfect. There's a reason it remains a local favorite.
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The Tennessee Choice burger at We're Cooking is pretty special as well. And their fries are epic.
 
#1,556
#1,556
I've been to Litton's 3 times over a 10-year span and have been equally unimpressed each time. They don't hold a candle to Huey's
 
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#1,557
#1,557
kiddiedoc said:
I'll have to try those. I've also heard the Kobe burger at Bonefish is excellent.
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Interesting! I'll have to remember that next time I'm there.

MG1968 said:
The Tennessee Choice burger at We're Cooking is pretty special as well. And their fries are epic.
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I tried to talk my sister into going there with me once after reading some reviews about it on here. She was like,
"isn't that pretty much like a fast food joint"? I just shook my head at her. I suppose I'll just have to venture down there one day.

I'm not a crinkle cut fry fan and sadly that's the kind of fries I see in photos when looking at "We're Cooking" online reviews. Maybe someday someone can explain to me why they serve them at Wishbones and Zaxby's as well.
 
#1,558
#1,558
Coug said:
Interesting! I'll have to remember that next time I'm there.



I tried to talk my sister into going there with me once after reading some reviews about it on here. She was like,
"isn't that pretty much like a fast food joint"? I just shook my head at her. I suppose I'll just have to venture down there one day.

I'm not a crinkle cut fry fan and sadly that's the kind of fries I see in photos when looking at "We're Cooking" online reviews. Maybe someday someone can explain to me why they serve them at Wishbones and Zaxby's as well.
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She's pretty on point about We're Cooking. It's a fast food place. I'm really not sure what the fuss is, the food is fast food-ish as well.

The best burger in Knoxville is at Nick and J's Cafe. I swear by it. I also enjoy Mooyah but it's essentially no different than Five Guys.
 
#1,559
#1,559
MG1968 said:
The Tennessee Choice burger at We're Cooking is pretty special as well. And their fries are epic.
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This was my lunch today based on this post. Gotta say...good stuff. Never been to WC and this was a nice surprise. Looked like good ingredients and everything tasted good. I'd be up for going back.

I stepped in Bad Daddies Burgers that just opened. Didn't know if it was sit down or fast food. It's sit down. I grabbed a menu and left it for another time.
 
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#1,560
#1,560
Picked up take-out tonight from We're Cooking. Two of us got the Swisskie, one with bacon added. I got the "half cow" with bacon and my own ingredients. They left the onions off that I had asked for. We got an order of fries and an order of the onion rings to share. I'll be honest and say you definitely get your money's worth. The $7 burgers were all quite large. The burgers themselves although plentiful seemed to be lacking seasoning. The fries were typical crinkle cut fries nothing special, but also a fair serving size. The onion rings were pretty good but were lacking salt. They apparently also offer a curly fry but we didn't try those.

Overall we weren't disappointed but weren't impressed. It's just an average burger.

The two people there were very nice and I made a comment about it being quiet for a Saturday. He proceeded to say something about a pizza place(Blair's or Blains or something??) nearby that was offering $3 pizzas or something along those lines. I have never heard of it and had no idea what he was talking about.
 
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#1,561
#1,561
Coug said:
Picked up take-out tonight from We're Cooking. Two of us got the Swisskie, one with bacon added. I got the "half cow" with bacon and my own ingredients. They left the onions off that I had asked for. We got an order of fries and an order of the onion rings to share. I'll be honest and say you definitely get your money's worth. The $7 burgers were all quite large. The burgers themselves although plentiful seemed to be lacking seasoning. The fries were typical crinkle cut fries nothing special, but also a fair serving size. The onion rings were pretty good but were lacking salt. They apparently also offer a curly fry but we didn't try those.

Overall we weren't disappointed but weren't impressed. It's just an average burger.

The two people there were very nice and I made a comment about it being quiet for a Saturday. He proceeded to say something about a pizza place(Blair's or Blains or something??) nearby that was offering $3 pizzas or something along those lines. I have never heard of it and had no idea what he was talking about.
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Blaze Pizza was doing $3 pizzas for Pi Day.
 
#1,564
#1,564
biased as I'm an employee, but the prime rib sandwich at Peerless is one of the best sandwiches you can get in Knoxville
 
#1,566
#1,566
WallyBalls said:
Blaze Pizza was doing $3 pizzas for Pi Day.
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That's the name of it, thanks. He said the few people that didn't want to wait in line there came over to We're Cooking to eat.

crusse10 said:
biased as I'm an employee, but the prime rib sandwich at Peerless is one of the best sandwiches you can get in Knoxville
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I've posted about them recently I'm surprised you didn't say anything. They've been running deals on Living Social for a while now, and still are today I believe. The last time we went the food was on point.

NeylandStadiumBum said:
I'll throw Carolina Ale House in the mix for best burger in Knox
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Full disclosure, I haven't tried a burger at Carolina Ale House but what I can tell you is that my one and likely only visit to that establishment was beyond underwhelming food quality wise. Maybe they've changed since I was there, but I likely won't ever know unless someone drags me there and pays for my meal.
 
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#1,567
#1,567
Another great meal at Nama last night. Suggestion: don't look at the menu. Pick a $ amount for your table, make any requests of items you don't care for (eel and raw shellfish for me), and have the chefs prepare a creative platter using primarily their special catch. You will not be disappointed.
 
#1,568
#1,568
Coug said:
I've posted about them recently I'm surprised you didn't say anything. They've been running deals on Living Social for a while now, and still are today I believe. The last time we went the food was on point.
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I just never come in this thread lol. The restaurant, in my opinion, is way better than it's treated. There have been 2 GMs in my time, but from things I read, the GM before I got there did a lot of harm. People just don't go back most places after bad experiences, and that GM was the king of bad experiences.

If you want a rack of lamb, Peerless is the place. It's the thing that I order when I go in to eat. It's out of this world good. In terms of the prime rib, we just upgraded the quality of the meat for it. The new prime is awesome. And we just promoted a cook to the grill and he's on point. So if someone had a steak in the past that didn't quite cut it, things are definitely looking up from the past.
 
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#1,569
#1,569
bamacheats said:
The fact Peerless has resorted to Groupon tells me not a lot has changed.
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Ownership does the Groupons now to drive in new clientele as well as old clientele that was lost because of previous poor experiences that tended to hinge on specific areas that have been upgraded (ie quality of meat, the people in the kitchen, the management)

Unless customers blatantly lie to my face, those who come in who haven't been in for years leave saying that they're happy with what has changed since their last visit and will definitely be back. Again, I know I'm biased, but I'd recommend giving it another shot.

If a person says that they'll never return, but you fix issues within the restaurant and come up with a deal that drives that person back in for a redemptive experience, then the deal did its job. That person will not only be back, but they'll inform others that things are looking up.
 
#1,570
#1,570
crusse10 said:
I just never come in this thread lol. The restaurant, in my opinion, is way better than it's treated. There have been 2 GMs in my time, but from things I read, the GM before I got there did a lot of harm. People just don't go back most places after bad experiences, and that GM was the king of bad experiences.

Unless customers blatantly lie to my face, those who come in who haven't been in for years leave saying that they're happy with what has changed since their last visit and will definitely be back. Again, I know I'm biased, but I'd recommend giving it another shot.

If a person says that they'll never return, but you fix issues within the restaurant and come up with a deal that drives that person back in for a redemptive experience, then the deal did its job. That person will not only be back, but they'll inform others that things are looking up.
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I don't know how long you've been there but we first went there sometime within the first year they opened. At the time they were serving crackers with butter instead of traditional bread. My mom ordered a glass of wine and when it came out the glass was clearly dirty. I kid you not the waitress comes back to the table with a clean glass and proceeds to pour the wine from the dirty glass right into the clean glass right there in front of us. It was fairly appalling.

I can attest to this. The last visit we had there the food was definitely worth it. The only thing we pointed out was that someone had the heat turned up pretty warm in the dining room. The waiter was pretty stiff too but he did his job.
 
#1,571
#1,571
Coug said:
I don't know how long you've been there but we first went there sometime within the first year they opened. At the time they were serving crackers with butter instead of traditional bread. My mom ordered a glass of wine and when it came out the glass was clearly dirty. I kid you not the waitress comes back to the table with a clean glass and proceeds to pour the wine from the dirty glass right into the clean glass right there in front of us. It was fairly appalling.

I can attest to this. The last visit we had there the food was definitely worth it. The only thing we pointed out was that someone had the heat turned up pretty warm in the dining room. The waiter was pretty stiff too but he did his job.
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I started 3 years ago. That dining room gets hot so fast sometimes...it kills me. As for the crackers thing, that was something we changed over time. The original in Johnson City always only gave crackers (since 1938), so that's what they did here early on. When it came to their attention that people here weren't necessarily brought up on that, they started serving bread along with the crackers.

All I can say is that I'm very sorry you had such an awful experience early on. The amount of changes that have been made, as you said you can attest to, have really turned us around. Guarantee the server wasn't me, lol. I'm not even remotely stiff. I go for the more laid-back approach. Get the job done but don't try to come across as guests are beneath me or the restaurant
 
#1,572
#1,572
crusse10 said:
I started 3 years ago. That dining room gets hot so fast sometimes...it kills me. As for the crackers thing, that was something we changed over time. The original in Johnson City always only gave crackers (since 1938), so that's what they did here early on. When it came to their attention that people here weren't necessarily brought up on that, they started serving bread along with the crackers.

All I can say is that I'm very sorry you had such an awful experience early on. The amount of changes that have been made, as you said you can attest to, have really turned us around. Guarantee the server wasn't me, lol. I'm not even remotely stiff. I go for the more laid-back approach. Get the job done but don't try to come across as guests are beneath me or the restaurant
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Lol. It was an older guy, tall, average to skinny build, pretty dry character. We're an easy group but it was tough to get that guy to even crack a smile. It sounds like things are picking up for you all so that's good.
 
#1,573
#1,573
Coug said:
Lol. It was an older guy, tall, average to skinny build, pretty dry character. We're an easy group but it was tough to get that guy to even crack a smile. It sounds like things are picking up for you all so that's good.
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ahh I know exactly who you mean, and we don't have a position of "head server," but he fills that role
 
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