Trailhead Steak & Trout — Attraction in Alcoa

I’m so conflicted with this review. On one hand I had an amazing pork chop dinner with a wonderful friendly waitress. My husband also a great looking steak dinner. But then there’s the other hand. E got there at 5:00 pm and was told there was a 45 minute wait. That’s fine. But you can only wait outside and we were told that the pagers only work well in a small portion of the parking lot. So we sat on a bench out front for about ten minutes until it started pouring. So our choices were to stand in the rain or sit in our car where the pager wasn’t going to work. It eventually stopped raining before our 45 minutes were up so we went back to our bench and the pager went off only a few minutes later. So that ended up working ok. So we get seated and look over the menu and try and place our order but are told that what I waited 45 minutes for is not available. I wanted trout. It’s why we came here. The word trout is literally in their name and it’s not late or anything for them to be out of something like that. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if we would have been told that before we waited or even when our beeper went off before we were seated out when we were handed the menus. It was just disappointing to be told that a steak and trout house was missing half of their namesake. When we were done eating and paying our bill the table behind us was having the same problem too. My suggestions would be to make sure people are aware you are out of a very main staple when they arrive so they can decide if it’s worth the wait. I understand they can run out between the time you arrive and the time you’re called to your table but that didn’t seem to be the issue since people were still surprised after we were finished eating. My other suggestion would be to use a text system at least as a backup for the pages since they don’t work well in their own parking lot and you aren’t allowed to wait inside. I want to reiterate how wonderful our waitress was and how good the food was also but it’s kind of bad to not have a main item and especially to not tell your customers that before they wait a long time...

Outstanding food (especially fried ranibow trout and potato bites!!) Very reasonably priced, great service. Our favorite place in Townsend for dinner! UPDATE: My wife and I have returned a cpl times over the last 8 weeks and sadly the food quality seems to have dropped considerably. Out last visit was on 5-19-22, and while the service remains the best I have ever had in Townsend and is as good or better than any steak house we have dined out in the southeast, the food standards unfortunately have dropped to a level that will prevent us from attending any further. The shrimp appetizer with bang bang sauce has went from whole shrimp, very fresh tasting and succulent to the equivalent of Sea Best battered and frozen popcorn corn, heavily battered and zero flavor. While the sauce is still delicious, the shrimp is very disappointing. I ordered the pan fried rainbow trout and my wife ordered the filet, cooked medium. While my trout was decent (although far from the usual standard of the Trailhead), my wife's filet came out basically seared on outside and raw on inside. The waitress even realized it once she cut it and asked would she like it refired. On the second visit to the table, the steak was basically inedible from being overcooked. This was a total waste of money and certainly not worthy of a "market price" filet. The owner/pitmaster is absolutely one of the best steak cookers I have ever had the pleasure of being served by, and I realize he can't be there all the time, but who ever is manning the pit when he isn't there either needs a massive amount of training or replacing. I want to stress, with the lack of quality in the food, the service provided by the wait staff is still amazing. I just wish the quality of food was still as high as the quality...

We had a party of 4 dining Saturday for an early dinner at 5:30 p.m. to avoid a crowd. My wife ordered the Tiger Shrimp, salad and baked potato (loaded) and I had the fried catfish, house salad and baked potato. The atmosphere was great, our server was excellent, but the food was sub par. The fried catfish was overcooked and tough. It was difficult to cut through it with a fork. The loaded baked potato was old. It had been prepped and cooked earlier in the day (maybe lunch) and kept in a warmer, which dried it out. It was served with two packets of butter that I had to unwrap and put on potato. It was reminiscent of what I would get at Waffle House for toast. The potato was tough and luke warm and not warm enough to melt the butter. My brother in law had the same dish and reported the same review as I have written. The tiger shrimp was excellent, but the same story with my wife's baked potato. The salads were what I would expect at an old time cafeteria and nothing to write home about. Their deserts were very good and our server was awesome. This was my first time trying this new place in Alcoa, but honestly I would not go back. There are too many other good places in the area to get a great meal for the same dollars. Out total bill for 4 of us was $145 without the 27% tip I left our server. I do not recommend this place. Unfortunately, it was a big disappointment. I saw the table next to us get hamburgers and they looked great, except for the cheese that looked like it came out of a Kraft singles package from the store. I would recommend Bella's or Blue Moose or Foothills Milling for a better meal. Nothing seems to do well in this location and that is a shame. I was looking forward to this...