Cherokee Marina & Campground — Attraction in Gallatin

Had heard how great Cherokee Steakhouse was my whole life. So I got the crazy idea of planning our first visit for my girlfriend's birthday. What a mistake! First, we were the first of about 5 couples seated and waited for 10 minutes before being acknowledged while all the others were helped. After the lady finally showed up, we asked several questions and she acted lost(or drunk). We asked if they still had 'Steak for 2'(supposedly a popular item), and was told 'Nope.'.So I said you still have 'Filet', right? 'Nope!' Ok, so let's try the 'Prime Rib', for $28. Surely, they had that. 'Oh yeah, could we get some bread?'. 'Nope! Don't got bread. Took it off menu over a year ago.' Like I should've known a steakhouse didn't have Filet Mignon OR bread. Ordered PR, mashed potatoes, and mac&cheese. When food came, PR was dry-as-a-bone(thank GOD they brought au-jus) & tough as a work boot with zero flavor. Mac&cheese was even worse. So I asked for some fries to replace the dry mac noodles. After choking down some of the PR, she finally brought fries 15 minutes later. By this time, we were over the whole 'Cherokee hype' and just wanted the check. While waiting for our waitress to look our way to get the check after being done for 15 minutes, I contemplated asking for the manager, but didn't seem to have anyone that looked like they were in charge. And didn't feel like waiting any longer. So after getting our check, she charged me $3 for the fries to replace my dry mac noodles. Needless to say, I felt like we were on a bad episode of 'Bar Rescue'. I normally don't get worked up over bad service/experience, but I won't spend another $70 here! Buyer beware! FYI, others said new owners changed everything. But they seemed to have spent alot on the...

My family and I came to Cherokee Marina restaurant for the first time today. We live in Lebanon so thought this would be a great local place to grab a bite to eat. I don’t know if everyone who works there was just having an off day or what, but we didn’t see a single person smiling which we thought was odd. After standing at the front for a few minutes, a server told us the hostess would be back to get our name. When the hostess did arrive, before even asking how many were in our party (4), she says “it’s going to be a two hour wait, so you’ll probably just want to leave”. Ummmm, what? You’re actively telling would be paying customers, and new ones at that, they should probably just leave? They’re obviously very busy and maybe they genuinely don’t want any more business. But that’s certainly not a friendly way to greet customers.

The unfriendly vibes continued when we ventured outside to the bar. Four bartenders and again not a single person smiling. We figured we’d make the best of a two hour wait, which the hostess reminded us after we said we’d put our name on the list anyway, that “it would be at least two hours”. It took about 10 minutes to get the bartender’s attention which was totally fine because they were busy. But when we did order a couple of beers and a cocktail, we felt like we had somehow bothered or disgusted the bartender. We interacted with two of them, and both were pretty grumpy. Maybe they too didn’t want the business.

The whole experience was really off-putting. I’m pretty disappointed that a locally owned establishment in our little hometown would be so unfriendly. Unfortunately that was enough for our party to say no thanks to coming back for the food or the boat slip.

Do...

First and last time ever to go..had reservations..arrived 25 minutes early to check in was told they would call me when table was ready..at least 10 other parties came in after..went in to check on our table and was told..sorry we forgot about you and we can seat you now...got seated and waited 10 minutes before anyone said hi...was given the new menu and special was prime rib..only.other steak on a steak house menu was ribeye(I find that comical that you call yourself a steakhouse). Tried to order the prime rib and was told they were out..tried to order onion rings..out...ribery sandwich out...so we order 2 burgers and chicken tenders and house salad..salad was inedible and lettuce was old and brown...after 50 minutes of waiting we asked the server how much longer and was told"ill tell you like the cook told me..it will be ready when its ready"...finally received the burgers and no flavoring,no salt,no condiments for the burger..had to ask 4 people for ketchup and 6 x for mustard..I finally got a single pack of mustard..had to ask for a refill on our hour old drink so we could wash food down....this was all with reservations but they were pumping all the food to the patio where people were coming off the lake..if we had just shown up, we would have been treated better and gotten our food timely.. oh yeah, the table next to us was served prime rib and onion rings after we were told they were out.never saw a manager only the server that kept saying she had been there 25 years and the cook had made her cry tonight...this is one of the absolute worse experiences and dining we have ever had in middle tennessee..will never recommend anyone to eat here and i couldn't be paid to return...