Town Tavern of Banner Elk — Restaurant in Banner Elk

Waitress grabbed menus and raked my Daughters phone off the table. The phone landed face down on some gravel that was on the floor and cracked the screen. Waitress did retrieve the phone with a sound of whoops. With No apologies . That was the last time we saw that Waitress. Our food was delivered by a person that didn't apear to be a Waitress. She had no idea what food was. So everybody got a plate waved under their nose. The sandwiches looked the same to us but we soon realized we had the wrong order. That was the last time we had any service. No check on how food was ok or not. No refills on drinks. My wife approached another Waitress and asked to speak to manager. The manager seemed lost and we had to flag her down. The manager quickly told us the restaurant was understaffed for noon meal. When I asked why not block off tables like many restaurants do in this condition. Or suggested maybe hiring more or better trained staff. The manager left crying. I tried to be supportive and give her some ideas in working with staff. But that opportunity never came. Direct all servers that one visit to the table to check on how food arrived and if anything was needed like silverware,napkins, or any special condiments were needed. Also every table should have a small unnoticeable mark or dot the indicates the 12 o'clock position on table. That way each patron gets a clock position for correct delivery of food without passing plates around past everyone before arriving at correct person. The clock system covers parties of 12 or less. Larger parties can use the double clock serving which covers 22 patrons because of 2 middle missing makes 22 instead of 24. Many restaurants use the clock system. No interface with wait staff and customers is wrong. A great server can see if a person knocks over a glass or drops a fork and bring new without asking. Yes it's bad when wait staff is constantly asking questions of customers when they just took a bite of food. This is what separate the really good from a bad experience. The food presentation was only barely ok. Floor was dirty, but table was clean. Atmosphere was very good. You can imagine sitting at a table with your Daughter crying because her one week old phone was broke. I did not want my check to be comped off and asked if I could be payed by me. My meal was comped against my wishes. So my complaint it after Waitress knocked phone on the floor she avoided us. Should have been a small apology. The wsitress knew she was wrong as she never approched us after the incident.Manager was not very caring at first as it wasn't her fault the restaurant was understaffed. When I asked her who was responsible she left crying. The money for the phone is not an issue as it was an accident. The problem was lack of empathy toward my Daughter, and the avoidance of our table when we saw other waitresses helping their customers. The hostess at the front saw and was very apologetic. If this was my restaurant I believe a global changeout of manager on down except for hostess. This restaurant has the capability to be a 5 star restaurant with location and view and nice building and correct tv and sound for entertainment. What I want is to make this a great place that my family can enjoy. A little training would go a long way on new manager and howhis/ her staff treats customers. This was our second visit at this location the other visit was marginally good and I wanted to give them a chance to redeem, but I felt like I was treated like a street person. I would recomend a road trip to a 5 star facility to see how to be an invisible server that gives to the need of the customers. It takes empathy and care to work in this business. This is a new place with so many growing pains the only way to survive is to be a tourist place that doesn't rely on repeat business. I want to be a repeat customer and want a 5 star...

Let me start by saying our waitress Valerie was amazing, and this review does not include her or the service she provided. This was the worst lunch experiences I have had in Banner Elk in my 40+ years of living here. I brought my employees out for lunch, and we chose Town Tavern because of good reviews we had heard. We showed up about 40 minutes before noon, to avoid the rush. When we went in, there were only 2 other tables being used in the dining room. We(5 adult males) were initially sat at a 4 person booth.When I said that we would not fit, and asked we move tables we were told to wait while a manager was asked. When the hostess came back, the solution was to sit us at another 4 person table, but the pull a chair up for the 5th person. That chair was placed in walking path between the dining rooms. The table directly next to us seated 6, so I asked and was told that we had to sit at the small 4 person table because the manger said we had to. The next experience we had was sitting at the table for almost 15 minutes before our server arrived. When she did arrive she made us aware that no one had told her we were even in the restaurant. From this point on, we had a pretty good experience, except no having room the actually sit close...

I went today with my friend and we had an unpleasant experience specifically with the waitress. We were sat and not greeted for ten minutes, no biggie. We finally order our drinks and our appetizer. The second our appetizer arrives the waitress asks what we’d like to order. We tell her as we are ready and thinking she will time our food properly. We barely get into the app and our entree arrives. I got the fish and chips. She asks how everything is tasting when we haven’t even touched it? She then just asks if I got my extra sauce and I ask her if this is my tartar sauce (it looks like ranch) she grabs it off my plate and touches my food and opens the sauce container AND SMELLS IT AT THE TABLE says “it’s ranch” closes it and puts it BACK ON MY PLATE. At that point I politely ask for my food to be remade as I’m immune compromised and also it’s just gross? She brings it back immediately and says the kitchen threw it back in the fryer and that it “killed all the germs”. What disgusting practice. The manager was very polite and removed our entree and seemed understanding. But as someone who’s worked 12+ years in the service industry I wouldn’t trust my health with...