Agave & Rye — Restaurant in Chattanooga

The ratings are based on this visit and this location alone. I have been to your locations in Huntsville, AL and Liberty Township, OH on multiple occasions each, and have experienced wonderful service and food on all of those visits. My previous experience has been such that when I visit a city that has an Agave & Rye, I make sure we stop by while in town.

I have also had the pleasure of visiting the city of Chattanooga on dozens of occasions over the years and enjoyed numerous restaurants throughout. It has truly become has hidden gem within the south.

However, this visit was far below the standard for this company and the city of Chattanooga, TN.

We visited on Friday evening, more than 3+ hours before closing. The greeting at the hostess stand took 3-4 minutes and was lackluster at best. The restaurant was at less than half capacity, but there seemed to be an ample number of servers on the floor. The floors were dirty, empty tables were dirty, and the seats on the chairs were either stained or ripped. The hostess spoke too low to hear her and seemed more interested in her hair than the customers. After 6-7 minutes of having no one come to our table, I began to try to flag someone down, but only received the 'not my table, don't ask me' avoidance from multiple staff. The bartender eventually noticed our attempts to get someone's attention and came over to attend to us. Side Note: I wouldn't think 1 bartender would be enough for a Friday night, but that's all they had, even with a full bar of patrons. When she arrived we asked if we could move to a clean table with unstained chairs and she complied. The only available "clean" table in the area had more ripped vinyl on the seats and lots of water on the table. We thanked her for letting us move, and she said that our new server would be with us shortly. Another 3-4 minutes passed before our next server arrived, so we quickly requested glasses of ice water while we checked the menu. Keep in mind, we've been in the restaurant 12-15 minutes at this point, and it was not busy at all. We thought we were ok finally and reviewed the menu. Our server then proceeded to pass by us several times over the next 5-6 minutes, helping another server carry plates, checking her phone, and so on. I finally went to the bar to get water for us, and the bartender stopped what she was doing to handle it. It had now been about 20 minutes and the only reason we had water was from our own efforts. By the time the waitress returned, without the water, we had decided to leave. The beginning of our experience made it very clear that we would likely not get food in a timely manner, much less the concern of the accuracy of said food, if ever received.

We went to another local restaurant just two block away, and within 10 minutes of arrival we had been greeted, seated, served water, drinks, and appetizers, as well as placed our order. For reference, this second restaurant was equally busy and staffed with fewer people. I would highly recommend eating ANYWHERE in Chattanooga than Agave & Rye.

I have been a bartender at a nice establishment, I have been a server with a large national chain, and I am now the owner of a small business that's over 30 years old. I've seen bad service. I've experienced poor maintenance and uncleanliness.

I've never been blatantly ignored and treated so disrespectfully at a restaurant.

Walked in excited and hungry. Walked out frustrated and...

This place usually is top tier all around even on days it’s packed wall to wall however today was not that…. I came in for dinner with my wife and a friend on 7/30/25 at around 4:00 PM. I say that to say this: my experience tonight was one of the most awful experiences I’ve had with a restaurant in a long time. We checked in with the hostess, and she seated us at table 10, which was a booth. We waited about 10 minutes before she returned and asked if we had been helped yet. We told her no, so she went to find our server. It took him another five minutes to come over. He introduced himself as Marquis and took our appetizer and drink order. It was another 10–15 minutes before we received our drinks—which was fine, as he mentioned he had to cut lemons for the water my wife asked for. No biggie. (Still no appetizer at this point.) After that, he took our entrée order. We ordered a flight and a side of mac & cheese. Shortly after, someone who wasn’t our server brought out our appetizer. We hardly saw our server during our entire visit. We finished our appetizer, and our drinks were almost gone—still no sign of our server. Finally, around 4:40 PM, our food came out. Two of the three tacos were burnt black and charred on the inside. By then, our drinks were empty, our server was still nowhere to be found, and we never received our mac & cheese. The place wasn’t even busy—there were maybe 2–3 other tables. They also seemed to be having trouble finding the same server. Some hadn’t even been able to place drink orders. Matter of fact we never got drink refills nor were we asked if we wanted a refill. Every staff member we spoke to told us to wait for our server. Eventually, he came out from wherever he was and apologized for not bringing the mac & cheese. At that point, we asked for it to be taken off the bill instead of receiving it for free or waiting longer for it to be prepared to-go. He offered to comp it, but we declined—we weren’t looking for anything for free. We’ve been to this restaurant multiple times, including on busy Saturday afternoons when it’s wall-to-wall people, and we’ve never had service this bad. The server didn’t write down our order and admitted he forgot about the mac & cheese. Maybe if he had written it down, he wouldn’t have forgotten? As a result, my friend left the restaurant still hungry. If the server had provided better service and been present, that might not have happened. We also asked for all the food to be on one check. Instead, he split the checks and charged my wife’s card twice. Listening skills matter.

UPDATE: 8/1/25

The day that this incident happened I’ve reached out through the restaurants official website and they got back to me within like an hour or so, and we had a conversation and they Apologized and corrected the situation. We went back for dinner tonight and had a much better experience. It was fantastic. Food was on point. The people who waited on us were on point & polite! I understand that sometimes people have days where they aren’t on top of their game and I usually Do not complain, but when there was almost every table in that restaurant the other night that was having the same experience, if not worse than we did, I feel like something had to be said. I thank you guys so much for correcting the situation. We will...

To experience coming to Agave & Rye, your mind will be blown. WHY? Not only is the food amazing with a taco style modern twist, but the chic modern decor is mind-blowing. This restaurant is one of five that started in Lexington, KY, which is no surprise to me having visited Lexington multiple times finding new and exciting venues in this artsy community. My most visited review is in Lexington, so no surprise this restaurant is so highly recommended/ sought-after destination in Chattanooga. Not only is the restaurant a delight, but the location is right next to the Tennessee aquarium and riverfront with lots to do in walking distance to the restaurant. They also have a VIP room for special events that I would recommend with its own separate bar with higher quality liquor stocked every day. When I first walked in my eyes and brain immediately notice all the bright colors modern chic decor everywhere. As I was seated at a table with white leather chairs I couldn't help but notice the large celebrity portraits on my right side the walls. Every inch of the restaurant had a different vibe care of the owner , who is her passion. This is a type of place you can come in formal attire and feel welcome to jeans/ t shirts. Anything goes here with a warm, laid-back vibe non judgemental feel. I about died laugh when I went I to the men's restroom to find in the bathroom stall a picture of a skeleton with a saying" Here are your butt knapkins my Lord with a shelf with knapkins. 😂 My server Kiera was epic and deserves credit for the experience.

Would I recommend this restaurant you ask? Absolutely! To recommend this restaurant is an understatement. This is a must visit, unforgettable experience, kind of restaurant right here in downtown Chattanooga.

So, do yourself a favor bring your family, friends, or co-workers to experience this magical experience today. Tell them I sent you! Peace...