St. John's Restaurant — Restaurant in Chattanooga

My girlfriend and I visited chattanooga in early May of this year with St. John's being one of two places we made reservations to visit. Upon making reservations I was made to believe this was an exclusive, and difficult to obtain reservation, and that the quality of service and product would be worth the difficulty. Upon arrival a group of four older adults was seated ahead of us without reservations. I laughed at the aforementioned reservation issues and the irony before me, but moved on to tell the host of our reservation. We were seated in the absolute corner of the downstairs area, vaguely adjacent to the walk-in four top. They double sat the server, which can cause service difficultly, but we were clearly ignored by the server. We attempted to order a bottle of Amarone, one that the server was unaware was on the menu, only to find out minutes later that they were out of stock and the server needed to check on the availability of an alternative. During this time my girlfriend asked politely to move tables to try and get some assemblage of the "exclusive date night" the reservation suggested. We were told "no" by the host without any attempt you rectify what is clearly an upset customer. After 35 minutes (and I know every customer exaggerates time, but this was a quantifiably number based on our reservation time) we had received exactly two glasses of water, and nothing else. The server had taken care exclusively of the older clientele of the walk in four top seated ahead of us, who at this point had two drinks each, and appetizers. I understand that reviews are very biased to positive and negative experiences, and I say this only to say this: my girlfriend and I are both industry in Atlanta. We came up very excited to try this restaurant only to leave after receiving zero product and zero service after 45 minutes of waiting. I've personally been in the industry for 21 years, am a certified sommelier with the court of masters, and used this experience as a teaching lesson for my staff whom I teach to recognize issues before they become unsolvable. I hope the management of the St. John use this review as a tool to teach staff that you don't know who you are serving, and that judging a book by it's cover is a bad practice. In the end my girl and I had a wonderful evening at a competitor (where we spent $300+ ppa) that could have been profit for this restaurant. We are visiting again in October, I'm hoping to be able to adjust this...

St. John's Restaurant is a very classy place located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. If you love great food, exemplary service in a beautiful setting, then St. John's is the place you should visit.

St. John's is an upscale dining establishment. Everything screams 'fine dining', yet not so fancy to make someone uncomfortable. There is Hawaiian Seabass, Ranch Antelope and A5 Wagyu on the menu. Not your typical chain fares. The menu also features Roasted Chicken Breast and a shareable in season Strawberry Toast, which features a goat crema and strawberry gastrique. The Strawberry Toast is phenomenal. Everything is awesome. Especially noteworthy was the Tasting of Beets and the smashed new potatoes.

Although the menu does not appear to be large, the depth of each food item is beyond any other food establishment you have probably ever visited. Each item comes accompanied by thoughtfully crafted sauces and toppings with perfect, if not unexpected, side items. Every bite you take will become a culinary journey. The menu changes frequently due to items being in season and availability. Every visit to St. John's Restaurant will be different and delicious. I will mention the excellence of the desserts and the skills of the Pastry Chef. You may think there is no way one could partake in dessert after previously enjoying so much food. Trust me. Get dessert.

I would be remiss in not mentioning the fantastic service you will receive at St. John's Restaurant. Every person I encountered at St. John's from the person seating you to the Executive Chef were extremely friendly and professional. It truly is a joy to visit and dine at St. John's Restaurant.

St. John's Restaurant is no fast food greasy spoon. Although you will be richly rewarded, plan on spending between one to three hours during your dining adventure. St. John's Restaurant is almost always mentioned when discussing Chattanooga's best restaurants. I look forward to visiting St. John's Restaurant again to find out what new food items are being presented for the dining extravaganza and to see all of the staff with their phenomenal service. It is truly a restaurant that should...

Unfortunately, St. John did not meet our expectations. We ordered a total of four cocktails and one glass of house wine. No problem there. The house wine was actually really good. Our appetizers of beef tartar and ramps and mushroom tortellini were excellent. The bread that they served to the table was mediocre. The flatbread was so rigid that it was hard to bite into. It was really good though, just extremely difficult to bite into. Unbelievably, the “butter” was margarine or something worse. It didn’t melt And had no flavor at all. How can a place like this not serve real, good quality butter? Seriously? That was really pretty gross. For our main course, we ordered a fillet and a ribeye along with one pork dish. The two beef dishes were ordered, medium rare. The pork was ordered, medium. The fillet and ribeye came out almost alive. The pork selection that was requested as medium was cooked so much that it was difficult to cut. This was my first time at St. John and it was a disappointment, aside from the excellent service we received. The vegan cheesecake we ordered was average. The other desserts were great. When we spoke to our server about the condition of our proteins, the response was that there was a large banquet upstairs. That should not be an excuse. Those who dine on the ground floor level should not be a secondary thought in the kitchen. And we understood that the server really could not give us any other explanation. Bad position to be in for the server. So great rating on the service. It was more than we could ask for. I have had plenty of fine dining experiences in South Florida, where I come from. This cannot compare. The appetizers and service were the best of our entire $400 dinner for three people. Been there. Done that. Not going back anytime soon. Photos? What photos? There was nothing to be proud of on that table really. The hostess and table service were the only outstanding part of our experience. Last word... No member of management came to our table to talk to us...