Austin's Steak & Homestyle Buffet — Restaurant in Knoxville

We eat here every Saturday. We enjoy the food and the service is good. This should be a 5 star review but I will explain why it's just a 3. Plain and simple, management.

The rudeness and utter lack of respect that I witnessed Saturday was completely uncalled for. I don't know his name because the staff would not give it to me but he's in his 40's, blonde hair, and glasses.

A group of ladies, either 8 or 9 top, were seated beside us. However, all but 2 were in the bathroom. Once the rest of the party came to the table, they all got up to get food except for 3 elderly women, who remained seat. The manager walked over to the table and immediately exhibited a rude and aggressive attitude towards these women who had literally sat down less than 5 minutes before he came over. He demanded to know what they were doing at the table and insinuated that they sat themselves. These ladies had no idea what was going on and then he demanded to know who sat them if they hadn't sat themselves. They had no idea because they had been in the bathroom. He asked their name and told them that the table was reserved for "Monica" and their names had not been called. He told them to get their things and go back to the front until they were called.

They were sat back at the exact same table 15 minutes later. No apology, nothing.

Upon leaving, I approached him while he was at the hostess stand and told him that I wanted to pay $100 towards their tab because his behavior was completely uncalled for. I was not ugly and I was not rude. I just called it like it was. He then proceeded to try to get nasty with me, once again, in front of other customers. He told me that they sat themselves and that is not allowed. I told him that regardless, he, as the manager could have handled it better than what he did and I believed it warranted an apology but since they were not likely to get it, I reiterated that I wanted to pay towards their bill. His response and I quote was, "Do whatever the hell you want. I don't care" and walked away.

This is somebody that represents this restaurant. He definitely made my dining experience uncomfortable and his behavior towards your guest most certainly makes me wonder about the behavior towards your employees because they were most certainly uncomfortable when I called him out for his rudeness.

That was, most likely, nearly a $200 table that he treated that way and while I don't think they were the type to take it out on the server, that could have affected her...

(Read til end cockroach warning) I’ve been here a handful of times and each time it was always underwhelming and surprising to see it has a high rating with its poor lighting and in my opinion lackluster food options. The worst of it was a couple weeks ago when I went with a large party and found out when the check came that they have a mandatory gratuity fee of 18% for large parties. I can’t knock them on that fully because they did say there was a sign at the front but no one in our part of 9 happened to see it on the way in. Still couldn’t find it on the way out and even the server said that most people don’t notice it so maybe they need to place it in clearer view. The worst was the food itself as most of it was mediocre side dishes with the main items like chicken wings or anything breaded being hard and practically inedible. Even the steak was incredibly charred and the roast flavorless. At first glance all the food resembled cheap store bought frozen and canned foods yet tasted worse. The pizza for example had to of been from a grocery store freezer. Most of the food was noticeably over salted as well. When I last went it was on a Sunday so it was naturally busy but our waiter was quick on refills and very polite. However another worker seemed like she was trying to rush us out and took a nearly full desert plate that my friend was luckily done with but there was no way of knowing that when the plate was taken since she didn’t ask before taking it. Another friend had leftover cheese crust on his water cup that wasn’t from him and even noticed his silverware had food crust left over on it after he unwrapped it from the napkin. Right as we were about to get up and pay we noticed something crawling on the wall right next to our heads which was what appeared to be a pregnant cockroach. I did my best to snap a quick picture right as it tried to squeeze under that red trim. We all left shocked and disappointed. Safe to say we won’t be back here anytime soon. The most positive thing I can say about the place is that the frozen...

Saturday Sept 28th, got to the restaurant at 8pm the parking lot wasn't full so I figured that the place would be closing soon and the food choices was going to be minimal. Wrong everything on the hot bars was freshly refilled right as I walked in the door. Seated right then no waiting greated by what I would call the evening manager or host but he was very nice we even joked about our ages. Our waitress was quick with the drinks and she kept them coming and asked Everytime she made her rounds how everything was. Food was Great no complaints at all. Here's when my night went to hell. In the booth behind me the people got up to leave around 830p and what did I see was something that shouldn't be in a restaurant. These people had a DOG, a black fuzzy long hair ankle biter that the woman was carrying. Not to be confused because I love dogs, but not in a public restaurant. This wasn't a service dog this was Grandma's lap dog that didn't look like it had been groomed in a while. Why has everyone who has a pet dog think that they can take it everywhere they want. There is a difference between a service dog with training and works for the person it's with, and a lap dog that Grandma just can't leave at home. They're everywhere and nobody seems to care. Mr. Manager @ Austin's everything was great tonight until I seen the dog in the restaurant where the buffet bars wasn't 5-10ft away and I'm sure there was a time or two that dog stood up and shakes real hard letting loose some black hair into the mashed potatoes. Service dog that's a working dog YES in restaurant, Grandma's ankle biter in restaurant NO. Hopefully I don't experience this again in...