Big Catz BBQ — Restaurant in Knoxville

Love the atmosphere, very cool place! TV’s everywhere with several different games on, my kinda place!! Service was pretty good, our server was friendly and all but I think she just had too much going on to keep track of her tables. But that’s not always the server’s fault. So I still give her a 4/5, she was great while at our table. The place is clean and I loved the decor! Then we get to the food. Not a good experience at all. They have a special today, that my friend and I both had, a plate with pork burnt ends, beef burnt ends and “beef tips” with 2 sides for $22. Very good price for all the food we got, IF the food was good. It.was.not. When I think of burnt ends I think of tender chunks of meat (most have burnt fat too) with a delicious dry rub that’s “burnt” on as if to make a crust on the outside. First off the meat was anything but tender, so dry it was hard to chew. And it was DEFINITELY burnt, more so than what I’m used to. I went in expecting a delicious chunk of meat, omg the dry rub was absolutely disgusting!! TBH it tasted like it was pure chili powder. I tasted nothing else. I tried each type of meat and it all had that same flavor, not good. The “beef tips” were anything but that. They were strips of dry, hard crust of what I’m not sure, I couldn’t tell. Inedible imo. I brought the meat home just to take pics, then it went straight to the garbage. I have 4 very large dogs, that would have loved typical BBQ, I didn’t even share with them as I was afraid that chili powder would make them sick. Then we get to the sides. I ordered cheesy potatoes and green beans/bacon. Again, something I typically order when getting BBQ. Portions are small…but that ended up being just fine. I guess the potatoes were cheesy, it had no flavor so I’m not sure if there was any cheese or not. Just blah. Green beans with bacon, again no flavor. Tasted like they dumped out a can of beans into a pot and added some onion and pieces of bacon. When I’ve had this at other places there is little to no water/juice and you can tell the bacon and beans were cooked together with maybe some butter. Not these. The only thing I tasted was a canned green bean dish with some onion and bacon thrown in for looks. But hey, the water was icy and cold just like I like it!! I so wanted to like the food, it is a really neat and inviting place. Just like a pub/sports bar should be. I usually give restaurants a second chance but this one is a hard pass. I truly hope they just had an off day, there was a large event in the other room that maybe they put all the effort into instead of other customers. Let’s hope. Good luck to you all, I hope you have a better experience...

My husband and I went to Big Catz around 8pm on a Saturday night for our anniversary. It was fairly busy in both the dinning room and the bar. If I was reviewing solely on the food, it would be an easy 5 stars. Everything that we ate was amazing! I recommend the pulled pork nachos (ask for the jalapeños on the side if you aren't a fan) Hubby had the Ribs and Shrimp which were perfect. The Garlic Shrimp was the best Shrimp I have ever tasted. My Mushroom and Swiss Burger was also very good.. unfortunately, it wasn't what I ordered. Who goes to a BBQ place and orders a Burger anyway right? I ordered the Chicken Portobello Sandwich and I wish I had gotten to try it. Now, let me be clear, I DID NOT bring it to the servers attention that I got the wrong food so I cannot comment on how they would have handled that which brings me to why you see 4 stars and not 5. Clearly they have a good business and a talented kitchen staff at Big Catz. What is also clear, is that they DO NOT have enough front of the house staff. We waited at least 10 minutes at the door before we were acknowledged. Once we sat down, the waitress was over quickly however, it took a very long time to get our drinks. The waitress appoligized that the bartender was over whelmed and while sympathetic, we were frustrated. The nachos came fairly quickly but we soon realized that we wanted extra queso, we never got a chance to order it as the server never returned. We then waited about an hour for our food which would have been ok if we could drink and gamble while we waited but it was impossible to get a drink. When we finally got our food, like I said mine wasn't right but I was afraid to send it back for fear that it would be another hour. We also had all intentions on ordering dessert and lunch for the next day to go but after we got our food, again our server did not return. I actually had to get up and chase someone down to get boxes and the bill. We spent a total of $80 (including tip) yes, we stilled tipped however, we would have spent alot more if we could have. Our server was very nice and I think she was trying. It was just very obvious that they did not have enough help. So I guess the short version of my review would be " Great Food,...

The staff was fine, nothing special there. The main dining room is, well, it would be really nice if it didn't look like the designer was an overly patriotic beer and sports fan. I counted at least a dozen American flags and over a dozen lighted beer signs. Once you get past the dining room, it looks like they ran out of money. The bathrooms are pretty unappealing and the banquet room looks like a grocery store stock room. Not surprising since that's what it used to be.

But I guess you mostly come to a restaurant for the food and that was over all, pretty good. 4 of us had 4 different items (ribs, burnt ends, tenderloin and chicken fried steak). The sauces were pretty meager. I was told the bbq sauce was too thin but tasty. The ranch dressing is obviously watered down and I only got about half as much gravy as I should have. My chicken fried steak was kind of dry and tough and the mashed potatoes were instant. The onion rings were really good though. They were the haystack fair variety. The tenderloin was enormous and I was told it was very good. The ribs and burnt ends were also big hits. We went for my brother's birthday and he said he wants to go back next week. So, overall mostly good but...