Calhoun's On The River — Restaurant in Knoxville

I'm sorry that I don't have a better review. The place was busy on a Tuesday Afternoon and a short wait before being seated. No window seating was available at the time according to a sign posted at the foyer. We noticed several tables for parties of five were open and available but we concluded it was a V.I.P. thing, so we settled for a small booth in a busy passthrough adjacent to the bar. It seemed like everyone who entered or exited passed by our table at arms length and even closer if two way traffic passed by. We didn't complain about it they were busy and seating in the main dining area was full. We had high expectations, but after we placed our order we overheard three times an apology to the table behind me about the long wait on their entree. As it turned out, the table had sent their food back to the kitchen because it was served "cold". I suspect that was the reason our food also was delayed and served Lukewarm. That's not the way I feel good about eating pork but it was tolerable. The side order of breaded onion rings were hot, fresh baked and exceptional!! We were traveling from Alabama to Virginia and couldn't spare the time and risk of sending our sandwiches back to the kitchen. The atmosphere was nice, our server was attentive with refills and pleasant to interact with, she didn't mention the wait time but she brought us bread and butter and kept our drinks topped off. Our wait time would not have been too bad had our pork sandwiches arrived hot. However, when one gets a nice meal that is NOT hot you assume the entree was setting overlooked for several minutes before someone got a chance to put it on our table. The problem becomes twofold, long wait and "cold" food. This is a kitchen management problem in my opinion. I don't think we will be back to the river anytime soon but would be willing to try one of the other Calhoun's locations next time we are in Knoxville. I think the onion rings really were probably the best I have ever...

A colleague and I went to Calhoun's on the River on 8-23-2023. Had to wait an unusually long time for service. Another server came over and retrieved our drink order. Finally was able to order, I ordered the BBQ chicken sandwich, sweet potato fries and slaw. When the food came out, we both began eating.... immediately, in my slaw I noticed a small black dog hair in the bowl, on top of the slaw. Our server was no where to be found for about 10 minutes, so I began eating my sandwich. About 4 bites in, I found a hair in my sandwich that ended up in my mouth. I was finally able to get the hair out, and we waited probably at least a good 6-8 minutes on the server to come back by (altogether about 16-18 minutes of her being nowhere to be found). Once she came back to the table, she immediately took the food, and asked if she could bring me anything else. At this point my appetite had gone out the window, and I just told her to take the menu items off the ticket. A manager came over to the table and basically called me a liar about the "impossibility of a hair coming from someone in our kitchen staff because they all wear hairnets, and they all have them on right now." ........ As if the hair could not have been transferred from someone's clothing to the food. From the location of the second hair, it was pretty well possible that that hair came from the vegetable prep the night before. The manager confirmed that she would remove MY items from lunch, and not comp the whole meal, which i thought was a bit much since the whole dining experience and lunch had been ruined. My colleague was hesitant about finishing his lunch due to the experience I had with mine. Needless to say, Calhoun's on the River, you lost a good customer. Ill not...

I came to celebrate my best friend's birthday. We had a group of 4 and made reservations for 6:30pm. I will be sharing my thoughts on the parking situation at the end of this review. This was my first time ever going to Calhoun's. My husband and I got the Southern fried green tomatoes as an appetizer and shared the fried catfish with a loaded baked potato on the side. My friend and her mom got the loaded potato skins and they were the best thing we had all night. Huge portions and packed with flavor. They initially brought out what looked like a table spoon scoop of plain mashed potatoes by mistake but were happy to bring us our loaded potato once we brought it to their attention. Servers were wonderful when they were able to come by our table but it was evident that they were extremely busy. The main reason we came was for the jalapeno pineapple margarita. It was delicious. I got a blackberry margarita that was refreshing. We were never given any straws. The portions for the catfish were underwhelming. Their loaded baked potato was tiny compared to other restaurants. The fried green tomatoes were the best I've had and it came with a sauce that was also delicious. My friend's mother got the Southern salad and it looked phenomenal. Huge portions. My husband loves their craft beer (they make their own in house) and he said the Helles was his favorite. We did tell our server it was my friend's birthday and he brought out a Sunday with spoons for us to share. Overall, I feel that the experience and quality is a little over-hyped. It does have beautiful views but the parking is atrocious. We had to park at the parking garage a mile away and walk after almost missing our reservation trying to...