Cook Out — Restaurant in Knoxville

This is going to sound like I’m some grumpy old person, but can y’all please do something about the sea of youths that hang out in your parking lot every night? Last night, around 10pm, we went to grab dinner and the parking lot was full of them outside. The parking lot was so full, some of them were parking at the Ethan Allen store behind Cook Out and walking over. The drive thru wasn’t super busy, so it didn’t take long to get our food, but the employees were definitely overwhelmed by the number of people there. The teens were loud and obnoxious and speeding around the parking lot in their cars almost hitting cars coming into the drive thru. Girls were walking up to the cars in the drive thru and talking to their friends. There was a cop just sitting in another parking lot with his lights on, but I didn’t see the officer get out once so I really doubt that the kids cared enough to leave. Also, I don’t know why but every single time I get the spicy chicken sandwich and add lettuce, the lettuce is the soggiest, slimiest, wilted thing and I end up just taking it off after the first bite. All in all, I love Cookout. The employees are nice, the food is good (minus the lettuce), and we always get our food quick and it’s always hot. But these...

We went through the drive through and ordered two malts. Mine had several nuts in it, which I did not order. Not enough as though they mixed up my order (and my receipt had the correct order, banana and fudge malt), but as if they fell in somehow. Basically, kinda gross. Makes me wonder how clean it is in there.

My biggest complaint, however, was the customer service. ‘Isaiah’ was working the window and was so apathetic/rude. No please, thank you, smile, greeting…nothing. Then he handed me our shakes which were dripping with ice cream. As I reached for them I asked for a napkin and he handed me some with an exasperated look. I then asked him which shake was which, he said “I don’t know, it’s written on there”, they both said IRS…I have no idea what that stands for since mine was a banana/fudge and my son’s was a fudge malt.

Anyway, we love Cookout shakes and will go back. The employees have always been super friendly...

Most the times I come here I get good service and food but the food was horrible and the service was mid. I guess I’ll just stick to coming when the better crew is on… but I paid 10 dollars for two orders of cheese curds and a sprite and the cheese curds literally taste like mop water or some strange taste… like the grease was old or not put in long enough.. this was the one time I’ve been given horrible inedible cheese curds from this location tho. Whatever crew was working today please work on learning how to cook like to rest of the wonderful team I’ve gotten. I come here a lot (I know I gotta stop eating out) but it’s always when I’m starving so it’d be nice to have food that is equivalent to how much I payed 😭😭spent too much money for some food I can’t even eat or gift...