Finn’s Irish Restaurant & Tavern — Restaurant in Knoxville

When you first walk in the building there is no sign directing where to go for the restaurant. We stood there until another customer came down the steps, and we asked him where we could go to be seated. He informed us that we are supposed to go upstairs. It was a little annoying, but nothing we couldn’t look past because we were excited about trying this restaurant for the first time. When we first got seated, we looked around and noticed that the atmosphere looked nice and promising. My husband and I decided to try some of their Irish dishes. My husband ordered the fish and chips, and I ordered the shepherds pie. Before ordering we went to Google reviews to look at the photos that have been shared of the different dishes to help us make a decision. One of the things I really liked that I seen in the photos of the shepherds pie is that it had melted shredded cheese on the top that had been browned. The food came out extremely fast. but, upon looking at my shepherds pie, I realized that it did not have any cheese. It was just the mashed potatoes, and they had not even been browned at all. We finally waved someone down to get some help because our waiter did not return after we received our food. We informed them that the shepherds pie did not have cheese on it and they said they would take it back and put some on for me. No apologies. No big deal until…my dish came back out a few minutes later with… a slice of cheese that had been torn by hand and not melted or browned at all. (see picture) we showed this to our server but he acted like it was no big deal and that cheese wasn’t even supposed to be on the shepherds pie but that wasn’t true. We asked if I could order something else so he said yes and I ordered the bangers and mash. Which was OK, nothing special for two sausages and a small amount of mashed potatoes for $18. The waiter never apologized or offered any type of discount because by the time I received my food, my husband was already completely done. That’s how long it took. I would NOT...

Honestly and truly one of the worst dining experiences I've ever had in my life. The place is historic, and the music is cool. But everything else is awful.

We called ahead to see if there was a wait, she said no come on in, within 5 minutes we were there and being asked if we had a reservation because they are booked up. We waited for 30 minutes which in itself is fine.

Then we got to the table, sat and chatted for a minute, before I guess the boss walked up and asked us to move tables, because they have a big party coming in. He then moves us to another table the exact same size which I thought was weird, and within 5 minutes, there is a party of 3 sitting in our old table and that's all there was the whole time. Why were we moved? And why did he lie about the reason?

After waiting for 30 minutes more for our server to even come to our table, ahe informs us she won't even be able to TAKE our order for another 20 minutes because their system won't allow it. That once again turned into about 30 to 45 mins, she took our orders, we once again waiting close to 45 minutes to an hour I'd say to finally get our food.

It was some of the worst food I have ever had, I got chicken curry and I could not believe it lol, it was literally plain white chicken chunks, with a very small small small very light colored sauce not even covering the chicken. If you've had chicken curry before, you know that's not correct. My wife had an awful fillet, and our friend has muscles that weren't exactly bad, but probably some of the lowest quality you could ask for.

Not to mention she did not refill our drinks 1 time the whole time, she walked by and checked on us multiple times, and I had to stop her and ask if she could please give me a refill.

I truly cannot recommend dining here. Going to the bar and listening to music could be a great time if you're into that, because they have live bands. But do yourself a favor and don't go here expecting a pleasant...

I hardly ever write reviews, but what has happened to Finn's? We went a couple of years ago and kept meaning to go back. Last night we went, and I can't remember ever having a more disappointing dining experience. We had a reservation for the dining room, but they seated us in the lounge area. This meant we were in a corner out of view. The music playing from the speaker over our table was just a radio station which meant that there was a lot of talking. That's not great for visiting over a nice meal. It took an hour just to place an order, at which time we were told that they were in the middle of some remodeling which meant there were NO draft beers available unless we didn't mind them being warm. They were out of some of the better bottled choices as well, so we just ordered some Scotch eggs and I had a rather unremarkable cocktail. Another 30 minutes or so passed before we were asked for our entree order. We waited... and waited... and waited... The server said he was keeping an eye out for our order and would bring it just as soon as it was done, and that they were "backed up" in the kitchen. When our fish and chips and scallops arrived, they were not exactly piping hot. Not cold, but the scallops had obviously sat long enough after being cooked to become tough. The description of this dish was interesting, but the only vegetables with the scallops were some sad-looking leeks. Not enough food considering the price for this dish was $34. I know scallops are expensive, but for that price the food should have been much better. The fish and chips were pretty good for $18. I'm sure they were better when they were hot. We were hoping to have dinner and go home before the band started playing because it wasn't actual Irish music anyway, only a cover band, but we were there a full 1 1/2 hours just trying to get a decent meal. We won't...