Hardee’s — Restaurant in Knoxville

I travel I-74 very frequently between Peoria and Davenport and I finally chose to grab a bite here instead of my usual places across either street from this Hardee's. It will probably be quite a long time before I return.

Since I had a crew with me, I ordered 10 burritos which took just 15 minutes according to the monitor at the bagging station. While waiting for my order to be completed, I witnessed 2 other couples come to the counter, wait for someone to take their order and then leave without making a purchase.

Having been in all aspects of the restaurant industry, I have an understanding of operations from the management side, the employee side and the customer side and the reason for my dissatisfaction is top down. Why employees have to dish out all the fillings for the burrito into a portion tray, then transfer to the tortilla, then grill the tortilla, then wrap - complete waste of time (if you are trying to curb food cost by enforcing portion control, realize you have focused on portion at the cost of speed of service - fail).

You had 2 employees at the grill, that were joking and carrying on like they were in a locker room - complete with the locker room humor - while one person assembled my burritos, another person was running drive thru and fryer and a fifth person was bagging and running front register. All 5 of these young men seemed to be more focused on their 'comedy' and less focused on their errors. Sad to know that one of these was the Manager on Duty.

When I finally did get my order it was hot and correct - well, sort of. The items that I ordered were all there, but there were also 8 apple pies that the guy at front counter threw in for free once he turned around and observed of the obvious look of disgust I had on my face while watching this sad attempt at a Monty Python skit.

Speed of service - Fail. Food cost - Fail. Customer...

First impression as my husband and I walked in (3/1/24 at 7:57pm) was that the dining room was blocked off, yet the restaurant was open. The woman's restroom closed as the manager cleaned it; yet, restaurant is open. Restaurant says open until 10pm. Order our food and question the price because our order was for the 5 tacos for $5.99 and 2 milkshakes. Bill was $18.00. Well milkshakes are $5.00 each. OK. We understand. My husband asks if he can just take one of the milkshakes off. (He had handed the cashier, Calie, the money already and she was fast. Lol) I look at my husband and tell him, "well Babe, I hear them making them already." He then says, OK, it's OK then. But, he says under his breath, wow that seems a lot for a milkshake. The cashier, Calie, says, and I quote, "well, you ordered it!" Sooo. I have worked in the restaurant business for the past 20 years, as I told her so. I simply stated, "I did your job for 20 years, you are customer service, you do not say that!" The manager, Felicity, steps in makes ol' Calie girl go to the back because she was literally getting ready to start a fight in the middle of this restaurant with us. My husband demanded his money back, and to cancel the order. The manager, Felicity, gave us our money back, but did so as she stated, "don't cuss at my employees!" Um, what kind of place does Hardee's have here? I never, in any way, cussed at any employee. This place definitely needs some employee turn around. Ridiculous.

3/2/24 I would like to add to the owners reply to my review. I had submitted this information through customer feedback on Hardee's website at the same time I posted this review yesterday. Hardee's Corporate sent me an email this morning letting me know that my concerns would be sent to the owner; you. Now as the owner, you are telling me to go back to them. I don't think you want me to do that. For...

Walked into hardees this morning first thing I noticed was they had 5 of every sandwich already pre-made sitting in the warmer. I thought to myself I wonder how long those have been there? I was hungry and in a hurry so I gave them the benefit of the doubt and ordered my loaded omelet biscuit. He grabbed one from the pre-made pile and stuck it in the sack. I again said to myself " great" as I was in a hurry I left and headed down the road. I opened up my bag looking forward to how great hardees biscuits are. I immediately could feel the biscuit in the wrapper was not warm at all. My heart sunk. I also could tell the biscuit was hard as all get out. Once I open the wrapper I could see the biscuit was over cooked and hard I could not even bite into it. I was very disappointed I had to throw away the top of the biscuit as it was inedible. And the egg was rubbery By this time I was on the highway a mile away and could not return the biscuit. I'm very disappointed as I know how a hardees biscuit should be as along time customer. I get it if your busy you might pre-make a couple of biscuits but it was just me and 1 other customer in...