Hooters — Restaurant in Knoxville

I have eaten and Hooters more than a few times past and in several states and it is usually an average/below average experience but never enough to make me feel the need to leave a review, positive or negative. Granted, I understand that most people who frequent this type of establishment are not there for the food. But as a person, who from time to time, gets out voted and is drug along to a Hooters for lunch, I find that I could usually find at least one thing in the menu that was decent enough.

However, This past week I visited this location on a Thursday, late afternoon, in-between other shopping in Knoxville, and I have never been more disappointed in a restaurant experience. Which is really saying something, considering I already had such low expectations of Hooters food to start with, I thought it couldn't possibly be worse than I've had before. I was wrong.

First and most obvious is this location is old and in need of updating, repairs and cleaning. I know it's a dark sports bar feel, but the floors and table should not be sticky with days old beer. I don't think there was even one smile out of any of the staff that interacted with us, my husband and I. The girls where not rude by any means, but they were totally checked out and just going through the motions. Toward the end of our visit I used the ladies room in which I bumped into our server texting on her phone. And I thought to myself, maybe that's why our food was taking so long, because she was hiding somewhere so she could be on her phone? But that is pure conjecture.

We ordered sodas and the fried pickles appetizer, one of the few items I will eat from Hooters, which were slow to come out and the pickles over done/burnt. The wait for our lunch was considerably longer than I would have expected for the less than half full dining room. My husband ordered a buffalo chicken sandwich and I ordered the fish and chips. I can't speak to my husband's meal as u do not eat chicken, but the fish and chips was one of the saddest meals I have tasted in years. The batter was so bland, completely unseasoned, and the thick tasteless batter was super soaked in oil. I could hardly eat one full piece due to the overwhelming about of flavorless oil. I felt as though I could have been just sipping the oil from their fryer and gotten the same stomach turning results. I contrast the curly fries were cold and dry and tasted of freezer burn. Perhaps cooked hours eariler, or maybe perhaps just defrosted in a microwave, I really couldn't say. Not even the teeie tiny side of cole slaw was could redeem this meal, as it appeared to be just about one table spoon of shredded cabbage in a plastic condiment cup with a splash of vinegar on top.

I did not say anything to the waitress or manager. Which I know I probably should have, but at the time I blamed myself for agreeing to go here for lunch in the first place. I mean, should I expect better from this class of restaurant? It's not really about the food so what good will my comment do? Just to get the waitress in trouble who's only real infraction here was probably not being able to smile at us because she's stuck working at a place like Hooters. But, between the horrible meal and the actions of the staff as well as the poorly kept building I felt compelled to say something. If someone says let's go to Hooters, just say no! And maybe make a mental note of that friends poor food pallet and not to let them choose the food options...

Today I had the worst dining experience of my life, thanks to the hooters on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, TN.

I had already consumed about 2/3 of my margarita when I realized that the rim of the glass was broken and had a chip missing. I immediately alerted my server, because I realized that there was a chance that I had inadvertently consumed broken glass with my drink. Her solution to this was to bring me a new, empty, glass. When I explained to her that pouring a drink which may contain broken glass into a new glass and drinking it anyway would not solve my problem, the manager came. His solution to the problem was to comp my drink. When I stated that I didn't care about the drink, I cared about whether or not there was a piece of GLASS in it, as well as the possibility that I had CONSUMED said glass, he argued with me for a while then offered to fill out an incident report. Based on his reaction and attitude towards me, I don't believe that he ever filed the report he filled out. When the check came, I saw that he had comped my margarita, then charged me $7.99 for a single shot of Gran Mariner which I had requested be poured over the top of my drink. So, there might have been glass in my drink, and I may have inadvertently swallowed this piece of glass, so he took $5 off my bill then turned around and charged me $7.99 for an add-on shot that was part of the exact same drink in question which may have contained broken glass?! I don't know what else to say about this without devolving into a string of curse words. This is absolutely atrocious and I will never be eating at hooters again. The food might be good, but it's not good enough to gamble my life on. And on top of that the sheer attitude with which I was treated in response to my complaint blows my mind. The manager's name is Manuel Hermosillo, and I have pictures of the chipped glass as well as my...

I called in a to go order today, and to my surprise, the call did not go to this location. It went to a call center of some sort & the person taking my order did not even work at this location...red flag #1. I don't know what corporate genius thought this would be a good idea, but it's not. I've worked in restaurants before doing To Go orders. The more people involved in the order, the more likely it will get messed up. As was evident in my experience today..... I get there to pick it up and the girl at the bar was a sweetheart. The bag was stapled shut, so I asked her if they had put the honey mustard in there. She was not the one who bagged the order, so she had to ask another girl if it was in there. The girl who put the order together(also very sweet), said it was not listed on the ticket, so it did not get put in there. They were talking amongst themselves and I could sense some tension. I asked what was wrong, and she told me that neither one of them wanted to ask the chef for it, because he yells a lot and is always in a bad mood when asked for something. She apologized & said she would have to ring up and charge me for a honey mustard for him to give them one..... Which came out to $1.09. Ridiculous... I did not want to put her in that situation, so I did not make a big deal out of it. Management needs to do something about this "chef" and his bad attitude if the girls are too scared to ask him for something that I should not have had to pay extra for. That's just petty. To make matters worse, when I opened the to go container, the sandwich was not the one I had ordered, and it was the sloppiest sandwich I've ever seen. The girls are the only thing keeping this restaurant alive and they are struggling. Maybe get a better chef in there who isn't...