Not Watson's Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Knoxville

I have eaten here several times over the last few years. The food is generally consistently good. The staff is generally consistently NOT overly friendly or welcoming. The way the person at the door greets consistently seems like they are so overwhelmed and bothered that yet another person came in. The waitstaff also never seems super excited to have to wait on you, and God forbid you have a question about the menu. I still return though because I know I can get a burger with a gluten free bun and not have to worry about a bunch of other ingredients I don't want. This particular visit was a few days into the big snow storm that hit Knoxville. Not very many people out and about so the restaurant was very quiet. The hostess was sitting at the bar when we walked in and she seemed bothered that she had to get up to seat us. The waiter didn't use a pad to write our order down but that's fine, as long as I emphasized that I needed a gluten free bun, and he got that right, he can skip writing our orders. I explained that I was in a slight hurry as I was headed to catch a flight and needed to leave in 35 minutes. I knew the kitchen staff probably didn't care about my poor time management skills but nonetheless, my well done (as requested) burger came out perfectly cooked and rather quickly too. When I say this burger was perfect, I mean perfect. Usually when I get a well done burger, cooks make them so dry and burned on the outside, pretty much a hockey puck. But whoever was cooking that day, NAILED IT. Super juicy, but cooked with no pink (not one spot!), and delicious. The bun was grilled perfectly (if you know about GF, you know that if you don't get it toasted or grilled well enough, the bun falls apart when you try to eat it). The asparagus was grilled perfectly too. I told the server to please share my compliments. I don't know if he did, but hopefully the message was shared. By the time we left, the server seemed a little more friendly. I'm hoing it was bc i shared my appreciation for the perfect burger, but maybe he was just happy that we were leaving and he didn't have anymore tables. I'll be back when traveling through Knoxville again, but I wish I didn't always have to psyche myself up for not so...

So we were starving after the day that we had. Tried to go to an aquarium that ended in heartache for my toddler, so we opted to go to Knoxville and grab some food before we continued to play on this rainy day.

We tried a few restaurants and one told us they seated a party of 3 and were booked for an hour, so we checked out the menu here and it was a hook, line, and sinker for us.

Ian was our server and he went ABOVE and beyond for our party. My toddler was being a bit of a handful due to being in a car seat for two hours and not being able to visit the aquarium, but Ian was super patient. At one point he brought back a crayon and some paper (and gave us more) to help keep her occupied, which worked wonders.

He gave us a few tips and we ordered French Toast, Burger, Fish n CHips, and another burger…..plus the mimosa pitcher. It was all delicious. I was one of the burger people and it was so juicy (not to much where it made the bread soggy which is a HUGE turn off for me) but was so good. The fries were seasons and tasted great.

My wife got the French Toast and it was divine and it was good. The bacon was crispy and tasted so great! Even my toddler loved eating it as well.

Mother in law got the fish and chips and she said it was super flavorful, moist, and melted in her mouth, even without the use of vinegar.

We liked that the pitcher of mimosa’s was a good mixture….IE more champagne vs orange juice which is a great thing!!!

Overall the experience here was awesome. I was super glad the other place had over an hour wait or else we would not have gotten to eat here.

I will def...

From the time we stepped in the door, until we left, we were met with some of the worst service. I know it’s a rainy day and a Saturday, but no greeting for either of the hostesses. We just followed blindly to a back table where the hostess put our silverware down and walked away. We waited 10 minutes to be asked for a drink order. Most of us were able to order but the waiter walked away halfway through me asking for a water with lemon. I will say, the food came out hot and fast. However, the waiter was again walking away as you are making requests. I had to ask a few times to get some lemon before I finally received any. And even then, they were tiny and mostly peel. The fish and chips were ok. The fish portions came out fairly little and shaped like oversized golf balls. The fries had no crispness. I literally had to spit the slaw out. My wife ordered a burger. She gave it a 3 out of 5, and said the seasoning was not very good. My daughter had the seared scallop pasta. This girl loves garlic but even she was pulling huge slices out of the pasta to set aside. She did like the scallops but left most of the pasta. She said it was just too much. I know they say they produce elevated bar food but I think the elevated part is a bit elevated. We did actually like the pork belly tacos and the cheese steak egg rolls. We are from out of town so it’s not likely we would eat here again, but if we were locals, probably...