Sullivan's Fine Food — Restaurant in Knoxville

We had a horrible experience last night involving manager Craig. I found it interesting he's mentioned in a couple of other poor reviews. We were there to celebrate my nephew's graduation with family in from CO & AL I haven't seen in years. I called days ahead to request the 'party room' in the hopes that it would be easier to visit for my elderly father. I was told a group had the room booked already but preferred the patio so we'd either get the room or in the case of bad weather, we'd be seated in the regular dining room. I was fine with that. Instead, both parties were crammed in the same party room. This would have been fine had they been a normal group. It started out ok, but as the drinks flowed and dinner progressed, these people became the loudest, rudest, most obnoxious group of people I've ever had to dine with. I don't have hearing problems and couldn't hear the person next to me speak 50% of the time, much less the person across from me or not right next to me.

I complained to our waitress and requested a manager. Craig decided to show up at the end of the meal as we're paying. He was the rudest, most arrogant restaurant personnel I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. And I've worked as a server for years in the past. As I explained the situation calmly, he responded by raising his voice to be louder than the group next to us (quite a feat), making the situation even more of a scene and told us 'What, do you expect me to tell someone to stop having a good time?' Actually, yes, you can ask patrons to lower their voices because they are disturbing others around them. The group chose not to sit on the patio because it was too cold at 67 degrees. I told him I would have preferred to be in the dining area like I was told was the other option, but he told me there was no room for us and we could have had the room privately for $300 if we had preferred that (in a snarky tone). After rudely and condescendingly speaking to my group, he said, 'Well, what do you expect me to do?' My husband said 'Some sort of comp in acknowledgement would be nice - our family dinner was impossible to enjoy in this situation.' Craig literally rolled his eyes, huffed, and stormed out of the room like a 5 year old.

We were standing up and in the process of leaving when Jonathan (Craig's manager) came into the room. He was nicer and more professional, but still made excuses and said at the end 'Well, I understand you're wanting some comp?' I said, 'No, at this point, we just want out of here.' If your manager has just acted like a complete jerk and your customers have paid out, you don't walk in and say 'I understand you're wanting some comp.' And you can't tell me he was surprised to hear Craig handled a tough situation poorly after seeing other reviews that mention him. You offer SOMETHING as an apology to make things right in hopes your local customers will return to your restaurant...

Not sure where to start. I'll be nice and start by saying the food is delicious. Never had problems with the service until yesterday. Beware of a short, balding manager named Craig. He is not customer-oriented AT ALL. We had reservations for a party of 10 in the rear room. When we arrived there was already another party of 12 setup in the room and they were the loudest, rudest group I've ever been sat next to. When we notified our waiter that the group was getting out of control to the point we couldn't hear our table's conversations, she had Craig the manager come to the table. This guy immediately came off as not friendly. It was like he wanted to pick a fight. We told him we love the restaurant and come frequently but our dinner was being ruined by this other group. He quickly responded with "Well, I can't do anything about them. That's why we offer the option of reserving this room for private parties. It is $300." We said that was not offered or mentioned when we made the reservation 2 weeks ago. He quipped, "What was the name of who you talked to?" How and why am I supposed to remember the name of the person who randomly answered the phone 2 weeks ago?!? Was he insinuating that we were lying? Sure felt like it. This whole time his voice is getting louder. Finally, he asked me what I wanted him to do about it. The natural (but awkward) thing that pops into mind is asking about a discount on the food. I said as such. Manager's response: HE TURNED HIS BACK ON THE TABLE WITHOUT SAYING A WORD AND WALKED AWAY. Who does that other than a small child? Seriously, one of the worst displays of how to be customer-friendly. This guy should go back to being a bus boy or dishwasher. He is not mature enough to handle dealing with customers in a courteous and professional manner. In conclusion, I really wanted to give Sullivan's one star but their food is good so I can't. The manager is the sole reason for this bad review. Way...

Service was exceptional as was the ambience. The entire staff seemed extremely welcoming and just as kind. My wife and I made our very first visit here today for dinner and for the most part were extremely pleased with everything. The food was extremely well done as well however; there would be one thing that I would take exception to. I ordered a house salad that I would never order again because it was made up almost entirely of spring mix greens none of which had any texture or crispness to them at all. I am a retired chef and I take exception to this or any restaurant today that has seen fit to either partially or totally eliminate iceberg lettuce from their salad mix in favor of a trend that has no bite and could be for all intents and purposes be picked out of your backyard. Romaine hearts would be an acceptable mix with the spring mix however the spring mix itself has no business making up more than 20% of any mix. I will never order a salad there again and in all probability will not go back for dinner again because we consider salads a prime item on our choices for dinner entrees. I am sick of seeing salads made up of soggy leaf veggies and absent of any form of onions as well as placing two small grape tomatoes on any full size salad. Until these issues are addressed we will not...