Sweet P's Uptown Corner — Restaurant in Knoxville

We were quite excited to have Sweet Pea's open up in the Fountain City area. This area is over run with fast food and the addition of Sweet Pea's was a nice change. We waited a couple of months after their opening to allow the kinks to be worked out. We visited on 9/18/21 at 5:30 pm. The location was not busy but did start to fill up soon afterwards. We were greeted by a manager, and promptly seated. Our server in the bar area was okay. The food came out in a timely manner and from there our excitement turned to disappointment. I ordered pulled pork plate, mac n cheese and banana pudding. My wife ordered dry rub wings and fries. My plate looked good however the wife's wings looked quite ....done. I thought it was just the smoking that created the dark color.. Nope, these wings were overcooked and dry. But the worst part was the dry rub. These things were coated so thickly with what tasted like Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning they were basically unedible. When you took a bite of the wing your entire hand, lips and mouth were coated with this seasoning. I ask her several times to order something else but she declined not wanting to make a fuss. My pulled pork was tasty, not warm enough and very little smoke flavoring. The Mac n Cheese was not hot and tasted left over, dried up. The banana pudding had one slice of banana in the bowl. It's more pudding and cool whip than anything else. We watched as more plates were delivered to tables, ribs looked overcooked with a lot of this same seasoning on top. A theme here seemed to be overcooked, and over seasoned.

A manager stopped by and ask about our dinner. I explained the situation and he agreed the wings looked bad. He took the wings off of our ticket, something I insisted he did not need to do.

Bottom line, this was our first time eating at a Sweet Pea's. We'll give it one more opportunity, but if we have another disappointing meal we will not go back. And for sure will not order the wings , or any dry rub. $40.00 to be disappointed. There's a nice local restaurant just down the street with...

I had not been to Sweet P's since it was way out in South Knoxville and absolutely loved that location, so I thought I would try the Fountain City location since the reopen...I was not impressed in the least. I will start off with the positive. The hostess was super friendly and the bar staff, where I made my to go order were really nice. They had a decent selection of beers, so I had a couple while waiting on my to go order. The atmosphere seemed pleasant enough, but it was quite loud, not just in the bar area where that is expected but throughout the restaurant and it wasn't even full. The food was REALLY disappointing. As I said, it was a take out and before ordering the sampler platter I asked if it would feed two and was assured that it was plenty for two. I upgraded the ribs to a half rack and just to be safe we ordered another chicken platter as well. Upon getting the food back home it, the sampler platter, was enough to feed one and two of the three sides were wrong and the extra piece of bread that I had to pay for wasn't there. The quality of the food was WAY below par. The Barbecue was decent at best. The ribs were tough. The brisket had more fat than meat on it. The potato salad was SO bland. The macaroni and cheese was WAY over cooked with no taste. The pinto beans were chewy...yes chewy. I was SUPPOSED to have got Cole Slaw, but was given green beans instead...which I didn't eat. The greens and "things" were absolutely vile, as if ANY of the ingredients weren't cooked properly. I think that when you pay over $30 a person that the food should be cooked correctly, that you should get what you ordered and that you shouldn't be hungry after you have finished eating. I have to say "skip" this place, save your money and go to Buddy's BBQ or some place...

I was very excited to try sweat peas and upon entering a was greeted well and the friendliness and efficiency of the staff gave me higher expectations. These poor staff should be in a different style restraunt than a poor bbq joint. Unfortunately to my surprise they had a VERY small menu and not much variety on any kind of entrees or side items. So instead my fiance and i both settled on a basic pork bbq sandwhich and all entrees come with 2 sides. I chose mac n cheese and fries. The fries were very good however the mac n cheese was old, cold, and honestly microwaveable Mac n cheese is much better. The bbq sauce itself is not very good. Its not bad but its not good. They have 3 bbq sauce options. Thick, thin, and hot. The thin and hot are a very thin water based bbq sauce almost vingerette style and the thick bbq sauce is not like southern bbq sauce. The sweet baby rays in buy for my pantry is much better. I was very disappointed. Between me and my fiance combined we maybe ate 1 full meal. He is a bbq man and he did not eat over half of his sandwhich just because it was mundane and just not desirable. Buddys bbq is a much better option all the way around. Everything from the sauce options to the food variety to the food pricing. For 2 bbq sandwhich meals and 1 water and 1 drink the ticket was 40.00! For food we did not enjoy. I paid the bill of course and thanked the pleasent staff but i will most certainly go to buddys bbq or Clayton's bbq. It really makes me miss ft. City diner. They had much better food since ill be continuing to buddys...