The Chop House — Restaurant in Knoxville

One of the worst dining experiences of my life.

We made reservations several weeks in advance for an 8:30 seating, and were kept waiting for almost 3 hours (not an exaggeration). We wondered what the point of making a reservation was if our table was not going to be reserved, and the hostesses apologetically told us that it would be “10 more minutes” several times. About 30 minutes in, a party of 13 came in and were seated instantly. When we were finally seated, we didn’t receive an apology, or even an offer to comp a bottle of wine. Not a great start.

Prior to being seated, we mingled around the bar area and got a glass of wine from the obviously overworked bar staff. Selection on the wine list and by-the-glass was below average but had a few decent California Cabernets. Also took the opportunity to look at the meat display case and hoped that we would not be served anything from there. Unfortunately, I was there for a celebration and had to stay.

We were expecting an elevated dining experience - and make no mistake - this was certainly priced as such, but found a chaotic environment where table bussers and janitorial staff were constantly mixing with diners. Additionally, the staff wheeled garbage cans through the dining area during the service, which was incredibly off-putting. Noise in the restaurant was a problem as well, but it’s difficult to fault the staff or the restaurant for this - I recommend better acoustic treatment.

Once seated (at 11:15!) the waiter took our drink order. I had a Malbec, but had to send it back as the glass smelled very strongly of bleach. This was confirmed by the waiter, and to his credit served a new glass which did not have this issue. Several of the plates at our table had what appeared to be some kind of residue - this could be symptomatic of poor washing/drying practice given my earlier experience with the bleach-scented wine glass.

I ordered the filet of beef with the chef’s daily preparation, and several of my colleagues ordered the rib eye and prime rib.

The daily preparation was (i think) an approximation of a Bordelaise sauce with mushrooms, but tasted as if it had been thickened with flour or cornstarch and was quite mealy. The beef itself was OK, but difficult to taste through the overwhelming amounts of sauce with added thickener. Luckily, I had ordered the potato as a side and used it to soak up some of the sauce. Potato tasted fine. The medallions were way too thin and small - 1/10.

I had the opportunity to taste my dining companions’ steaks and found the below:

Ribeye (medium): little to no Maillard crust formation, incredibly thin (approx. half an inch), little intramuscular fat with a very pronounced band around the edge. Doubtful that this was even a USDA choice grade steak, let alone prime. 1/10

Prime rib (medium): decent cut, generously sized. Cooked to a good medium with decent flavor, redeemable and somewhat enjoyable. Not the worst steak I’ve had (by a long shot) 5/10

It seems to me that the chefs don’t actually know how to cook a steak. If you go to their website and look at the pictures, they make no secret of the lack of crust (indicating insufficiently high temperature cooking), but perhaps this is a different way to cook a steak - not the way I would like to eat it, though.

All in all, I would never willingly return. Quite possibly the worst “steakhouse” experience...

I do not like giving bad reviews especially when we have been there before and enjoyed our experience the times before. However, last night we had reservations for 6:45pm and arrived at 6:40pm. A week prior, the fireplace area was requested as well for the birthday we were celebrating and were told that they could do that and accommodate. When we arrived, we were told, we just have to clean off the table and you'll be ready to go. Then after 25 minutes of waiting we were taken to the bar side of the restaurant and sat in that section without any explanation to the fireplace after something was said. Sat down, got over it and waited for server. She came and got our drink orders and then we ordered the spinach and chips for appetizer. We received our drinks and the spinach appetizer and then ordered our food. As we sat there waiting, an hour then went by. No food, no explanation and the entire section we were in also did not receive food the entire time. Our drinks were empty and our server stood watching and then ASKED us if we needed refills. We had not received our food, asked for more bread and then our drinks were empty, YES we need refills. There was a party of 7 or so beside us who had been there before us who also had not received food and the manager came out to explain to them what was going on and then left the area with no further explanation to anyone else. The server after a joke was made, stated that one of the cooks in the back had an asthma attack and they were dealing with that. That was fine and we just continued talking and waiting. We finally received our food at around 8:30pm. Finally, the manager showed himself and asked how the food was when it had just shown up and we said looks great and then he left and we didn't see him again. The steaks were not cooked properly, overly cooked and dry. The baked potatoes that came with were not cooked fully and were crunchy and the soup also was not hot and salads were forgotten. Then we were asked again if we needed drinks refilled after all were empty and of course the answer was yes, so we waited again. I understand things happen, especially out of our control but after being in the restaurant industry myself, the guests should have been made to know by the manager himself what was going on and something should have been done more. Especially when food is not coming out for an hour or longer, the servers needed to be on top drinks and offering more bread or something. This was not a great way to celebrate a birthday and unfortunately with the food being expensive, it was not worth it in the end. If the restaurant reaches out (which from looks of it just includes commenting back that they hope we dine there again or say something next time so we can make it right after finding out someone had a medical emergency and you sound rude that we don't understand) then fine, we can amend our review but this really was a bad experience altogether from the reservation, fireplace, wait time and...

Definitely didn’t leave us with a very good first impression. We chose to go on Saturday the day prior to Mother’s Day to avoid large crowds/long waits. My SIL made reservations a few days prior and was told the last opening they had was 2:45 pm so although it was a very early dinner time we took it. When we arrived it wasn’t crowded and no wait. I checked in with the hostess at 2:30. While waiting 15 minutes to be seated guests that arrived with NO reservations were seated immediately as we continued to wait. Everyone was. Wing seated in the main dining area. The hostess tells us our table is ready and seats us in the bar at a booth which was dark and very stuffy. Definitely wasn’t the same experience other guests were getting by being seated in the main dining area with lots of windows, bright and open and at tables with white tablecloths. Immediately wasn’t the Mother’s Day atmosphere we were expecting by getting seated in the dark corner booth of the bar. It was us four adults and my 2 yo grandson who has been going to restaurants since he was born and is always well behaved, he’s actually quite the foodie and never gets fussy at restaurants. I quickly felt like we got shoved in the corner due to having a small child with us. We complained to the server a few times about how hot we were and her excuse was the building was old they couldn’t change the temp because the pipes would freeze! 😳 All of this was bad but it got worse! We watched 2-3 other parties get seated after us with different servers & they were ALL getting their drinks,salads & entrees quickly. As we kept watching this we finally got our food an hour after ordering. Mind you still no fussing from the 2 yo as one would expect after he had to wait an hour in a high chair for his food! So about half way through our meals the manager does her obligated duty of asking how everything was going! I said well since you’re asking I’ll be honest and told her everything I just explained here. I told her we weren’t happy about any of it and explained it was a disappointing experience. She did absolutely nothing and could careless. Basically, just said oh really I’m sorry I have no idea why your food would take so long. That was it. So my family & I will never go back. Also, the food we waited for wasn’t anything to rave...