Shoney's - Lenoir City — Restaurant in Lenoir City

We are a bit disappointed with this Shoneys. I HATE leaving Bad reviews. I have to address this though. We came in Looking to eat at a Buffet that still served breakfast, of course Shoneys was the BEST option. Me and my Husband LOVE going to Shoneys. Let’s talk about why this was so wrong here, and why we just ended up leaving. When we first walked in we stood there by the Register hoping to be acknowledged. Instead, 4-5 girls were in between the kitchen- and the front register, talking. Whatever they were talking about must have been too Important to Acknowledge our Existence. So they pretty much ignored us. After a few seconds of blatantly being ignored I was looking around, at the restaurant, my Husband, Etc. to try to not seem rushing or rude. After a couple more seconds I heard someone, (wasn’t sure who) ask “3 in your Party?!” My brain I guess didn’t register or really hear her until after 3 seconds and I looked at her and replied, “Yes we have Three, I’m sorry I wasn’t sure if you were talking to us” when I said that… THE WOMAN LITERALLY LOOKED ME IN THE EYES, and THE ROLLED HER EYES AT ME AND CONTINUED TALKING, And CONTINUING TO IGNORE US.

WILD. I said something out loud. I announced to the woman there standing around, “This girls just like straight up rolled her eyes at me and ignored me” To the Host. The Host seated us. The Host was great. She was nice, and apologized for the Lady’s Behavior. I let it go. Then our waitress comes over and just stares at us like we are growing a third eyeball. She was also extremely rude, and short. Making my Husband Feel uncomfortable as well this time. When she left and it was just me and our Family. I told him what had happened. About the attitude, the eye rolling, the ignoring and the disgusting attitude of these Woman at this Food Joint. I had tears in my Eyes and he said “Let’s Go, I’m not about to make my Wife sit here and get bullied by waitresses that act like they’re better than everyone.” I told him I was not happy with the disrespect, and he said I looked like I had tears in my eyes.

Look. I understand people are Human and have bad days. Our waitress was cold, short, and dismissive the entire time- even though it was less than 10 minutes. As a women who’s always growing and working on herself, it’s disappointing to see other women tear each other down out of jealousy and insecurity, instead of showing grace and respect. It takes a very low place in your heart to treat another woman that way over how she looks. Like I said, I understand people have bad days, but I don’t want to have company with their misery. The two women at this Shoneys demonstrated that apparently, It’s easy to tear someone down rather than to be respectful to them. I truly hope management addresses this behavior — no guest should be made to feel “small”, uninvited, or unwelcome because someone else is struggling with their own insecurities.

Let’s not forget that, I’m a Living breathing person too. We will attempt to come back maybe in another year or two. Hopefully the woman are more mature and grown next time, and my Family can enjoy the Buffet.

And if management does take this reviews serious, we Were in the restaurant from 12:09-12:17pm on October 26th. I was wearing a long, grey sweater that goes mid shin, and we have one little boy who was wearing a red long sleeved shirt. My Husband was wearing a black jacket. On the cameras we were...

What the heck has happened to Shoney’s?

The wife and I went back to Shoney’s today, 2/20/2022. This is our first time back since they remodeled it into the “new and improved” version.

We were not impressed. Cudo’s to Shoney’s not raising the price of the seniors Sunday buffet. But in my and my wife’s opinion it has come at a different cost.

A small breakfast selection used to be part of that buffet. My wife loved the bacon, I loved the biscuits and gravy, those were staples. Well that has vanished! We also used to love the southern sweet tea. In its place is a tea that has that bitter after taste when there is not enough sugar to register on the taste buds. The regular round yeast rolls I used to love to make a sandwich out of with their “steak” in gravy. Vanished. Instead there is just muffins and glorified bread stick like things. Fried shrimp has been switched to very heavily crispy butterfly shrimp. You can hardly find the shrimp with all the breading it is covered with. The ham slices they used to have with pineapple chunks and juice? Ha! Now it is tiny pieces of ham floating with tiny pieces of pineapples in a watered down juice. You could not get a decent amount of ham because you had to capture pieces with the tongs. For dessert I used to get a portion of banana/vanilla pudding (still there), a portion of chocolate pudding (still there), one mini doughnut (GONE!), a small piece of cake (GONE!), and a bit of the bananas in the strawberry glaze (GONE!) in its place is sliced apples. Yuck. It looks like the salad bar has taken over a lot of room to push out other things. (like breakfast part and real sweets)

Don’t know what is going on but it looks like they are pushing healthy stuff. Sorry, Shoney’s, I am a full grown adult and I think I can decide for myself whether to take a chance on a piece of cake, doughnut, and strawberries if I want to. Have the good for you police invaded?

My wife’s dinner consisted mainly of mashed potatoes and the sweet style cream corn (thank goodness unchanged), and a few butterfly shrimp, and tiny pieces of ham (she got tired of trying to capture them with tongs).

My dinner was the butterfly shrimp, creamed sweet corn, tiny pieces of ham (I was more stubborn than my wife and wanted my trophies), and one of those bread stick thingies. Oh, a couple plates of the same. We really missed the breakfast portion. For dessert just chocolate pudding and banana pudding.

Our waiter did switch out sweet/really unsweetened tea for sodas.

Very...

Very very happy with the food & quality of the food , I ate the buffet , great service , very clean restaurant , many many great choices on the fruit & salad bars , there's even fruit juice on the bar daily ! The variety on this buffet was amazing + there's 3 choices , not 2 choices of soups daily , and the bar runners , yes there are 2 bar runners everyday from open to close , the bar is constantly like a lot more than the Shoney's in Athens , this Shoney's ROCKS THE HOUSE OUT IN LENOIR CITY TENNESSEE !!!! Too bad the Shoney's in Athens , TN is not ANYTHING LIKE THIS RESTAURANT in Lenoir City . Learned also it's not owned by the person who owns the Shoney's in Athens . What a shame ....... Maybe some very well deep thought & revising the whole idea of what Shoney's in Athens, TN is really supposed to be like . A better general manager would help the Athens store tremendously + better menu items for the bar + treating employees like they really matter instead of treating employees like trash / dirt , flirting with the server staff constantly , these girls never do their job the right way , always on their cell phones , sneeking food from the bar & eating it on the servers line hiding behind the wall there where the counter is , A lot of favoritism goes on there with the lazy employees & bad treatment happens to the employees that show up everyday , hardly ever calls in , covers for no call no shows, or a person quit , which this restaurant can't keep people working there , mainly due to the GM and or a certain shift female manager , working this so called restaurant which it got turned into a circus act that went terribly wrong . Ok , just to say again , Lenoir City's Shoney's is a great store , great food , great service & I am proud to say I will go back to this Shoney's when I'm in the area ! Keep it up Shoney's...