The Walnut Kitchen — Restaurant in Maryville

Mediocre at best. My friend and I went for her birthday because we heard a lot of hype about the place. First off-- the building is nice, but we were seated in the back by the kitchen. That area should be used for overflow seating only, as the ambiance there is terrible. There were plenty of tables in the main dining room, I'm not sure why we weren't seated there.

The service was merely adequate. Our server referred to herself as our "waitress"....not something you usually hear in a place of this caliber. We felt rushed and she offered no recommendations about the food or specials. She seemed more interested in hanging out with her friends by the expo line...which we felt like we were right in the middle of because of our seat.

The timing was terrible. Our apps come out at different times, the food came out before we were finished with our apps, and then she just disappeared when we were ready to go. The wine service was amateur...a pet peeve of mine. If you're going to have an extensive, expensive wine list....your service staff should know how to properly serve it.

The food was again.....adequate. Our wedge salad was good, but there was part of the core in the wedge. That's just being sloppy at your craft. The corn fritters were okay, but the oil (or possibly lard) they were cooked in desperately needed changing. We ordered flank steaks, and that was the best part of the meal. The meat was cooked correctly, and had good flavor.....but for the price...neither of us had more than 2 pieces of gnocchi...plus it looked tiny on the plate.

So---the price. Let me say-- I'm not cheap. I have no issue dropping $200 on a dining experience for 2. But that's not what we had. We had an extremely average experience on all three major points of dining. Ambiance, service, and food. We ended up spending $175 between the two of us....and the more I thought about it, I just felt ripped off, actually angry about it because of the pretentiousness of their prices and portions...topped off with average service.

I know this place is hyped right now, and I hope they do well...maybe for the normal person it's okay. But for people who understand the correlation between spending money for a great dining...

My wife and I shared our anniversary dinner at The Walnut Kitchen this evening. It's 11:00pm and I am writing a restaurant review, if that tells you anything about the 2 stars I am leaving. I find zero joy in leaving negative feedback publicly and certainly no joy in doing it this late at night.

We started our meal with blackened salmon tacos 🌮 which were absolutely killer - hands down the best tacos I've ever had. Not to mention, the cornbread and butter that came prior was the only cornbread I have ever eaten more than the first bite of - so great! For dinner, I ordered the filet pasta and my wife had the elk loin. Neither were up to expectations - both were undercooked. In fact, I spoke with our server regarding my disdain for having any red meat still bleeding and he insisted that this was not a possibility because the kitchen used a thermometer to accurately judge a medium temperature before being be sent to the table. Further, the brocollini that my wife ordered to replace the collard greens that originally came with the elk (because she doesn't eat pork and sadly everyone has to infuse pork with their greens) was hard enough that if I threw it at someone it would have drawn blood. After sending the filet pasta back to get cooked up and substituting the brocollini in place of the greens, I really didn't want to push the envelope (again, my wife has a superstition about raising a fuss when it concerns food and it was my anniversary, so pleasing her was more important than getting what I wanted in the short run - strategy). Long story short, I tipped the standard 20% and went on about my life, BUT I want future guests to have the right expectation when dining here, as it is one of two or three restaurants of its class in the Maryville area. I have had many $135.04 dinners and this was far and away the worst of these experiences.

Lastly, David is a fine man that I have had many genuine interactions with through the years and this was my first time at his hometown restaurant - I do not believe my experience tonight reflects his aspirations, abilities, or aptitude for the...

Not what we were expecting. We have wanted to try this restaurant for a while and finally we made a reservation with another couple. This was the experience. We had a 615 reservation on this past Friday. The parking is atrocious but we managed to find a spot. We were warned to arrive early so we did arrive around 6. There were several open tables but we had to wait to be seated at one of the tables that was actually vacant at our time of arrival. We wanted to order an appetizer to learn they were out. We ordered our meals and we think that my wife’s steak and her sister in laws were backwards. One was an 8 oz and the other 6oz filets. I ordered the 14oz ribeye medium rare. It was over cooked. I also ordered the sweet potatoes that honestly tasted like the came out of a baby food can. They had a very small amount of cornbread topping and one small piece of pecan. This was not what is was made out to be. I ate half my steak and when the waiter came to take our plates my wife asked for her half of filet be put in a to go box. She also asked to put the remainder of mine in as well. The waiter came back and explained that he had dropped her plate therefore her 50 dollar steak couldn’t be taken home and he offered a dessert to replace. We didn’t want a dessert we actually wanted the steak as we were planning steak and eggs for breakfast. Very disappointed. I wouldn’t make a scene but honestly after simmering on this a couple of days I am doing this review. My steak was actually not very good. I have had a better steak at a chain steakhouse recently for half the price. The prices are fair but the food has to be perfect and it was far from it. I am sure we are one and done with this restaurant as living in Knoxville there are many better choices. My suggestion would be that in the event you drop a customers plate then you come up with a better solution then a free dessert. I really don’t want a refund but I would have really appreciated a half of a steak to take home. My wife said her steak was good and it did look good but this has ruined our whole...