Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen — Restaurant in Morristown

September 2024

Sunday evening dinner. We arrived around 7:00 PM. The restaurant was 2/3 empty yet there was a twenty minute wait.

Within about fifteen minutes, we were seated. Our waitress was prompt and friendly and in no way a negative on the evening. That's where the positive comments end.

The overall condition of the restaurant was borderline appalling. As we were taken to our table we passed no less than four tables that needed to be bussed. Two of them were in our section. The two tables in our section remained dirty for nearly our entire stay only to be cleared as we standing to leave. The floors were covered in bits of paper, food and other miscellaneous trash. Do busboys not run hand sweepers throughout the service to keep the carpets and walkways clean anymore?!? Clearly, it is not a part of this management team's operational goals.....and let's not even discuss the constant barrage of flies being swished away from the table all night.

How about the food? Quality control is not a priority here. Easy examples occurred with our order tonight. Let's start with the ribs. We both ordered baby back ribs for dinner. Rack #1 was burnt to nearly an unrecognizable state while the other was likely up to restaurant standards. How does a cook, expediter and food runner / waitstaff member not notice the issue and realize that this one rack is unacceptable. (Remember, kitchen and waitstaff members, if you wouldn't eat it, should you serve it to your guests?) Rack #2: The silver skin was clearly never removed from the rack. In case you don't know, the silver skin is a membrane of connective tissue that covers the bone side of the ribs. It's really tough to eat. To make matters worse, for this rack there was more fat than meat. How that passed any form of QC is beyond me. Clearly no one in the process cared. Add in the brown broccoli and soggy, cold fries and this may be the worst meal we've had and reviewed in 2024.

There were managers on the floor throughout the night but not one seemed involved or invested in their surroundings.

But the best part of the evening happened as we were heading for the door to leave. Across the restaurant, standing behind the bar was an employee, likely the bartender, who literally shoved a half sandwich / burger (we were too far away to tell exactly what it was) into her mouth. She sheepishly tried to hide the act but when you are literally standing in the middle of the bar, you cannot hide your actions. Frankly, no service employee should be consuming foods while serving customers especially not out in full view hoping not to be seen. That act is beyond unacceptable.

The collective of the actions and overall environment had us questioning the overall quality and cleanliness of the establishment. Tonight was strike one, two and three all in the same visit. Not only will we not be back to this location, but we will never visit another Cheddar's anywhere...

We called the new Cheddars in Morristown to see if it was busy. The girl told us they were not. When we arrived it WAS busy and full.

We waited 2 minutes for our waiter. He came to ask what we wanted for our drinks and left. I asked for sweet tea and my husband asked for unsweet tea. He came back with them. I had to ask him where were the free croissants that came with the service because he was just going to leave and he said 'oh yeah ' like he remembered that they existed and went to get them.

He went to get them and brought them like 5 minutes later. In the meantime another waiter brought us Winconsin cheese bites. They were for someone else but he said to keep them.

Finally after 8 minutes he came to take our order. I ordered breaded chicken with broccoli and rice casserole and coleslaw.

My sweet tea tasted like my husband's unsweeted tea. I had to add a sweet and low packet.

10 minutes later.

The coleslaw was bland and dry. The broccoli and rice casserole tasted good but... We'll, let's just say I prefer the one in Knoxville. It was ok, just ok. The gravy was missing some saltiness. I had to put salt on it and I NEVER do! The fried chicken was well cooked though.

When I looked at the bill on the black box, they charged an extra tea. Doesn't it come with the kids meal already? I asked the waiter. He said that we asked for an adult tea. I told him what was the difference. It's refillable anyway. So he said he would send the manager.

The manager came and explained that if an adult eats a kids meal they are charged an adult drink. I explained to her that size made no difference because it was refillable. She did agree to remove it for this time but it was company policy. My husband ordered another unsweeted tea but the waiter brought him a sweet tea to go.

Just to give you an idea, I have given 5 star reviews at the other Cheddars in Knoxville.

I am very disappointed with this Cheddars. I LOVE Cheddars but this one disappointed me. We're not...

Experience:

Arrival-clean, organized, beautiful fish tank at entrance. Seated quickly.

Croissants with honey butter drizzle were delicious.

Waitress asked for our drink order and appetizer.

Waitress was nice and cared about us.

Food we ordered:

Me:

Chicken Tenders, Fries, Salad w/ ranch dressing

Fiance:

Steak medium-well, baked potato, salad w/ thousand island dressing.

Chocolate cake w/ice cream.

Me: fries were not good, no flavor and first batch was cold, second was overcooked and dry. (Suggestion: change fries.)

Chicken Tenders were good, but bland. (Suggestion: soak in Buttermilk before breading and add seasoning to batter.)

Salad just had Romaine Lettuce, Cherry Tomatoes, shredded Carrots (which are choking hazards) Croutons were DELICIOUS.

Steak was undercooked, potato was delicious.

Chocolate Cake had super thick icing, seemed frozen. Ice cream was good.

Honestly, we would probably not recommend, UNLESS they get better food.

The servers like to congregate by the bar, which was annoying at times. I understand needing a break and such, but in a restaurant there is always something to do. Their trainer who i highly commend for this reason:

Someone dropped a used paper towel by our table. It was white. I would say 5-10 wait staff walked passed it and walked over it. The Trainer swooped down put it in the trash and sanitized her hands.

Be the change you want to see in the world. If you hate litter, pick up the trash...