Calhoun's — Restaurant in Oak Ridge

SENT TO CALHOUNS JULY 9 WITH NO RESPONSE. OBVIOUSLY, CUSTOMER SERVICE STILL ISN'T A PRIORITY FOR THEM. ALSO, I HAD TO CONDENSE WHAT I ORIGINALLY SENT SO IT WOULD FIT GOOGLE'S PARAMATERS.

On Sunday, June 25th, I had family come to town for my birthday. They drove over from Nashville way, so I took them to eat with one of the best views in town. I was so sorely disappointed, and my birthday lunch with family was definitely memorable but, unfortunately, for all the wrong reasons.

It started out very poorly upon arrival, which was approximately at 3pm. We walked in, and no one was eager to seat us or pay us any attention. I saw, at least, 5 employees walk past or in the bar (at the end near the entrance where we were), and none were eager to assist or find assistance. I finally asked someone if we were to seat ourselves. A young man then grabbed some menus, and he walked us into the restaurant. He did apologize on the way and told us that it was a shift change, and that is why there may have been some confusion and lack of service. Poor excuse.

It took our server more than 5 minutes to greet our table, which is greatly unacceptable in this business. When she did, she never told us her name, which is a HUGE pet peeve. It was always the very first thing I did, in some creative or personal way, as to leave a good impression and form a relationship with guests.

We waited for quite some time to get our drinks, and I had ordered the ‘Freshly Squeezed Lemonade.’ It was absolutely horrible. It was most definitely not ‘Freshly Squeezed Lemonade’ as advertised. It was more like sugar water, with maybe a hint of lemon. I asked the server to take it away and that it would be great for my hummingbird feeders (fact). She asked if I wanted them to make it again. I didn’t want to try.

We ordered our food, and the time we waited wasn’t great. Regardless, it arrived, and mine wasn’t freshly hot, my ribs were not great, and they were not the same I had there in the past. I had to gnaw what meat I could off the bones. They were definitely more than well done and, obviously, not extremely fresh.

My sweet potato fries were ok and edible. However, I’d asked for mayonnaise when I ordered. It didn’t come out with my meal, so the young lady who brought the food (not our server) said she would get me some. She never did. And we never got the 2 minute check-up standard in food service to see if everything was okay or if we needed anything. I ate my fries slowly thinking the server would come at some point. I had eaten at least half by the time she did come, which, admittedly, is not the end of world. Still, bad service.

I was drinking water, and the server (still no clue of her name) came to fill it at one point. As she was going to fill my cousin’s water, she poured a little in his coffee. She quickly realized what she did, and she pulled away and said, “sorry, it’s been a long day.” No biggy, that happens. However, when she brought the coffee pot for a refill, she said, “I hope you don’t mind a little bit of cold water in your coffee.” Really? I’m not sure my cousin knew what to say or think, but he just smiled and said he didn’t mind. Any attentive server that truly cared would have brought a new cup for the fresh pour of coffee.

After dinner, my cousin noticed a table got served bread, and he said, “oh yeah. I remember reading in the menu something about getting a selection of bread.” It reads that meals are served “with a selection of our fresh-baked bread.” We had never even been served bread, and I had forgotten all about it. Just another example that made me feel we were more of an inconvenience to our server than ‘guests’ of the restaurant.

So, for now, I will continue to go to Melton Lake for exercise and/or walking the dogs. However, next time I’m looking for someplace to take family or friends for lunch or dinner, I’ll take them someplace I always seem to get good food and good service. I’ll take them...

My husband and I brought two friends to dine with us at the Calhoun's in Oak Ridge, and we were disappointed for the following reasons. The brisket dinner consisted of three slices of meat that were overcooked and lying on the plate, stark, looking unappetizing. There was a small plastic cap with BBQ sauce next to the meat. The waitress did not know if their fried green tomatoes were made in-house or ordered by them, frozen. We decided to try them anyway. They had no flavor. My husband's meal came before his salad, and only when we realized he did not get the salad did they rush it out. He ate it alongside his shoe leather brisket. I ordered the Oriental salad, and the chicken in that salad was not fit to eat. It was overcooked and tough. The fried crunchy noodles in the Oriental salad were also overcooked. They were dark brown and not edible. I took one bite of the chicken and could not eat it. It was an "Oriental" salad, and they served it with the same "mustard" dressing served with the fried green tomatoes. Dining out is costly these days, and it is not a good time to present disappointing food. To end on a positive note, our friends ordered a nacho appetizer and shared it with us. That was tasty. The reason we recommended the restaurant was because of its location, and that was not disappointing. However, a person with this food dining experience would not return simply for the view alone. I contacted the restaurant with the facts of my experience, and a manager called me and left a message. I returned their call, and then we played phone tag for quite some time. But nothing ever got resolved because it was impossible to talk to the manager. All they had to do to turn things around was apologize and maybe offer up a gift card covering the foods that were not edible. But the manager seemed to prefer phone tag. Disappointing, but the view while...

Expected much better! Very disappointed after sun evening special grad dinner. Not only service was horrible (waited excessive amount of time on each thing we needed and almost 25 minutes for the check) but stake & shrimp dinner was absolutely horrible! Shrimp was very tough, broccoli was under cooked, and steak was thin, very dry and tasted awful. All others in our party were almost finished with their meal while I still waited forever for the mgr to come, then finally returned with shrimp & side which were just as bad the second time around. The sad little piece of meat “ale steak” was replaced and was edible, but certainly not what was expected! It was offensive when the Mgr didn’t even offer to adjust the cost of my meal, especially considering she’d taken back the shrimp twice so I didn’t even get half of my food, then when I had to suggest she adjust my cost..she removed only $5 from a $23 plate! I’m assuming I can walk in and order a skewer of shrimp for $5 at Calhoun’s? I think not. Previous meals have been great but this time was a joke! Fam & friends waited as long as they could for the ticket but had to leave for work while I had to sit alone and cont waiting on the check. Left feedback online & spoke w/another mgr but she didn’t even offer to cover the cost of this one meal from a $115 ticket…so the next time we’ll go to Aubrey’s, where the experience has always been amazing, because the management cares about the food quality and...