Fat Boy's Roadside Eats — Restaurant in Ooltewah

I honestly don’t know where to start. This was our first time visiting. I had always heard good things about their food so decided to give it a try since we were In the area. We mentioned we had never been there before and had no idea what we wanted. Normally in the industry when servers hear that they start recommending things on the menu.. none of that was done. We grabbed a menu and went and sat outside on their screened in porch. There were two other people there eating, and maybe three workers that I seen. Upon going out to the porch to sit there was old food ALL over the place. Macaroni and cheese that looked like it had been there for days, pickles stuck to the chairs, fries, chips, burger pieces, you name it - it was on the ground. Being as dead as they were you’d expect a cleaner environment. They also had a leak of some sort that was surrounded by cones but looked like it had been there so long the puddle of water was an orange color. I walked back inside to order our food and paid $54 for a burrito, a kids meal, a brisket burger, and some philly egg rolls. This is a roadside eats type place (literally says it in their name) the prices are absolutely absurd. Let’s talk about their brisket burger - supposed to come with grilled onions and some kind of briskett sauce - the onions were raw - the burger had absolutely no flavor and I ended up having to pick it apart and eat it with a fork. The brisket should have been tender and have flavor — good thing they had BBQ sauce inside otherwise It literally would have tasted like cardboard. The drink station is the height of my 2 year old, no lids for cups, the in house cups were dirty - their tea was SEE THROUGH, and the only coke product that worked was Sprite. The chili cheese burrito was MAYBE a 2/10. There was guacamole on it, which was fine, but you couldn’t even tell. There was no originality to this burrito and the cheese wasn’t even melted, the chili was cold, and the tator tots were barely cooked. My kiddos cheeseburger was supposed to have tomato on it, that I had to pay extra for, and still had to ask for a slice of tomato after it was brought out. My kiddo loves burgers, he took one bite out of the burger and refused to touch it again. The best thing we got were the philly steak rolls and those even takes like stroganoff rather than philly cheese steak. Along with all of this - I expect the food to take about 20 minutes to make - it was out in 5… so that already bothered me. It was like it was rushed, and there was no one there so there by this time, so there was no need to rush cooking my food. I left hungry and disappointed. I wished I would have read the reviews on here before going and wasting my money. Couches bbq is right down the road and I’d rather go there and actually get service...

The stop:

First timers visiting and when in a new area we always strive to try places we don’t have at home. Saw all of these glorious reviews and was close so decided to pop in. We asked the young lady at the counter what was good and she said “everything”.

Ok so we order 3 burgers and a mac and cheese kids meal for our almost two year old with a total of 48.59. The first off putting thing. I know that mistakes can happen but being chased down to be told our card didn’t go through was the start of being off putting. Not to mention, very embarrassing…especially when the card went through just fine. Also to hear the young lady tell the people behind us.. “I’m sorry, please give me a moment their card didn’t go through”… extremely off putting.

There was a station for ketchup. There were options for spicy and regular. I cannot consume spicy foods and opted for what I thought was regular ketchup. It ended up being spicy even though the label clearly had it listed as regular. I came to one of the young ladies and asked if they accidentally mislabeled it. Her response was “honestly I don’t know”. At that point I just asked for packets of ketchup because I can’t trust it.

I saw a lot of reviews about vegans being excited there were options for them here but to be honest, can they really trust it? Can you trust that your food won’t be cross contaminated with meat when something as simple as ketchup couldn’t be rectified?

The ambiance: We opted to sit outside on the screened in patio where they had a high chair for our son and large connect four game. The kids attempted to play with it but the oversized tokens just fell straight through because it was broken. The tokens were extremely dirty and our toddler’s hands after playing with them looked like he had been working on a car for hours. I understand that the game is outside but it’s in a screened in area. Does this mean that they have never attempted to wash/soak them?

Food arrival:

The food came out on glass plates. Cool. At the first intial appearance of the burgers it was like ok… maybe it will be ok. The mac and cheese for our son looked very meh. Did I mention that the kids meal does NOT even come with a drink? What a “meal” then? SMH I thought about all of these reviews talking about it was “piping hot and fresh”. Nah this stuff wasn’t. The burgers were dry and luke warm, the mac and cheese for our son wasn’t even hot and was topped with unmelted shredded cheese. Everything except for the already seasoned fries was unseasoned and bland. This is def our first and last visit. It seemingly has potential but it just didn’t hit the...

Over priced, overly greasy, nothing really special about most of their "unique" items as they claim, and the reviews by locals are definitely and suspiciously skewed.

Myself, family, and friends staying with us a few times tried this place several times over the last two and a half years. A couple of times we enjoyed the food despite a range of minor issues each time. The rest of the time the food was inexcusably cold, soggy, old or funny tasting, or undercooked, and the service and speed was horrible. At least three dishes on separate occasions were inedible, including the nachos and some dangerously raw meat in a burger.

A friend who left a bad review also got disparaged horribly and repeatedly within their Facebook review of Fatboy's and after that we saw a pattern of that happening with anyone who left a bad review. Friends or family of the owner will stalk your Facebook or other online presence and comment on what they find, question your character and if possible they will report you for anything they don't like or can find that might get you banned and your review removed. This friend received harassing messages and had his Facebook reported repeatedly after leaving a bad review. This friend used a nickname on Facebook for safety reasons and ended up having to delete his account because of the petty owner of Fatboy's.

Also, there have been several reports of tips being added to tickets over and above what was approved by the customer at time of purchase. Many original negative reviews on their first page, some of which went into detail about this went away when their first page vanished. Besides the owners keep most of the tips anyway; they do not go to the people usually busting their butts to get your food to you (and often failing to do so in a timely manner, even if you can see they are trying.)

If you love over priced, greasy food and hit or miss service and feel you must try them because of the pretentious (and false) "food truck" claim then at least avoid anything with beef here. Avoid the nachos. And avoid the higher priced items. The amount of food you get doesn't measure up. Go to almost any local restaurant (not fast food, any RESTAURANT) and get your food faster, fresher and for an equivalent or better price.

Even though the egg rolls are over priced, if you need something unhealthy to help a hangover, you might want to try a plate of those once so you can get the thin novelty of this place out of...