Blue Moose Burgers & Wings — Restaurant in Pigeon Forge

Large Groups Beware

Perhaps it was a full moon tonight (it wasn’t…), perhaps the restaurant is going through major staff changes, perhaps it just wasn’t our night.

Regardless, what I saw tonight was a display of mismanagement and failed staff culture.

We arrived with a group of 10. Prior to arriving we tried to call ahead or book space for our group. The phone answering service was very clear that they operate on a first serve basis.

Upon arrival I sent my wife in to hold our spot and they notified her it would be a 1-hour wait. This place had high reviews from a large sample size so I determined it was worth the wait. They set my wife up with a text wait in line system and advised her that if we (party of 10 - 4 adults, 2 kids) had to be there in full or else we would lose our spot…

Let’s address the 5 minute response time. That time is incredibly in reasonable especially for groups with kids and our someone who is handicap. Had they let us call ahead we could help manage that crowd control.

When you walk in they are very clear with signage if your whole group isn’t here then you will not be seated. (Red flag number one of a failed culture). I understand that their is a reason why the rule is in place but, that gives me the feeling that you can’t handle having have the group show up and another half arrive a few minutes later. Now if your food was top tier, high demand, 5 star customer service…I’d let that pass but, they are not.

After exploring everything that little shopping center have to offer we waited 1-hour and nothing. So I went in to see where we were at and they told us we were second up and I thought great.

I had my entire group come in to the lobby and they notified us they were no seating anyone so the kitchen could catch up…I was astonished 1. That you would communicate that to a customer.

We proceeded to wait longer and I began to call other restaurants. With no luck after about 80-90 minutes we were seated. Throughout this process the staff had no empathy about the situation (Red flag number 2 signs of a failed culture).

Check out the 3rd picture. Empty restaurant and large number of people waiting outside. Lobby was full too.

We sat down and our waiter came by to take our drink orders and we had waited so long that we got a menu and went ahead and ordered right there on the spot.

He left and I had hope it could get better. It took our waiter 8-10 minutes to bring us our drinks…now I know we are a group of 10 but, wow. We should have left but, the kids were hungry. I wanted to order a beer and mentioned it to the server and he forgot to ask I wasn’t willing to give anymore money at this point.

The food did not take that long to arrive but, they forgot the meal for a 2 year old. Now we waited a little bit hoping the waiter would arrive quickly with it. Instead about 5 - 8 min after he came back to check on things and we told him we needed the food for the 2 year old. We were able to keep him at bay by picking off everyone’s meal but, mama was done.

Food quality was not great, not picture worthy, nor award winning as their menu suggested.

All in all we were very disappointed with this place. I heard a waitress say to a waiter right before I left that it was weird and nice to have the restaurant that empty…

Please spare yourself and go anywhere but, here. It’s not...

Yikes. My Husband and I saw this place because it was close to Our Resort Lodge. We walked in- No Wait. It took a couple minutes (5-7) for our "Waitress" to come. We were very patient. The place seemed moderately busy, but her section was not and she had a Three top leaving. We figured out what we wanted to drink. We wanted to split a Blue Moose Lager and was excited to. Also to Note... She DID NOT check my ID to see if I was Over the Legal Limit. My Husband got a Coke Zero, and a Chocolate milk for the little guy. About another 5-7 minutes our Drinks finally came out. Then she disappeared for like another 5-10 minutes. We had already figured out what we wanted to eat, however we did have a few questions. We were just waiting on her to get her stuff together... Finally she comes back to our Table with the Diet Coke and Milk. There was No lager. We didn't say anything. We just let her to TRY and do her thing. She snarled at us if we knew what we wanted to eat. I asked her what kind of "Vinaigrette" it was. It didn't specify whether it was White Wine, Red Wine, Balsamic, Etc. She rudely, with a snotty attitude said "I don't know what kind it is, I'm Basic so I only eat Ranch" and then chuckled to herself like I'm the idiot. It was very distasteful and Her attitude towards me was Targeted. Not sure if she has Self Esteem Problems or if she was just "having a bad day". But she can take that negative energy somewhere else. Then I thought about it. She doesn't deserve whatever money she would get for a "tip". We will just go somewhere else. Misery Loves company... But WE DO NOT. ‍ I then told my Husband in Russian, "I don't like her, Let's Go. " he replied back "Me neither. Her attitude is mean, Sounds good." We finished telling her our "Order" then went over to her while she was keying it in. After we told her she said "Hold on let me go ask my manager" LOL. We don't need permission to leave when we didn’t even get all of our drinks, we already waited 25 minutes for a server- not even half present, and we didn’t even order Any Food. 😅 She then brings over our "Receipt" and stammers, "Well I only charged you for the beer" ($4.83) And I quickly replied back, "The beer that you never even brought to Us? No, We're Leaving." Then she said "Okay." Like a teenager that just got asked to go clean their room.

I'm always leaving Recommendations, Pros and Cons. It would be best IN THIS case for the business that I didn't. This Waitress was Dismissive towards me, but had no problems being nice to my Husband. So whoever was our waitress on Wednesday, May 14th at 8:02pm. With shoulder length brownish-black hair with like some diamonds in her teeth or whatever... Maybe she's not the BEST asset for your Waitress team, and maybe would be better as a Grill cook, or Dishwasher. Interacting with people (or for other women) perhaps isn't her Strongest Area. Honestly, we would LOVE to go back. The food Sounded delicious. But definitely NOT to a server like...

Early in the spring, I had been contacted by the National Geographic Channel (now NatGeo) about recreating Daniel Boone's journey through the Cumberland Gap into wilds of East Tennessee. Even with all of the available information, there was no way to properly prepare for what I was about to face. My body was about to be twisted, turned, flipped upside down, and I even came face-to-face with some digital mummy in a mine shaft. At one point, I was recruited to be a volunteer firefighter for about a minute and a half. Late in my journey, I was attacked by a Wild Eagle. Covered in scars from the talons, I knew that if I didn't get some food soon, there would be no way for me to fulfill my obligation. In my head, I wanted vengeance for the eagle attack, but restrictions would not allow me to fry it up and consume it's delicious meat. So, I began to search for what other forbidden animal I could have for dinner. This led me to the Blue Moose. I'd wanted to try moose for years, as it walked all over the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska in the classic show Northern Exposure, and now was my chance!! Or so I thought... Turns out, they don't actually serve moose here. The bartender, Emily, was kind enough not to draw attention to my quiet sobbing as I tried to digest this new information. She also directed me to the burger and wing combo, which probably had the total of a moose amount of meat, and I'm confident it's just as delicious. I stuffed myself until I was nearly about to burst, knowing I would need the calories to continue my journey. It was at this time I got a call from my brother, who said the whole NatGeo thing was a joke, and I should have known that because I can barely survive walking outside so my car, so who would possibly want me...