Calhoun's in Pigeon Forge — Restaurant in Pigeon Forge

If I could leave no stars I would. The whole experience was horrible. Was seated quickly and ordered. Husband ordered a hamburger that said had BBQ sauce on it. He gets the burger, no sauce on it. So he just adds ketchup. I ordered the BBQ pork plate and squash and onions. Brings plate and plate so hot it will leave a third degree burn, but when tasted meat it was only lukewarm at best. Plate only had meat and a small bowl of squash and onions which had no flavor at all. Most places you get beans or slaw but not here. Plate was empty. Went to eat meat and like I said it was not warm at all. Picked up a piece and it was stringy not chopped up at all. Well BBQ usually is cooked really melt in your mouth good so I put the large bite in my mouth. Meat wouldn’t chew. Large string of meat went straight down my throat and was choking me. I had to reach in my mouth and pull it out of my throat. Was about 6 to 8 inches long. And I’m not exaggerating. Left me with a sore throat. I also made the mistake of adding the nasty BBQ sauce on the table to my pork. It was an almost empty bottle that looked to have been sitting there years. I tried it anyway. Gross. Tasted spoiled! I left all my food on the plate. Ate a little of the bland squash and onions, but that’s it. Meat was inedible. Husband loves fries, but he left a lot of those on his plate because they were no good. Bread brought to the table was hard and inedible, EXCEPT for the biscuit which you only got one of. That was the only edible thing we received. Husband ran out of drink halfway through meal and we never saw the waitress again. Was ready to leave because just wanted to get out of there and no waitress to be seen. Waited 15-20 minutes and no waitress. Finally got up and went to check in area and told them we were ready to go and needed our check. They couldn’t find the waitress. Waited several more minutes to finally get our check. This was one of the worst experiences we’ve ever had at a restaurant. Would NEVER recommend. Forgot to add I was nauseous after eating here. I blamed the bite of that sauce I...

I’ve had two experiences at Calhoun’s the first time in January of 21, when my party of two was one of four people in the business and on Thanksgiving day 23 when every table was packed. Both of the experiences were good and in a non-foodie rich location would be a five star experience. Great place to grab a meal and a drink if you’ve eaten at the other higher rated places, but if time is short this is a place you may want to skip.

Specifically we arrived at 11:15 and did not have our food delivered to the table until after 12:20. Our waitress was attentive, but it appears that the back of the house and the supporters just don’t have it together. Our dishes stacked up thankfully we had plenty of places around us to stack the dirty ones to make more room on what was a very small booth for a larger party.

Food was good, but nothing stood out as being above and beyond, except the pumpkin pie which was great. The Thanksgiving Turkey meal wasn’t bad, but was just a smoked version of what you would get at Bob Evans. The Prime Rib was good, but missing some essential elements like a horseradish sauce to make it on par with the price point. The smoked sausage appetizer was also exceptional.

The other personal pet peeve of mine was the inability to make substitutions on the Thanksgiving meal. I can appreciate that restriction in a non full service restaurant, but it leads me to believe that they were premade, leaving no excuse for an hour service time. As a result of that restriction, my table made the error of ordering the side of green beans. If you know my reviews green beans are one item that will send me into a frenzy if not done well. I may or may not have been banned at Paula Dean restaurant when the server convinced me to order the beans by assuring me theirs were “better than her Grandma’s”. I will say these weren’t bad, better than Paula Dean’s and leave it there (just like the beans here didn’t make the doggie bags).

The atmosphere is very cool and mountain chic. Our booth table would be better suited to a group of four, based on the table space alone. All and all a solid 4...

Giving Calhoun's a bad review is a first for us! Dinner started with our party of 2 requesting to be seated somewhere warm. Instead of seating us near the fireplace as requested, they seated us next to the window. It was ok until the air was turned on (it was around 45 degrees outside) and we were on a direct hit from the air vent. I asked 3 times about getting the air turned off, first from our waitress, second from a different waiter...both were very nice and said they had put the request in with their manager. My third request was to the manager who I told we were miserable and needed carry out boxes to take our meal back to the hotel to reheat and eat in the warmth. She got the boxes, said sorry about the cold like it was a normal thing (she was quite indifferent to me being upset) and sent us on our way. Literally we had to set our bread dish on the extra napkins to keep them from blowing off the table. People in booths around us were putting on their jackets and at least one other party requested heat like we did. As far as the food, our meal was good, but was ice cold before we were even a fourth of the way into eating. Our drinks were so strong we couldn't drink them and that's saying something if I can't drink my mixed drink...it was like drinking the liquor straight from the bottle. The wait staff was excellent, our waitress did her very best trying to make a cold experience for us tolerable. It was horrible all around, especially when we received the bill and paid almost $100 to freeze and eat cold food. I can't remember a time I got up and left a restaurant because I was too cold to eat and the food needed to be reheated. I'm sorry Calhouns, you were in our top three favorite restaurants, but we won’t be back after this dinner from...