Wild Bear Tavern — Restaurant in Pigeon Forge

Good Food, Sad Service We were very disappointed with our experience at Wild Bear Tavern. Having read positive reviews about the unique German menu and quality service, my spouse and I were excited to try this restaurant while on vacation with our young family. However, while we enjoyed the food, the service experience was arguably the slowest and least attentive we’ve ever had as a family, let alone at a well-known and well-rated restaurant. After being seated, we waited for our server to appear. Once he did come, and take our drink and appetizer order, we waited another 10-15 minutes for our drinks. When they were brought, we were told that our appetizer “would be right out.” However, another 10 minutes passed before a different employee appeared to tell us there had been a mix-up in the kitchen, and the appetizer was now being prepared. Another 10 minutes…. and then it finally showed up…along with our meal. The waiter came a minute later, asking if everything had “come out perfectly”-and asked if we needed anything. My husband asked for a second drink. It was never brought. After finishing our meal, we sat for another 10 minutes…at which point all four of our young children needed to use the restroom. I got up to take them, leaving my husband sitting alone to wait for the bill. After all of the children had used the restroom, we stood in the entrance area waiting for at least another 10 minutes, while my husband continued waiting for the bill, and then the return of his debit card…

After all this, my husband discovered that the server had charged the regular—rather than special, as advertised—price for the appetizer (which, as mentioned above, hadn’t been delivered as an appetizer to begin with). We then had to wait some more for the correction to be made to the bill.

When a manager asked how our evening had been, and we responded that the food was good, but our service experience had been poor, an excuse of a shortage of servers was made…that was it. After nearly two hours of waiting for food/bills/corrections to both etc…we were finally able to gather up our children and leave. Needless to say, we will not be back, and would not recommend this place to families who value a positive service experience in return for their...

This was the most ridiculous experience I’ve had in a restaurant. The entire process was chaotic. We arrived at 10:45 with a party of 4. When we walked in there were people at the host stand who had been waiting with no sign of a host. Eventually a man came over and took our names on a list. He said it would be about 10 minutes. I watched him bussing tables, I watched another waitress rushing around the restaurant from table to table, and I watched another waitress walk around doing what appeared to be nothing. Maybe supervising?

Eventually another man came out to help bus tables. When he bent over his entire rear end was out of his pants. While this was happening the waitress who didn’t appear to be working came over to ask the parties waiting their information. Then she told us it would be 15 minutes. Then another party came in and she told them in would be 30. It was not busy by any restaurant standards. There were clean open tables and dirty open tables. At this point there are 4 parties waiting and we are next.

Just after 11am the waitress not doing anything takes the two top - the last in line - to a 4 person booth to sit. Everyone in line is starting to speak their frustrations to each other when she comes to get us. The booth we were sat at was dirty. We were handed menus with no other communication was. We don’t know if she was supposed to be our waitress but she walked by our table 4 times. We were never greeted or asked for a drink order.

Eventually we got up and left. No one said anything. My kids were starving and there was no reasonable end in sight. Walked in a restaurant down the street, was greeted with a smile, and immediately sat at a clean table.

I wanted to love Wild Bear Tavern. It’s a shame it was such a disaster from the beginning and we didn’t get to...

The third time was a charm as we didn't realize they were closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so finally, on a Thursday evening, we could get in to try what is advertised as "Authentic German Cuisine." There was no wait when we got there during early dinner hours, but we were a little taken aback when we walked in, and the first large table was full of screaming kids. We asked if we could have a table in a quieter section, and the host dismissively replied, "We seat everyone in this area unless you are VIP." Mind you, no one was in "VIP," and we gladly would have done whatever to get VIP to avoid listening to that! The lack of service etiquette didn't stop there, though. Our waitress was less than pleasant. She rarely checked on us, looked like she was angry the entire time, and interrupted us as we ordered to correct any mispronunciations we may have been making. I thought that was ironic since you cannot even read your paper menus printed with such light ink. We witnessed multiple tables of people using flashlights on their phones and looking menus up online to try to order due to that issue. Having said all of the above, we did enjoy our food, which is the only thing keeping this review at a 4-star. The bavarian pretzel was great, and the mustard had a great taste to it. The parm schnitzel and original schnitzel with jager sauce were good as well. The spaetzle with cheese was fabulous, and the potato pancakes were okay (quite a bit of onion). Sorry to say, but the service prevented this review from being perfect. Maybe she was having an off evening, but we watched her treat multiple tables like she hated her job. Rolling your eyes and sneering at customers is not good...