Wood Grill Buffet — Restaurant in Pigeon Forge

Lordy where to start. Probably wasting my time writing this review, since it seems that the owners definitely don't read it. But I'll share our experience, so others can take note. Let's just start out with the price... We spent $165 for 4 adults and 2 kids, one 2 & one 3 years old. The kids price should not be that expensive, because they literally just picked around and didn't even eat half a plate. And that's before tip. The cashier should have given us an option to tip or to get cash back to tip. We had to venmo our poor waitress a tip. So after tip, basically almost $200.. which we wouldn't have cared at all to spend if we were getting $200 worth. We were starving and wanting something to eat as a nice dinner and I remember years ago when I came it was MUCH and I mean MUCH better, so I didn't check the reviews. Boy, should I had. The outside doesn't look too bad, definitely needs cleaned up some. The bathrooms.. just yucky! Cobwebs, long cobwebs hanging from the ceiling. The workers probably don't get paid enough to be doing all that. The whole place needs a top to bottom clean and makeover. The decorations haven't been dusted or updated since I came years ago. The damn fountain drinks should have been included in the price at least. The food was terrible! Nobody in our group liked it. My mom didn't know if it was prime rib or ham. You should definitely be able to tell a difference. The steaks were cold, and way over well done, and they ran out! The chicken tenders looked soooo good, everyone got some, but they were so mid, it seemed like they just came out of the microwave. Nobody finished theirs. Everything needed a good stir. Crusty. It was hot in there, my boyfriend was sweating. Didn't feel the slightest bit of air. I looked up and only half the fans were on.. butttt the ones that were not on were COMPLETELY covered in dust. Probably never been cleaned. You could see it on the moving fans too. Soooo dust just flying all over everything 🤢 Anyways back to the food. The "Italian" portion on the bar was so sad. It looked nasty, and nothing about it was Italian. The fried chicken was picked through, probably been sitting out since open and looked hard as a brick. The "seafood" was basically just fried stuff that didn't look good either. Positives-- Our server was great! You could tell she cared. I don't know why she works here, I'm sure other restaurants would die to have her. My nephew dropped his dinosaur on the floor and my sister went to find the bathroom to clean it off and the lady up front took it and cleaned it off for her! She deserves a raise or a better job. Truly a saint. The corn on the cob was the only thing bussin. (The Mac and cheese would be too, if they stirred it more) Short version. Owners don't care about their business. Tourist trap. Looks clean at first glance.. but slowly starts to show its true colors. Food horrible, but some reviews say it's good. Either bad taste buds, never been to a $200 restaurant, or somehow came on a good day (doubtful) Golden corral would have been way better and a lot less money. Save your hard earned money and go somewhere else until the owners give a crap. I'd be embarrassed if I were them. Shame on you! Update as of 1045pm. We ate at 730pm. All of us have severe diarrhea and my mother is puking. I stg if we get food poisoning we'll definitely be sueing, because it looks like food poisoning has been on every other review. Calling the health department first thing in the morning. I hope they shut this place down. Plenty of nice places hiring for the staff. Definitely calling my bank in the morning to get...

The short..... Just go to Golden Corral and save yourself about $7 per person.

We visited the Wood Grill Buffet around 5:30 on New Year's Eve of 2023. After spending 20 minutes to go one mile down Parkway (main road through Pigeon Forge) we pretty much decided that was the easiest and quickest thing to get into. Big mistake.

For starters the building looks like it used to be some other attraction that's been converted into a restaurant. When you first enter, you enter into a room that looks like it used to be a gift shop and there's a lady at a register and you pay for your meal there. Then you walk down the hall and wait for a hostess to seat you in this large room that's about the size of a basketball gym. They did the bare minimum to turn it into a restaurant including all sorts of mismatched tile and terrible decor. It looks like somebody played basketball inside that room because all of the chandeliers have been damaged. I can easily overlook decor if the food and service are good.

Price was $24.95 per person plus $3.49 for a drink for Sunday dinner time in new years eve. Price may vary for different days or different times of the day.

For the most part the service was excellent, the hostess that seated us was pleasant and the waitress that got our drinks was excellent! The few dealings I had with the food servers was also acceptable. The woman at the front register though looked and acted as if that was the last place she wanted to be. Admittedly it was New Year's Eve and she kept holding her head like she had a headache. I can let that slide because I know everyone has a bad day.

There was a pretty large variety of food including American, asian, italian, Mexican, and sea food. The salad bar section did not have quite the variety I hoped, most people would find it acceptable but should have been better considering the type of place it was. Most of the food I ate was at barely acceptable to downright gross. The steak had no flavor and was pretty chewy. The barbecue wings weren't very warm and the barbecue sauce was bland. The cheese on the baked spaghetti was very good but the actual pasta was cooked to mush and I couldn't even eat it. The fried shrimp were overdone. The fried rice in the Asian section had the taste and texture like it had been there since the day before. The teriyaki chicken tasted like it was made with yesterday's fried and baked chicken and the sesame chicken tasted like it was made with 3-day-old chicken, I could not even finish the sesame chicken or the fried rice and I don't normally waste food at a buffet! The macaroni and cheese was edible but fairly plain without a whole lot of flavor. They had a large dessert area including real ice cream and pies and cobblers and brownies and cookies. The chocolate mousse pie was okay but nothing to write home about I had a M&M cookie but it was overdone and just a very basic minimal cookie. I had what looked like a Rice Krispie treat but I don't know what they made it out of but I couldn't eat more than one bite of it, it was chewy, not crispy like real Rice Krispie treats and just not very good.

In short, if you're in Pigeon Forge during the busiest time of the year and you're hungry and don't want to fight to get to any other place and you don't mind spending way too much money on bad food then you can give this place a try. Otherwise I would suggest you avoid this place...

The restaurant it self does not live up to the name, or pictures in the brochure. First when you get to the restaurant your thinking wood fire or grilled foods. Wrong. You see the scenery and think hum.. looks nice. Walk inside boom a different atmosphere. You follow signs to a register. The lady running the register was rude, slow and not very inviting. Your walking into a junk shop to a register. Then they pressure you for tip up front. I told them I will tip at the table according to service. The lady rolled her eyes, took off the discount and charged me full price for an adult not a senior because I refused to tip up front. Next your told to go to the host to be seated. As you walk into the dining room the lighting sucks. My mother and I needed to use the restroom and when asking we were rudely told if you leave more then once you'll need to pay for dinner again. She then said "it's in the gift shop" as we are searching another employee was like you aren't allowed to leave the dining hall once you entered. Wth?? No bathroom. The dining hall is dingy, wood seats and full decorations. Everything is hand written. For $25 a person I expected a little more upscale of a restaurant. They have 3 rooms of food. They have Asian (rice, wings and tacos/nachos) American (Chicken, roast beef, steak, and sides) Seafood, Italian, Kiddy section and tons of desserts. Their food was no where near wood fired or grilled (their steaks were the only thing) everything else is pretty much deep fried and batter. The taste was not bad but nothing more then Golden Corral style food. The selection is what is good but no way your eating enough for $25. The buffet was understocked, once something ran out it wasnt filled. The employees would rather play on their phones then work. The one server whose an older white haired lady was going above and beyond her job. Another server told her she didn't need to empty the trash cans. She responded that's why they quit so quickly, we can't lose another worker. Their bathrooms, nasty, old, and smell like mold. The whole place needs and uplift. It was so dark, so dingy, and rude employees. Servers- in 45 min dinner, we seen 2 servers. Neither cleaned the plates just refilled the water. My son has soda she never brought him another refill. When we asked who do we tip because we had two different ones, the server said we REQUIRE both of us to be tipped $10 plus dollars. When I said you didn't do anything she responds " Should have tipped first you would get better service " who tips before service? I have no issues tipping, I over tip because I've been in their shoes but never would I expect it first so they know what service they will get. If things motivate you like decent food this is the place, but warning it's nothing like photos or their website. It's nothing nice for being a...