Holston's Kitchen — Restaurant in Sevierville

Attention ALL managers! You need to do something about your kitchen staff. Not sure if there is a literacy issue there, however, you shouldn't have the SAME complaints across the board. My husband and I are locals. We have been here several times in the past and we decided to plan coming here one night last week after a wedding we attended. Not pleased. I have been in management my entire adult life and I have never experienced such carelessness. I ordered the ribs (totally gnarly and not in a good way), which were full of gristle, hard as a rock and not prepared or even cut correctly. Also had the mashed potatoes, which were good... I mean, how do you mess up mashed potatoes anyway? My husband had what was supposed to be a ribeye that he ordered medium well and came out looking like a medium RARE skirt steak (I would also love to see the grades you have on these cheap steaks.) He ordered his steak with mushrooms and onion, which wasnt on it at all. Along with his meal, he had sweet potato that had been microwaved to the point of surrender, with this rock hard piece of sugar cinnamon butter candy that didn't melt 😂.....oh, it gets worse....now, if all of this isn't funky enough, how about they forgot his broccoli! Yes, forgot my broccoli loving husband's favorite thing. HE HAD TO ASK FOR IT 3 DAG-GONE TIMES! We ended up flagging down a very kind manager that retrieved itand he brought it swiftly...SIGHHHHH....the female manager couldn't be bothered though. Just saying. So, in summation, retrain your kitchen staff...give them some books so they can learn to read, or at he very least, CARE aboutthese customersdropping $100 to eat here, have your servers double check those plates and their orders BEFORE taking the food to the tables and bring out any sauces, straws,, extra napkins PRIOR to the food arriving. this cuts down on wasted time.Also, those bathrooms were jack hideous. Someone aught to be cleaning and stocking those hourly on busy days. If I can make a suggestion, a large whiteboard with an updated 86 list where all servers and staff can view consistently would cut down on confusion, you know...because there is clearly a communication issue here. On the plus side, my husband's beer was cold and my drink was the shiz. Props to our bartender. we'll be in today for drinks and maybe just an appetizer...we don't want to confuse the kitchen staff too much. This isn't an Aubrey's for Pete sake, Holsten's is supposed to be an upscale...

Today I tried the filet mignon with the sweet potato fries, and a side salad. Everything was perfect! My only complaint is, my root beer was a little flat, & my waitress could have been a little more attentive when I was ready to pay. Other than that, everything was great. I will definitely be back. Since the first review, I've been back a few more times. I tried the $9.99 lunch menu and had the cranberry turkey wrap with a salad, & today I got the Smokie Mountain Grill with a side of potato salad. Both were excellent! I think I found my favorite new restaurant here. 6/29/23: I was a little disappointed today. I ordered the chicken quesadilla for lunch, which usually takes care of my lunch & dinner. This one was so small, that I decided to order dessert to make up for the difference. I also told them I'd rather have ranch, than the sour cream and everything else it comes with. So after getting my bill, my $9.99 lunch + drink, ended up being almost $30 after tip. Everything tasted ok, but the banana pudding was mostly pudding & whipped cream. Hardly worth charging $8.99 for. They also up-charged me $0.50 for substituting ranch, even though I didn't even get the other stuff that normally comes with it. I understand everything's more expensive, but for what I got, it wasn't worth the price. No longer my favorite place to eat. ☹️ 9/13/24: They redeemed themselves today. Service was a little slow, but everything tasted awesome. I tried the flounder and shrimp today and had them add cheese to my broccoli. They did change some stuff on the menu, but everything still tastes great! 7/18/25: This may be my last review for this restaurant. I remembered my first filet mignon here, and everything was so good, I wanted to repeat that experience today. Unfortunately, it wasn't the same. If you compare the first picture of the filet mignon with a waffle fries, to my latest filet with a baked potato, there's a huge difference. When they brought it out, I had to ask twice if it was actually a filet mignon, because it looked more like a hamburger. And with the herb butter that comes on it, it tasted more like sausage than a steak. Very disappointed today. The baked potato was good, but the sour cream had already melted by the time they brought it to me, so I couldn't even taste it. I think the salad has changed as well, and I wasn't impressed. There's too many choices, so I don't think...

My family and I tried this restaurant on our recent trip to the area. We unfortunately did not have a good experience. On the way to the restaurant we joined the waitlist on their website. Upon arriving my SIL checked in with the hostess who said that the waitlist doesn’t start until you check in with the hostess. Why even put a join waitlist option on the website if your time doesn’t start until you are physically there and checked in with the hostess. The told us it would be 45 mins and they would text my SIL’s number when the table was ready. We waited close to an hour when my dad went in to check on our status. They claimed they had texted my SIL 3 times stating our table was ready - not one message came through. While waiting at the hostess stand to finally be seated another customer came up to inquire how much longer it would be and showed her phone which showed she’d joined the online waitlist about 45 minutes ago. They then told her that she still had to check in with the hostess and her time hadn’t actually started yet. I told her the same thing happened to us and suggested they stop using it because it’s clearly causing confusion for customers. The manager jumped in at this point and attempted to make an argument for it but I simply stated it doesn’t come off that way as a customer. The manager later admitted that they are aware the waitlist doesn’t work correctly but the higher ups refuse to take it down. The manager seated us and apologized offering to buy us an appetizer and round of drinks. We took her up on that offer and ordered our drinks and some spinach dip. Our waiter for the evening Eric did a great job and I had no issues with him. They didn’t have the ribs or chicken, which my husband was planning on ordering. When our food arrived my SIL’s steak was rare when she ordered medium and my mom’s steak was a past well done ribeye when she ordered medium rare. She also ordered mushrooms on her steak which didn’t arrive. My fish and chips got cold after asking the manager twice for some malt vinegar. Overall, I’d say skip it and go somewhere else (Ristorante DellaSantina - trust me). They don’t really seem to have everything together and when given feedback they just wanted to...