Joe's Crab Shack — Restaurant in Sevierville

We have been visiting this location for years but our last visit changed all that.

Last night (Monday), we arrived as a party of 4 at about 8:15. We were seated and immediately the problems started. The server (who never gave us her name) started pushing drinks from the bar, but we generally do not drink. My son even pointed out that we don't drink because I had cancer. The server laughed and said something along the lines of "Well that just ruins all the fun" My mother agreed to a beer after several attempts to upsell bar drinks to the rest of the table. We put our drink order (3 waters and one beer) and then about 15 minutes later, advised us that they were out of the item my mother had ordered. They offered an alternative which we accepted. Another 15 minutes went by and then we were advised that the alternative was not available - That the entire bar was shut down. We ordered waters with lemons. The lemons were brown and rotten in each of our glasses. It was 45 minutes before my mother even had hers. We ordered our food including oysters and they arrived completely dried out and rubbery. We asked them to remove them as they were inedible. Our food arrived cold at approximately 9:30. 1 hour and 15 minutes after arrival and no wait at the host stand.

The server one time did mention that they only had two servers and then had a large table come in. The table connected to ours (booths) had their food immediately, as well as several drinks from the bar delivered very quickly. The server also stood with this table for long periods of time never checking on us.

When our bill arrived, the server stated "I removed that beer and those oysters for you, for the trouble".

To be clear, the oysters were taken back and we never received any beer. Those items being removed was not a favor.

I reached out to the restaurant today, but the phone went unanswered after ringing off the hook.

This was a failure not just on the part of the server. It was the responsibility of the manager to come by and explain that they were busy, and to apologize for the wait. It was their staffing issue that caused the service to falter. They had plenty of people there between servers, managers, hosts and bartenders to take care of the 5 tables in the entire restaurant. Delegating tasks for food to be run out to tables so it arrived hot, refilling drinks, prebussing tables, etc.

It was an abhorrent experience and we will never return. I understand all restaurants can have an "off night", but this was a failure from...

Really disappointed. When I lived here before we would always go to Joe’s after spending the day at Dollywood and it was good. I moved back and we were really looking forward to our Joe’s tradition.

The server was unprofessional. We ordered a margarita (it was good). We got an app, the crab shrimp dip and it was also good. We split a crab boil with dungeness, snow crab, shrimp, mussels and added a sausage link … and side of slaw so this is where the disappointment begins. They didn’t bring nor could the find the crab crackers, so our food got cold. They didn’t put corn in (it comes with corn and potatoes). The seafood was so over cooked it was rubber. The slaw was brought before the appetizer and was warm (not good for a mayo based dressing —- major health code violation. We sent the food back and asked if not be served until they can locate the crackers for the crab. The kitchen manager brought the food (by the way the portion was almost 1.5 larger than the first order. They did not include the sausage — so we asked for it… he brought it and the middle was ice cold. No sign of our server. He never came back. I accidentally dropped my fork, he saw it and then stepped on it … no offer to get me a new one or even pick it up. The seafood still over cooked. We had to ask for our check - and the waitress said yeah, he turned your table over to the manager. Unbelievable…. We were not rude in any way… we waited tables in college and through our 20s - we respect servers and are very forgiving and tip well.

The new manager brought our check. I voiced my concerns and he was receptive and attentive. I explained we probably would have ordered another drink or a dessert but since they seemed to want to rush us out we would just go somewhere else. Not to mention I left hungry because the seafood was so overcooked it was inedible to me (my friend didn’t mind so he polished off the meal). Oh, and the potatoes were undercooked.

If the server would have worked through it and provided service I wouldn’t leave my usual 20% or more BUT I would have left a minimum of 15% and possibly given them another chance in the future. Our tab was over $100. I could have had better quality at Captain Ds! Save your money and find another...

My husband and I went there last night for the first time in 6 years almost, since our honeymoon in Aug. 2016. It was a devastating experience. Waiter was no good, lacked experience and truly didnt deserve even a 2.00 tip. Food was repulsive. First off, hubby had a Caesar salad and I got the seafood dip as an appetizer. He had no fork to eat the salad, had to ask the waiter. Had to ask for my lemon water twice. Then brought our steam buckets no time after the salad and appetizer. The parmesan cheese on top of my seafood dip was like rubber. Had to PRY it apart. As for when we received the steam buckets, took the waiter a bit to bring the utensils to Crack the crab open. Never have we ever tasted seafood SO bad! Everything was over steamed and NOT fresh, tasted like it had sat for a long time being kept warm. We know our seafood well at 43 and 53 years old! I have been in the food industry for years, pro catering and etc. Nothing was seasoned, everything tasted like rotten fish smelled. Corn was bad, the shrimp was hard to peel and tasted like plastic and was hard to chew. The crab...even the claws shredded up, stuck to the shell and was tough as leather. Between the salad, appetizer, couple of adult beverages was 166.00 then after a 20.00 tip was 186.00 (we have the receipt). We just didn't say anything. We were exhausted from dollywood and was just trying to enjoy ourself. But I'm telling you, we will never return to Joe's crab shack. The best part was my so so mixed drink and the sausage which had a fishy taste. Threw up after I got home. We may as well threw 188.00 down the toilet. We dont care to fork it out for good...