Tellicafe — Restaurant in Tellico Plains

Third strike. This visit I ordered the BBQ combo with mashed sweet potatoes and mac n cheese. The sides were good. The pulled pork however was OLD and seemed to have been microwaved more than once. It was like shoe leather. The ribs looked nice, but were very chewy and tough, again a product of old over reheated pork. The chicken was flavorless and dry. Dark meat chicken should never be dry, unless it's been out too long. When I asked for something else to eat the waitress got the owner. He proceeded to argue with me about my statements instead of just replacement and apologize. He informed me that the pork is cooked once a week for the bbq! This is crazy considering it was a Friday evening. The most popular days should be when you cook food fresh, not mid week. Also, stated that the ribs he is told are fall off the bone tender. I asked him why would I lie? I didnt want free food, just replacement. In fact I only took literally 2 bites from each portion. This was the third bad experience I have had there. The time before my son and I were going to have a nice lunch with decent food when the waitress sat down with a customer next to us and proceeded to say that "all Democrats are just evil people", along with racial remarks. I dont want to hear this nonsense while I eat. The other visit was poor quality. Order 2 seven pepper ribeye steaks, medium. Both were extremely tough and over cooked. It's a shame that quality has went down so much and customers are not treated respectfully. This is a tourist area and closed minded comments like we had to hear aren't very professional or wise. Arguing with customers that are just trying to get an edible meal for the not so low prices is also not wise. For a place that touts about a chef, I advise said chef to up his game. I had a better meals at chain diners. We won't be back, nor will my clients and family.

Update: Gave it yet another try several months later. It is tourist season now. Order their signature meal; the stuffed river trout, mashed sweet potatoes and fried okra. Also got their signature desert of carrot cake. The trout though cooked well tasted horrendous. The stuffing was awful. It was borderline turning sour and hardly anything to it but cream. The mashed sweet potatoes were reheated and slimy. The okra was good however. The carrot cake was... laughable. I have had better boxed caked. Bland cake and the frosting was runny and bland. Again, this chef that brags so much about his abilities needs to be taught some basics of southern cooking and try humility if you aren't up to par. If you want a decent desert in tellico plains, try the grainery or coffee shop... not this place. If you want bland over priced food that will just keep you alive, then tellicafe...

Let me preface this by saying I am obsessed with small town diners and this is exactly that. Booth seating, unassuming decor, and dated music playing on the background. To me, there is nothing better than a concentrated dose of nostalgia while I dine, like a warm blanket on a chilly night. The menu is vast, with offerings from appetizers to sandwiches to bbq. Also notable, they have a southern comfort food section, which is ALWAYS my default at a diner. We started with the fried green tomatoes and spicy ranch dipping sauce, which did not disappoint. The batter was flaky and flavorful. They have a tiny little bar with a surprisingly impressive selection of bourbon. Naturally, we tried the honey Paloma with Blantons. Exquisite.

My usual go-to for southern, diner fare is fried catfish (cornmeal only. Save the batter), a sweet potato and greens. The catfish was fried crispy and chewy, my fav, and the sweet potato was everything one should be- over baked, sweet and fleshy, with the skin a little charred. The greens at diners are hit and miss and unfortunately they are a miss here. I’m 98.7% sure they’re canned. Fresh only for me, so I’ll mark this one off my list. Everything else was superb. My husband got the all you can eat fried fish with hushpuppies, fries, and coleslaw. The fish was battered and covered with (I think, Ritz crackers) and fried to a crispy yum. The fries we’re also delicious, crispy, and lightly seasoned. The coleslaw was another miss. It lacked flavor, and the substance was that you could spoon out with an ice cream scoop and it would keep its shape. The all you can eat comes with dessert as well (apple cobbler on this visit) which was very good and, so we’re told, made in-house. They have an impressive selection of house made desserts also. Anytime you can find a diner that serves homemade coconut and peanut butter pies and carrot cake, is an automatic winner to me. This little cafe is a local gem, with great food, and extremely friendly service, amidst a beautiful backdrop of Tellico Plains. We will be back and you know that I am going for the...

Visited today for what turned out to be the change of lunch/dinner. Ordered 4 meals: chicken livers, chicken tenders, chicken wrap, and hamburger steak. First, the waitress was super nice. She went above and beyond. However, the livers were a clumped mix of undercooked and raw and well done. When she took them back, I could hear the cook or whoever and they were not happy. Not sure they knew I could hear. When I shared that frying them longer wouldn't work, as some were already overcooked, she tried relaying it but again, the cook apparently disagreed. So out comes the way overcooked food.

By this point, I'm not feeling good about it so the waitress brings out chicken tenders and explains she took off the sides. Nice, she was trying to make it up, but not so nice when I get the bill and realize the 3 chicken tenders she received was nearly $12 with no sides and the 2 chicken tenders and fries her Dad received was $9.99. Crazy. When I asked, the nice waitress explained it was the difference in lunch and dinner.

I gave up and didn't share the bacon on the chicken wrap was raw but we made it obvious by laying it so they could see. Don't get me started on the dirty dishes and silverware. All the negative takes away from any positive there may have been.

I just don't get all the great reviews. Those are why we tried it to begin with ....not going there again. And I wouldn't recommend it.

UPDATED:

Rich: Thank you for your quick response. Sadly, two out of four meals having major issues was a deal breaker for us so highly doubtful I can talk them into another visit.

Point of clarification for you that I'd like to make though, while I appreciate rising costs, the fact that 3 tenders by themselves was $3 more than 2 tenders + (plus) fries just made no sense to me. That was all I meant. At any rate, while we wish you the best, I wanted to share our experience.

Last point I'll make is that you have superior wait staff. They were on top of things...if only the food had been good all the way around, the experience would have been...