Gondolier Italian Restaurant & Pizza — Restaurant in Tennessee

I don't normally visit this particular location of Gondolier, at least I haven't in years, so I thought today would be a good day. I was promptly greeted by the host and seated. My server delivered my breadsticks and "marinara" sauce. I dip my bread in the "marinara" sauce, and I noticed it had a very familiar flavor. Upon tasting the sauce itself, I come to realize that it tastes just like Campbell's tomato soup. Upon looking closer, it even looks like tomato soup, with the tomato seeds and one or two green flakes in it. Think when you make the Campbell's version, instead of using one can of water, you use a third of a can to make it a little bit thicker. I make a mental note of this and order my Gyro plate which is what I order every time I am at a Gondolier. My food is delivered and I ask my server to bring me a menu back (I wanted to look and see if they actually put they serve every meal with bread and marinara). He asks if I wanted to order something else, I tell him no, and ask what the sauce is supposed to be. He replies with "That's marinara sauce" I tell him that has to be tomato soup, that the normal location I visit (Clinton, TN) actually is thicker and tastes more like marinara. The server proceeds to act defensive toward this statement (in a manner like he made it himself) telling me the history of Gondolier and how the original owner passed away in 2020, how there are now 5 different owners in the company, and recipes can vary from restaurant to restaurant. He then proceeds to tell me the Farragut location could use a different recipe. I ask him where the Farragut location is located, and he tells me he's not too sure (note: there isn't a Farragut location). Then he proceeds to turn the menu around and show me all the locations there are and proceeds to tell me, "There are even some in different states". This whole exchange is relayed by the server in a manner that I am uneducated and he speaks to me as a parent would a defiant teenager. After this exchange, I just agree and eat my food, which was mediocre at best; not good, but not bad. I take my ticket to the front register to pay, and the person at the register looks like the manager, owner, or at least someone in charge. He asks me about my meal, and the only thing I could say was "It was average", upon him asking further, I ask him what he serves with his breadsticks and he replies with "Marinara sauce" and I tell him "That's tomato soup", and the look on his face was all I needed for confirmation and the reason for this review. The look that was like "Well, you caught us". If you accept mediocracy and are ok with it, good for you, but to respond to negative reviews that you "pride ourselves on high standards" is not the case when the first thing served clearly isn't what you claim it to be. Overall, my experience was average. Not great but not bad either. I will summarize with this statement, "So average it was offensive".

Food: 2-stars. Besides the "sauce" the gyro plate was just average, not outstanding, but not terrible either. I've stressed that a couple of times in this review.

Service: 2-stars. It would have been 4, but the defensive attitude of the server and the way he patronized me, knocked off two stars.

Atmosphere: 4 stars. Good music playing, sports on the TV, comfortable seating.

Overall: 3 stars, rounded up because 2.5...

OK Maybe it's ME, but I posted this review some days back and just got a notice that my review said, "Loo)" In my world, "Loo)" could be anything, so let's try this again:

The Gondolier is a small chain of sit-down, very casual "Italian-ish" restaurants and the one I'm familiar with, Cedar Valley, is quite a nice place for lunch or dinner, as long as you don't expect TOO much from them. Good food, large portions, nice service (Not THRILLINNGGG, but nice...) and a great dessert case. (We'll get back to that.)

OK: The bread is very good, but when I asked for oil and cheese, the stare my waitress gave me would have done credit to an old statue of Jubilation T Cornpone. If you gonna be woikin' in a Eye-talian Ristorante, LEARN about the little touches.

Same applies to the cooks. Oregano is only ONE of the herbs the Eye-Ties use in cooking. There are also garlic, basil and a few other fairly common things that go into a marinara sauce. Study up, OK?

Pasta dishes are nicely "al-dente" but all the sauces are (again) sorta bland to my taste, but meat and cheese fillings are generous and not at all to be discounted., fish is nice and fresh, chicken is not overcooked (I could do ten minutes on overcooked chicken in salads!), really, the only gripe (outside of Margaret Muddlehead) I have is the lack of spice (not hot, tasty spice) in sauces and as adders. Well, it IS Tennessee, after all, and I'm from North Philly, so I'm spoilt.

OK: I dunno where they get their desserts, but I fully intend one Friday just after they are delivered to go it, order a large glass of water and one EACH of everything. I'm also gonna gave to take ALL my diabetic stuff with me. If you gotta die, the Strawberry short cake (short, it ain't!) has to be the premiere way to go (outside of the traditional twin redheads, of course) off to your reward. BEST I've ever had. Cheesecake (several topping varieties - I like cherry) is light and lovely, Tiramisu is incredibly good, the only thing they don't have is an Italian Wedding Creme Cake, but the Chocolate Suicide and the Caramel Cake (THAT one you will NOT believe!)... I think I just gained three pounds talking about them.

Not at all expensive but not cheap, neither. Haven't tried the pizza there yet but the sure sell a lot of it so it must be good.

Very happy, go there about twice a month, good parking, easy in, easy out... ...

We have eaten at other Gondolier restaurants and love them, so we were thrilled to find one here on our way back from adventuring in the smokies. However, we were overall disappointed in our experience with this restaurant. *The good - we were seated promptly, served our drinks and breadsticks with marinara - which was wonderful because we were definitely hungry after hiking. Our server was also very kind to us. We also liked that we came at a non-peak time, so the restaurant was not crowded and we were able to pick a booth by the window. My chicken parmesan was fresh and delicious, as well. *The bad - I got the chicken parmesan and upgraded to alfredo as my side pasta, with a caesar salad. My husband got the tour of Italy, with a caesar salad. Our salads did not come out at all, and our server came out to ask what we had gotten for our meals. We told him, and he said that they had it pulled up in the back but couldn't find the ticket and couldn't remember what with what. He then brought my fettucine alfredo, and half of my husband's tour of Italy. He explained that they had a mixup in the kitchen, and the rest was coming right out. No biggie to us at all at this point; however, it took quite about 15 more minutes to get the rest out. We also reminded him that we had salads, and he walked right into the kitchen and brought them out almost immediately, so they had probably just been forgotten. Again, not a huge problem, however, we got pieces of our meals at several different times. None of it was together, and there were large spaces in between, so by the time we got it all - some parts were cold, which was less than enjoyable. We both did enjoy the chicken parmesan portions of our meals; however, my husband's spaghetti was very watery, as well as the salads - so much that when I put it in a to-go box, I had to drain off the water with napkins. The lasagna was many layers of pasta, with very little sauce, meat, or cheese in between. I've had their lasagna before and it was delicious.

We've eaten at Gondolier restaurants many times, and have always enjoyed the food, so we know this is not a typical experience. We would have been happy to wait if our server had just explained that there was a mixup and they were correcting it, and then brought out our salads and then full meals instead of the random order...