Pardner's Bar-B-Que — Restaurant in Tennessee

Tonight was the worst dining experience I’ve had at any restaurant in my life. FIRST, I’D LIKE TO POINT OUT THAT IS IS NONE OF THE STAFFS FAULT, THEY ALL WORKED AS HARD AS THEY COULD TO MAKE EVERYONES EXPERIENCE BETTER. After being seated, we waited nearly 35 minutes before anyone addressed our table. I had to flag down a server to get our drink orders in. We went ahead and ordered our food, since we had half an hour or so to take a look at the menu, which took another 45 minutes to receive the main part of the entree. The sides finally came to the table an hour and a half in. After receiving our food, I walked the floors to empty tables (which there were very few of since the place was hopping) looking for bottles of salt and pepper shakers that didn’t look like the one shown in the photos below, with no luck. I received undercook and inedible hushpuppies with my meal (which are pictured below). It’s fairly clear that the owner of this establishment is concerned more with lining their pockets with the money of customers who expect decent service and a good meal, by overworking their already understaffed servers, and capitalizing on their hard work to sit in a comfy chair somewhere other than their establishment that pays their bills. This was absolutely pathetic. I can’t believe that they charge money to locals and visitors alike for such poor service and disgusting conditions. My following review will be Facebook, and then the Sullivan County Health Department on Monday morning. Save yourself the time and don’t eat here. For any of the employees that need better conditions, find me on Facebook, and ask me about a job with better pay, and better working conditions.

Update: I also spoke with the wonderful manager, who discounted our meal, and ensured that the owner was not there. On the busiest night of the week. In an understaffed restaurant. This truly shows where the owners priorities lie....

My family and I came in for lunch at 12:00 (Sunday). There were 7 of us in our party. The restaurant was steady...the usual church crowd, a couple families, not full, but not empty. We were greeted pretty quickly and received our drinks/placed our order. We had to ask our waitress for refills several times throughout our meal. It took an hour to recieved our food, and when we finally did start getting our food, half of it was missing, and one order was incorrect. While we waited for the incorrect meal to be fixed the rest of us started eating because it had already been an hour. The food itself was not great. My mother in law said her catfish was good, the BBQ my husband and I got was good, but all of the fries were so greasy and mushy. They were all stuck together...Its like they are putting to many fries in the fryer at once and instead of crisping up they just soak up the grease. The hush puppies were big but they were super dry and crumbled as soon as you took a bite. The server said they were short staffed in the kitchen and they would give us a free dessert to help make up for the wait and mistakes. When we went to get our dessert she said we could have one slice of cake and a bowl of cobbler then anything else we would have to pay for. My MIL was a little thrown off because she thought we would at least be able to get a slice of cake for each kid (3) since all 7 of us had to wait and had mistakes. But we just took the two, said thank you, and went on. The server was friendly and did make sure everything eventually came out, it was...

I will NEVER visit Pardner's BBQ again. I'd give zero stars if I could.

I booked the event room months ago for Sat. Aug 29 and confirmed the reservation multiple times. I spent a significant amount of time and money to plan my event to include invitations, decorations, games, etc. I traveled 7 hours to be there a week early. I stopped by 5 days before the event to finalize a few details. I visited the room and found the beginnings of an estate sale!! I was told that it would be out by Fri. and everything would be cleaned in time for me to decorate. I was called the next afternoon and told that the owner had rented the room out for a month to an estate sale company - "sorry for the inconvenience." I asked to speak to Management. After waiting all day for a return call (after multiple phone calls) I went to the restaurant. The “solution” provided by Joe (Owner) was a small storage room in the back (suitable for maybe 10 people) with low ceilings and no windows and the guests would have to walk through the estate sale to enter. Or, a tent in the parking lot with some fans? I guess they got a better offer. Our guests were traveling from VA, NC, SC, TN and I had no venue.

I am outraged at the unprofessional and uncaring reaction of Pardner's owners at the predicament they created for me. Joe ? and Tyler Burress (Owners) may not be in business for long because they don't keep commitments or care about...