Calhoun’s

We went for lunch on Friday, and out of 4 orders, 1 was good. I ordered chicken teriyaki. The rice was old, hard, and dry. The green beans tasted like there was a chemical on them, and the chicken was very dry. My son“s meal was chicken teriyaki and his rice was awful as well. My daughter got bbq chicken and her rice was old too. Like there was leftover rice and that is what we were served. My mom got chicken tenders and baked potato and that was good. I used to like this place, not sure I’ll be going back.

We ordered the Trio platter, the ribs were just ok (a little dry), the pulled pork would probably have been good but it was cold, spinach Maria was delicious as well as the Cole slaw, chicken tenders and fries were hot and very good, lastly the baked beans were disgusting. They were mushy like the had been reheated for days. First experience at Calhouns and will most likely be our last. Our waitress (Makayla) was very attentive to other tables but not so much at ours, we never even got bread plates (much less extra napkins)!

I ordered one of their «featured» items– A spinach salad with goat cheese and grilled chicken. The salad was NASTY– the chicken tasted like lighter fluid. Really bad and scary tasting. My husband doesn’t like any hassles, so I didn’t say anything, but that chicken tasted like poison. Don’t order it.

We tried Calhoun’s last week for the first time and had a great meal. The food was good, but the service was tremendous and our waiter really had such a great personalty and went above and beyond to make sure that we were having a great experience and enjoying the food. I would honestly go back just for the service. For the most part we found the prices to be reasonable, although I did think that the steaks were a little too pricey.
The restaurant as well as the rest rooms were clean and kept up. Service was fairly quick, and although they had plenty of other customers they went out of their ways to make sure that we were happy and taken care of.
My husband ordered the prime rib, which is normally served at around a medium temperature (which for me would have been perfect!) but he did order it very well done as he has an extreme aversion to red or pink meat. The steak did have to be sent back twice as it was very pink when it arrived, but after sending it back not only did the waiter apologize profusely, but the manager came over to apologize and offered us dessert. Once the steak was cooked through it was delicious and melted in your mouth, as were the mashed potatoes and broccoli sides.
My fried catfish was a home run with a great flavor and cooked perfectly. The baked potato was a baked potato, but the cole slaw was wonderful if you’re into cole slaw. It tasted so fresh and it wasn’t doused in a thick heavy sauce… it was actually very light. These meals were definitely large enough to have leftovers for lunch the next day.
The desserts were fabulous. The banana pudding was enormous and tasted wonderful with plenty of chunks of banana throughout. I think that both of us were most blown away however, by the key lime pie. This pie is not overly sweet and had a wonderful fresh key lime flavor with just the right amount of tartness.
I tend to hold back a little on the chain restaurants and generally prefer to support the smaller businesses, but from this experience I can say that Calhoun’s certainly appears to be doing something right and I would certainly return to try them again.

Great tasting pulled pork. Some other favorites include the garlic roll, the smokehouse salad and the pretzels.

I ordered the half rack it wasn’t the greatest. I could get better ribs at Walmart. And waitress needs an education on service. The two stars is for the Long Island ice tea.

I had the best experience here. My waitress was Sky. She was awesome, I had a chicken BBQ salad they forgot my chicken. I’m not upset about, I was laughing and it Sky was on it. She handled her section extremely well. Sky I want you to know you are awesome sprinkled with glitter. Thank you.

First time visiting this restaurant. Stopped by for lunch and was seated immediately in the bar area. The bartender brought out our drinks in a timely fashion. It’s after that it went downhill. We waited for over 20 minutes and our order was never taken. Since we only ordered water we just finally walked out. I would have understood if it was busy but only half the seats were filled. Won’t be back.

Had dinner with a group of 18 on 7÷29÷15 and everyone had a good dinner. I had the half slab hickory bbq ribs (very good), Cole slaw (good), spinach maria (great!!) and triple fudge cake with ice cream (good). Service was very good; our server was super and kept each check in order. A very good experience.

We’re new to the area and this makes the 3^rd different Calhoun’s we’ve tried. All are mixed the food tends to be marginal to okay. The service is usually pretty but now that we’re aren’t tourists I don’t see us going back.
The menu is fairly limited– there’s nothing special about the food that will bring you back. Now like I said we’ve had a couple of waitresses that were really good and made you want the food to be better.
I would say try it — you won’t feel ripped off but you won’t be surprised.

Vapers unwelcome! If you buy into the lies about the dangers of «second hand vape» then this is your safe place. As for you vapers, just move along. Although the severs are wonderful and the food is delicious, especially $ 5 burger Monday nights, my wife was totally embarrassed by what I suspect is a manager who was hovering over our table. She was «stealth vaping» blowing into her shirt (I didn’t even know she was doing it, I thought the guy was just a creep) and then he told her to stop and put it away. Well, I’m going to put my wallet away too, and I encourage all Knoxville and visiting vapers to do the same. Go to one of the MIRIAD of local restaurants that are more than happy to take your money and not harass you about your vaping.

Actually like the food. Beer is good however the mixed drinks are really a short pour.
There are a number of restaurants in the area who know how to pour a mixed drink.

This is not my first visit to this establishment but it will likely be my last. I want this to be as even-​handed a review as possible but I would like to emphasize most that this establishment, after you have made clear that IF YOU DO NOT CONSUME PORK– they will somehow continue to SERVE YOU PORK! Be warned, people! For some reason they did NOT choose to take this warning seriously! I went in with what I wanted for dinner in mind, single order naked wings and a house salad, «sans the bacon». I specifically asked my server was there typically bacon in it and he said «yes». I then with the aforementioned quote verbatim requested not to have bacon and he repeated back to me the request. Problem solved, right? Not necessarily. Due to their preparatory methods, my server returns to inform me that they were «out» of non-​floured wings. While I do not fully understand why you’d not flour wings as needed is beyond me, it’s not my restaurant to run. I now search for an alternative meal where upon I landed on the smoked half chicken with two sides. The chicken is served more along the line of a ¼ chicken but that’s not the real problem. It is so salty it was practically beyond belief. As to not ruin my woman’s evening I simply soldiered through my meal until the unthinkable – I discover a inch-​sized piece of bacon at the bottom of my salad. At this point I’m utterly disgusted with my meal, I spoke with a manager of whom behaved as powerless to resolve the issue as I’m more concerned about becoming ill before the night is over than anything else. The manager seemed thankful that I had notified her about the incident as she said, if they were not aware of the error they could not work to fix it in the future. They merely comped the salad, I paid for the remainder and calmly left. I had an awful experience here to say the least. If a restaurant cannot simply keep a component as simple as bacon out of a salad, lord only knows what other failings occur behind the scenes!

It’s amazing to me how different BBQ can be at separate locations within the same chain. Calhoun’s downtown local and Gatlinburg, offer subpar BBQ, but the food at this location is always good. Go figure. We aren’t complaining, because the food here is very good and consistently remains that case.
We aren’t from Tennessee, but spend half the year traveling for work and eating BBQ across the South, Midwest and throughout Texas. This location can hang with the better than average spots across the country. We eat BBQ all over the place and sometimes its just chicken with BBQ sauce, but the chicken we had here was seasoned well and had a great flavor to it. In short, it was excellent.
We really enjoyed the bread. The assorted muffins and bread they bring with your sweet tea is tasty. If you like chicken order the Hickory Smoked Chicken (which is a half chicken). It’s enough for a meal and won’t disappointed. Another go-​to item is the Calhoun’s Tri, which brings ribs, chicken tenders and smoked pork. Unfortunately, all the sides are traditional, average chain style sides. On the other hand, if you load up on the tasty bread, you won’t need the rice.

The service at this location was excellent. I sat at the lounge and my waitress «Jody» was the best. Highly recommend the spinach Maria. The ribs were very good but I have had better. Overall it was a good dining experiencing.

I just moved from Jacksonville, FL to the Farragut area of TN. Been trying a lot of different restaurants looking for a place that was comfortable and offered good food. I usually sit at the bar, so I have someone to chat with (if they are not busy) and learn about the menu. Of all the places I’ve visited so far, Calhoun’s is my favorite. I’m not into big, heavy meals, so always looking for something a little lighter. They have a great salad with pulled BBQ on top… reasonably priced, and it’s on the menu most days of the week. Calhoun’s is a very nice, slightly upscale, restaurant with friendly staff and good clean food.

Being from Memphis, I knew Calhoun’s wouldn’t be better than what I’ve grown up eating, but it wasn’t bad at all.
To start, the atmosphere was welcoming. Music and the noise made for a lively atmosphere.
The service was polite, but took a little longer than I hoped to get my order. Nothing to keep me from coming back. Drink refills were decently consistent, and the wait for food wasn’t unbearably long.
The food overall (I ordered the Calhoun trio) was hot and fresh. The ribs and pulled pork were well cooked, and the chicken was crispy.
All in all, if you want a decent barbecue experience around Knoxville, this is a pretty good place to start looking.

Calhoun’s was very good! Their chicken BBQ was awesome! But their bathrooms were dated and gross they weren’t that bad but still gross. Me my wife and my kids were very stuffed when we walked out. Are waitress was nice and funny. It was very crowded but it was a Sauturday.

My meal was fantastic. I really enjoyed their own brand of beers. I’m a fan of red beers and this one was great. Wish it was available in Maryland. The staff was very friendly and professional, too. They definitely made me want to come back and experience everything all over.

We have given the Calhoun’s chain a 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th try and will mostly never ever go back.
We went to the Turkey Creek store on a Friday at 3:00pm and asked to be seated at a table in the bar. There was one other party in the restaurant at the time. The bartender, Kayla, came and took our drink order. Sweet tea with lemon and a porter for the Mr. I got sweet tea, no lemon and Mr. got his porter, in a ice cold glass (a no no for porters)
She took our order and twenty minutes later we were finally asked if we would like some bread. Just as Kayla delivered the bread, here comes our meals.
Both of our meals were overly salted and lukewarm. Are you kidding me? Two parties in a huge restaurant and it takes twenty minutes for a burger and some fish and chips?
We finished our meal and waited and waited for Kayla to clear ur table. I swear she’s the slowest bartender I’ve ever seen.
Mr. decided he wanted a dessert — banana pudding and a black coffee. 10 minutes later, we finally got the code, but no dessert. Fast forward another 15 minutes and still no dessert — but there were plenty of wait people hanging around the bar, chatting up Kayla. Mr. decided to forego the dessert and had to go to the bar to tell Kayla that1) we never received the dessert, and 2) we wanted to pay and get out. And wouldn’t you know — here comes the dessert. Kayla asks us «do you want me to put that in a to-​go box?’ Ugh.
Sorry Calhouns. We might still go to the Copper Cellar, but we will never go to a Calhouns store again.