Louis Original Drive In Restaurant

To start the hostess was rude and acted put out to have to seat people. Clue #1 that we should have walked out. The starting course was what they call salad. Shredded iceberg lettuce, 2 cherry tomatoes, 1 cucumber slice.($ 3.99 if your meal doesn’t include one) After a 20 minute wait the waitress asked if we’d like an order of onion rings on the house, our meal was going to take a bit longer than normal. Ok, thanks. They came out right away, very bland, but a nice gesture. When the food came out it was cold, too salty, and tasted chemically treated. Each combo plate was priced at $ 12.99. 2 of our party ordered the Sampler which included spaghetti, ravioli, and a meatball… both gave up after a bite of each item. Another ordered the manicotti and ravioli, again one bite of each-​done. Last one of our party ordered a small cheese pizza, tasted frozen, not good. The waitress was very apologetic and tried to make the order right, she did remove one of the orders. She was the only bright spot in this review. The food was said to be fresh and homemade, I highly doubt it. Ultimately it was a $ 50 mistake. Save your money, avoid at all costs. This place says it’s been open since the 50’s, I don’t understand how that could be true.

Best spaghetti ever! Fantastic liver and grilled onions if you’re a fan. The salads are always fresh and their homemade blue cheese dressing is excellent!

My family has been visiting Louis for over fifty years, and I believe they are still serving the same lousy food they had purchased and were serving fifty years ago, it is nasty, and disgustingly tasteless.
Our order consisted of two lasagna entrees, a baked spaghetti entrée, and a large pizza. After consuming half of our entrees, not one person in our party was well. Two of us spent the next 24 hours vomiting, and belching non-​stop, from what we believe to be food poisoning, while the other two swore they would never again eat anything from Louis.
Their menu is so tired and dated, they really need to bury it and lay it to rest. The same sickening food they have served for over half a century. Boring, to say the very least. The restaurant is hideously decorated with some of the worst murals ever to be seen, and the dining room is not at all inviting. The food is bland, unimaginative, and usually served almost room temperature when it arrives. Service is lousy.
Our check was slightly under $ 80. A complete ripoff.
Never again. Steer clear of this complete disappointment. Definitely not at all worth the trip, or the money. You will fare much better driving through any fast food place.

Stopped in late, well 9 pm is late for Fountain City, and this place was open until 9:30, so we were stuck. This place has been around for 40 – 50 years and some folks loose their mind over this place, I’m not one of them. My friend had a small pizza and small salad, I had a club sandwich. His pizza was bland, small side salad was 4 bucks. My sandwich was fine, fries were out of a bag. This is lowest common denominator food, assembly line, quickly prepared and cheap for the store, not the customer though. I paid 13 bucks with tip for a club sandwich, buddy paid about the same for a small pizza and salad, no drinks either. My meal was filling and tasty, but over priced. Live and learn right.

Late sunday afternoon the parking lot is still full with people /​family coming and going. A good sign. Inside it’s clean well-​appointed but not pretentious. It is a bit noisy but that’s just sign of roomful of happy people. This is an Italian family dinning hall. Every town worthy of some size should have one. West Lake Joe’s in Daly City (san francisco) is another one, which i think a better one as their breaded sole and original meat sauce are blown away good. Luis’s version isn’t bad. You have to take in the whole old-​time family atmosphere along with the food and service and the history of the establishment to render fair judgment. In that department I am an easy judge. Many people derided the shredded salad, My was fresh, without spoilage and crisp; like a good boy i ate my veggies without complaint, topped with honey mustard which I suspected was thousand island by mistake. But like I said the restaurant and lientele put me in such good mood — no complaint. My diner sampler had sphaghetti with meat sauce, ravioli and meat ball. Alll of which i chowed down heartily. Next time I will ordered grilled steak with side of that good sphaghetti. By way there is no garlic to the otherwise nicely brown «garlic» bread. We suppose to use our imagination right ?
I dont care some liken Luis food to chef boyardi; IItalian home-​made comfort food put me on a happy walk down memory lane, and what is wrong with that?

I know this place is sort of an institution in fountain city but the food isn’t even mediocre. Hospital food which fits the mostly elderly that frequent this establishment from nearby senior housing. The sauce on the overcooked spaghetti has a nice zing to it but that’s why I gave them 2 stars instead of 1.
The veal Parmesan worst I’ve ever eaten. You get a more interesting tossed salad in a public high school cafeteria. If you have no taste buds you might like it here. Server and staff pleasant. Restaurant seems clean for most part.

The baked spaghetti is to die for. Found it by accident 10+ years ago and have been going back ever since. Constant and never disappointed so if you are in the mood for Italian give it a try.

First time eating here and I was very impressed. Our server Tammy very attentive and knowledgable about the specials. Their homemade spaghetti sauce is phenomenal. The only bad thing I would say is the hostess was rude, but I would recommend this place to anyone!

This was our first visit and our last. I ordered veal parmigiana and the menu states it was hand breaded veal. What I got was a processed frozen veal patty.
The red sauce lacked any authenticity of the old country and was just color on the plate.
Louis is suppose to be famous for their onion rings and although they were fried well they lacked any seasoning which also made them bland to taste.
The garlic bread was just SAD !
The one positive note was the wait staff was very attentive and professional.
My bill was $ 58.00 for two adults and two children and I was completely un-​impressed and will not eat here again and recommend you do the same.

This is one of those older Knoxville restaurants with an old-​time reputation. Their spaghetti sauce makes their spaghetti. The steak and spaghetti is my recommended dish. Over the years I feel like their quality has not been what it use to, however they still have large and regular crowds. I feel this restaurant is a Knoxville staple.

Some restauranteurs talk about making big changes to fine dining. At Louis, though, the less-​talented but more-​enthusiastic chefs of Knoxville have come together to actually do something about it.
Ever thought about taking the shredded lettuce that goes on tacos and making a salad out of it? Me neither. But Louis sure has. Get ready for the first salad that might actually be more easily eaten with a spoon. Visionary!
In the past, at other places, I’ve ordered baked pasta dishes such as manicotti and found that awesome top layer of cheesiness isn’t quite as textured as I’d like it to be. However, Louis has developed a patent-​worthy method for securing this texture. First, the dish is cooked the «traditional» (or some might say «appropriate») length of time. Then, with a flair of genius, the dish continues to cook until the cheese layer has formed a burnt crust over the pasta. No shortage of texture here. Revolutionary!
I’ve always loved great garlic bread, with its crunchy surface and rich aroma of herbs, one of which is generally garlic. However, Louis has shown me a better way. One can simply leave a chunk of bread next to (but not actually in) the oven, melting a small pat of butter over the top. Most importantly, no garlic whatsoever is added, because garlic is a sufficiently strong flavor that imagining its presence is good enough. I imagine the chefs at Louis look ahead of us commonfolk to a future when garlic might in fact be endangered, thus promoting resource conservation. Inspired!
One day, the world will abandon the outdated preferences for «quality» and «taste» and look to Louis to lead us to the culinary Promised Land.

recently, while having lunch here (only because my co-​workers insisted) I ordered a hamburger with mayo, lettuce and onions. Can you begin to imagine my utter surprise when I looked on my bill to see that they had charged me 75 cents for a slice of onion !!! Who doesn’t offer onion on a burger? Their prices are crazy…$ 15 for a plate of spaghetti and tea? The new generation that now runs this family owned business is just running it in the ground

I am a big believer in local business and I am not a food snob. Mom and Pops are right up my alley. However, when there is SO little effort put into a restaurant’s food it SHOWS. Louis is accurately described by a lot of reviews on here… the negative reviews. The brown iceberg lettuce salad and brownish orange spaghetti are just simply crap. I was able to try their pizza on the second time I was dragged to this joint, and also showed just a lack of effort in preparing the food. I mean, if you owned a restaurant and took the time to read Unilocal reviews, and saw that people were complaining about the iceberg lettuce, BUY SOME NEW LETTUCE!
I also refuse to go back to this place. This is based on eating there twice in the past 7 years. My mother in law is an old North Knoxville native and is the driving force behind going those two times. My theory is some people grew up on Louis when the food was prepared with care are writing these reviews.
Now the bad food of this place is in stark contrast to the great food available right down the street at Range House Restaurant. Pick Range House not Louis for the love! I would love to see one of those Kitchen Nightmares shows filmed here.

Definitely a crowd pleaser with the whole family. Spaghetti is a little different but excellent — the sauce has a kick to it. Gotta have a salad with blue cheese dressing. Very reasonable prices and always nice size portions, easy to share a meal.
If you’re looking for consistency, this place never changes and never disappoints.

The coolest thing about this place is I’ve heard it was great which it may have been back in the day but no longer. I don’t get the high praise or the crowds. Nope, no thanks — once was enough for me.

I do not understand the popularity of this place. Said I would not return but gave in after a friend said it was awesome. The sauce tastes just like the Chef Boy R D
sauce in the ravioli. I did not like it. A «salad» is nothing but an overflowing bowl of lettuce that has a metallic taste as it is probably cut on a meat slicer. The lettuce overflows onto the serving tray and how often are they sanitized? The blue cheese dressing was thin and not very good.
I ordered the veal parmesan and was served a chopped and formed deep fried patty that was greasy and almost all filler. I will not go back to this place.

Tried the spaghetti after reading some raves. Wasn’t impressed and probably won’t return.

Definitely one of my favorite places in Knoxville. Lots of great things on the menu, but the thing to get is the spaghetti. The dine in portions are huge so splitting works well. Also, the Italian dressing is homemade and nice if you like oil and vinegar style dressings. The onion rings are a favorite as well and again portions are large. Growing up my family would split a «small» order as an appetizer.
I know that some people have called Louis a greasy spoon and perhaps that is true, but the simple fact is that it is a great one.

Louis’ is a Knoxville landmark with over 50+ years. Living in the Knoxville metro area, it’s a wonder I never ventured here once until recently. I didn’t get a chance to taste a variety of menu items on my visit, but here’s my impression:
The spaghetti is what I’ve heard most about this place. The meat sauce is almost a marinara ‘gravy’. I enjoyed it quite a bit. The veal parmigiana was decent. It was a round-​shaped cutlet with light breading, smothered in their ‘Italian-​at-​a-​Greek joint’ style of marinara and mozzarella. The garlic toast (thick, Texas-​style) was guilty-​pleasure greasy good. The salad was sub-​par, using only iceberg lettuce with little-​to-​no additional veggies, but hey, this isn’t the place to go to have a fancy salad.
I enjoyed the atmosphere — it was typical mom-​pop rural East TN restaurant with Italian decoration on the walls. The elderly really like this place, apparently — likely because of its long-​running history in near-​north Knoxville.
If I lived near this place, I would go on a semi-​regular basis, but since I live out west, it’s worth a visit when I happen to be wondering the downtown or Fountain City areas. If you live in Knoxville and haven’t tried it, it’s worth the effort to drive out to and try, and if anything, you can say you experienced one of Knoxville’s only few remaining long-​standing private-​owned restaurants (RIP Regas).

I have been addicted to the spaghetti with meat sauce since I was little. If you like Pizza Palace spaghetti then this is right up your alley.
Majority of the time I get take-​out. This consists of a very large order of spaghetti (I usually eat half of it the night I get it and the rest is for lunch), a shredded lettuce salad. Trust me on this. Get the Vinaigrette, an additional Blue Cheese Dressing and a side of Parmesan. Mix it up however you like but using all 3 makes it pretty darn good. They also give you good garlic butter toasted bread.
I crave this place every time I think about it. For me it’s tradition but the spaghetti here never gets old for me. Go check it out. Dine in the restaurant or pull up to the drive-​in, or just get it to-​go like me.
They are closed on Mondays.
Cheers & Enjoy!