Thirsty Miner

We went here last night for dinner first night at the Wilderness at the Smokies — We had a great experience — food was great our waiter was excellent and on top of our drinks and so on. My husband did have to ask once for his drink to be refilled; however that is a small. The reason for the 4 star is we went to the dinner buffet and our nephew age 2 should of been FREE with 4 paying adults, but was still charged after reading the reviews this morning maybe they charged us sense we had the hotel discount. All in all the dinner buffet was great with great service — however very expensive. We had the buffet.

Food was what you would expect from a buffet, mediocre and over priced. Service was terrible. Took forever to get our sodas and you could forget about a refil. Pretty sad since the only job the server has is to bring drink.
I would not eat here again. Much prefer a burger or sub from one of the snack bars if you are going to eat at the hotel. Otherwise take a short drive to a local resturant for a decent meal that is better priced.

This was the first day of our vacation, Sunday, April 10, 2016. We are Wyndham owners and this is the first time we stayed at this location. Because we had been driving all day, we decided to eat at the Thirsty Miner instead of driving elsewhere. Big Mistake. First, we thought it was buffet, however when we arrived, it was not buffet; it was about 6:30pm in the evening. We decided to stay since we were already there. Our server was Elizabeth. We ordered cokes to start and then placed our order shortly thereafter. My husband and daughter ordered burgers, well done; I ordered pork chops with a baked potato and vegetable medley and my son ordered wings. It took 55 minutes to get our dinner. Some people walked out because the wait was so absurd, others were as annoyed as us that it took this long to get our food. When it finally arrived, my husband’s burger was very pink, my daughter’ was a little darker but not much better, the pork chops were actually very tasty, but the baked potato was ice cold and the butter was hard as a rock and the vegetable medley was just broccoli. My son loved his wings. Elizabeth was super nice and even took our drinks off our bill and gave my son some french fries because of the wait. They were short staffed, however they weren’t super busy so I have no idea why it would take that long to make our food. The restaurant wasn’t actually the cleanest place I’ve seen either. Their prices are priced too high as well. I would not recommend this location even as a last resort. We tried it once, but will never go back again. Sadly disappointing because I have been to other indoor water parks (Great Wolf Lodge and Massanutten) and their restaurants are definitely 4 star or above. Eat at your own risk.

I was hopeful that the breakfast would be passable for a waterpark resort… I was wrong. Buffet was perfect for the free breakfast at Days Inn, but not when you are paying 13.99 a person for it.
Defiantly in need of improvement.

Really low quality! Service not great. Doesn’t matter what we asked for. It came the way it came. We tried breakfast off the menu and the buffet and both I literally choked down. I have 3 kids and none of them liked their food either. I really wanted to like the place because it’s more convenient than going out of resort. Definitely, go off resort!

I really do wish you could give 0 or negative stars. If you care about your kids, you would never bring them in this place. Most grotesque example of a restaurant I have ever seen and I’ve eaten in actual Mexican ghettos. I feel so guilty exposing my child to such complete garbage. The service was as horrible as the food. The park is ok but you should bring your own food, really really bad!

All I can tell you is DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME. «Buffet» is horrible, tasteless and overcooked only start to tell the tale. Service 0. Food 0. If you just want quantity and don’t care about quality or taste, go for it. But if you want good food at a good price, go elsewhere.

Very little positive to say. We were at the resort so tried it out and well, it filled our bellies but it did nothing for our taste buds. It tasted like everything was straight out of a can or the freezer. Visit the quick service places in the resort instead. It was yummy.

Ate dinner here last night and it was excellent. There was so much food that we now have dinner tonight. Also great drinks! Cajun chicken pasta is great

Im forced to give them a star when they don’t even deserve one. I’m still beating myself up for not checking Unilocal before we ate here. We were staying at the resort and thought it’d be nice to just eat here and not have to go out. And kids eat free. Why not? We even looked at the buffet before we decided to stay and eat. Looks are deceiving. Everything tasted awful !!! I was able to eat a little pot roast and prime rib and a baked potato. $ 50 for 4 of us. We could’ve gotten a much better dinner at a local restaurant for the same price. I still get nauseated when I think about their food. Avoid at all costs. Resort itself and the amenities are awesome though!!!

Worst food I have ever eaten. It was bland and cold. If your going to serve food please do it well.

We stayed at the wilderness resort, so we tried the Thirsty Miner for breakfast. We had the country breakfast, veggie omelet, and the kids pancakes and fruit. The food was all typical diner food, tasteless and poor quality. The fruit was canned, the eggs for the omelet were obviously liquid eggs, and the biscuits were premade. Basically everything tasted premade and reminded me of cafeteria food. On the plus side kids eat free for breakfast and dinner, so at least we didn’t have to pay for my daughter’s glue-​like pancakes. When I pay 30 dollars for breakfast I expect better quality and fresh ingredients.

We’re staying at the Wilderness at the Smokies tonight and wanted a quick lunch before getting to the water park. We got to the restaurant at 1:35. After waiting over 10 minutes to even be acknowledged by the hostess, we were told it would be another 5 minutes for him to get the table ready, even though there were only 3 parties left in the dining room. After we finally sat down, we were greeted by an unpleasant waitress who rushed us to take our order. The food was average but overpriced for what it was. A couple of our orders had small things wrong with them (wrong dressing, wrong sides, etc) but it took 20 minutes to get our food so we were not interested in sending it back to the kitchen. While it was convenient to eat here during our stay, it was not worth our time and limited our hours at the outdoor water park for the unseasonably warm April day.

If zero stars were an option, I would be giving the TM zero stars. I had been warned to stay away by a friend who frequents WatS but we were hungry and didn’t want to get back in the car. We have learned our lesson.
Our first mistake was to let the climate go without complaining to a manager. It was hot. Our waiter was glistening with a sheen of sweat. We mentioned the heat to him and he basically said «yes, I’m hot too».
Second mistake was no fail to ask the price of the buffet. Kids eat free so we figured the entire meal wouldn’t cost too much because half of us were eating free. WRONG! One adult buffet is over $ 18. The cost of 2 adult buffets, 1 adult drink and 2 kids’ drinks was almost $ 50. I could have accepted the cost of this dinner better if the food had been good. It was not. Had we known the price before eating, we would have left, reluctantly loaded the kids in the car and eaten at any other of the many restaurants less than 5 minutes from the resort.
Our third mistake was to look at the food and imagine it would be ok. I lucked out and arrived when they brought out a fresh piece of prime rib. I had the fella cut a fresh slice for me and it was fork tender. It needed salt but was ok. The mashed potatoes were quite good. Skin on red bliss, real potatoes. Everything else was the worst version of itself. Terrible chicken nuggets, chicken wings, macaroni and cheese abounded. And everything really turned to ashes in my mouth when the check came. My family was so anxious to leave that we skipped the ice cream bar. My 5 & 2 year old skipped the ice cream. Just let that sink in for a minute.
In conclusion, do not eat at the Thirsty Miner. Get in you car and go anywhere else. Pigeon Forge has not just one but two Long John Silvers. You know the one in your hometown closed years ago and you secretly love their food. Go treat yourself to a pirate hat and a fish filet. Anything is a step up from the Thirsty Miner.

Staying at the resort so we decided to try the restaurant for breakfast. It was basically a continental breakfast. Sliced fruit was from a can. Cereal was off brand. Eggs, biscuits and gravy likely all came from a can or dry mix. Very disappointing. We decided not to try it for dinner. The service was nice our waitress was very friendly and worked to make sure drinks were full and we had what we needed.

Let’s see, we waited over an hour for a table in a restaurant that wasn’t even half full. My wife MUST eat Gluten Free and the manager was less than knowledgeable and could have cared less about helping us.
The menu was limited and food was terrible. The buffet 18.95 for adults and kids eat free with each adult buffet which only a saves 17.90 for 2 adults and 2 children. Most of the staff would have been happy somewhere else, I stood at the prime rib station for more than 5 minutes waiting for a worker to finish moving food around not even 10 feet from me. He saw me there and never offered to help until he finished. Then he walked over cut off a piece, slapped it on my plate without ever greeting me or speaking a word. As
I reached for a container to put some horseradish in he grabbed up the horseradish and proceeded to move it from a bowl into what looked like a storage container. I don’t think the extra 30 seconds it Would have taken for me to get a spoonful would have impacted him but instead I stood there for another couple of minutes waiting for him to finish.

Ordered Created Your Own Pasta Bowl for 12 bucks. After a waitress telling that they are backed up a bit because of room services, the pasta came out was with Marinara sauce tastes exactly like the one from a jar. Just as we were discussing that we should have been to an outside restaurant, we discovered the rest of the bad reviews! Avoid!

Had to eat here since we were staying at the wilderness lodge. Food ok. Drinks standard. Would have gone elsewhere if I realized there were so many other great restaurants like the diner that are close to the hotel!

They advertise kids eat free with paying adult. I called to verify it. Only when we sat down did they say it was kids eat free was if you bought the $ 18 buffet! Bait and switch! Believe me it was a shoddy buffet, nowhere near worth $ 18. The burgers were just ok, the kids meals were puny.
Drive down the road and save your money.

Kids eat free, but adult dinner buffet is nearly $ 20. All in all food was ok at best and for our family of 4 and a baby the meal was still almost $ 60. Won’t go again.