We were planning to eat at Panera but it closed early tonight...Cheddar's is just around the corner and brand new (our server told us it opened on 5/3/10). There were a lot of people waiting outside and the parking lot was full but there was ONE spot right up front so we thought we'd take a chance. The wait was 30 minutes - not too bad - so we grabbed a menu and sat outside (they weren't serving outside tonight...too bad, because the patio is just awesome -- a fountain with fire!!!). The inside, when we were seated, was very nice; think modern pub with a Caribbean flair--dark paneling and seating with skylights and palm fans, and an aquarium built into a wall. The menu is pretty diverse, too. Burgers, steaks, seafood, a little cajun. All three of us had fruit-infused tea: strawberry, mango and peach. They were all yummy. Our son ordered the Hawaiian chicken sandwich. Husband had Cajun catfish with red beans and rice and corn for the sides (you get two). I had Key West chicken and shrimp with red beans & rice and broccoli casserole for the sides. We also ordered the honey butter croissants. They were out of honey butter but that was our only disappointment of the whole meal. The food was SO GOOD, all of it, and very reasonably priced ($5.39 for the sandwich; $6.50 for the catfish, "lunch" portion; and $8.99 for the chicken/shrimp dish). We will definitely go back. Hopefully they'll have the honey butter next time--but if they don't, it wouldn't matter much - the croissants are terrific just plain. read more

Went to Cheddars for dinner tonight. We ordered some chicken tenders as an appetizer. More on that later. We ordered our meal, I asked the server if I could get my burger medium rare they replied yes you can. My wife ordered tortilla soup and a house salad. I also ordered a house salad as my side. Both salads came out before the appetizer. When the appetizer finally showed up as we finished our salads, the chicken was cold and the celery was old looking with no snap. My burger shows up well done and dripping with mayo. The tortilla soup was awful and my wife didn't eat it. We really wanted this to be a good experience. Oh yeah, our server complained at every table visit about the new computer system they are using. read more

Used to love this place and ate here every time I came to Knoxville. Stopped in last night with several friends and experience was not good. They were not busy, and had plenty of wait staff but they still struggled to take orders and get products to the tables. It took quite a while to get drinks. The food came out at different times. One member of our party didn't get his hamburger until everyone else had finished eating. I also noticed that the menu has changed and, in my opinion, not for the better. My food was OK, but I miss what I used to eat here. Lot's of better places to eat in this area. read more

Crazy overpriced underserved portions of pretty terrible food. It's just not worth it when you can go to so many other places and get a good meal. The place is always packed and I don't understand why. Could be the chicken tenders and honey mustard crowd. (Those are actually good here, but you can literally get that dish anywhere and not have to pay a separate charge for your sides. The staff, while not rude by any means is slow and relatively inattentive. Enough that you notice something is off. read more

I have eaten there several times in that past and have not really had a bad experience until now. We arrived at 7:33pm and were promptly seated. The waitress was friendly and courteous, took our order, brought us our drinks and appetizer, and was not seen again for about 15 minutes, when we got drink refills. At about the 45 minute mark, we were advised that there was no more gravy for the Country Fried Steak, and the Country Fried Chicken that myself and my Daughter ordered, "Would we like to order something else?" Nope my entire dinner time was wasted waiting on food that we now could not get. My wife took her food to go and my 3 year old son was absolutely done with the wait so we also got his to go. We advised the waitress that this obviously was not her fault, and tipped accordingly. However, in any customer service field, especially food service, if you are out of something...make more. If it looks like you are getting close to being out of something...make some more...inevitably someone will order that dish. Heck you can make gravy from pretty much any meat renderings and flour. Whip up a batch rather than lose a sale, and a fairly regular customer. read more

This place has the WORST service ever. One time we got home with our take out order and they forgot a whole thing of soup and a side of fries. Another time we placed an order over the phone and they said it would take 20 minutes so we got there 20 minutes later and it took another HOUR for them to get us the food!! That ended up taking half of our kid free date night away. Last week we ate at the restaurant with a 3.5 year old and baby in tow and it took 10-15 minutes just to get a waiter to come take our drink order. Then when we eventually got our food, my husband's steak was very well done instead of medium like he requested, so when we told the waiter, he said he'd fix it and took his whole plate away so he couldn't even eat his sides while he was waiting for the steak to be fixed. We ended up having to hunt down our waiter several times to ask for things like drink refills, more ranch, and to pay the bill. Speaking of bill, when they brought it out, not only did they not compensate us one bit for the screw up, they charged us TWICE for the steak meal!! We won't be going back there anytime soon. Oh and we complained to them on a survey about one of our previous experiences and never heard a word from them. read more

The service was very disappointing. Our server didn't know the special, never checked on us, didn't notice I never got my salad. When our food arrived, my husband chicken was cold to the touch. We finally got someone's (not our server) attention, he asked for new tenders. We were told it would take 3 minutes. 15 minutes later, he got his food. On the plus side, my salmon (the special) was very good. We just took our husband's to. They did comp the meal, but the server dropped the check after telling us she wanted to cry and was having a bad night. She never apologized. read more

A retiree paradise. Volume=value. Sit in there all day whining non stop, eat everything in sight then complain so you get something you ate removed from your bill. Amusing anecdotes in place of an actual realistic tip. I feel sorry for the tip dependent staff there. Unrepentantly rude, entitled, ignorant patronage at least 75% of the time. Food is good and a phenomenal value especially if you subscribe to the "volume=value" mind (?!??) set. Just treat staff human beings. If you can't afford to tip appropriately and in accordance with what it costs to live today, you can't afford to go out to eat. Better to stay home and scarf Mac and cheese read more

I placed an order to go on Thursday July 10th. When i went to the bar to pick up my order I looked at the bill and it was higher than it should be based on the the wbsite price. I told the young lady behind the bar who was very nice and helpful. The manager that evening or one of them came out from the kitchen and removed some money from the register and the young woman asked what he was doing and he turned and was very hateful and rude in his response to her. She then told him what i had told her about the price difference and his immediate response was he didn't fool with the website since that was a corporate site. i told him I was on the Alcoa site which is their. he became very irritated went over picked up a menu and told me the menu said the price was $8.49 so that was the price with an attitude of pay it or leave it which is what I should have done. I checked the price on the website which was $7.19 to their current price of $8.49. Actually the food was bad the manager is an a...hole and i won't be back. Their food was average at best but was fairly cheap, but now it is overpriced. I hope the manager on duty reads this because he is a jerk. read more

I have been known to write complimentary letters to companies, but, unfortunately, this is not one. Two days ago, my family had possibly one of the worse experiences at Cheddar's in Alcoa, TN. It all began when my husband and I were helping my 82 year old mother in with her walker just before 11:30 AM. When I approached the hostess desk, I kindly asked if my daughter had called ahead to reserve a table for a large party. I was then "matter of factually" told that tables are not held on holidays. There were three people at the hostess desk and they all looked at me like I was crazy to ask such a thing. None of them smiled at any time, only stared. I was left trying to figure out what holiday is on Sunday, March 8. I still do not know. I then contacted my daughter to find out the exact size of our party since there was going to be people from two families. I was first told ten people and I relayed this to the one remaining hostess. She appeared a little put out with this information, but started to find someone to help. I then learned that two children were not included in the count, so I had to make the change to 12 people. From the reaction we got, this obviously disturbed the staff. After they looked on one side of the restaurant and whispered among each other, a hostess returned and stated that they were only willing to make tables for parties up to eight people at the restaurant. I then asked if they could put another table in the setting and they said no. They informed us that all they would do was put us in two booths, back to back. We were disappointed that we could not all eat together, but figured it was the best that could be done. The entire time this was happening, my mother was struggling to stay on her feet with her walker. The hostess then told us that we would be seated when more people in the party would arrive. Let me understand this: we were there and wanted to be seated. There were multiple tables available and we are being told that we were not good enough to be seated? I then looked at my mother and saw the pain she was in, so I tried to explain to the girl that it is very difficult for my mother to get up and down, so we would prefer to be seated as soon as possible, and not make her wait any longer. She looked at me like I had three heads! Someone needs to teach these young people a little about the elderly and the problems they have! Honestly, if this was not such a special lunch that my daughter had planned, we would have walked out on the spot. After my mother sat down on the bench, the staff decided we were worthy of the booths, so my husband and I had to literally pull my mother up. This is what I was trying to explain to the hostess, but she was oblivious. This was not only painful to my mother, but embarrassing that she could not do it herself. When we got to our booth, our nameless waitress quickly took our drink orders, which was wonderful . We thought things were going to get better! Unfortunately, this waitress also had a chip on her shoulder. She never introduced herself or wore a name badge. She also had a great aversion of giving out straws. She would put the drinks on the table and quickly leave without the straws. We tried to get her and ask for some, but without luck. We finally asked the man that looked like the manager walking by. The straw issue happened with almost everyone that joined the party. Is Cheddars trying to cut costs via straws? Are you training your servers to do this? It would also be nice if the drinks were given to the customers and not slammed down in the middle of the table as was done a few times. One very good thing the waitress did was assure all tea drinkers had plenty of tea. She was very good about this. The food that was ordered came out of the kitchen very quickly, made to order. All of it was very tasty and everyone was happy with their meals. The kitchen did a great job! I just wish the service was comparable. The waitress never became friendly during the entire meal. None of us ever saw her smile one time. A smile can go a long way! Obviously, she was upset to have a large party. She did not even seem pleased when the entire party went on to one check and she did not have to split the checks. Maybe if she asked while taking orders, it may have helped alleviate some of her tension. Maybe not. My son, who is also in the food industry, was also dismayed with the service. He normally is very generous with his tips, but not yesterday due to the service. By the way, I saw the manager check on a table of two people, but he never stopped by either of our booths. Maybe he does not like larger groups either. I hope this is not the typical service to be found at Cheddar's. This was the first visit to Cheddar's for most of us and disappointing to say the least. The food was very good, but the service left a great deal to be desired. Personally, we will not return to an establishment that treats their customers as an imposition. read more

Having loved this restaurant before I was excited to come back. My excitement soon faded. We arrived a little after 8pm on a Friday, usually this place is packed, however I'm guessing after all the bad word of mouth lately it was almost dead. We were seated immediately and placed our order not long after. Then we preceded to wait. It took a few minutes to get the appetizer, no problem. We finshed and waited for our entree. We waited and waited. It took 50 minutes to get our food. Well mine......nothing was right about my order and everything was cold. My potatoes had a film and the gravy had grown lumpy and cold. While we were complaining to the manager my husband's food was brought and of course it was also wrong. We've patronized this restaurant many times in the past, but will never return. The past 4 times we've gone it's been horrid and seems to only be getting worse. Do not waste your money here. Salsaritas is right down the road and absolutely delicious. Cheddars you are a disappointment. read more

we were at Cheddars 11/7/2010 for my birthday. it was awesome. the food was super. our waiter was JAMES W and he was the best, very attentative. the restaurant was very tastfully decorated. we did not have to wait as ling as we were told. we will be back every chance we get. i hope the goodness of the food and the price does not go away as some do after being open a while.. read more

If you can bear the rude treatment and hostility that is given by the hostesses, this a wonderful restaurant. I don't think I have ever been treated more rudely than by the young girls that work the front of this place. It took a great deal for my family to stay, but because of a very hungry child, we suffered through it. When we actually made it to the table, the server was wonderful, apologetic, kind to our grand daughter and so very professional it almost made us forget the front area. When the food arrived, it was so well prepared that we knew we had made the right choice in waiting. Try the steaks, ribs and especially the burgers. Expect a wait when you go. (For most people it was about 45 minutes, but for us it was an hour and 15 minutes!) I would give the food 5 stars, but because of the inability of four hostesses to be able to be pleasant and converse with customers without rolling their eyes and huffing and pitching fits like toddlers, I can only give it three stars. Management would do well to hire some mature hostesses that could handle the pressure of a busy front. read more

We went to cheddars today a Monday not too busy but I have to say we received the worst service I have ever had . We were seated in the main restaurant in a big booth along the outside wall of windows ,our server a girl named Sam was obviously high or drunk I'm not sure which . She took our order with appetizers and after a while came back and asked us about our order again , didn't see her again for a long while and another waitress brought our food to us and guess what we hadn't even had our appetizers she took our food back our waitress came back by the table apparently not even aware of what was going on and said she would go and check on our appetizers . Finally got our appetizers and when they brought our food back it was obvious that it was the same food they had brought earlier both sandwich and broccoli were cold . The girl was definitely on something so I'm not sure if she noticed no tip on our check or not lol. The food is usually good but the service here is more times than not is very poor . read more

ABSOLUTELY WORST SERVICE I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED! I am very patient and empathetic with servers and with restaurants in general because I have been a server for years and my boyfriends parents own a restaurant, so i understand bad nights and such but this was plain RIDICULOUS. We had a group of about 25 coming in at about 9:30 (mind you they close at 10:30) and when we told the manager who was hosting, He rolled his eyes! I told myself well maybe he has just had a bad night so we were very willing to work with him put everything on one check to make it easy on the server, we ordered quickly. The server was absolutely awful, He had a horrible attitude. Oh and when we were about to leave at about 11:10 (i looked at my phone) The server came to us and told us that they were closing up and some of them had families to get home to! Needless to say, I ever not go back and i would never recommend them...ever. read more

When we arrived we were told there was a 40 minute wait, so we did. However after ordering it took over an hour to get our food that was after asking about it twice. Two different parties came in after us but got their food before us. When I ask the waitress why that was, I was told we were a bigger party so we get bumped. That makes no logical sense. I'm sure that it didn't have anything to do with her standing and talking to another table for 20 minutes. Then when we get the bill she tries to charge us a service fee for 8 or more people. We had 6 on ours and the the couple that met us there were on a separate ticket. But yet she tried to charge us both a service charge for a party 8 and over. That would have gave her a tip of almost $15.00. I have had to work for my tips before at a restaurant and this was not worth $15.00. Oh almost forgot that our order was wrong when we got it too. The service was terrible and the food is not that good. Heard this place was a great place to eat so we tried it......NOTHING that I seen worth going back for. read more

WORTH the read~~DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY~I used to manage restaurants for many many years...I love Cheddars in Knoxville, so now that I live in Maryville...I have tried their Cheddars more than 10 times. I am sooooo disappointed. The service is great in the middle section of the place and it is fairly good in the bar area. However, if they seat you on the portico side...service wise ....you are in trouble. The food is inconsistent unfortunately, ranging from luke warm to cold, over salted and I have found hair in my food more than 3 times. How they get such a high score from the Health Inspector...baffles me. Management seemed to care when I first told them and sent me a gift cert. The band aid was appreciated but not problem solving. I decided to try them again yesterday...since we really do love the one in Knoxville but didnt want to drive another 30 mins to eat. We could have went to Sullivan's Downtown or Metros Pizza...where the food...atmosphere and service is ALWAYS consistently delicious but nope we opted to try our favorite franchise again. I give kudos to all the crew in Knoxville and to all the ones who sincerely try on the Maryville team....but I have to say there is a very big problem in Maryville Cheddar's. Management walks around looking busy but extremely uneffective...first problem. We were sat in the "portico" area....and we were not even greeted until 15 mins later....no water....no silverware...nothing. The server felt our frustration and quickly told us we could have another server if we wanted. Apparently, Im guessing management has "labelled" us a trouble table which is a total misconception...we just want Franchise Consistency. Mystery Shoppers are a useful tool for a True Manager, if management labels you a trouble table....management is YOUR first problem. My 10 visits have been over the last year...all different times of day and different days of week...so the problem exists consistently, I hope this opens their eyes and something is done to amend the problems...but I doubt it since giving the customer an attitude is really all that is being taught there. I wont waste another dime there and I recommend you dont either. read more