This is our review of The Local Goat, which is located in Pigeon Forge, at: 2167 Parkway Pigeon Forge, TN This was a bit of an interesting experience, to say the least.
I'd have just walked back out, as I have a deep aversion to having blaring tvs on. It ruins any kind of ambience the place might be trying to provide, to have the whirled programming on in our faces. When did it become de rigueur for almost every institution we enter to have the scrying mirror on? Don't folks want to escape those blaring and obnoxious devices when going out for a nice meal?!? There truly are some folks who just can't stand them. And this is from a gal who majored in theater and communication and actually desired to be in that scene, till I woke up. There. I said my piece, now I'll continue watching. Thanks, as always, for doing these reviews for your viewers.
I'm a fan of honest reviews. Thank you for full disclosure. Shame people don't seem to try to be helpful anymore especially in restaurants and retail. Many blessings to you both.
Thank you for watching, and for your kind comments. Yes, we decided from the beginning, that we would give completely honest reviews. It's not our desire to hurt any business, but what happened that day is what happened. We've already had a few people take exception to what we've said here, but they weren't there. I'm glad that they had good experiences, but ours simply wasn't.
Let them take exception. I'm local and didn't care for it at all. Denny's is easily as good at less than half the price, if we're being honest. Many locals didn't find it so wonderful, either.
We were going there on our next visit to Gatlinburg this May. So very glad to see this video!!! I will NOT support an establishment that has a bad co-owner!!!!!! Thank-you so very much in being honest about your visit!!! :)
I don't want our bad experience there, to keep you from going if it's something you were looking forward to. Please understand, that our intention is not to help or hurt any business at all, but to simply give honest reviews of our own experience, in order to help other travelers. Many people have gone to this restaurant and love it. Other people feel like I do, and don't care for it. I don't know if the co-owner was simply having a bad day, or what was with her. I don't want to label her as a bad person, because she may have had something going on in her life. But she was apparently rude to at least two people that day, including the guy who came out as we were walking up. I am not saying she is always like that, because she may very well not be. But we were simply giving an honest summary of our experience. If you do choose to try it, I would be interested in knowing how it was for you. In all fairness, it is a very popular place and a lot of people like it. And my problem wasn't so much with the food, but simply the experience with the co-owner. To me, the burger was not the best you can get in the area, and certainly not the worst.
@@NCMemoryMakers I greatly appreciate your kind message. There are MANY other great places to go who do have outstanding owners! Thanks again and God bless you and yours :)
I was looking forward to eating here because of all the good reviews so I did a few weeks ago along with my sister and niece. All of our entrees was just mediocre,nothing too exciting to mention but I will lol...I had steak,baked potato,salad,my sister had coconut shrimp and green tomatoes and another veggie of some sort,my niece had the salmon and broccoli. The guy server was good and our appetizer of cheese dip with bread and pretzels was the only thing I recommend.My opinion and experience is that it's overrated. You can get better food at Texas Roadhouse for sure and not be chased out the door!
Finally someone else who is not a fan. I was part of a party of four. I ordered the chicken fingers and fries. The other people ordered the ribs and fries, chicken finger and fries and another ordered bacon cheeseburger and fries. We also started out with the bbq nachos. Our food was cold. The ribs were inedible and sent back. The Nachos had sparse toppings. We were very disappointed. It got such high and great reviews. We travel to Pigeon Forge about 4 times a year and will never go back to this place again.
Yes, this place gets a lot of high reviews, but our experience there was not good. As there are so many good dining options in that area, we will stick with those, going forward.
I couldn't agree more. I'm local and put off going here forever but finally gave in to the hype with another local friend. She and I both agreed it was a hot mess. There's nothing that makes it worth a special trip. The fries were amazing. That's the only plus. The server talked our ear off which delayed the food forever and seemed to forget us after the food was put down. My friend's food was downright cold (ribs n fries) and sent it back. By the time she got it back, I was finished and she Rd the server to keep it. Charge was removed. My burger was just a burger, nothing worth a brag and everything small cost a fortune. The host was inhospitable and not thrilled to have customers, that's for sure. I appreciate the honesty and hope others see this. If I have a meal in Pigeon Forge, it's pretty often at Pottery House Cafe/Grill. They never disappoint.
Glad that I saw your review on this restaurant, I look at all of your reviews for Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge because we like to vacation there. Your reviews are always concise and very complimentary. There is no excuse for a owner or hostess being so rude. I know that this restaurant stays very busy but that is no reason to be unkind to parties who are waiting to be seated.! You were very patient because I would have left, they obviously did not want your business. This has changed my mind about visiting The Local Goat.
Our experience was just that…our experience. I know a lot of people love this place, and have had a good experience there. Our review is simply what happened when we went. I would not discourage anyone else from trying it if they wanted to, based on our experience. But our experience was not good. I was honestly shocked how that lady treated us. We were merely discussing amongst ourselves, if we wanted to stay and wait outside, because it was very cold that day. We had several hours drive ahead of us. She kept butting into the conversation between my wife and I. I've never seen an owner of a restaurant act like that. We sent the link to this review, to their page. Had they reached out and even apologized, we would have gladly given it another shot. The food wasn't what was bad. It was the treatment. That's a rarity, as we've never been talked to like that by restaurant owner before. They chose not to respond, which basically told us what you pointed out…they did not want, nor need our business. So, they won't get it.
Yes, they do have that on the menu. We both got burgers that day, and due to the way the owner acted, we will probably not return to this restaurant. My wife does love to get shrimp and grits at a place in Florida that we love. See our review on the Star Fish Company. They have really good shrimp and grits, according to my wife.
I'm going to go ahead and respond to this comment, and to the other one that came through the other day, but I guess was removed. I want to clarify several things, both from this comment, and from the other one you wrote. First of all, the review would have been better, had the co-owner not been so rude, inserting herself into conversations my wife and I were having together. When we review a restaurant, we review all aspects of it, including not just the food, but also the server and the atmosphere, as well as any other incidents that may occur. That's the only way to do an honest review. In our review, we said ourselves that our server was good. The server was not the problem. It was the co-owner. Second, when I say the burgers are average, I'm not comparing them to Wendy's or McDonalds. I'm comparing them to other places that have higher-end and more expensive burgers. And in that regard, the burger at Local Goat was nothing better than average. They may have other items on the menu that are absolutely awesome, but our own experience was with the burgers. We have had several burgers at other places in the area, that are better. Had my burger actually had a blue cheese taste as the name indicated, I probably would have enjoyed it more, since that's what I was expecting. Third, we did enjoy the fries, as we stated. We were endeavoring to be as fair as possible in the review. We were making an effort to separate the owner's actions, from the quality of the food. Fourth, we do not set out to hurt or help any business. If you will notice in all of our reviews, only about 2-3 of them are negative, and the rest are overwhelmingly positive. That shows that we don't have an agenda or an axe to grind. When we go out somewhere and spend our hard-earned money, we actually want to have a good experience. We are not looking to have a bad experience anywhere that we go. Also, some of the other comments on here, agree with me. Some agree with you. That's fine. That's what makes us all different. If you like the restaurant, by all means go as often as you want. I believe I stated in our review, that it is not our purpose to tell anyone else not to go there. What happened to us, is what happened. We did not exaggerate it, or make anything up. That is not something we would do, as we always tell the truth about each and every experience in our reviews, both the good and the bad. Unfortunately, this review gave us a bad experience, due to the very unprofessional actions of the co-owner. Had we not had any dealings with her, I'm sure the review would have been better, as well. If you did not have any dealings with her, then that is probably why your experience was good. Because as we clearly said in our review, our server was not the problem. I think we even made a reference to her being the best part. I hope your experience there tonight, is as good as it was the other day. Perhaps the co-owner has gotten her act together, as well. Enjoy!
I wonder if the co-owner was the one hovering over the host stand last time I went. Whoever she is was rude, Curt and couldn't be less interested in taking care of anyone. I totally understand how awful the restaurant business here can be. I worked many years as a server and hostess in PF. People right now are especially ugly to others. If there's no way to be pleasant, though step away. I literally had to take a break for my mental health. This pandemic and it's aftermath has been too intense. Everyone's experiences are different.
I am originally from Chattanooga, TN but I currently reside in WI. I suggested to a family friend to head to Gatlingburg last August for his 10th wedding anniversary and him and his wife loved it so much they are planning a 2nd trip in June with their young kids. My fiance and I are currently planning a trip to Gatlinburg with my parents this fall my mom wanted to try this place out, but after your review of how nasty the owner is at this place I absolutely will not be stopping in there. I honestly don't know how y'all did it, there is no way on God's green earth I could have gotten that amount of rudeness even before being seated and would have still wanted to eat there with that uncomfortableness hanging over. On another note up here in WI, the small amount of restaurants that actually do have something like that in place will ask you your name and phone number, then you go wait in your car until they call you, once you get that call you can come in and be seated.
Yeah, they certainly could have handled it much differently than they did. And apparently, she had already been sort of rude with another gentleman prior to that, as he is the one I referenced about coming outside and telling everyone else to stay out there unless they wanted to be "cussed out". To be fair, many people like the place, so I don't want for our review alone to be the deciding factor. We were actually in the process of leaving, when the co-owner waved us over and said we could go in. And we honestly wanted to do a review of the food here, since it is a popular place. That was when she said her husband would be stopping by our table to "explain to us" their policy, and I simply told her that was not necessary, and that we just wanted to enjoy our meal. The part that got us, was that she would interject herself into conversations I was having with my wife, and we felt that was uncalled for. Personally, I don't think we'll go back. Some people, like us, are not overly impressed with the place. Others really like it a lot.
@@NCMemoryMakers I live in Wears Valley and have been to the Local Goat many times. I have never heard of any one being treated badly. Honestly the food has always been great . I think this COVID has changed everything. People working under the stress of worrying about getting sick . Owners worrying about keeping the business going. These are hard times for so many. Sounds like you may have hit a bad day.
@@debbieosborn9464 Well again, I am glad your experiences have been good. I do not know what the problem was that day, but it is unfortunate that it happened on the day we were there, as we just feel there are better and friendlier places to eat in the area. As I said in the review, there was another guy coming out of the lobby (before our experience with the co-owner) and he announced to the rest of us outside, that nobody had better go inside "if they didn't want to get cussed out". At first, we didn't understand what he meant, but I can now only assume he had encountered the same rudeness from the co-owner that we did. We didn't get "cussed at", and I'm guessing he didn't either. But I think its safe to say he was spoken to rudely. It wasn't so much her telling us her reasons for making everyone wait outside in the freezing cold after the restaurant was open and about 90% empty. It was her continually injecting herself into conversations I was having with my wife, as to whether we wanted to stay outside and wait, or simply go somewhere else. She had something to say every time she overheard me say something to my wife, and to another lady who was also waiting outside to be allowed in. I did not say the food was bad, but I cannot say it was "great", either. I did like the fries, but the burger was nothing special. To be honest, we are not looking for a bad experience. Most of our reviews are quite positive, but we're going to relate our experiences just as they happened, good or bad. On that day, this place did not deliver a satisfactory experience. Believe me, we WANT our experiences to be positive everywhere.
I'd have just walked back out, as I have a deep aversion to having blaring tvs on. It ruins any kind of ambience the place might be trying to provide, to have the whirled programming on in our faces. When did it become de rigueur for almost every institution we enter to have the scrying mirror on? Don't folks want to escape those blaring and obnoxious devices when going out for a nice meal?!? There truly are some folks who just can't stand them. And this is from a gal who majored in theater and communication and actually desired to be in that scene, till I woke up. There. I said my piece, now I'll continue watching. Thanks, as always, for doing these reviews for your viewers.
This is a popular restaurant with a lot of people, but not for us. I didn't care for the atmosphere, or the rude co-owner.
Have hotel reservations in PF this October..so will be scouting out great places to eat.
New subscriber! Thanks for sharing. We have tried the Local Goat twice now and not fans either time.
Thank you for subscribing, and we're glad you enjoyed the videos. Yeah, the Local Goat is one of our least favorite reviews, so far.
I'm a fan of honest reviews. Thank you for full disclosure. Shame people don't seem to try to be helpful anymore especially in restaurants and retail. Many blessings to you both.
Thank you for watching, and for your kind comments. Yes, we decided from the beginning, that we would give completely honest reviews. It's not our desire to hurt any business, but what happened that day is what happened. We've already had a few people take exception to what we've said here, but they weren't there. I'm glad that they had good experiences, but ours simply wasn't.
Let them take exception. I'm local and didn't care for it at all. Denny's is easily as good at less than half the price, if we're being honest. Many locals didn't find it so wonderful, either.
We were going there on our next visit to Gatlinburg this May. So very glad to see this video!!! I will NOT support an establishment that has a bad co-owner!!!!!! Thank-you so very much in being honest about your visit!!! :)
I don't want our bad experience there, to keep you from going if it's something you were looking forward to. Please understand, that our intention is not to help or hurt any business at all, but to simply give honest reviews of our own experience, in order to help other travelers. Many people have gone to this restaurant and love it. Other people feel like I do, and don't care for it. I don't know if the co-owner was simply having a bad day, or what was with her. I don't want to label her as a bad person, because she may have had something going on in her life. But she was apparently rude to at least two people that day, including the guy who came out as we were walking up. I am not saying she is always like that, because she may very well not be. But we were simply giving an honest summary of our experience.
If you do choose to try it, I would be interested in knowing how it was for you. In all fairness, it is a very popular place and a lot of people like it. And my problem wasn't so much with the food, but simply the experience with the co-owner. To me, the burger was not the best you can get in the area, and certainly not the worst.
@@NCMemoryMakers I greatly appreciate your kind message. There are MANY other great places to go who do have outstanding owners! Thanks again and God bless you and yours :)
I was looking forward to eating here because of all the good reviews so I did a few weeks ago along with my sister and niece. All of our entrees was just mediocre,nothing too exciting to mention but I will lol...I had steak,baked potato,salad,my sister had coconut shrimp and green tomatoes and another veggie of some sort,my niece had the salmon and broccoli. The guy server was good and our appetizer of cheese dip with bread and pretzels was the only thing I recommend.My opinion and experience is that it's overrated. You can get better food at Texas Roadhouse for sure and not be chased out the door!
@@brendabranam4626 I agree. Our server was good as well, but she was the best part of the visit for us. My wife's fries were pretty good, though.
Enjoy your reviews hope you do more
Thank you for watching. We will be doing more as often as we can.
Finally someone else who is not a fan. I was part of a party of four. I ordered the chicken fingers and fries. The other people ordered the ribs and fries, chicken finger and fries and another ordered bacon cheeseburger and fries. We also started out with the bbq nachos.
Our food was cold. The ribs were inedible and sent back. The Nachos had sparse toppings. We were very disappointed. It got such high and great reviews. We travel to Pigeon Forge about 4 times a year and will never go back to this place again.
Yes, this place gets a lot of high reviews, but our experience there was not good. As there are so many good dining options in that area, we will stick with those, going forward.
I couldn't agree more. I'm local and put off going here forever but finally gave in to the hype with another local friend. She and I both agreed it was a hot mess. There's nothing that makes it worth a special trip. The fries were amazing. That's the only plus. The server talked our ear off which delayed the food forever and seemed to forget us after the food was put down. My friend's food was downright cold (ribs n fries) and sent it back. By the time she got it back, I was finished and she Rd the server to keep it. Charge was removed. My burger was just a burger, nothing worth a brag and everything small cost a fortune. The host was inhospitable and not thrilled to have customers, that's for sure.
I appreciate the honesty and hope others see this. If I have a meal in Pigeon Forge, it's pretty often at Pottery House Cafe/Grill. They never disappoint.
I would have left..
Glad that I saw your review on this restaurant, I look at all of your reviews for Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge because we like to vacation there. Your reviews are always concise and very complimentary. There is no excuse for a owner or hostess being so rude. I know that this restaurant stays very busy but that is no reason to be unkind to parties who are waiting to be seated.! You were very patient because I would have left, they obviously did not want your business. This has changed my mind about visiting The Local Goat.
Our experience was just that…our experience. I know a lot of people love this place, and have had a good experience there. Our review is simply what happened when we went. I would not discourage anyone else from trying it if they wanted to, based on our experience. But our experience was not good. I was honestly shocked how that lady treated us. We were merely discussing amongst ourselves, if we wanted to stay and wait outside, because it was very cold that day. We had several hours drive ahead of us. She kept butting into the conversation between my wife and I. I've never seen an owner of a restaurant act like that.
We sent the link to this review, to their page. Had they reached out and even apologized, we would have gladly given it another shot. The food wasn't what was bad. It was the treatment. That's a rarity, as we've never been talked to like that by restaurant owner before.
They chose not to respond, which basically told us what you pointed out…they did not want, nor need our business. So, they won't get it.
The shrimp and grits sounded amazing
Yes, they do have that on the menu. We both got burgers that day, and due to the way the owner acted, we will probably not return to this restaurant. My wife does love to get shrimp and grits at a place in Florida that we love. See our review on the Star Fish Company. They have really good shrimp and grits, according to my wife.
We went there 2 nights ago, service was awesome as well as the food, going back tonight.
I'm going to go ahead and respond to this comment, and to the other one that came through the other day, but I guess was removed.
I want to clarify several things, both from this comment, and from the other one you wrote.
First of all, the review would have been better, had the co-owner not been so rude, inserting herself into conversations my wife and I were having together. When we review a restaurant, we review all aspects of it, including not just the food, but also the server and the atmosphere, as well as any other incidents that may occur. That's the only way to do an honest review.
In our review, we said ourselves that our server was good. The server was not the problem. It was the co-owner.
Second, when I say the burgers are average, I'm not comparing them to Wendy's or McDonalds. I'm comparing them to other places that have higher-end and more expensive burgers. And in that regard, the burger at Local Goat was nothing better than average. They may have other items on the menu that are absolutely awesome, but our own experience was with the burgers. We have had several burgers at other places in the area, that are better. Had my burger actually had a blue cheese taste as the name indicated, I probably would have enjoyed it more, since that's what I was expecting.
Third, we did enjoy the fries, as we stated. We were endeavoring to be as fair as possible in the review. We were making an effort to separate the owner's actions, from the quality of the food.
Fourth, we do not set out to hurt or help any business. If you will notice in all of our reviews, only about 2-3 of them are negative, and the rest are overwhelmingly positive. That shows that we don't have an agenda or an axe to grind.
When we go out somewhere and spend our hard-earned money, we actually want to have a good experience. We are not looking to have a bad experience anywhere that we go.
Also, some of the other comments on here, agree with me. Some agree with you. That's fine. That's what makes us all different. If you like the restaurant, by all means go as often as you want. I believe I stated in our review, that it is not our purpose to tell anyone else not to go there. What happened to us, is what happened. We did not exaggerate it, or make anything up. That is not something we would do, as we always tell the truth about each and every experience in our reviews, both the good and the bad. Unfortunately, this review gave us a bad experience, due to the very unprofessional actions of the co-owner. Had we not had any dealings with her, I'm sure the review would have been better, as well. If you did not have any dealings with her, then that is probably why your experience was good.
Because as we clearly said in our review, our server was not the problem. I think we even made a reference to her being the best part.
I hope your experience there tonight, is as good as it was the other day. Perhaps the co-owner has gotten her act together, as well. Enjoy!
I wonder if the co-owner was the one hovering over the host stand last time I went. Whoever she is was rude, Curt and couldn't be less interested in taking care of anyone.
I totally understand how awful the restaurant business here can be. I worked many years as a server and hostess in PF. People right now are especially ugly to others. If there's no way to be pleasant, though step away. I literally had to take a break for my mental health. This pandemic and it's aftermath has been too intense.
Everyone's experiences are different.
I am originally from Chattanooga, TN but I currently reside in WI. I suggested to a family friend to head to Gatlingburg last August for his 10th wedding anniversary and him and his wife loved it so much they are planning a 2nd trip in June with their young kids. My fiance and I are currently planning a trip to Gatlinburg with my parents this fall my mom wanted to try this place out, but after your review of how nasty the owner is at this place I absolutely will not be stopping in there.
I honestly don't know how y'all did it, there is no way on God's green earth I could have gotten that amount of rudeness even before being seated and would have still wanted to eat there with that uncomfortableness hanging over.
On another note up here in WI, the small amount of restaurants that actually do have something like that in place will ask you your name and phone number, then you go wait in your car until they call you, once you get that call you can come in and be seated.
Yeah, they certainly could have handled it much differently than they did. And apparently, she had already been sort of rude with another gentleman prior to that, as he is the one I referenced about coming outside and telling everyone else to stay out there unless they wanted to be "cussed out".
To be fair, many people like the place, so I don't want for our review alone to be the deciding factor. We were actually in the process of leaving, when the co-owner waved us over and said we could go in. And we honestly wanted to do a review of the food here, since it is a popular place. That was when she said her husband would be stopping by our table to "explain to us" their policy, and I simply told her that was not necessary, and that we just wanted to enjoy our meal. The part that got us, was that she would interject herself into conversations I was having with my wife, and we felt that was uncalled for.
Personally, I don't think we'll go back. Some people, like us, are not overly impressed with the place. Others really like it a lot.
They've had a bad health inspection...
Recently? Hadn't heard that. That's interesting.
Myself and 8 others ate there and none of us were impressed by the food. And service was nothing to brag about.
That was pretty much our experience. I can't say the food was bad, but just nothing that makes me feel like I need to get back there.
👍
We have always had great food . I love the Southern Salad! We haven’t been for a year with this COVID.
I am glad your experience there was good.
@@NCMemoryMakers I live in Wears Valley and have been to the Local Goat many times. I have never heard of any one being treated badly. Honestly the food has always been great . I think this COVID has changed everything. People working under the stress of worrying about getting sick . Owners worrying about keeping the business going. These are hard times for so many. Sounds like you may have hit a bad day.
@@debbieosborn9464 Well again, I am glad your experiences have been good. I do not know what the problem was that day, but it is unfortunate that it happened on the day we were there, as we just feel there are better and friendlier places to eat in the area.
As I said in the review, there was another guy coming out of the lobby (before our experience with the co-owner) and he announced to the rest of us outside, that nobody had better go inside "if they didn't want to get cussed out". At first, we didn't understand what he meant, but I can now only assume he had encountered the same rudeness from the co-owner that we did. We didn't get "cussed at", and I'm guessing he didn't either. But I think its safe to say he was spoken to rudely.
It wasn't so much her telling us her reasons for making everyone wait outside in the freezing cold after the restaurant was open and about 90% empty. It was her continually injecting herself into conversations I was having with my wife, as to whether we wanted to stay outside and wait, or simply go somewhere else. She had something to say every time she overheard me say something to my wife, and to another lady who was also waiting outside to be allowed in.
I did not say the food was bad, but I cannot say it was "great", either. I did like the fries, but the burger was nothing special.
To be honest, we are not looking for a bad experience. Most of our reviews are quite positive, but we're going to relate our experiences just as they happened, good or bad. On that day, this place did not deliver a satisfactory experience. Believe me, we WANT our experiences to be positive everywhere.
When those situations happen I just say “bless their hearts” she must be having a bad LIFE day🤣 I’m proud of you for staying that manager needs a hug
That's so nice of you Amanda,,,,,,,,I really appreciate your comment....... hello 👋 how are you doing I hope you are having a wonderful day.