Smith Creek Tavern

A group of.us came in yesterday a little too early for our reservation. It was raining out and we decided to hang out at the Smith Creek Tavern. We managed to hit happy hour which was nice. I really liked the friendly staff, Brooke R, Brooke B., and Andrew. They were very helpful. We are all newcomers to Helen and they were made us feel welcome and answered our questions. Since we were going out to dinner later we stuck to the bar food as snacks. I really enjoyed the pretzel bites with beer cheese. We had another pretzel out in town and I was disappointed the cheese wasn’t nearly as good as the Smith Creek Taverns. We loved having someplace we could go so close to our rented cabins at Unicoi State Park that had exactly what we needed drinks, food, and friendly staff.

I would rate the food but we never received it. We came in around 5:30 to have a couple drinks and order food to go. First beer was a little slow to be served though they were practically empty. Even though it was quiet, it took effort to be served again. Think sitting in front of empty glass feeling invisible. They got busy very quickly. We ordered food to go and then managed to get one more beverage but not easily. We waited for an hour but nothing. We saw some people getting food and some, like us, just waiting and looking pretty helpless. When we finally got a chance to flag someone down about our food we were told they were backed up. The bartender did not actually check on our food. We were sick of waiting and almost no service so we asked for the bill. Had to wait a really long time

We were staying at the lodge so we went in to have a drink and it took around 20 minutes for someone to come greet us. It wasn't that busy at the time and we saw about 5 servers and the manager. The manager finally came and brought us water and said someone would be right with us. Well, we waited another good 10 to 15 minutes before someone came and asked had anyone taken out order. We said no and so she took it. We got our beers and they were hot, then she brought what was supposed to be a cold mug but it was room temperature. She went to check the cooler and it was off. They put beer and mugs on ice to get them cold but really never got there. We drank 3 a piece and they charged us for 4. I let them know we only had 3 so the bill went from $77 to $54. We didn't eat just had beers. $6 a

I want to start this review by saying that my grandparents have been coming to the Unicoi Lodge for anniversaries and special occasions for DECADES. The way that we were treated this past Sunday is unacceptable. We had a great afternoon around town and decided to pass on going back into town for dinner and go to the lodge instead. We were seated right away with no issues, but after it took over 15-minutes for the server to come around to place our drink orders, he apologized and brought us our waters. However, 3 people in our party had ordered beer.. after waiting over 30-minutes and having placed our food orders, one of the people in our party decided to go and ask why the beer order hadn’t been placed. They were then informed by the SERVER (not even the manager) that they weren’t servi

Food was excellent, but damn did it take forever to collect the order. We were told 30 minutes for pickup, we ended up waiting an additional 30 almost 40 minutes after that. Then they forgot to charge us, luckily for them the wife is honest and flagged down a server to pay.