The Smoke House Lodge & Cabins

Bugs in the room and hair on the sheets. The restaurant was wonderful, unfortunately the room isn’t as charming.

Great place to eat. Good choices on menu. Just like mom’s and grandma’s dinner. Food was very good. Excellent service.

This hotel is very clean and orderly. If you go to the restaurant, most of the food is horrible but the brisket is amazing. Down the street is a beautiful path for running or walking that goes to Sewanee.

This is a homespun country style roadside diner with a motel attached. My father gets a craving for chicken livers and this is one of the places he tries to get them.
You have to walk through their country store for quite a distance before you get tot he restaurant. The food is inconsistent and they try to push a buffet of mass produced menu items. Serving staff is nice but their efforts can be lack-​luster.
I will be here again when I bring my father through but not willingly.

UPDATE: I received a call from the manager this morning. She apologized for the incident as well as the delay in getting back to me as someone had written my number down incorrectly when they gave it to her, she informed me that the hotel will be refunding the cost my second night’s stay and will be conducting a thorough investigation into what happened. Jennifer was very nice, helpful and professional.
On the first morning of our two night stay we went out for shopping and lunch. When we returned to our room it was immediately apparent that someone had gone through our bags. My medications were missing… the entire pill organizer.
We called the front desk to report this and the first response we got was a simple, «okay, I’ll let the manager know,» like this kind of thing happens every day and is no big deal.
After several more discussions with the office staff we were assured the manager would call us first thing Monday morning. It is now Wednesday evening and nothing.
Long and the short of it is, I had to cut my trip short and leave at sunrise the morning after the theft in order to get home and take my medications. This trip was a reunion trip with my best friend whom I had not seen in over a year, we drove about 3 hours each in order to meet in the middle, and this hotel ruined our reunion and couldn’t even be bothered to apologize!
I will never patronize this hotel again and I would advise others not to either.
BTW, none of the medications taken were worth anything to anyone but me. No narcotics, pains pills, not so much as an aspirin!

On our way to Nashville and saw the Billboard advertising Smokehouse and decided to take a chance. Boy am I happy we did! The Brisket is the best I have ever had! Crispy edges and tender juicy on the inside. No sauce needed, it was fabulous! It came with 2 sides, I got the Cole slaw which was good and the turnip greens, I wasn’t a fan of them. We got a home made fried Apple Pecan Pie to go. Oh my is all I can say. When someone advertises home made, it better be and this was. Delicious! We’ve already decided to stop on our way back to Atlanta.

While doing a bedbug inspection around the mattress (all clear) I found a roach underneath the pillow in my kid’s bed. (Front desk wasn’t surprised, they said they were renovating that old part of the hotel).
Cracked, moldy paint falling apart throughout the room. Shower head was about 5 feet high making it impossible to wash my head.
Tried to use the Unilocal coupon listed here for 20% off the total bill and both clerks had never heard of Unilocal nor had any idea how to give me the discount (coupon says to show it to the front desk). Was told the manager would call me and fix it. Guess what? No call.
The ONLY reason I gave it a star was for the Smokehouse restaurant, whose good food (albeit GREASY) and live music on a Saturday was a nice pitstop on a long drive.
The hotel… gross. Stay away. Or keep driving to Manchester.

Sitting here in bed writing this review. The reason for 2 stars… 1. Filthy. The room is gross. I showered, got out, walked around in the room for 5 minutes getting ready for bed, sat down on the bed to put lotion on and my feet a black. Disgusting. 2. Mold on the wall paper in the shower area. 3. Shower head is so low, I at 5’5″ have to bend down to use. 4. Drawer pulls are broken. 5. Unfinished parts to the room such as the border around the door for the room is open. 6. The fact that there are smoking rooms (we are in a non-​smoking room) and our room still smells of cigarette smoke. This was unfortunately last minute and we had no choice on where to stay otherwise that alone would have crossed this off the list.
The 2 stars is for the fact the bed is clean and comfortable.

Have stayed at this motel two years in a row with a group from Nashville. Love the group, but the motel is a dump. If I go next year, I’ll stay somewhere else.
August 2013 — Rented a «newer» cabin. The floors were so nasty they turned the bottom of our feet black. Shortly after returning home, I received a survey from Best Western. In that survey I voiced my displeasure with the lack of cleanliness. I received what turned out to be an automated email from the owner, Jd Oliver, asking me to give them another chance, and saying they’d make things right.
August 2014 — I made the reservation February, 2014, directly with the motel. I told the person taking the reservation about our problem the prior year, and about Jd Oliver’s request that we try it again and he’d make things right. Once again I asked for a «newer cabin». She apologized for the previous problem and promised that this time the head of housekeeping would personally inspect our cabin just prior to arrival to make certain the floors, and everything else, was clean. When we arrived, on August 1, we were sent to an OLD, nasty, musty smelling cabin. When I complained, I was told that lightning had «zapped all of the newer cabins». When I threatened to leave, turns out that only the cable TV was affected, and they repaired it in a matter of minutes. However, this was after having to wait several hours. Before going to the «newer cabin», I reminded them of our prior problem, and the promise that cleanliness-​wise, it would be pristine. Well, it wasn’t. Once again, the floors were so filthy they turned our feet black. The next morning we attended the «free» breakfast buffet (I’m certain the $ 200 per night charge for the dumpy cabin more than covered that expense), and it was awful. Runny eggs, biscuits hard as a rock, limp bacon, BLAH! In addition, after being out all day, and returning to our cabin wet, tired, and late for a dinner reservation, we found that housekeeping services had never been performed. There weren’t any clean towels or washcloths. On top of that, the shower water temperature was stuck on HOT; you literally could not control the water temperature of the shower, and that was never repaired.
Shortly after returning home, I received another survey from Best Western. After giving them another bad review, I received another automated email response from the owner, Jd Oliver, who said that if there’s anything he can do to make it right, give him a call. I did, over a week ago, left him a detailed voicemail, and guess what? I haven’t heard back from anyone. I’m not surprised.
By the way, after taking their in-​house (Best Western) survey, I was asked if I’d like to share my experience on Trip Advisor. I didn’t ask to do that; Best Western asked me if I wanted to. I said yes, and I’ve noticed a distinct pattern on the many negative reviews left on this motel. In many cases someone from the motel responds, but they blame the reviewer, they blame remodeling, they blame anyone and everyone but themselves. Enough said?
RUN, don’t walk, from this place if you have any inkling of staying there. I’ll probably go back with my group next year, but I will sleep on the ground before I stay at this dump.

What can I say? Best Western Smokehouse Lodge is one of the few hotels in Monteagle (and probably the nicest). Thus, it gets three stars. The rooms were okay, but stunk of smoke. The floors were very dirty as well. After walking around the room for 30 minutes, the bottoms of my feet were black with dirt. I think next time I will try to rent a cabin instead of staying in the actual motel. This place serves its purpose as a hotel and that’s about it.

BEST WESTERN Smokehouse Lodge, Monteagle, TN. This was a needed stay as we were tired. Checkin was very easy and pleasant, as was checkout. They have good beds, but overall no wow factor at all. This facility is in desperate need of modernizing. It is old, and a facelift is really desperately needed. We used 15,000 Best Western Reward Points for a 9,000 point facility, my family was very disappointed in the stay @ this facility.

Stopped by May 3 for lunch. I had the open face roast beef sandwich it was great. My friend had the lunch buffet and loved it. We stopped on our way home Sunday morning May 5 and both had the buffet found it to be so-​so due to a lack of customers and turn over. So I recommend order off the menu on Sunday mornings unless the place is packed and food is rotated as needed. Overall a good place to stop and eat. Also the guy next door helped us with a dead battery after our lunch. Nice people. Buy some fudge at the store.

This is for the restaurant and general store.
Normally a great place to stop, stretch, and eat. But I found a wire twist-​tie in my food this time. The waitress brought it to the manager but he never came out to apologize or anything.
Sorry. Won’t be stopping in again. That’s a deal breaker…

This is a review about the restaurant and the general store.
The restaurant gets 2 stars– the food wasn’t great. The salad bar that comes with your dish is small but fresh, and boasted ingredients from local farms. I liked that. The turnip greens and the freshly fried onion rings were on point. However, the grilled chicken and the ribs were not so good. The chicken didn’t smell or taste right, but the waiter was very amenable to changing it out. I appreciated that service. The ribs were good underneath the blackened rub, which was too dried out. I wouldn’t order food from there again.
The general store, on the other hand, gets 5 stars! It is reminiscent of a Cracker Barrel store, but much much better! They have an entire pantry of locally made jams. They sell fried pies, which looked tempting, but I went for the fudge instead. The ladies at the fudge counter were so nice, encouraging us to sample generous chunks of any of the fudge. They were all delicious, but if you can’t choose, may I suggest the praline or the Jack Daniel’s? Oh yes, good smooth, sweet chocolate fudge with a whiskey dipped pecans on top? It’s not cheap– $ 13/​lb but you get an extra ½ lb free with that. They say they keep well at room temperature, so you don’t have to worry about storing 1 ½ lb of fudge, but I have a feeling it gets consumed very quickly!
Go for the store, the fudge, and the friendly staff. Maybe find another spot for your meal…

A unique restaurant with great food. If you’re in the area, it’s definitely worth stopping for.
The fun part about bbq is trying the different sauces. You’ll have plenty to choose from at your table. I prefer any sauce with the word «Blazing» in it. The food is home cooked and was excellent. Friendly service and great sweet tea.
What makes this place unique is the museum/​gift shop. There is a very cool exhibit paying tribute to some local musicians (their name escapes me) and the history of mountain moonshine. Plus, they have a huge selection of bbq sauces, hot sauces, jams, fudge, and anything else you can think of.
If you’re like me and prefer locally owned business as opposed to chain box restaurants, this is where you need to stop.

Poor quality with high prices. That about sums it up!

My family and I stayed at the Best Western Smokehouse Lodge last night (a Friday), and we all enjoyed our time there.
We decided to stop on the top of the mountain when passing through on our way to Florida from Chicago. Myself and two other family members slept in a room with two double beds, and I must say I’ve never slept on a more comfortable mattress in my entire life. It was like sleeping on a cloud; the mattress and pillows were incredibly soft with just the right amount of support.
Other than that it’s your average Best Western. Most importantly, the room was clean; in the end, that’s all I really cared about.

We dropped into Jim Oliver’s Smoke House on the way back from Nashville. The huge country store is filled with interesting nick nacks and we probably spent about 20 minutes before dinner. It was very «Cracker Barrel» style, but didn’t have the «mass production» feel. Very authentic and the staff was very personable.
After we perused the store, we went into the dining area for dinner and live music (no cover). There’s a full menu or a buffet, we opted for the buffet, but I believe I’ll get something made to order next time. I hate to say anything bad about this place, but I’d like to view it as constructive criticism. In general, it looked like the food on the buffet needed to be refreshed more often or small portions put out initially. The best item on the buffet was the pulled pork, which was flavorful and very tender, but a little on the fatty side. Just to mention a few other items; the chicken was pretty good, the dressing was very dry, the squash casserole needed more flavor and was a bit watery. There was a pretty good selection in the cold salad area section. Very interesting dressings.
At about 7:30, the «Persimmon Sisters» were passing through (from what I understand) and did a few impromptu songs for us. I believe they filmed that and might have it up on YouTube. They were very nice and we had fun with that.
Nolan Neal followed, who is a song writer and did an outstanding job with an incredibly energetic show. He was the hit of the evening. .. actually the weekend. .. and his music is more than impressive. I’m definitely on the watch for Nolan Neal’s music from now on.
Nolan finished up (probably exhausted) around 9:45. Though the Smoke House web site lists Riley Jackson as the following act, she never showed up. A couple of other men (sorry, I didn’t get their names) got up and everyone had a good time with them. We didn’t ask why Jackson didn’t play because it was very late and we were more than happy to have seen Neal play.
All in all, the evening was outstanding.

Smokehouse Restaurant Review:
Eh, the food wasnt that good and the service was extremely slow. Friendly, but really, really slow.
I dont think I’d go back for the food.
The shop, however, was fully stocked with all kinds of fun southern goodies and a super sweet cashier! If you’re in town and looking for some good jams, hot sauces, sorghum molasses or old school type candies, this is the place for you.

This is not a review of the motel. This is only about the restaurant attached to said motel! You have been warned.
Wow, I had been back in the south for 3 days and had yet to have a good meal! WTF!!! I woke up thinking fried catfish that morning and when you get a thought like that in your head you have little control over the rest of your day until you satisfy that craving, know what I mean? Well the Smoke House Lodge doesn’t disappoint!
They offer daily specials and a wide variety of traditional southern vegetables (butter beans, greens, squash, etc…) from the buffet as well as choices from a large menu. I stealthily scoped out the other patrons plates, which was a bad idea because now I couldn’t make up my mind it all looked so good, but I stuck to my guns and got the catfish… it was damn good!
The restaurant is attached to a «general store» with tons of different condiment specialties with names like «Blazin’ Rectums XXXX BBQ Sauce» that they also serve on the tables. This marketing ploy worked on us, we each got Blazin Rectums… I mean, we each bought bottles of said sauce.
So yeah, I don’t know about the motel but if the staff was as friendly as they are in the restaurant then I’d give it a shot too