Citico's - Lenoir City

Service was great on a busy Valentine's evening. The meals are prepared with special touches to enhance the dining experience. We do enjoy Citico's more intimate environment more like dinner at a friend's home than a commercial restaurant.

Overall a very nice dining experience. I wished the smoked beets had a hint more of smoke on them, but the fried brussel sprouts with pork belly were amazing. Definitely going to try and duplicate that dish..

Valentines Day was apparently much more busy than the staff was used to. It took about 2 hours to get food. The waitstaff were trying their best. Once received, the food was good.

With a 7.30 reservation, We waited an hour for our table to be available. After an hour we informed the hostess that we were leaving. She informed the manager. The manager apologized for our wait and indicated that they were unprepared and overwhelmed by the volume of people. I read many reviews to make the choice to dine at this establishment. I chose the restaurant due to it's small capacity with the understanding that it would be a small venue. The pricing was high and I was willing to pay for a good experience. After waiting an hour for a reservation made several weeks in advance, we left without spending a large amount of money since we were not going to enjoy the experience after such a long wait. If you are going on a high volume date such as valentine'sor mother's day, I recommend choosing another restaurant. I can not speak for the food or service. I will not make the same mistake again.

The reason my scores are so low and yet I still would recommend to a friend is due to the fact we've been to Citico's before and it was GREAT. Great food, service, ambience, etc. Something has changed dramatically for the worse. Seven o'clock reservations outside got us seated right at 8 o'clock at table dead center of main living room just behind hostess station (loud, noisy and everyone else waiting to see hostess standing right by or table). There was an outdoor area but were told it was full. Never even ask if we wanted to wait for a table in that area. After 15 minutes plus seated in huge noisy area and not even talking to a waiter/waitress we decided to leave (although ironically the chef had time to come out and speak to other guests who had their food). We weren't upset just hungry and they had obviously over booked. Who knows how long it would have taken to get food as we still had not even order drinks, apps, etc. Just a shame. It was so good at one time.