Mel's Classic Diner

Our 6th Review

Official Review #6 & 2nd Out of Town/Trip Review

Mel's Classic Diner

119 Wears Valley Road, Pigeon Forge, TN 37863

(865) 429-2184

Mel's Classic Diner is Located just off the Parkway in the Middle of Pigeon Forge, we did not intend for this to be a Burger tasting review, I had read a lot of their Tripadvisor reviews, & their Breakfast, got a lot of good ones, & Lunch & Dinner were mixed, so we decided to try it out one morning for Breakfast.

Below I have posted my Tripadvisor review of Mel's a couple day's after eating there, but 1st I will give my Burger review as everyone else had Breakfast but me, & I ordered the Beach Boy Burger, SERVED WITH LETTUCE, TOMATO, ONION, PICKLE & YOUR CHOICE OF CHIPS, FRIES OR PASTA SALAD. CHOICE OF CHEESE: AMERICAN, SWISS OR CHEDDAR.

I got it with Fries & Swiss Cheese.

From the very 1st Bite the Bun began to fall apart, telling me, it was just a very cheap generic bun, & it looked & tasted like it, the Meat also from the 1st bite, just was not good, after a few bites, I cleared the burger of all the Lettuce & other items, I even tried to scrape off all the cheese, so I could get a better taste of just the meat on the bun, it was awful, obviously not Hand-Made, & definitely frozen from a box, so who knows what kind of meat it actually is, they may at one time in the past have made their name on good Burgers by Hand-Making them, but not anymore, they've raised the prices & lowered the Beef quality & hope that Customers dress up their Burgers with so many items like Lettuce, Tomato & Mayo & such that you can't get the real taste of the lower quality beef, I always strive to finish any meal I pay for, but this one, I could not do, the Bun fell completely apart & the Meat was just of such low quality & Taste, I was done, before finishing it, one of the worst ever Burgers anywhere, & 2 days later we found our Best ever Burger in the same area at Joshua's On The River & just a few Minutes away a day earlier had a much better Burger at the Happy Day's Diner on the Parkway, that we will review later, so go to either of these Places, for a Burger, if you have to go to Mel's, don't get the Burger.

 This is my Tripadvisor Review done while on the visit to the area.

Our group of 4, again Brandy did not make this trip, have eaten out at many places in Gatlinburg & Pidgeon Forge on this trip & many other trips here, this is the 1st bad review, that I've had to write, we stopped in Monday morning, today for Breakfast around 930am, it was packed, but plenty of waitresses, so they were not overworked, after ordering from what seemed to be our nice waitress, I had a coupon, that's in all the coupon books for %15 off our check, I had forgot to tell her, so as she passed by I stopped her & told her I have the coupon, she said take it with me to the counter when I pay, as she walked away, my step daughter, said, the waitress rolled her eyes about me informing her of my coupon, our food arrived, brought by another waitress, on 2 of our orders, the bacon was not done at all, we sent both back by another waitress, because ours seemed to be avoiding our table, she did not seem happy at all either, that we had bothered her about our bacon, I'm not saying the waitresses didnt treat people well, they were honey this & sweety that to us after that and to other tables, but they just did not react well to our bacon problem & my coupon, 1 person had the Country Ham breakfast, it was very good he said, another had, French toast, also very good, she got hash browns and put ketchup on it, she said can you taste this, the ketchup on my hashbrowns, tastes funny, I don't know if it's the browns or the ketchup, I tasted it & the ketchup had an awful funny taste, they opened the ketchup bottle & we all agreed, the ketchup smelled as if it were old, & gone bad, it ruined her hashbrowns, but we didnt complain, did not want to bother our waitress again, my wife got scrambled eggs, bacon, we both agreed her eggs were plain as could be, we ate at the Applebarn the other day & it was 10x better for the same price, with a nicer setting & nicer waitresses, instead of packed into a small booth, I had the cheese burger & fries, I love burgers, & try as many out as I can when I travel & at home, this was one of the worst burgers ever, it was not hand made, it came for sure from a frozen pack of burgers, & cheap ones at that, even with lettuce, mayo, tomatoe & cheese & pickles, it was awful, the bun fell to pieces as I ate it, so a cheap bun obviously, my fries, were about as plain as they could be, again, seemed like cheap fries from a vendor, we ate lunch at the Happy Days diner on the parkway the other day & it was one of the best burgers & fries i Have had anywhere, & others had an awesome philly cheesesteak there, so my meal was terrible, left a bad after taste when done, if you want Diner food,Please find the Happy Days diner, it's so much better food, 2 in our party did have good food, our overall trip was terrible & we will never return, & the prices are just as high as the Apple Barn, which has 10x the view, 10x the atmosphere, great service, served on finer dishware & much, more room, all for around the same price, so for Mels, way overpriced, stay away!

Final Thoughts: Awful Burger, Waitresses are nice to everyone, unless you present them with a Problem or bother them too much, Breakfast was good, except for the outdated, old Ketchup in the bottle on the table, but definitely overpriced, go to the AppleBarn/Applewood for a better Breakfast, service & Atmosphere for near same Price, small place & too crowded in the tiny booths, Burger looked great, but we will visit Happy Day's Diner which is close by from now, they are 10x better, well probably a lot better than 10x, LOL!.

Final Rating: 1.0* (Don't Bother/Awful)  

Next Tasty Review:  Bravo Cafe, in Augusta, Kentucky - Bravo is not Permanently Closed & out of business, there is a new business now in the same spot.