st. john's restaurant

the best restaurant in chattanooga. there is no contest. st. john's is the best restaurant in chattanooga. chef daniel lindley is a two time james beard award finalist. he creates the most amazing dishes using fresh local ingredients and his culinary imagination. i have never had a bad dish here. it is one of the more expensive restaurants in town, but it is not stuffy or pretentious. the service is excellent, well paced and knowledgeable. a great wine list by the glass (or bottle), ask for a recommendation, they are always spot on. also try the meeting place next door for more casual and happening nights.

great experience. waiters are attentive and knowledgeable about the menu. food is great. went for a dinner date and would recommend as one of the nicer places to go for date night or special occasion in downtown chattanooga. ordered the wagyu beef steak, the venison and the carrot cake soufflé.

amazing experience! we celebrated our anniversary at st. john's for the first time and this may become an annual event. the service was wonderful and the food was even better.

just don't do it. it's not worth it. st. john's is totally over rated, deemed the "best place to eat in town" by the local celebrities, only because everyone knows it's $60 a head, at least. go across the street to the urban stack or next door to the meeting place. these are much better options.

good but not real friendly. we were in town for three days and were told to go here. everything was fine, but we were not treated as nicely here as everywhere else we went. we wanted to have a couple of drinks at the bar and some apps. the host acted like it was an inconvenience and the bartender seemed like she could not be bothered. what we were served was good, but if felt as if we were bothersome. may have been an off night, but with all the other really friendly, wonderful choices, we probably will not try this again.

i had dinner at two restaurants while in town. i'm not a culinary expert but i travel and eat at very nice restaurants 1-3 times a week. when it comes to cuisine and chattanooga, st. john's is a culinary island. excellent. the sea bass was almost as good as i've had at one of the finest japanese restaurants in the world. from start to finish, the service, the bar, the staff (very welcoming and friendly)...not to exclude the food!...was excellent. everything was prepared perfectly. nothing overdone nothing underdone. the wine list is acceptable for a town this size with a few choice options. i never check the price on a menu, so was stunned when a dinner i expected to cost 400 cost me only 250. chattanooga has a gem here. a restaurant finally rivaling tennessee's culinary neighbor nashville.

road trip`. wife and i went on a road trip to chattanooga, tn. googled restaurants in the area and saw st . johns. there are two restaurants named st. john's and they are next to each other. one is called st.johns meeting place and the other st. john's . we ended up going to st. john's as it seemed a little more upscale for our anniversary. service was superb, food was excellent. server described each course in detail which made it more interesting. we give it 5 stars

the foi was perfect yet incredibly small, the scallops were good but a bit grainy, the filet was delicious but the roasted root vegetables were a joke, the pumpkin soufflé was perfectly unctuous.

wonderful experience.... tried a variety of dishes, including smoked trout appetizer, sea scallop appetizer and foie gras. the smoked trout with toast points was excellent. scallops were good but not great...unevenly cooked. the foie gras was life-changing. entrees chosen were the wagyu beef and duck two ways. both were delicious. service was impeccable. can't wait to go back.


-----05 jun, 2013-----

top notch. best restaurant in chattanooga...they have competition, but they are the best. the food is interesting without being weird. the service is attentive without being overbearing. the atmosphere is upscale without being pretentious. the prices are on the high end for this market, but worth every penny. i've heard it said that this is a "special occasion" kind of place. but really, everyone deserves this kind of food and service...so even if it's not a special occasion, do yourself a favor. save a few extra bucks and plan an evening at st. john's. you will leave a happier person.

always great- consistently. i have eaten at st. john's many times- it is still my favorite restaurant in town. i would recommend to anyone looking for an occasion location, anniversary,birthday-whatever. i have to keep coming up with occasions to rationalize going back.

pretty food, bland flavor. to start, i think this place is really neat. a lot of people i know who are from larger cities (new york especially) really like this place. but i've found that, just because you're from a big city, it doesn't automatically make you an educated food buff. st. john's has a great concept, but they focus too much on aesthetic and not enough on flavor. i wish they would extend their menu variety outside the typical chattanooga fair (pork and italian). also, not to mention the obvious or anything, but they are wayyy over priced (but hey, a couple scrapes of multi-colored sauces and a slice of pork loin with a flower can't be "fine dining" unless you charge $20 at least for it, right?). disappointing.

disappointed. had begged and begged to be seated upstairs at previous visits. each time, on the phone, the hostess said, "no problem." but when we arrived, we were always seated on the ground floor. finally, at last visit, we obtained our upper level seating! too bad. it was so hot, my husband and i sweated profusely throughout the entire meal, as did our server (an elderly gentleman). wine ordered was barely drinkable-- the bartender had described it as "barn-yard-y." the bottom of my glass contained so much sediment, i did indeed think my wine had come from the farm! odd experience overall. food was good, but not exceptional. service was pretentious. we won't be back.

great gets greater. two ights in a row and it was a huge otch above a great dinner of last night. the server meaghan made the expeience one to remember. such passion

unfortunately, that's all there is in that town. bars and sub par pizza joints :)


-----03 feb, 2012-----

maybe it's good for chattanooga, but i found it very disappointing. i went ther because of daniel lindley's rep. turns out he's never there. he has some girl running the kitchen and their practices with food are, let's just say, unconventional. just gross comes to mind. daniel is a nice guy when you see him but he needs to be more hands on.

response to brewha. have eaten at st. john's numerous times(even recently with "some girl in the kitchen") and was totally offended by brewha's review. food and service is and has always been exceptional. a review coming from a member whos only likes are for bars and a sub-par pizza joint shouldn't be taken seriously.