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    Shoney's

    2.8 (63 reviews)
    InexpensiveNew American, American
    Open 6:00 am - 10:00 pm

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    SHONEY'S ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Casual
    Moderate noise
    Good for kids
    Good for groups

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    Recommended Reviews - Shoney's

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    Reviews With Photos

    Breakfast Buffet
    leonckennedy

    We stopped at Shoney's in Elizabethtown, KY for a late breakfast while traveling and were truly blown away by the service and leadership. Maria, our waitress, went above and beyond--welcoming us with genuine warmth, anticipating our needs, and treating us like longtime regulars. Amanda came out during the breakfast-to-lunch buffet transition and thoughtfully evaluated which items were working and which ones needed improvement--not just for that day, but with a clear long-term mindset. She discussed rotating certain dishes through future ordering to better reflect what the local community enjoys. Her attention to quality, guest satisfaction, and overall improvement is something most guests would miss--but we happened to witness it firsthand. That kind of care and initiative is rare in chain restaurants like this. Amanda should absolutely be in management--or at the very least, strongly considered for a raise based on the dedication she displays. Just before leaving, we noticed a special wall dedicated to supporting the military. It honored Mr. Dennon, an Army Veteran and long-time loyal customer who had recently passed. His usual table was surrounded by military memorabilia, creating a heartfelt tribute that says so much about the kind of community Shoney's serves--and how they serve it. I tend to leave very high or very low reviews--because excellence deserves to be celebrated and avoidable issues need to be called out so improvements can happen. In this case, Shoney's exceeded expectations in every way. We left full, happy, and genuinely moved. The rest of the restaurants on our trip have some big shoes (and bellies!) to fill!

    This is what the pan of hash brown casserole looked like. The cook manager looked right at it and didn't bring a fresh one out.
    Sherill N.

    Where do I start? The items we got off the buffet was cold. My wife had scrambled eggs, sausage links, grits and potatoes. None of that was warm. I had scrambled eggs, bologna and rice. None of this was warm either. I had to settle with a salad for breakfast. The cook manager came out and said he checked the food and it was warm enough. Even after checking the temperature he left an empty pan of hash brown casserole. Not happy at all!!!

    Salad
    Jeffrey M.

    14.99 the salad was fresh and good had all kinds of options. Typical Shoney's salad quality the burger sliders were good and the hot dogs and ribs looked good the mashed potatoes and green beans and other fixings were the same stuff you get at every salad bar probably the same vendor. Average but the food was good didn't suck but nothing special

    Food
    Jayce B.

    Really good costumer service was prestice Stacey was our waitress she did amazing food was really good especially the biscuit & gravy and eggs they have lots of stuff.

    Very poorly made club sandwich! To as the least! Zero stars
    Jon B.

    Very bad example of a club sandwich! How in the world could they let that leave the kitchen? What a half a** attempt to make a sandwich? What the f****! When you call to complain they don't answer because they suck!

    Our Children Were Cussed by Worker.

    When we walked into this store, several of the workers literally rolled their eyes at our party. i guess they forgot their job was to sell food to the public. We had a party of 16 and know it can be intimidating but all but one ordered the Buffett. The older lady doing the buffet startied cussing to another worker saying here comes those FUC#ing kids again and saying things like they better get charged for both the breakfast and dinner buffet as they were changing over. Our waitress was rude at first but eventually warmed up. The manager apologized and offered a 10% discount but the older lady should have been apologizing. She should have been sent home cussing around small children. I did approach the lady and said to her she should be more respectful to people and the way she acted was unnecessary. I guess it's Covid's fault again.

    a hamburger and fries on a plate
    Gary C.

    It wasn't the cleanest place. My wife choose the pancakes breakfast with a side of bacon. She also picked the Gravy and Biscuits (plan). While I went with the All a American burger was not bad. The nasty part of everything was the restroom I don't think they cleaned it for a very long time . There were flies everywhere and it smelled so bad. It is a military friendly location

    Greasy silverware that sat in our table

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    3 years ago

    Very good service for a buffet. Wait staff was very attentive. Food was replaced to make sure nothing was old or stale.

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    3 years ago

    This establishment exuded a commendable blend of amiable hospitality, expeditious service, and a judicious pricing structure.

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    3 years ago

    Very bad service, racist environment, and there were flies everywhere..would not recommend.

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    3 years ago

    The Bomb Super Awesome fun for the whole family. You want salad dressing and hot fudge on your pizza this is the place.

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    Page 1 of 2

    Ask the Community - Shoney's

    Review Highlights - Shoney's

    They even kept the breakfast buffet up for some later customers which they even brought out more to put on the buffet for them I was very impressed!

    Mentioned in 2 reviews

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    J.R. Neighbors - Appetizers

    J.R. Neighbors

    4.2(148 reviews)
    1.9 mi
    $$

    This is my second time having lunch here…read more Today, I was in town for a business lunch. I had the En Fuego Burger and Seasoned Fries. My client had The Newberry Single Burger and Tots. Service was fast and the food was excellent. Next time, I will try to check out their Speakeasy, the Cavern Club.

    Sunday, 18 January 2026…read more Met friends at J.R. Neighbors for lunch. According to my friend, the have the best burgers in Etown! ‍ There are a few parking spaces directly in front of the restaurant (maybe 5, with 2-3 slots being reserved for handicap). There are nearby parking lots with plenty more parking. As it was a Sunday, we had no trouble finding parking. There were a few people ahead of us, maybe three different parties. My partner and I did not have to wait to be seated since the friends we were meeting had already arrived and got a table. We greeted our friends then reviewed the menu. Since it was around 12ish on a Sunday, only the brunch menu was available. Not long after, our waitress arrived to take drink orders. Shortly after that, and after the drinks arrived - pineapple mimosas, apple juice, and water, we ordered our food...mostly everyone had a burger. I had the Texan burger/sandwich which came on a Texas toast, hence the name, and my partner had the Newberry Smash burger (double). Each came with a choice of "regular" fries or tots. I wanted sweet potato fries, but again, since it was Sunday, only the brunch menu and what was displayed was available. So, I settled for regular fries. My burger was good albeit a bit messy with the sunny side egg running everywhere! The bacon topping the burger was perfectly done with the right crispy/crunchy consistency. My mimosas was refreshing except I did not get much of a pineapple taste. The fries were fresh and appropriately seasoned, not too salty and not too bland, just right. We were all full from our meals so we did not even consider dessert! The restaurant was busy but not overly crowded, so the atmosphere was quite. We sat by the windows and were not even distracted by the outside vehicles passing by. Overall, we had a pleasant experience and would recommend J.R. Neighbors to anyone looking for good burgers in a good atmosphere in Etown.

    Photos
    J.R. Neighbors - Bar & Dining area

    Bar & Dining area

    J.R. Neighbors - Spicy Fried Pickles

    Spicy Fried Pickles

    J.R. Neighbors - Cannonball

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    Cannonball

    Streat Kitchen - Oklahoma Onion burger- smash burger and  tallow fried fries.

    Streat Kitchen

    4.5(4 reviews)
    2.0 mi

    My family and I have visited this place a few times. The food was very good. Quality beef and we…read moreloved the way the fries taste. They are really flavorful probably from the beef tallow they use to fry them in. Service was pretty fast we ordered for 4 and our food was ready with 10-15 mins. The social hall that it's located in has a nice vibe pretty laid back. We will definitely be visiting again.

    Real bummer. I've been looking forward to eating here for a couple months now and let me first say…read morethat the Burger would have been REALLY good, if it had been hot. It was still good even though it was luke-warm. We ordered our food and they took our phone number and said we would get a text when it was ready. After waiting for 20 minutes I stood up to go ask about our order, when someone yelled out my name, it was then I realized our food had been sitting in the pick up window for the past 15 minutes. I double checked to be sure I hadn't missed a text. No text message. This place has a lot of potential for good food but not when it's cold. Neither my wife nor I ate our fries, but the burger had a lot of potential. The vibe is cool inside of social on main, so that wasn't in question, but whatever process they have for getting hot food to waiting customers needs to be re-evaluated. I will definitely giving this place another chance soon though because the burger should have been baller.

    Photos
    Streat Kitchen - American smash with tots. Can't go wrong with tots even here.

    American smash with tots. Can't go wrong with tots even here.

    Streat Kitchen - Smashburger and fries & lemonade

    Smashburger and fries & lemonade

    Streat Kitchen - Chicago Dog with the smallest hot dog ever. They're imported from New York, maybe that's the problem.

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    Chicago Dog with the smallest hot dog ever. They're imported from New York, maybe that's the problem.

    Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen - Chicken Tender Platter: Our hand-breaded chicken tenders are made to order. Choose from classic, Buffalo or honey hot. Served with two sides

    Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen

    2.9(172 reviews)
    4.0 mi
    $$

    We had dinner there tonight. It was absolutely dynamite.! I had the grilled white fish blackened,…read moremy wife had the salmon with bourbon glaze. The food was fantastic, and our server was excellent. Kudos for improving the food and the service.!

    You know how a failing restaurant starts running out of ingredients and their food quality starts…read morelacking? I'm afraid that's what is happening at this Cheddars location now. The waitress told us before we ordered of everything they were out of. One was white gravy. I had been torn between the Country Fried steak and their Spaghsana (some kind of spaghetti lasagna fusion). So the steak was out because of the gravy and I ordered the Spaghsana. After she put the order in she came back and said they were out of something for the Spaghsana so I ordered the pork chops with mashed potatoes & carrots. My wife ordered the Monte Cristo and was looking forward to their crescent rolls but they were cold when they're usually served hot appearing to be somewhat fresh. One big one and one half the size of the other. The paper they serve them on was burned on the corner. Not just singed, burned back a few inches. Didn't even have the care for quality's sake to replace the cheap piece of paper. Wow, that's bad. She said the Monte Cristo wasn't as good as usual. My pork chops were dry. I could only eat one as I just didn't want to eat any more. Chops and sides appeared to be pre-cooked and reheated. Another sign of a soon to fail restaurant. Very likely a corporate decision to prepare food this way to maximize profits. They call themselves a scratch kitchen giving the illusion that everything is cooked from scratch. Scratch my a$$. What kind of scratch ingredients were they out of for the gravy? Flour? Milk? Grease? Pepper? Couldn't be pepper as there was some on every table. Who runs out of the other stuff? They're staples in any kitchen. Or is it really not a scratch kitchen and their pre-made gravy wasn't delivered? Cut the order short? Or just poor management? The waitress said their staff was thin which sending staff home early is another sign of cutting back to maximize profits. My Caesar salad wasn't even Romaine now that I think of it. I think it was Iceberg with Caesar dressing. It was even turning brown in spots as if it was past its 'best by' date. All of the staff... the remaining staff was as nice as they could be though. We had decided if she said they were out of anything else, we were just going to leave. The sweet tea was good. That's a plus. We had eaten here many times but tonight was our last. Im sure I'll see soon that this location is closed. Although I've lived in Kentucky all of my life, this appears to be on par with most restaurants in this part of the state. Poor. The place was a bit dirty. There was even a piece of a pork chop on the floor underneath the table were some guy tried to stab it with a fork and it was so tough that it shot off the table. Well, I'm sure that's what happened as I was the guy.

    Photos
    Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen - Our Santa Fe Spinach Dip is prepared with creamy cheese, topped with sour cream & served with freshly fried tortilla chips & a side of salsa

    Our Santa Fe Spinach Dip is prepared with creamy cheese, topped with sour cream & served with freshly fried tortilla chips & a side of salsa

    Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen - Our Honey Butter Croissants are baked to a golden brown and drizzled with house-made honey butter.

    Our Honey Butter Croissants are baked to a golden brown and drizzled with house-made honey butter.

    Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen - Strawberry Texas Frozen Swirl: Frozen Texas Margarita swirled with strawberries.

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    Strawberry Texas Frozen Swirl: Frozen Texas Margarita swirled with strawberries.

    Shoney's - newamerican - Updated May 2026

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