The Best Allergy Friendly Places To Eat In the Smokies

Where to eat in the Smokies if you have food allergies

I got the call from the school nurse. John Paul – our middle child – had ingested one of the many, many foods to which he is allergic.

Luckily for us, JP’s allergies aren’t anaphylactic. They don’t affect his ability to breathe. If he comes in contact with most of his allergens, he breaks out in a rash or hives. A couple are strong enough to make him throw up but – knock on wood – he’s never had anything that put his life in danger.

So, the nurse had a question. Should she give him allergy medication – in which case I’d have to come pick him up – or he could power through until the itchiness wore off. I told them to give him the medicine and drove to the school to pick him up.

“What happened?” I asked when I picked him up. He was still a little guy, but he was fully aware of what he should and shouldn’t eat. 

“We had an ice cream party in class,” he replied. “You know those orange Flintstone’s push up things? I had one.”

“Buddy, you know you can’t have that. Why did you eat it?” I asked.

“My brain told me to,” came the doleful reply.

What it’s like having a child with multiple food allergies

JP has been living with food allergies for every bit of his nearly 13 years of life and we’ve been there to help him manage it. Dairy. Beef. Soy. Milk. Eggs. Seafood. Nuts.

The list is long and not comprehensive. There are things in the world that he hasn’t been tested for and hasn’t tried. We live with the little bit of worry that one day we’ll find the thing that is more dangerous for him.

Still, his situation could be worse. We don’t have to face what some parents do. For instance, his allergies aren’t activated if the ingredient is cooked into something else. Bread. Pasta. Crackers. All those things can have ingredients he’s allergic to, but they don’t affect him.  Butter, despite his dairy allergy, doesn’t seem to bother him nor do dry cheeses like Parmesan.

It makes it complicated when you have to explain at a restaurant and there have been more than a few times that I’ve told a waiter about his allergies. But when I say it is ok if he has noodles with a little bit of butter and gotten a look like I’m just trying to be difficult.

He can have fresh things, veggies and fruit. We’re working on expanding his diet and he’s growing an interest in cooking.

In our experience, the attitudes and awareness of food allergies have grown greatly over the last 13 years. Wait staff almost always ask and when we say yes and explain, a lot of places have a designated person who comes to table to discuss our options.

Food allergy strategies

I want to say that these recommendations are based on our own experiences. It only takes one waiter who doesn’t have patience or an obstinate member of the team to ruin an experience. 

Try to avoid places where the menu is mass produced and less flexible. Buffets and a lot of down-home places often struggle to adapt to allergy requests though they usually have items that will work with JPs needs. But the choices are limited.

When checking out a new place, we look at the pasta options. One of JP’s default choices is pasta, particularly when he’s tired of chicken. He likes it plain or with a light marinara sauce no beef or meatballs. In most places with pasta on the menu, it’s easy. They just drop the noodles in the water and don’t add anything else. But at other places where the food is mass produced, the noodles already come in a cheese sauce, making it impossible to get noodles. 

The most frustrating thing is when you get someone who isn’t on the right page. One of our favorite restaurants is a certain seafood place. The first time we took JP, we asked if the noodles from a certain dish could be served plain or with a little butter. They brought out a cavatappi corkscrew pasta that JP loved. He’s a pasta connoisseur at this point. He talked about it for weeks, asking to go back and have it again. 

The next time we went, the same dish was on the menu. We asked the waitress for just the noodles. She said she didn’t think that was possible. When we asked her to double check, she walked to the back and returned almost immediately. 

Nope. Couldn’t be done. Maybe something changed in the kitchen but I’m willing to bet it was the staff that didn’t feel like being bothered. I got it. But it sucked.

Best places to eat in the Smokies if you – or someone in your party – has food allergies.

1. Mellow Mushroom – Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg

Pizza is the great culinary shared experience. From the school cafeteria to ordering delivery for the football game to getting a slice with after a night out, much or our shared culinary experience revolves around dough, tomato sauce mozzarella and pepperoni served piping hot.

While vegan or dairy free options are more frequent now, when JP was a little guy, most places didn’t have pizza he could eat and if they did, it wasn’t very good. I don’t know about your experience but when I was a kid, pizza day in the cafeteria at school was a big deal. Kids would be excited. But for JP, those days he was left on the outside, a member of the sack lunch bunch.  Baseball banquets, birthday parties or classroom celebrations. The food of choice was often pizza, and JP was always left out. 

Now, the Mellow Mushroom has always been one of my favorite places because I have an affinity for hippies and for artisanal pies. But I remember the first time we took JP who ordered his own vegan pizza and the look on his face when he took his first bite, and it was good. It suddenly got quite dusty in that restaurant.

The morale of this story is that the people behind Mellow Mushroom care about such things as dairy and gluten allergies. The wait staff is cool, patient and understanding – in our experience – and the allergy friendly products are actually good.

2. Cruze Farms – Sevierville

You might not think of a dairy as a place to go when you have a dairy allergy, but Cruze Farms – which sells some of the best ice cream in the region – always (I think always) has a dairy-free Dole Whip options amongst its flavors of the day. There isn’t always a massive selection. You may just have to take the one flavor on the day’s menu. But rest assured that it will be excellent.

Sorbet and Dole Whips are JP’s preferred ice cream substitute. We’ve tried various Ben & Jerry’s non-dairy flavors over the years, but he’s never really liked them. I thought they were surprisingly good, for the record. A few years ago, ice creameries with non-dairy options were rare. It’s more frequent now, but Cruze Farms remains at the top of the list.

3. Frizzle Chicken Café – Pigeon Forge

In general, I think most of the breakfast places are relative safe zones with the main worry being if you have an issue with cross contamination on the griddle. However, for a restaurant whose main attraction is performing animatronic chickens, Frizzle’s is surprisingly front facing on the allergy friendly side. Servers in our experience are ready and knowledgeable about allergy friendly options. They have dairy free egg options, gluten free pancakes and biscuits and are prepared to serve those with tree nut or peanut allergies.

4. Harpoon Harry’s Crab House

This depends somewhat on the nature and severity of your allergy. I have a cousin whose shellfish allergy is strong enough that she would have to be careful just entering the place. If that’s you, considering this recommendation invalid.

The other issue is the Harpoon Harry’s experience is very server dependent. We’ve had amazing experiences where the staff and management went far beyond to make a birthday special – albeit after starting off on the wrong foot. And we’ve had experiences that probably fell below expectations. But they’ve always been helpful in steering us toward appropriate menu items and trying to be flexible when requested. Patience and professionalism can go along way.

5. The Appalachian – Sevierville

The nice thing about dining at the Appalachian is that the staff is heavily invested in the creation and execution of the items on the menu. If there is a question about what’s in a dish, one of the people who helped create it is only a few feet away. Not only do they know exactly what is in every dish, they know where it came from the people who grew it, raised it and harvested it. These food scientists understand the composition of the dishes they make.

Now, the menu – which changes seasonally – is fairly beef forward and would provide a challenge for someone like JP whose palette hasn’t fully developed. But, rest assured, even if you have multiple allergies, there is an interesting and delicious meal awaiting at the Appalachian.

What eatery have you found to be most accommodating? Let us know in the comments!