A local shares his favorite meals at the Apple Barn complex
As someone with more than 30 years of experience sampling various down-home style meals in the Smoky Mountains, I can attest that the Apple Barn complex restaurants, the Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant and the Applewood Farmhouse Grill, offer some of the best options in the area.
But navigating a down-home-style restaurant menu can be tricky. Where do your expectations lie? If you’re like me and had a grandmother, whose chief artistic mediums were meatloaf or biscuits and gravy, you can set yourself up for disappointment. No matter what the menu says, this ain’t your granny’s meatloaf. But, if you reset your pallet to expect something reminiscent of the down-home style food, you can set yourself up for a great meal. And so, without further ado, here are my recommendations for the best meals at the Apple Barn.
1. Original Farmhouse Sampler Trio
The trio features the Chicken Pot Pie, Chicken and Dumplings and Fried Chicken. I’m starting here with a cheat, but if your goal is to have the best meal you can, then a little of everything is just what the doctor ordered. Alone, none of these items make the top five. But put them together and you get the Voltron of down-home style dinners. My only complaint? I wish they did this with other options. If I can order three chicken items, why not a bit of meatloaf, chopped steak and a little pot roast? We need more mix-and-match options on the menu. This option is available for lunch, dinner and Sunday dinner at the Farmhouse Restaurant and the Grill.
2. Country Fried Steak
I prefer the Apple Barn’s selection of beef items to the chicken options, but some of that is my general preference for beef. The Country-Fried Steak has tender cuts of beef – breaded and fried. It is served with your choice of Southern Style Cream Gravy or a Rich Brown Gravy – I prefer Southern Style Gravy here. The Country Fried Steak is a salty, peppery delight. I might add a hit of hot sauce for a little extra hit, but overall, this is a great down-home option. This meal is available for lunch, dinner and Sunday dinner at both the Farmhouse Restaurant and the Grill.
3. Country Boy Breakfast Skillet
Breakfast may well be the most popular down-home meal. But I struggle a bit because one place I haven’t been able to recalibrate my expectations for is biscuits and gravy. I am almost always disappointed in restaurant biscuits and gravy, so I try to find other options. Despite my general discomfort with having to order something with the name “country boy”, the skillet argues to be the best meal on the complex. It’s everything good, all in one skillet. It features breakfast potatoes, scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, shredded cheeses, green onions, tomatoes and green peppers, layered in an iron skillet and served with a Southern-style biscuit. A little bit of liquid heat puts this over the top. It’s available for breakfast at the Farmhouse Grill and the Restaurant. Breakfast is served from 8 am to 11 am all week.
4. Angus Ground Steak
This Premium Angus Ground Steak Grilled is smothered in mushroom gravy. Take a large hamburger patty, cover it with mushroom gravy and you’ve got a salty, down-home meal worthy of your attention. I recommend an order of mashed potatoes to take this meal over the top. This option is available for lunch, dinner and Sunday dinner at both the Farmhouse Restaurant and the Grill.
5. Tender Slow Roasted Pot Roast
A meal perfect for a cold winter’s day, this slow-cooked pot roast is served with potatoes, carrots, celery and onions. This is another meal that’s enhanced by a side order of mashed potatoes. I think it’s just a well-prepared classic. This option is available for lunch, dinner and Sunday dinner at both the Farmhouse Restaurant and the Grill.
6. Momma’s Country Meatloaf
Ma, the meatloaf! Per the menu, this meatloaf is seasoned with spices – an excellent thing with which to season – onions and topped with Granny’s Tangy Tomato Sauce. While I am a professional quibbler with menu food descriptions – was anybody grandma out there making homemade ketchup? – I won’t quibble with a decent restaurant meatloaf on the menu. Meatloaf is a foundational part of the down-home cooking experience – and it is an excellent, hearty food for a cold day. I love it. This option is available for lunch, dinner and Sunday dinner at both the Farmhouse Restaurant and the Grill.
7. Blackened Chicken Alfredo Pasta
Not what you’d consider a traditional down-home style meal, this penne pasta tossed with alfredo and topped with blackened grilled chicken, tomatoes and green onions makes for a nice change of pace. Finished with parmesan cheese and grilled toast, it’s a nice, tasty meal of carbs before you go out and explore the Apple Barn complex. This is one of the menu items not replicated on both menus. This one is only available for lunch and dinner at the Grill.
So when it’s time for a down-home meal, don’t forget the Apple Barn complex. While down-home dining in the Smokies isn’t going to be what you remember from your grandmother’s kitchen, it is a hearty, nostalgic and satisfying mountain dining experience. And, when you come to the Smokies, you should have something steeped in local traditions and flavors at least once. After all, when you’re visiting the mountains, do as the people of the mountains do.
The Apple Barn complex is located at 230 Apple Valley Rd Sevierville, TN 37862. Hours for the restaurants are roughly 8 am to 9 pm but can vary depending on the day of the week and season. Hours for the various shops also change by the day and season, though they generally close earlier than the restaurants.
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There food use to be. But not any more there are better places to spend your money than here there food taste like they màde it a week ago and then put in microwave to warm up. And there food is over priced for what you get
it’s true that’s the quality isn’t what it used to be And the prices Have become outrageous. They still have the very best vegetable soup I have ever had. I will go there every time I am in the Gatlinburg, pigeon Forge area at least once or twice.