Dining at the Dollywood Theme Park

Ranking the best places to eat when you’re visiting America’s favorite theme park

How you tackle Dollywood’s many dining options depends somewhat on what you want to achieve on your park day. Are you marching up and down the various hills and hollers? Then you’re gonna wanna carb up a little. Beware the quick sugar fixes brought on by places like PaPaw’s Roadside Market or even Dollywood’s famous Cinnamon bread.

Are you hitting all the coasters? Putting your body through the ringer of G-forces and various twists and turns? You might want to play it light. Avoid heavy meals like barbecue or chili dogs.

Another factor is the weather. Is it the heat of summer? I wouldn’t want to have a heavy lunch at Aunt Granny’s and then wander out into a humid July day with a heat index crossing triple digits. Is it a crisp holiday evening? Something hearty and warming like Granny Ogle’s Ham N Beans is just thing.

For the purposes of this exercise, however, we’re not going to factor in how your meal choices might affect the rest of your day. And we’re not going to try to factor in the various seasonal festival offerings. We’re just here to tell you the best meals to eat – day in, day out and year-round at Dollywood.

What you do with that information is entirely up to you.

Best places to eat a meal in Dollywood

1. Aunt Granny’s

I don’t think there’s any question Aunt Granny’s is considered the top tier Dollywood dining experience that’s not the cinnamon bread. It has been named by USA Today as one of the Top 10 theme park restaurants in the country, a list that is deeply flawed but nonetheless exists.

This family-style restaurant offers hearty country-style offerings like fried chicken, fried catfish and pot roast with vegetables and gravy. Sides include mac and cheese, a variety of potatoes, green beans, and black-eyed peas. Of course, it’s great theme park dining. I don’t know that it’s sixth in the country, but it’s very good.

2. Hickory House BBQ

One of the things that has helped theme parks crack the culinary code is barbecue. It can be prepared in mass quantities, transported safely across the park without spoiling and can be served in a variety of establishments.

I picked Hickory House because it has the smoked hot turkey leg which is a decadent treat. There are also pulled pork sandwiches and the Big Bear Feast with smoked beef and pulled pork. However, if you are a barbecue aficionado you should know to beware of the itis, aka Postprandial Somnolence. A big barbecue meal and the itis will get you if you don’t watch out.

3. Market Square Big Skillet

The menu at the Big Skillets changes seasonally but it does not matter a bit. I could live my life dining on Big Skillet food alone and be happy. Big skillet taters? Yes, of course. Big Skillet sausage and peppers? The food of the Gods. Fajitas? Bratwurst? Smoked sausage and yellow rice? Si, Ja and whatever is ‘yes’ in the land of smoked sausage. The Big Skillet is good year-round but especially during the holiday when the air is nippy and you need a little hearty.

4. The Dog House

Another secret of the theme park culinary experience is the classic hot dog. Walt Disney cracked that one early, but other theme parks have followed along. The dogs are cost effective, easy to spruce up with a variety of toppings and good for quality control. You don’t have to go to culinary school to prepare a proper dog.

Why did I pick the Dog House over the immaculately named Dogs N Taters? Two words. Slaw. Dawg. Also, it helps if you pronounce it correctly. There’s a little bit of an “H” hiding in there. Shlaw. Dawg. What is a slaw dog, you ask? It’s a hot dog with coleslaw on top. The Doghouse offering is technically a chili slaw dog, Dolly’s favorite. While I enjoy a chili slaw dog, I prefer a more traditionalist approach keeping my slaw dog sans chili and my chili dog sans slaw.

There are some – typically people not from the South – who think slaw dogs are odd. I, however, a man of the world who enjoys a good New York style dog with Sauerkraut and mustard know that essentially any prepared cabbage atop a hot dog works wonders. And that includes many styles of kimchi.

Other hot dogs available at the Dog House include the Cheesesteak Dog – I’m personally agin it, it’s too much. There is also the Tennessee Top Dog – a chili dog with melted cheese sauce, onion and bacon served in a bread canoe. But, just get the slaw dog like God – and Dolly – intended.

5. Miss Lillian’s Mill House

Why did we pick Miss Lillian’s over the many other Dollywood eateries. Well, we do like the country platters that feature fried or smoked chicken or mac and cheese topped with pulled pork, but it’s really another menu option – the Hot Spuds. Seriously, whoever is in charge of naming Dollywood’s potato options is just firing all on cylinders. Reader, do I – as I make my way to Miss Lillian’s – sing hot spuds to myself to the tune of the Donna Summer Disco classic “Hot Stuff?” I think we all know the answer to that.

“I’m looking for some Hot Spuds, baby this evening. I want some Hot Spuds Baby, tonight.”

Hot Spuds are baked potatoes topped with either mac and cheese – with bacon and sour cream – or pulled pork with bacon, cheddar cheese, butter, sour cream, and BBQ sauce.

Places that didn’t make the cut

Red’s Drive In

In theory, this celebration of the late 50s, early 60s drive-in diner style burgers of Dolly’s youth ought to be a home run. But Dollywood doesn’t really commit to the bit. The burgers aren’t authentic (greasy and beefy) enough to pass as real diner food and not of sufficient quality to pass as something upscale. They’re stuck in a weird cafeteria style, midpoint where they end up disappointing.

If I was Dolly – or the Herschends – I’d contract with Pal’s Sudden Service out of Johnson City to keep the Red’s theming but turn the menu into something more like Pal’s offers. That said, the shakes are good at Red’s.

Wilderness Pass Restaurant

A little too new to be ranked. Still kind of settling in. The pulled pork and fried catfish are classics from Dollywood’s other eateries. I am a sucker for country smoked sausage, however. The braised beef and rotisserie half chicken remain odd theme park offerings, but maybe they’ll grow on me. I do like that they try spicy collards and sweet yams. Shakes things up a bit.

Grandstand Café

Hot dogs and chicken tenders. A safe destination for the kiddos but not what you need when there are other more interesting options available.

What are your favorite Dollywood eateries? Let us know in the comments!