Restaurants You Can Skip in Pigeon Forge

When planning your dining for your Smoky Mountain Vacation, these are the places to miss in Pigeon Forge

The truth is I’m a pretty easy date. I like to like things. When I spend a night on the town or at the movies or a local restaurant, I don’t like to go in with a critical attitude. I look for the good, for the recommendable and more often than not I find it.

And so, usually, I prefer to write about places you should go versus places you should not. It’s more fun for me and I don’t have to – if you’ll excuse the expression – yuck anyone’s yum.

In general – with a couple of notable exceptions – I think the people in the Smokies are trying hard to earn your tourist dollars. They want to please. It makes sense for a business perspective to do so. And so, I hate for anyone to put in a hard day’s work, come home and fire up Al Gore’s internet only to discover some rando is out here running down their efforts.

However, it would be shirking our duty if we don’t, at least occasionally, acknowledge some of the places where you might feel your hard-earned money has gone to waste. Or at least could have been better spent. In choosing these, we tried to go beyond personal preference or experience. We looked at wider rankings on the internet as well and will not when our opinion varies from the wider appeal.

As always, prices are in effect as of the time of this writing.

Five Restaurants to skip in Pigeon Forge

1. Fins Bar & Chill

One day they’re going to make an epic bio pic about Jimmy Buffett. This Mississippi born troubadour turned a 1977 country rock ballad about losing a season or two at a beach resort in a drunken haze, into a way of life. Buffett was a talented lyricist and humorist who built business empire on taking the beach life all over the world.

I’ll admit to being somewhat perplexed by the charms of the Margaritaville ethos. After all, once you get far enough inland you can’t smell the salt in the air. But the popularity amongst the general public is undeniable. It’s so big that there are Margaritaville resorts in both Pigeon Forge AND Gatlinburg. Think of it this way, Jimmy Buffett – or his estate now – has as many hotels in the region as Dolly Parton.

While the Margaritaville Restaurant continues to thrive – Fins Bar & Chill is struggling in the mountains. The Gatlinburg location closed and was replaced by the Blue Moose while the Pigeon Forge location has a 3.7 on Google and a 3.6 on Yelp! For perspective – Little Caesars has a 3.7 on Google and Denny’s has a 3.9.

What’s wrong with the Bar & Chill? Located within the Margaritaville Resort, I would say that its biggest problem is that it is inconsistent. I don’t know if it’s training and retaining staff, but the quality of your experience can vary wildly by day and by season.

The menu is essentially color-by-numbers, hitting the types of things you’d expect at a beach-themed resort in the middle of the mountains. Fried green tomatoes, pulled pork nachos and the obligatory cheeseburgers that frankly sound much better when Jimmy’s singing about them than when you get them on the plate.

Everything is aggressively fine, not especially memorable. If you’re staying here and don’t feel like getting out and fighting traffic, it will probably be fine. Otherwise, there are just a lot better options around town.

2. Captain Jim’s Seafood Buffet

Growing up, my grandparents lived next to a commercial crabber in the Florida Gulf. So, I got accustomed to seafood off the boat and became something of a seafood snob. Over the years, I’ve loosened up a little as supply lines have improved. Local seafood restaurants also do a better job of emphasizing getting relatively fresh, quality seafood into the mountains.

I’m certainly not here to tell you everything on the buffet is bad or not fresh. It’s just that for $54 – which is the price of the buffet with unlimited crab legs – I’d rather go to Pinchy’s or Chesapeake’s or even Harpoon Harry’s. Honestly, even without the crab legs, the buffet is $28.99. I feel like I can do better other places.

Does the internet agree? Yeah. It’s a 3.2 – with more than 6,500 reviews – on Google and a shockingly low 2.2 with 498 reviews on Yelp!. Oof. 

3. Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen

I will start this by saying the internet does not agree with me. Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen has a respectable 4.2 rating with more than 17,000 Google reviews and a somewhat more in line with my way of thinking 3.7 on Yelp!.

Some of this has to do with expectations though right? Paula Deen is a celebrity chef who made her name in the culinary mecca of Savannah, Georgia where, if the food wasn’t good and it wasn’t right, the place wouldn’t survive.

From someone with that background I want a menu bursting with flavor. I want to be blown away. That’s not the mission at the Family Kitchen where they serve country classic designed to be acceptable and affordable first and flavorful later. It’s not bad. But there are other places – notably The Old Mill, Five Oaks Farm Kitchen and the Applewood Farmhouse that do down home better. With the Paula Deen culinary empire behind it, the Family Kitchen started the race in the pole position. But they are content to be middle of the pack. I find that disappointing.

4. No Way Jose’s

I bang on No Way Jose’s a lot and so I won’t belabor it here. However, there are two quick points. First, it used to be hard to get good Mexican and Hispanic food in the mountains. That is no longer the case. There are good taco places, food trucks and relatively upscale places that serve food full of flavor and life. No Way Jose’s feels like someone stole the fajita recipe from Applebee’s and turned it into a whole restaurant concept.

Secondly, No Way Jose’s is part of the KBS Restaurant Group which includes one of the best restaurants in East Tennessee, The Greenbrier. And also, several other concepts that are quite good. That No Way Jose’s is so pedestrian feels like a deliberate choice. How does the internet feel? It’s a 3.6 on Google and a 2.8 on Yelp!.

5. Shoney’s

We don’t typically do a lot of chain restaurants here. But we recently had a Sunday morning trip to the Shoney’s for the formerly reliable breakfast bar and were shocked at how far the standards have fallen. The pork sausage has so much filler in it, I was surprised it wasn’t listed as a vegan option. Even the old staples like cheesy hashbrowns and biscuits and gravy were let downs.

There are two locations on the Parkway in Pigeon Forge, Google has one at a 3.9 and the other at a 4.0. Yelp! has the Northernmost Shoney’s at a 2.8 and the Southern Shoney’s at a 2.6. In a town loaded with breakfast options, choosing Shoney’s is an avoidable mistake. 

Do you agree with our list? Let us know what you think in the comments!