Dollywood is known among the roller coaster community has having some of the best theme park food. They’ve even won Golden Ticket awards four out of the last seven years for best food. And I agree–Dollywood has an emphasis on real, home-style food that you might get at your grandma’s house. It may not necessarily be healthy, but it is real food, for the most part.
First, I’ll talk about some of my favorite eats in the park, then cover all the dining options in turn.
Greatest Hits
Favorites? That would be cinnamon bread. If you don’t get anything else at this park, and you’re not gluten intolerant or, you know, trying to be a healthy person, you’ve got to get the cinnamon bread! Because the demand is high, it’s always fresh and warm and you can buy it with icing or apple butter. There’s no icing on it to begin with, so I’d go with that option.
For meal-type food, I really enjoy Hickory House BBQ and the corn dog and curly fries at Dogs N Taters. The Market Square Skillets are both pretty good, pretty unique for an amusement park, and they smell amazing. For snacks, I love that there is a wealth of ICEE flavors in multiple points around the park, and I’m super impressed that they keep a basket of chocolate bars in the drinks fridge at Skyview Snacks. There are yummy warm glazed nuts at Showstreet Snacks, and I love that they have such a wide array of gummy snacks around the park, most notably in the Sweet Shoppe. Gummy snacks make my drive home much more awake.
So if you don’t read anything else in this article, those are my highlights. For more food options–and there are plenty–see below.
Quick Service Restaurants
A general word about counter-service meals at Dollywood, especially during the week or in the off-season: most places are open in the afternoonish hours. Often, they don’t open with the park and shut down several hours before closing. That makes them a good bet for lunch, but it might be hit or miss for dinner. I have often wanted a quick meal around 6 pm, only to find all the counter service windows closed. During the summer months and on weekends with higher attendance, they tend to stay open longer.
Hickory House BBQ
My favorite quick-service, Hickory House BBQ, has a limited menu of shredded barbeque pork, slaw, and chicken fingers. The apparently award-winning BBQ is probably not the best you’ve ever had in your life, but it’s pretty darn good for a theme park. I always get mine with slaw on top. The fries and chicken fingers are just average.
Hickory House can be found in Craftsman’s Valley, about halfway along and across from the Eagle’s Nest shop. There is indoor seating adjacent to the right and some picnic tables across the way in front of the eagle enclosure.
Dogs N Taters
Your source for foot-long corn dogs, loaded (and unloaded) hot dogs, and curly fries. This is definitely my favorite fried food in the park, though I rarely feel good about it afterward.
Dogs N Taters is located next to the Back Porch Theater, on the way towards the train station. There are a few picnic tables nearby, some benches heading towards Craftsman’s Valley, or sit and eat while enjoying a show at the Back Porch Theater.
Market Square Skillets
These are the famous big skillets that draw you into Market Square with their homey smells of cooking meats, peppers and onions. One side, usually on the right as you enter, features thinly sliced steak while the one on the left cooks sausages, both for sub-type sandwiches with the peppers and onions.
I prefer the sausage version–the casing has a good snap and the whole thing has very good flavor. The steak version is good, but there is a sauce they put on it that I really don’t like. You can perhaps ask for it to be left off or put on the side. You can also ask for the included chips to be left off for about a dollar in savings.
The skillets flank the entrance to Market Square, coming from the park entrance. There is plenty of picnic table seating in the immediate area.
Frannie’s Famous Fried Chicken
Frannie’s Fried Chicken is a cutie-patootie food truck parked in front of the Pines Theater in Jukebox Junction, serving fried chicken sandwiches and crinkle fries.
My biggest problem with the food here is that it looks like Chick-fil-a, but it’s not Chick-fil-a. If you sit nearby long enough, you’ll hear an advertisement about how the chicken is marinated in dill pickle juice, but I would have rather they just put a few pickles on it instead because you can’t tell at all. It’s pretty good food but it suffers by comparison.
There is a tiny bit of seating across the street on the wall, and plenty more down by Red’s Drive-In.
Spotlight Bakery
This spot will figure in this list again later for their bakery offerings, but they also have a few sandwiches, soups, and salads worth looking into around meal time. The offerings here are more deli-like, such as a turkey sandwich with cranberry relish, or chicken salad. These options change from time to time, so check out what’s available on your trip. The hardest part is deciding what you want for dessert out of the massive bakery case.
Spotlight Bakery is to the right as you enter the park from the main entrance. There are a few tables both inside and outside the bakery.
Lumber Jack’s Pizza
One of the few restaurants in the upper part of the park, this is the home for cheese, pepperoni, and veggie pizzas, along with a few extra seasonal offerings. I haven’t eaten here, but I’ve heard it’s pretty good and it’s one of two places that’s not explicitly southern food or basic hot dogs or hamburgers.
They serve up massive slices from 30″ pies that weigh a pound each, so split one or two slices among your family for a cheap meal. They also provide indoor and outdoor seating with some fun photo ops around. Located across from Drop Line in Timber Canyon.
Miss Lillian’s BBQ Corner
I don’t have much of an opinion about this spot for the simple fact that it was never open when I was there. I think it’s only open during the busiest of times, and I also have an impression that it mostly serves turkey legs. There is a BBQ platter on the menu, more substantial than that at Hickory House with more sides available. But alas, I have yet to catch it when it was serving food. The small amount of tables nearby also indicates to me that they don’t intend on serving many people.
The BBQ Corner is adjacent to Miss Lillian’s Smokehouse, to the right. There is a line of bistro tables along the walkway towards the cave and the train station.
Victoria’s Pizza
A super basic pizza place, this time across from the train station. Victoria’s serves cheese and pepperoni pizza, salads, and an Italian sandwich. Seating is indoors.
Red’s Drive-In
This is the obligatory 50’s diner present in almost every theme park in the U.S. The difference is that this area of the park, newly fashioned around the hot-rod Lightning Rod coaster, is really fun. There are classic cars on the streets, vintage products in the windows, and cute photo ops all around.
Unfortunately, the same amount of detail is not given to the food at Red’s. The basic menu of burgers and fries is executed poorly, and their milkshakes are a disappointment.
Red’s is across from the Lightning Rod roller coaster in Jukebox Junction, with plenty of seating both inside and outside. The outside seating is under a tent and has the added bonus of a device charging station by the sidewalk.
Grandstand Cafe
True to its surroundings in the Country Fair, Grandstand Cafe is the most basic of amusement park concession stands. Hot dogs, nachos, chicken fingers, and fries are the fare here. The only good thing about this eatery is that it’s next door to soft serve ice cream.
Grandstand is deep in the Country Fair area, to the middle back between the lemonade/teacups and kiddie rides. There are a few tables nearby.
Table Service Restaurants
I don’t have a lot of experience with Dollywood’s proper restaurants–I tend not to want to spend the time or the money. All the restaurants are southern-style so you won’t find a ton of variety for your palate; lots of cornbread, beans, and fried chicken. But it is generally good food and typically lots of it.
Aunt Granny’s Buffet
At Aunt Granny’s you can select from fried and baked chicken, lots of southern sides such as mashed potatoes, green beans, collard greens, and pinto beans. Plus biscuits, cornbread, a salad bar and dessert bar. It’s a great option for a hungry family with varying tastes. I once ate here as part of a free meal deal with the purchase of a ticket online and I remember it being pretty good.
You can find Aunt Granny’s on the other side of Market Square, in a house on the left.
Front Porch Cafe
The newest and most modern restaurant in the park, Front Porch has nice clean lines and light colors throughout. You’ll find their menu is more upscale, and with more vegetarian and allergy-sensitive items available. I have eaten here and it says something that I can’t remember at all what I ordered. It just wasn’t that memorable. They do currently have a whole Cornish game hen on the dinner menu and that’s impressive in any theme park setting, especially for the price.
Front Porch is located on Showstreet, on the left as you walk towards Market Square. One thing I did like is that after my meal, I finished my book sitting on the porch swing at the literal front porch of the restaurant, and that was quite nice.
Granny Ogle’s Ham ‘n’ Beans
This place draws me more than any of the other restaurants, I think because ham, beans, and cornbread are big-time comfort food for me. And you’ll find plenty of all of these, served warm in skillets along with meat loaf, pot roast, and cobbler. I’m definitely going to have to try this next time I’m in the park.
Granny Ogle’s is in Craftsman’s Valley on the far side of the Valley Theater from Miss Lillian’s Smokehouse.
Miss Lillian’s Smokehouse
This buffet restaurant focuses on smoked and fried chicken, carved meats, southern sides, plus a salad and dessert bar. The biggest draw here might be Miss Lillian herself, a very entertaining long-time park character that you can also find outside the restaurant and prior to some shows on the Valley Stage. She’s a hoot, and very entertaining for kiddos.
Miss Lillian’s is near the cave, across from the Grist Mill in Craftsman’s Valley.
Snacks
There are a few destination spots for snacks in Dollywood, and a few other offerings to mention that can be found in various locations.
Grist Mill
This is THE location for must-have cinnamon bread in Dollywood. Lines stretch out the door all hours of the day. If the line isn’t too terribly long, feel free to queue up downstairs in Craftsman’s Valley to see them furiously making bread before your eyes. Or for a shorter line, walk up the stairs to the counter on the Owen’s Farm/barnstormer side. Both counters serve the same thing but the upstairs line is often shorter.
What you’ll find is a medium-sized loaf of braided dough, covered on all sides inside and out with cinnamon and sugar. It’s more than one serving (though I have valiantly tried) so it’s best shared between two or three, or saved for later. I made the mistake once of trying to get some late in the day to have the next morning, and apparently, everyone else in the park had that same idea as well. The line was out the door, and they just couldn’t make it fast enough. So I recommend it as a late morning second breakfast or afternoon break snack.
Along with fresh, hot cinnamon bread, they also serve cookies the size of a dinner plate, and perhaps a few other items. I confess I don’t look much past the cinnamon bread. There are a few tables downstairs outside the mill, and upstairs on an outside deck.
Sweet Shoppe
The biggest snack shop in the park is the massive Sweet Shoppe, located to the right of the Palace Theater as soon as you walk in the park. One side is an old-fashioned ice cream shop, serving Edy’s hand-scooped ice cream. Waffle cones, sundaes, and milkshakes are all available, but I would avoid the root beer float if I were you. They poured me a root beer then scooped a tiny scoop of ice cream on top. Don’t they know you have to pour the root beer over the ice cream?? I was mildly appalled.
The other half is a full-on candy shop with a huge variety. The spot you should head for is the homemade treat counter in the middle with fudge, dipped apples, and all sorts of handmade bonbons. You can also find a wide assortment of homemade taffy, gummy candy, hard candy, and more. My favorite is to get some sort of chocolate treat, then sit out front in the rocking chairs to watch the world go by for a few minutes.
Spotlight Bakery
The Spotlight is back, this time for the huge amount of bakery items available. They have iced cinnamon rolls, cupcakes, cookies, brownies, muffins, turnovers, etc. Everything you could ever want for a pastry breakfast or an afternoon snack.
The most wow thing on the menu is a huge 25-pound apple pie. Just one slice weighs three pounds and can serve a family of four! Order ahead to take one with you, or have one shipped straight to your home.
I have sampled a few things over the years here and I’ve never been too impressed by any one thing in particular. A chocolate cupcake was disappointing, and some turnovers were just generic. I haven’t had the apple pie, or the cinnamon rolls yet (usually since I still have some cinnamon bread left over) and they look like good choices.
The Spotlight Bakery is to the right as you enter the park.
Skyview Snacks
I am very fond of this little snack shack next to the Wild Eagle. In this U-shaped space, you can find all sorts of frozen drink options, including lots of ICEE flavors, frozen lemonade, and regular soft drinks. A freezer holds ice cream candy bars like ice cream Snickers and Twix, and the cooler holds regular candy bars where they won’t melt, a huge boon for those who like their chocolate from the fridge. Here you can also find healthier options like granola bars and veggie cups.
In General
Around the rest of the park, you can find soft-serve ice cream down in Country Fair as well as the hand-scooped Edy’s on Showstreet; kettle corn and funnel cakes in Market Square; popcorn and cotton candy down in Country Fair and popcorn, pretzels, and glazed nuts on Showstreet; pork rinds in Craftsman’s Valley; and another great ICEE location next to the rocking chairs behind the Valley Stage. There are apparently a number of Dippin Dots locations around the park as well, though I’m not sure who exactly eats it anymore. “The ice cream of the future” is a one-and-done for me. Ew.
Festival Food
A word about food during festivals, especially the Festival of Nations. There are food booths around the Market Square area that open up during festival time to showcase special offerings, especially during the Barbeque and Bluegrass and the Festival of Nations.
In 2015, when I visited for the Festival of Nations, the food was singularly lackluster, consisting of tacos, flatbreads, and some very tired Chinese food. They seem to be really stepping it up this year and involving more locations, such as the new Front Porch Cafe and the Bakery.
For instance, there will be Spanish Paella and German sausages on the Market Square Skillets; Greek Gyros, French Crepe Suzettes, and Mexican street corn in Market Square; and Canadian beavertails at the funnel cake stand. The Spotlight Bakery will feature Greek baklava, German apple strudel, Italian cannolis, and Mexican tres leches cake. And the new Front Porch restaurant will have an ambitious menu of Mexican tostadas, South African samosas and bobotie, pad thai, and a Cuban sandwich.
I applaud the expansion, the ambition, and the inclusion of dishes as far away as Africa, Thailand, and Spain and I hope folks respond well to it! There may be too much of a focus on sweets, but as an owner of a huge sweet tooth, I can’t complain too much about that.
Awesome!