Have you ever taken a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains and weren’t sure where to get some good food? Well you are in luck because we have found the spot for you as long as you get a reservation early, don’t mind waiting for at least half an hour to get a table, or go there at non usual dinner times like 3:30 pm or 8:30 pm. But this place is so good, we would definitely eat there again on a return trip to the Smoky Mountains.
We started off with a couple of appetizers, the steak nachos and the bing bang boom shrimp. The steak nachos used a standard nacho cheese sauce and added guacamole, sour cream, jalapenos and cubes of well flavored steak. If the flavor of the steak cubes are any indication, it would be well worth your while to order a steak for the main course. We did not this time, but the steak added a bonus to an otherwise standard plate of nachos. If you like nachos, you will like the added element this flavorful steak adds.
The bing bang boom shrimp made me do a double take as I didn’t even taste the shrimp. There are a mayonnaise based sauce on the shrimp and green onions and you are given fried wontons so that you can place all the ingredients onto a wonton kind of like nachos but with shrimp and a mayonnaise sauce. If you’ve ever had a princess prawns dish at a Chinese restaurant where the shrimp are drowned in a mayonnaise sauce with candied walnuts, then this dish is quite similar, except the shrimp are much more tender, you won’t notice the flavor of the shrimp, and instead of crunchy sweet, candy-coated walnuts, you get fried wontons for a crispy flavor.
Next I took a flyer on the chicken tenders for Happy Healthy Daughter’s sake. When you order chicken tenders for a restaurant, usually you are not expecting anything special. These chicken tenders though had quite a crispy coating and use whole chicken breasts which tasted better than the frozen chicken tenders you can get in a store. Certainly a higher level here. The honey sauce was there for an added sweetness, but otherwise was unremarkable. The fries, well, you can’t mess up fries. Their fries aren’t terrible crispy, but they are very flavorful and work well without any ketchup. If you like chicken tenders, this dish will not disappoint.
Not being a fan of fish, but it’s one of the common dishes that my family likes, so we ordered the fish and chips. The fish was light and the breading was quite crispy. This won’t make you forget other fish and chips that you’ve had, but it still would satisfy any fish and chips lover. The coleslaw that comes with it was your standard coleslaw.
Happy Healthy Son wanted to get the wicked shrimp pasta and I would call this the best dish of the night. If you like jambalaya or lots of spices in your dish, then this dish is right up your alley. The shrimp and andouille sausage both complemented and led this dish into a wonderful taste explosion in the mouth with the pasta and cheese coming along for the ride. The focaccia bread that comes with it was light, airy and full of garlicy goodness. This pasta dish would rival any of the pasta dishes you will find in a fancy Italian restaurant.
Now onto the burgers. They have a lot of burgers to choose from, some that you will not find in any other restaurants and we chose two of those: the lamb burger and the BGT burger. The lamb burger I would call if a gyro was disguised as a burger. It comes with ground lamb, pickled onion, a spring mix of lettuce, feta cheese and topped with a tzatziki sauce. In other words, everything you would find in a gyro. The lamb itself didn’t taste like a lamb you would get in a gyro as it was ground lamb, but the other flavors were spot on. If you are missing the flavors of a gyro, or just want to try one, then this is a passable substitute.
The BGT burger had something that I love in my Italian dishes: goat cheese. It also comes with crispy onions, and bacon jam. There was a definite sweetness to the bacon jam and a great crunch that comes with the crispy onion. Did the goat cheese elevate this burger to the highest level of excellence that I saw in my Italian pasta dishes? No it did not, but the burger was still quite good and worthy of having for a dinner.
After sampling a number of there dishes, I can assure you that their food is high quality and great flavor. It is certainly worth all the praise that this restaurant achieves from locals and visitors alike. If you don’t mind a long wait, then I would definitely put this restaurant at the top of my list of places to eat in Pigeon Forge.
See their website: https://www.local-goat.com/
