Sawyer's Farmhouse Breakfast

We've eaten at Sawyer's probably six times now, and it's honestly the best breakfast we've found in Pigeon Forge. The buttermilk pancakes are ridiculously fluffy — like, almost too light to be real — and that peanut butter syrup they're known for sounds weird but totally works. They've been family-owned since 2014, which you can tell because the staff actually seems to care about the food instead of just getting you in and out.

The Mountain Man platter is $15.99 and feeds two people easily. Three eggs, home fries, gravy, biscuit, plus sausage, bacon, country ham AND three pancakes. We usually split it and still can't finish everything.

One thing though — they don't take reservations unless you've got 14+ people, so get there early or you'll wait. We learned this the hard way on a Saturday morning when we showed up at 10am and waited 45 minutes. Now we hit the Parkway location by 8am or drive out to their newer Wears Valley spot, which is way less crowded.

Fair warning about winter visits: January through March, they close at noon on weekdays instead of 2pm. Found that out when we drove over on a Tuesday in February and they were already locking up. Also, if you need gluten-free pancakes, they actually do them right — not just some sad mix from a box like most places around here.