The BBQ and Dining Spots Our Smoky Mountains Readers Actually Recommend

What's the best BBQ in the Smoky Mountains? It's one of the questions our Facebook page gets asked, and answered, more than almost anything else we post. We put it to our followers a few different ways over a few posts — favorite BBQ spot, most underrated restaurant in the Gatlinburg area, whether Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge has the better food — and between them we got more than 650 comments. A handful of names came up again and again, one longtime favorite turned out to have a murky current status, and a couple of comments about a well-loved BBQ joint's service were worth passing along honestly. Here's what our readers said, plus what we verified against each restaurant's actual hours and menu.

The BBQ Spots Readers Keep Naming

By far the most common answer wasn't a specific restaurant — it was "BBQ," followed by an avalanche of specific names. Preacher's Smokehouse and Bennett's Pit BBQ came up over and over, alongside a long list of smaller, local spots our readers are clearly loyal to.

Preacher's Smokehouse, technically in Sevierville on Pittman Center Road but a short drive from both Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, was the single most enthusiastically recommended spot in the thread — several readers said flatly it's the best in the area. One detail stood out: multiple people specifically praised the crew for taking care of customers on the days they're open, Thursday through Saturday. We checked, and that's exactly right — Preacher's Smokehouse is open only Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 11am to 7pm, and closed Sunday through Wednesday. Sandwiches (pulled pork, chicken, or burnt ends) run around $8, brisket is around $11, and combos range from about $15 for a single meat up to roughly $48 for the largest multi-meat sampler.

Bennett's Pit BBQ, on River Road in Gatlinburg (a second location sits on the Parkway in Pigeon Forge), was named almost as often — but the comments weren't universally glowing. A few readers said it used to be their go-to, but on their last couple of visits the service and food quality had slipped. Worth knowing before you go: readers report the posted hours shifting from what they remembered, so a quick call or a check of their Facebook page before you drive over is worth it. The menu runs from single-meat sandwiches up to multi-meat sampler platters; order the same food through a delivery app instead of directly, and expect to pay noticeably more for it.

Haywood Smokehouse pulled a surprising number of votes for a restaurant that's not even in Tennessee — it has locations in Waynesville and Dillsboro, NC, more than an hour from Gatlinburg. Readers said the brisket alone is worth the drive, and more than one commenter mentioned crossing state lines from South Carolina specifically to eat there. The banana pudding got its own round of praise.

Closer to home, Hungry Bear BBQ — specifically the location out toward Greenbrier in Gatlinburg — got votes less for ranking highest and more for the whole experience. One reader put it plainly: they know other spots technically rank higher, but the location and outdoor tables are what keep bringing them back.

A handful of other names came up enough times that they're worth listing, even though we couldn't independently verify current hours or menus for all of them in this pass — worth a quick call before you build a trip around one. Readers also named Delauder's, Tony Gore's Smoky Mountain BBQ and Grill, 129 Smokehouse, Clean Smoke BBQ, and Boss Hogg's (one reader called it the best they've had anywhere, not just in the Smokies) as personal favorites. Bustin' Butts BBQ in Sevierville and Pop's Butts On The Creek in Maggie Valley, NC both got specific, repeated mentions too. Myron Mixon's BBQ Co., the Gatlinburg restaurant from the celebrity competition pitmaster, got a nod as well; it's real and open on the Parkway, but its own reviews are split between platforms, so it's worth going in with moderate expectations rather than celebrity-chef hype.

Gatlinburg vs. Pigeon Forge: Where to Eat?

The other recurring debate was geography — readers comparing Gatlinburg's restaurant scene to Pigeon Forge's, sometimes in the same comment thread as the BBQ argument. Two restaurants anchor that comparison well, even though neither is strictly BBQ.

On the Gatlinburg side, The Peddler Steakhouse got flagged with real enthusiasm, exclamation points and all. It's Gatlinburg's classic special-occasion answer: a steakhouse on the river that's been a fixture on the Parkway for the town's higher end of dining.

On the Pigeon Forge side, nobody in our sample named a restaurant directly, but Old Mill Pottery House Café & Grille, part of the historic Old Mill complex, is the restaurant most people mean when they say Pigeon Forge does casual, family-style dining well — think chicken pot pie served in a skillet and loaded dinner salads. It's open for lunch and dinner every day of the week, with weekday and weekend closing times that can shift by season, so it's worth a quick call or a check online before you go, especially in peak season.

Read the comments as a whole, and the split isn't really "Gatlinburg is better" or "Pigeon Forge is better" — it's that Gatlinburg's strongest recommendations skewed toward BBQ and steak, while Pigeon Forge's skewed toward family-style comfort food. If you're staying in Sevierville or Gatlinburg, you're only a short drive from either town's Parkway.

The Smaller Spots Readers Say We're Missing

Ask "what's underrated" and you get a different kind of answer than "what's the best" — smaller, quieter recommendations instead of the big consensus picks. In our sample, Tom & Earl's Back Alley Grill, just off the Parkway in Gatlinburg, is the clearest fit: it's real, it's open daily from 11am to 10pm, and it holds a solid 4.2 stars without being a name most first-time visitors have heard before they get to town.

A couple of other mentions are worth passing along honestly rather than dressing up as verified picks: one reader said their best meal on a recent trip came from a restaurant inside Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort in Cherokee, NC, and a few others brought up Pink Pig — which, to be clear, is in Helen, Georgia, several hours from the Smokies and not a Smoky Mountains restaurant at all, however good the reviews are.

Our Honest Take

Reading through this many comments, a few things are clear. First, BBQ opinions in the Smokies run genuinely deep — people aren't naming whatever's closest, they're naming the place with the best brisket or the cobbler they still think about years later. Second, hours matter more than people expect: Preacher's Smokehouse is only open three days a week, and even Bennett's daily closing time can shift a bit day to day, so driving over and finding the doors locked, or hours different than you remember, is an avoidable disappointment if you check first. Third, loyalty to a restaurant doesn't always mean it's still the best version of itself — a few readers were honest that Bennett's isn't hitting the same mark it used to, and that kind of comment is worth trusting over an old five-star review.

If we had to point someone toward one BBQ spot based on this thread alone, it'd be Preacher's Smokehouse, mostly because the praise was specific — the same dishes, the same service detail — rather than generic. But the honest answer is there's no single "best." There are at least six or seven restaurants here that a meaningful number of our readers would argue for, and that's a good problem for a small region to have.

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FAQ

What's the best BBQ restaurant in the Smoky Mountains?

Based on our reader comments, Preacher's Smokehouse in Sevierville and Bennett's Pit BBQ in Gatlinburg were named most often, though a good number of readers said Haywood Smokehouse in Waynesville, NC has the best brisket of anywhere they've eaten, in or out of the region.

What are Preacher's Smokehouse's hours?

Thursday through Saturday, 11am to 7pm. It's closed Sunday through Wednesday.

What are Bennett's Pit BBQ's hours?

Hours can shift by day and season — check Bennett's own site or Facebook page, or call ahead, for the current schedule before you go.

Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge for restaurants?

Our readers' recommendations split more by type of food than by town: Gatlinburg's strongest mentions were BBQ and steakhouse spots like The Peddler Steakhouse, while Pigeon Forge's went to family-style comfort food like Old Mill Pottery House Café & Grille.