On a beautiful early Spring day at Dollywood, we decided to have a sit-down lunch at the Front Porch Cafe located in the Showstreet area near the front of the park. Since it was Spring Break for many area schools, the restaurant was crowded and there was quite a wait to get inside. We parked ourselves outside in the beautiful sunshine and waited for our names to be called while we browsed the menu.
The cafe serves up many of Dolly's favorite meals while visiting the park. It's a full service restaurant with many classic Southern appetizers, salads, burgers, entrees, and dessert.
It was a warm day and the park was crowded, so we waited close to 50 minutes for a table. Matt took the kids to the nearby Firehouse Fun Yard to keep them occupied, but they were ready to get some cold milk into their bellies as soon as they got to our table.
The grown-up drinks arrived in handled mason jars. Why is drinking out of a mason jar so gosh darn fun?
Not long after ordering our drinks, a plate of piping hot cheddar garlic biscuits were placed in front of us. Have mercy, these were delicious.
The kids portions were very large, so we ordered one for the kids to share. Our waitress was so friendly and the service was wonderful - she was ready with extra plates for us to split. We let the kids order whatever they wanted and they chose mac and cheese with French fries. The pasta was ooey gooey deliciousness and the kids dipped the crinkle-cut fries in plenty of ketchup, of course.
I ordered marinated chicken smothered with white mushroom sauce with green beans and a house salad on the side. Look at the size of that salad! It was a huge portion and there was some crispy bacon hiding under there... underneath the 3lbs of shredded cheese, haha.
The chicken was amazing. It was tender and juicy and the creamy mushroom sauce on top was perfection. What a great lunch. The green beans were yummy as well. They were cooked in bacon, as they should be.
Matt ordered chicken-fried steak with creamy country gravy on a bed of mashed potatoes with buttered corn on the side. Crispy-fried breading on the outside and tender, juicy steak on the inside. And you can't have a true southern chicken-fried steak without a peppery white gravy on top.
The portion of shredded cheese on my salad was generous, so I shared with my little cheese mongers. They'd live off shredded cheese if I let them.
Getting a belly full of goodness is just what we all needed to charge up for the rest of our afternoon.
Our lunch at the Front Porch Cafe is one of the better meals that we've had in Dollywood. For theme park food, the prices are reasonable and the quality of the food was great. We're trying to work our way through all of the dining options in Dollywood and this is one that we will be sure to have on repeat!
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Lived our lunch today at frontporch cafe. It was delicious! If you share your recipes i would love to have your roasted chicken with mushroom gravy. Thank you so much!!! We will be back!