We recently took a trip outside of the Disney bubble to Dollywood to experience all they had to offer!

Yep, we’re talking about Dollywood, the pride and joy of Dolly Parton, located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It’s home to more than 50 rides and attractions, but what we’re here to discuss is the FOOD. We headed to the DreamMore Resort to grab dinner, and we’re taking you with us.

Atmosphere

Located inside DreamMore Resort, the Lounge provides the perfect backdrop for refreshing drinks and delicious food. Located outside the Song & Hearth restaurant, it’s the ideal place to slow down and enjoy conversation with friends and family.

While the lounge is small, we found it very comfortable. They had a small TV playing and lots of farm land-inspired decor. With a unique Mason jar mural and benches made from repurposed Ford pickup trucks, The Lounge offers a place for guests to immerse themselves in Southern ambiance. It brings the outdoors inside with a reclaimed barn wood ceiling and hanging lights made to look like captured fireflies.

The Lounge offers a welcoming space with a full-service menu and a variety of beverages for guests to enjoy. But enough about the restaurant — what’s on the menu here?!

Menu

There is a large variety for it to be a lounge.  From shareable appetizers to flatbreads, handhelds, and a few entree options. There is also a kids’ menu and desserts available here.

While we were visiting, the Flower and Food Festival was taking place at Dollywood, and the Lounge offered some speciality menu items for the occasion.

And now, onto the main event — the food!

Drinks

To drink, we picked up the Lemon Poppy Tini for $15. This is made with Wheatley Vodka, Lemon, Honey, and a Cointreau Sugar and Poppy Seed Rim. This drink was a speciality item for the Flower and Food Festival. 

Unfortunately, this drink was not for us. We found the lemon flavor to be very strong and similar to a lemon drop shot. We did appreciate the rim, which helped balance out the drink; however, if you want a fruity and sweet cocktail, this is not the one for you! If you love the strong lemon flavors, you might enjoy this.

Next, we tried the Cool Like a Cucumber.  We really enjoyed this drink! It was very refreshing and had that classic cucumber, natural flavor. You could definitely tell that they had used a cucumber syrup because it was a little bit thicker. This resulted in us having to mix the drink pretty frequently.

This drink might be too sweet for some people, but after a long, hot day, we found it very refreshing. We loved the salt rim on the edge, just to have a nice balance between sweet and salty.

We also grabbed a glass of Pinot Grigio, giving us a nice crisp flavor with our meal.

Eats

First up, we grabbed the Caprese Flatbread for $19. This is made with House-Made Pesto Sauce, Fresh Baby Mozzarella, and Torn Hot House Basil. Was this flatbread good? Yes. Was it outstanding? No. We will say we think this is a SAFE choice if you like that cheese/tomato/pesto combo in all forms. We did find that the balsamic kind of overwhelmed all the other flavors on the flatbread instead of complementing them. 

Next, we grabbed the Stone Soup for $11. This soup is made up of Ham, Onions, Celery, Carrots, Smoked Bacon Turnips, Cabbage, Tomatoes, and Potatoes. Now this soup is special because it’s based on Dolly’s mom’s recipe. The story goes that if one of the kids was having a bad day, each kid would go pick out a stone, and Dolly’s mom would pick the one for the kid that was having a hard day, and it would cheer them up! We loved the story behind it, so we had to try it.  This soup was hearty and a great comfort meal. It was served with crackers on the side.

Next, we tried the Pan-Seared Salmon for $29. This had Salmon with Roasted Garlic, Wilted Spinach, and a Tri-Colored Vegetable Quinoa. The salmon had a lot of flavor and tasted very fresh. We really appreciated the roasted garlic on top of the fish, giving it a lot of flavor. The quinoa and spinach were a healthy pairing with the salmon, which we can appreciate at a theme park resort. It was very filling, and the quinoa was cooked very well. It wasn’t grainy like quinoa can sometimes be. Our only disappointment was that it was very salty for us!

Finally, the star of the show was the Tri-Tip Steak & Frites for $18. This was a Grilled Santa Maria Tri-Tip Steak with Feta Cheese Chimichurri on top of Crispy Fries. We found this was shockingly good for the price. The steak was so well-cooked. It had a warm pink center but was still juicy and not too tough. It was incredibly well seasoned, although it did lean a little bit on the salty side. The chimichurri on top was so herbaceous. It had great garlic flavor and really made the entire meal a little bit more dynamic. The fries were nice and crispy. They were still soft, but not too soft, and overall, this was just a very hearty, familiar meal with a little bit of an elevated flavor palette. This was a festival item, so it is gone now, but we would love to see this added to the menu.

Nosh or Not

This Dollywood restaurant is a must-visit if…

• You are staying at the DreamMore Resort. The Lounge is conveniently located on the main floor of the hotel, giving you quick access to drinks and food.
• You want a more relaxed environment. If you don’t want to sit at a full restaurant and want something more casual, the Lounge is a great option.

You should skip this Dollywood spot if…

• You are looking for lots of options for a meal. While there is variety on the menu, there aren’t a lot of choices in food.
• You want an outstanding meal. The food here was good, but nothing stood out to us beyond the Tri-Tip Steak & Frites, so we recommend checking out other restaurants at Dollywood.

Overall

The Lounge at DreamMore Resort at Dollywood is a relaxing atmosphere with a solid menu for a lounge. We enjoyed the menu items we did try. However, nothing really stood out to us that would have us make a special trip to the Lounge to try again. If you are staying at the DreamMore Resort or are looking for something casual and relaxing, the Lounge could be a good option for you.

In the meantime, we’ll be on the lookout for more restaurant updates from Disneyland and beyond. Make sure you stay tuned to the Disney Food Blog for the latest Disney news and more!

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