Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant

The Applewood Farmhouse Restaurant is the meal that families who visit the Smoky Mountains remember most — not because it is the most expensive or the most innovative, but because the combination of legendary apple fritters, honest Southern comfort food, and a setting in an actual apple orchard creates an experience that feels fundamentally different from the tourist-strip restaurants on the Pigeon Forge Parkway. Located in the Apple Valley area of Sevierville, about 10 minutes from Pigeon Forge, Applewood has been feeding families since 1986 and has earned its reputation as the best family restaurant in the Smoky Mountain region.

Before you order a single thing from the menu, your table receives a parade of complimentary starters that would constitute a meal at most restaurants. First come the apple fritters — golden, warm, pillowy, dusted with cinnamon sugar and served with house-made apple butter. These fritters are genuinely famous.

They are the subject of online debates, travel articles, and family arguments about whether to order actual entrees or just eat fritters until you can't move. Kids devour them. Adults devour them.

Everyone asks for more. The apple julep follows — a frozen apple cider slush served in a glass that kids treat like the greatest drink they have ever tasted. Then comes a plate of applewood-smoked bacon.

All of this arrives before you have opened the menu.

The menu itself is Southern comfort food prepared with care and quality ingredients. Country ham, fried chicken, pot roast, and trout are the stars. The sides — mashed potatoes, fried apples, green beans, and corn — are made from scratch.

Everything tastes homemade because it is. The kids' menu ($6-$10) offers smaller portions of the same quality food rather than the afterthought chicken-nuggets-and-fries that lesser restaurants offer. Portions for adults are generous, and many families find they have ordered too much after the complimentary fritter assault.

The Apple Barn complex surrounding the restaurant extends the visit into a browsing and tasting adventure. The Apple Barn General Store sells apple butter, apple cider, dried apples, and apple-themed gifts. The Apple Barn Cider Mill demonstrates how fresh cider is pressed.

The candy apple shop makes caramel and candy-coated apples in view of customers. The winery offers free tastings for adults. Kids can walk through the apple orchard that supplies the restaurant, picking up fallen apples and understanding the farm-to-table connection in a tangible way.

The wait for a table at Applewood can be significant — 30-60 minutes on summer and fall weekends — but the Apple Barn shops provide genuinely entertaining ways to pass the time. The strategic move is to put your name on the restaurant list immediately upon arrival, then spend the wait exploring the complex. By the time your buzzer goes off, you've browsed, sampled, and worked up the appetite that the fritters are about to overwhelm.