Ole Red — Restaurant in Gatlinburg

My husband and I were visiting Gatlinburg, TN and felt like Ole Red was the place to eat. We arrived around 3PM and were promptly sat right in front of the stage. The ambiance of Ole Red is the highlight of this restaurant. Unfortunately, the food and service leave something to be desired.

Atmosphere The ambience of Ole Red is the highlight of this restaurant. There is a big stage in the center which either features live music or a large projector screen of country music videos. During our visit, we started with music videos and ended with Peedy Chavis (The Voice Season 21) performing live. The restaurant also had fun photo opp areas.

Service The service we experienced at Ole Red was absolutely horrible. It wasn’t busy; we were sat immediately. There were plenty of employees and yet our server was BAD. We were there for almost 2 hours bc our server was endlessly out of sight. We were his only table. He came to our table few and far between and then would dart away quickly. Our food also appeared to have sat before it was brought out. Other tables were sat after us, received their food before us, and left long before we even received our bill.

Food The food at Ole Red was promising but fell flat. My husband had a beer and I had the Hillbilly Breeze. The drinks were good, came in keepsake glasses, and were VERY pricey.

We also ordered Fried Pickles for our app. I LOVE Fried Pickles, and thus these are always a must. They were the best part of our meal, although they wouldn’t be in my top 5 best fried pickles. You get a large portion, like possibly a whole sandwich sliced jar of pickles. That being said, they were lukewarm at best.

For our main dishes, I had a burger and fries. My hubby had Chili Mac. Both our entrees were once again lukewarm and they looked like they had been sitting. My burger and fries were pretty blah. I’ve had worse burgers but I’ve also had way better ones. My husband’s portion was quite small for the price and would have been better having not been sitting around.

Price Ole Red is extremely expensive considering the quality of food and service. Most items on the menu are around $20; it doesn’t matter if it’s a drink, an app, or an entree. When it comes to Ole Red, you are absolutely not getting what you pay for, you are getting far, far less.

I would not recommend Ole Red in Gatlinburg. I would recommend trying one of the many other eateries on the downtown strip; that’s absolutely what...

When in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, you will be presented with all sorts of entertainment, shopping, and dining/drinking options. Most of the eateries are locally owned and operated, but there is one restaurant that is part of a small chain inspired by musician Blake Shelton. That restaurant is Ole Red, a combination dining and entertainment venue.

We visited Ole Red for lunch one day while visiting Gatlinburg and we came away with mixed impressions. We were seated quickly which surprised us, given the large size of our group. They placed us right next to the stage, so we had an up- close view of the performers and could hear them loudly and clearly. Apparently, they have live performers all day and we got to see two of them when we were there.

The food served at Ole Red is American/Southern American and consists of the usual burgers, entrees, sandwiches, desserts, etc. We ordered several different items from the menu, among them the Smoked Chicken Pot Pie and Nacho Average Vegan Burger, and found most of it okay, although nothing all that impressive. My kids said that the lucky charms pudding was probably their favorite item of all.

Where we had issues with Ole Red was with the service. Our wait staff took a while to get back with us to check on drinks and it took longer than it should have to serve us our food. We did like the specialized drinks and the beer selection is good, so this helped make up for things a little bit. Still, it took much longer than expected for the food to arrive and the prices are a little steep for the quality.

Part of the reason for the higher prices is the live entertainment, so you have to take that into account if you choose to visit here. The live music is nice and does feature up- and- coming talent. At least one of the performers we saw was funny as well as being a good singer, so again, this helped make up for the so- so food and spotty service.

Overall, when all things are considered, Ole Red is an average place of dining and entertainment and a decent choice if you are more interested in music and drinks than food and promptness. Keep your expectations in check and you...

First time visiting an Ole Red while on vacation for the Thanksgiving holiday. It's one of my favorite country songs by what I consider to be a living country legend (Blake Shelton aka Mr Gwen Stefani I sure do miss you on The Voice!).

The live music brought us in and the lack of service cut our evening at Old Red short.

It wasn't very busy when we arrived just before 7pm when Tyson Leamon was set to hit the stage.

There was no hostess at the door and was about 10 minutes before one showed up to lead us to a table.

It was then another 10 minutes before our waiter made it to the table and probably another 15 minutes after that before we got our drinks (adult beverages).

I found the beer menu difficult to navigate between cans, bottles and drafts in souvenir glasses with refills, larger and small sizes, etc.

My first choice was not available (Gypsy Circus Queen of Swords Cider). So, I settled for a Black Horse Vanilla Cream Ale (but got a Black Horse IPA).

There was definitely a language barrier with the waiter because he came back to the table next to us because he either forgot or didn't know what it was they had ordered (after he had already taken their order).

I had never heard of Tyson Leamon and thought he did a pretty good job with the exception he didn't seem to know all the words to Sweet Home Alabama although he played it voluntarily. He may have been knocked off his game because some hooligans in the back of the dining room kept hollering "Roll Tide Roll" after each "Alabama". Being an artist in the country genre, that should be a gimme cover song to sing and play. His rendition of "Ole Red" was good but no one could do it as good as the one and only Blake Shelton.

My first Ole Red experience was underwhelming to say the least. I didn't get either of the drinks I wanted (or ordered for that matter) and left early without even getting to try the food. I'll have to give Ole Red in Orlando a try and hopefully it will be a...