No Way Jose's Cantina — Restaurant in Pigeon Forge

If I could give this place less than 1 star, I would. The food is EXTREMELY mediocre. When I go to a Mexican-style restaurant, I usually eat so much that I'm busting at the seams. Here? Both my wife and I left a lot of food on our respective plates. Highly unusual for us.

However, the worst part of the experience was the service. Our server, a gentleman named Alex, was an absolute atrocity to the profession of server. I'm usually quite a lenient person with servers because I understand that it's a hard, under-appreciated gig. Additionally, my wife and I usually tip well, due to my picky requests as a vegetarian. With that being said, Alex's performance was so bad that we only left a 10% tip. It's been literal years since we've tipped less than the standard 20%.

I will say two positive things:

1. Alex was nice, and I didn't detect any rudeness.

2. He did ask the cooks some of my vegetarian-related questions like I requested of him.

Beyond that, he was EXTREMELY slow and inattentive. We had to ask him multiple times for a refill on our chips and salsa, and I personally had to ask him multiple times for a refill on my Coke. When he FINALLY brought our chips refill to us, I was expecting him to have my Coke in hand (which I'd requested of him 10-ish minutes prior). However, he didn't, so I had to request it of him again....which took another 10 or so minutes. Basically, after asking anything of Alex, he would disappear for extremely long stretches of time....even though the restaurant wasn't very busy.

Lastly, I had some very simple requests with my bean burrito.

1. Swap the regular refried beans (which contain lard) with refried black beans (which do not).

2. Add raw onions to the burrito.

3. Add sour cream to the burrito.

4. Add shredded cheese to my burrito.

Only ONE of these requests was taken care of, #1. I never got my onions, sour cream, or shredded cheese, though.

To be honest, I have no idea if this was because of Alex or the cooks. Alex, due to his poor service, doesn't come across as the sharpest tool in the shed. I could see the possibility of him not mentioning that to the cooks. However, the cooks could have easily gotten it wrong as well. Either way, I didn't get the things I asked for. In any other restaurant situation, I would have simply asked for the order to be corrected. However, since the service had been so slow up to this point, and I was hungry, I simply wanted to eat my food and get OUT.

All in all, I would highly advise AGAINST eating here. If you absolutely feel compelled to eat mediocre-tasting Mexican food....at least make sure that Alex is NOT your server. If he's assigned to you, request a change.

I still wouldn't recommend eating here, though. Not even to my...

First day of vacation in Piegon Forge. Finished traveling and settling into our hotel around prior to visiting this Mexican establishment. I have been here 3 other times but I'll only be describing this experience.

The good: No wait to get in. Our waitress Natalia (I believe that's her name) was extremely sweet and adapting to the English language. She persevered and was enthusiastic to learn from her mistakes. Regardless of being from another nation, she was doing quite well and provided excellent customer service. She made sure we were satisfied and came around often to ask if we need anything. My Papa's Mexican Pizza came out quickly and tasted good, just not spectacular. I think it jewded sour cream and probably a dash if guacamole. Maybe next time I'll request it even if it costs a bit more ;). Ambience was goregous and had explosive personality unlike your average Mexican restaurant. Prices were quite fair, considering it's located in a tourist heavy town. In love with the rainbow lights 😍 Many people were inside and seemed to be enjoying themselves. A man had his birthday and the staff celebrated, encouraged everyone to sing along, and delivered him a pretty dessert. Funny enough, another man also had his birthday. His celebration was more lowkey which potentially was upon request.

The not so good: They may have been understaffed an Natalia told us the kitchen was crazy but my grandpa's Chile took a bit to come out. The place was busy, so I'm not gonna get real irritated. Also, the food is slightly bland but that can be fixed with sauce of course!

In all, if you're in Piegon Forge and craving Mexican, visit No Way Jose's Mexican Cantina.

Date written:...

I ate here years ago and I was happy with it then. I think they have made some nice changes to the decor. There's ample parking easy access and handicap accessible. I ordered the chicken fajita and there were three others in my party. The waiter was not busy because of the time of day but he gave excellent service and was very friendly. Anything we asked for was quickly gotten and served properly. It was a cross between Tex-Mex and authentic Mexican and that it was mildly-moderately flavorful and attractive. The only thing that I disliked was the salsa fresca is not salsa as you would expect. It had diced tomatoes so if you wanted to dip your chips, it didn't last very long until you had to take bites of squares of tomato, they do have a thinner and much hotter sauce if you ask for it, but you better be able to tolerate hot! Muy picante! You can mix them together. I felt the prices were high but average for the area and to be expected, and I think they tack on their own tip which is quite a bit if you purchase over a certain amount so be sure to ask. I had enough where I was satisfied and even had some to take home. It is almost on the corner near Wears Valley road and the parkway. It is not in a strip mall but it is very near other stores. The entrance we used was on Wears valley road (hwy 321) I did not notice any child seats but would be surprised if they did not have them. I did find out that it is a choice for the owners to have handicap parking signs or handicap parking places and not a rule of law which was very disappointing. I am sure I will return to this location...