Ristorante DellaSantina — Restaurant in Sevierville

I will start off by saying that we are tourists.

We enjoyed this place as soon as we walked in. It is outside of the tourist area, so I was glad to have found this place. We were looking for an Italian restaurant and there were several with 4.8 - 4.9 stars with over three thousand reviews, but when I saw this one with the same amount of stars with only nine hundred and something reviews, I figured that must be were the locals eat. I'm glad we made that judgment call 🤗.

They started us off with Focaccia (little bread that looks tortilla or pita bread cut up and fried, but taste quite different). They were delicious and came out hot. I ordered the ceasar salad, and my husband ordered the house salad. Both salad was crisp, and the dressing was really good. My entrée was shrimp Alfredo, and it was really good and creamy. The shrimp was some of the freshest shrimp I've stated in a long time, and they were seasoned to prefection. I know this sounds crazy, but I'm not a fan of large shrimp. These shrimp were large, but they were great. I even had a little leftover, and when we got back to the hotel, I warmed up my food, and it definitely warmed better than any other Alfredo pasta that I've ever eaten. Most of them are so full of oil or butter that all of the sauce just slides off the noodles when warmed up, but not this time. My husband ordered the two Filet Mignon special. Both steaks were cooked to prefection, but one of them was not seasoned as well. He also had 4 large fried shrimp that was fried really well. He said it was the best fried shrimp that he has ever eaten, and it also comes with noodles, and he choose the Alfredo noodles. They really give you a lot to be a side, but we are not complaining. And to top it all off, our waittress, Ali, was totally awesome. She was great from the time she greeted us at our table until we left. There wasn't much wait time between getting our salads and our main course, and she kept our glasses filled. Whenever we asked a question about the menu, she had an answer. The only odd thing for us, was the music they were playing. We go to a lot of Italian restaurants and we never experienced that type of music being played. It was more of, I guess you would say Pop music and it didn't really go with the ambiance of an Italian restaurant. If I was asked, which I wasn't, what would I change? It would be the music. I heard a few songs that I'm familiar with and I like the song, but not in a setting like that. Overall, it was a great experience, and if I'm ever in the area again, we...

We were really looking forward to this restaurant, based on other reviews. However our experience was not in line with what other people had to say. We made a reservation for 4:30 and arrived a little early. Despite being an empty restaurant except for one other table, we were seated very closely to the other table which made it difficult to have private conversation. We could have asked to move but we didn’t. The dinner comes with a complimentary basket of bread, which was nothing but floppy naan like bread with little flavor. The salad and soup also offered were better, and the house Italian dressing is good. My husband ordered the lasagna and it was a solid 3 at best. It was lukewarm and had more of a sweet than savory taste. I ordered the 2 filet special with shrimp. When looking at other reviews, and what made us order this to split, was that 2 whole 4oz filets would be served. However, what I received was chopped up like stew meat and extremely over cooked. I asked for medium and received very well done. The flavor was there, thankfully, and the only reason we didn’t send it back. I also substituted grilled shrimp, which we were thankful was an option, instead of fried shrimp. The 4 grilled shrimp I received were also very dry and over cooked & chewy. We love seafood and were looking forward to this since they claim to fly theirs in a few times a week. A side of pasta is included and we opted for fettuccine Alfredo. The noodles were old and dry, and the sauce was broken. You could tell it was house made sauce but it was curdled and not especially tasty. For dessert we split a tiramisu and par for our experience it was mediocre. I’ve had better at a chain restaurant. The service was decent enough but we got the impression our server felt like the table next to us would be better tippers and did not really take the time or effort to interact with us. Additionally, we found management incredibly unprofessional as we heard one manager loudly giving an employee grief for taking some time off. He kept saying he only gets 1 day off every 8 months and “it must be nice to not have to worry about work”. Our experience appears to be the exception though so we would encourage others to give this place a chance. Or, the reviews we’ve read were given out of exasperation from all the other mediocre restaurants around and the diners were desperate for a good experience. Either way, we...

Top notch Italian Restaurant with fantastic service.

My group of three was staying in Pigeon Forge, looking for a restaurant around dinnertime. We tried four different places, all had over an hour wait.

We used Google to search for a restaurant and found Ristorante DellaSantina not too far away from Pigeon Forge. The reviews were very good so we decided to try it.

I called the phone number and someone answered immediately. I provided my name over the phone and he assured me they would have a table ready for me in 20 minutes. I arrived and spoke with the person at the front (presumably the owner). I observed an award proudly displayed near the front entrance for outstanding customer service. I was escorted to my table. The table had a clean white cloth covering it, cloth napkin, nice silverware, a candle (battery powered for safety), and a real white rose. The old fashioned Edison style light bulbs were dimmed down and visible overhead. The environment was very pleasing for dinner and well thought out.

The menu featured classic authentic Italian dishes. The waiter explained that the food was locally sourced and the meat is not frozen. The seafood is brought in regularly and is always as fresh as possible. We ordered several dishes. My wife ordered by herself (she is Asian with an accent). She ordered a "Valentina" dish. I am certain the waiter misheard what she said due to her accent. When the food came out, her order was incorrect. The waiter accidentally gave her spaghetti and meatballs by mistake. I advised him that was not what she ordered. He instantly without hesitation said he was very sorry and claimed 100% responsibility for the mistake. Honestly, I think it was her accent so I didn't fault him for hearing the order incorrectly. He never blamed my wife for not understanding what she said. He took the dish away and put in the correct order. I observed the waiter pacing back and forth checking on our table and apologizing once again when her dish was finally retrieved from the kitchen.

Everyone was 100% satisfied with the food they ordered. There was enough food leftover to take with us back to the hotel. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone. Ristorante DellaSantina and The Old Mill Restaurant are the best restaurants I've found in this area...