Advice for How to Eat Your Meal at Dolly Parton’s Stampede

"I can eat with my hands? No forks?” With a huge smile, our picky 3-year-old dove right into her four-course feast! And what a feast it was! The best insider tip we received was from Dolly Parton’s Stampede’s MC, Jay Teter. He’s been with the show for 25 years and still can’t get enough of the food! His secret: dip EVERYTHING in the soup! Yes, everything! Don’t sleep on this tip. We did it ourselves, and man was it good!

Right as the show starts, the food does too! With the excitement, the lights and the riders hanging off their horses while racing around the arena, you can’t help but feel like this must be the most fun place to eat a meal in the Smokies! The soup comes first. If you’re not a soup-lover, this one will change you! It’s a creamy vegetable soup that’s loaded with flavor! Served in a bowl with a handle, you can slurp it right out! This soup is so good that our 3-year-old finished her entire serving. Luckily, our server came back and gave her a little bit extra.

Following the soup, your plate will be loaded up with a whole chicken, pork loin, corn on the cob, baked potato and a yummy biscuit, all of which you can certainly dip into the soup. After you attempt to finish all of the food (which is quite the task), you will be brought a warm apple turnover to ensure you leave completely satisfied. This is the only item we wouldn’t recommend dipping in the soup—although we were on the fence after eating that magical, creamy vegetable soup. At the end of the show, our bellies were satisfied and our shy 3-year-old was stomping her feet while clapping her little hands as fast as she could, screaming at the top of her lungs cheering for our team: “We won!” “I want to be a cowgirl when I grow up!”

We weren’t 100% sure if our 3-year-old was old enough to enjoy Dolly Parton’s Stampede, but to our delight, the food and the show were a complete success! We capped off the night with a pass through the gift shop and couldn’t leave without a toy horse and a cowboy hat to match Brooklyn’s new favorite cowboy, Mr. Jay Teter. We also highly recommend picking up your very own soup mix which can be found in the gift shop as well!