No Way Jose’s Cantina

We were looking for a Mexican place and stumbled upon this place. The food was surprisingly good, especially the avocado app that we shared. Our server, Donnahce was super nice and very attentive! Definitely one of the better experiences we’ve had in pigeon forge since the majority of restaurants are overpriced, touristy, and just overall lacking in good food.

The servers didn’t really check up on us. They served us our food and maybe refilled our drinks once but after that, we didn’t see them again until we got the check.
The chips and salsa were delicious and the salsa tasted very fresh.
I ordered a «tres» platter which included a tostada, enchilada and tamale.
The tamale was really bad, it tasted like they put a cheese stick in a tortilla wrap. It tasted like I was just eating cheese.
The enchilada was pretty good, nothing impressive.
The tostada was my favorite part because it tasted so good. It’s basically a hard shelled taco but the taco shell was flat.

The food is overpriced and mediocre at best for test. Take your $ 40 for 2 people to a different place. This was horrible. Saw our waiter 2 times (to order and to drop off food) but saw him walk by our table 8 times. Food tasted weird, now me and my date are sick to our stomachs! Horrible! The chicken didn’t look totally done but I thought it was color from seasoning. Not so sure now…

WHY DOES THIS PLACE HAVE BAD REVIEWS?
I was very hesitant to stop by, given the not-​so-​good reviews. After seeing how freaking cool this place looked on the outside and getting a hell yes its good from my dad… I decided to take a chance…
My dish was larger than my face. Probably larger than the length of two normal sized dinner plates. AND, everything on it tasted great! Before the food came out (which was PROMPT), I had a few orders of the chips and salsa. nothing mind blowing but definitely your normal chips and salsa at a Mexican place_​not super chunky, not too watery.
Everyone at my lunch table was more than satisfied. The waiter was wonderful and the place is EVEN COOLER on the inside!
I say, give this place a try & leave a review… Hope they stick around!

I am giving this a two star review not because it was the worst food ever but it it just not worth going to while in pigeon forge. The food is mediocre but typical for a tex men chain. It’s a clean place and the service was great but I wish we would have tried a more unique place and would imagine most travelers feel the same. We went for lunch and the prices were good which was a plus but I left feeling like I wasted a meal on vacation!!!

Started with just a short wait time, which is always good. Interior of the place is very typical of a mid to upscale Mexican restaurant in any city I’ve been in, but it was brightly lit and very clean, which are both high on my list. The prices were surprisingly reasonable, similar to what we spend at home. Almost all of the other places around here are a minimum 20% higher than average because they’re in a resort town. Now to the food. Started with the cheese dip which was slightly above average. We had the chicken fajitas and a grande steak burrito. Neither one of us finished our entrée, but not because they weren’t great, just because the portion sizes were large. I wouldn’t hesitate to order either one again. A good experience and much better than some of the overpriced glitzy resort restaurants around here.

Only two stars because my $ 7 margaritas (3) were more sugar and mixer than tequila. Had myself a designated driver, but still walked out sober yet paying $ 30 (before tip) for salad and three drinks. Good chicken fajita salad and good service. Food came out quickly.

Worst experience ever here… used to be a great place. My food was good. Server spent more time planning her Friday night party plan than taking care of me, and hung out with her friends the whole time. They still allow smoking inside… ruined the whole dinner.

The salsa was very watery and flavorless, and the iced tea they brought me was pretty weak as well.
I ordered the Caribbean veggie fajitas off the gluten-​free menu, and my wife got some sort of veggie burrito from the normal menu. They brought me some black beans and rice, corn tortillas, and basically a plate of steamed broccoli and green beans. No spices. No sauce. I asked the waitress (who was polite and doing her very best) what makes this «Caribbean» and why do the veggies have no flavor. She checked with the manager who said it wasn’t the flavor that was supposed to make it Caribbean, but the choice of vegetables, and they don’t use spices on the gluten free dishes. What the heck? Surely there is some sort of spice they could have used that doesn’t have wheat gluten in it? I asked if they could at least sprinkle some cheese on the black beans. She brought it back to me with a very tiny amount on top.
My wife wasn’t very impressed by her burrito either.

Ate here last year and it was just ok. Gave it a second chance this year. Queso cheese is not your normal white cheese and not great. Salsa is overloaded on onion, very soupy and not great. Kids nacho with ground beef was pricey for a very small plate. Arroz con pollo was lacking on rice. Small amount for the price, taste was ok though. Taco salad was good but they held back on the ground beef. Soda is $ 2.49 per person. Asked for a drink to go and waiter came back with an empty cup, no lid or straw.
Overall: Atmosphere is ok. Overpriced small portions. Taste was just ok.

This place is great all the way around. If I could gave them 10 I would. The wait staff to the food was above top notch given its area. The prices are reasonable and not over done. There was hardly a wait to be seated.
The food. so good. Nothing here is frozen but chicken fingers and corn dogs and FF for the kids.
The Carne as ada was Amazing. The best I’ve ever had. The pork carinits was amazing as well. The ground beef used in the tacos were great did not taste like it was washed or odd. The shredded beef was was seasoned amazingly. I can’t say enough about this place.

Just finished lunch here. I was not in the least impressed with the food or the service. The restaurant was not busy, the service was extremely slow. Ordered guacamole, was told 10 minutes later it was not available because a fresh batch was not made up, so we ordered queso. We had to wait another 10 minutes for a bowl of queso. We waited over 30 minutes for our meal. After being served our meal, the waiter didn’t check on us. I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant to anyone.

Pro: fast service, we were in and out in under 30 minutes.
Cons: food was not good — cold chicken, stale chips, lacking flavor/​seasoning (and I’m not a «add salt to all meals» person, it takes a lot for me to call something bland) — and left us sick.
We got steak fajita nachos, steak was great! Chips were soggy/​smothered in a thin queso sauce that ruined the texture.
We also had chicken fajita tacos — there was zero flavor or spice to the chicken, onions, and peppers — chicken was a dry breast cooked on a cooktop and then chopped, wasn’t even warm. It was covered in melted shredded cheese that wasn’t high quality or flavorful.
Within 2 minutes of our plates arriving, our server came to ask us if we were saving room for dessert… I don’t know, I’ve barely started eating my dinner? Shortly after, we got our check (still maybe halfway through eating dinner).
Not a good meal or memorable experience.

Because we are so used to Tex Mex in this country I can see where some of these dishes would not appeal to the average Mexican food lover. The chile rellenos are prepared fairly close to authentic. Yellow cheese and gooey. They will
Prepare with ground beef upon request. Very fresh pepper but mild. I do like spicy. Out of the way in Pigeon Forge but still a little crowded. Much better than most.

We stopped at No Way Jose’s for dinner on a Saturday night. The place wasn’t packed but there were quite a few patrons. The décor is nice, the location good and it was clean.
Within a few minutes of sitting down we were brought the normal chips and salsa. It was then we asked about a bean dip. Many Mexican restaurants offer it as an alternative or even with the salsa. It’s similar to refried beans and good with the chips. When we received the bean dip it definitely was not what we expected. At first we weren’t sure whether we had received a nacho dip or a bean dip. It was different for sure — not what we expected and not a bean dip really. However, it was good.
Right on top of the dip, we were served our meals. Now that’s bad. I really hate it when appetizers are served on top of the meal. There isn’t a chance to enjoy the appetizer. This was mentioned to our server. Her explanation was that the kitchen was fast. Well, if she knew the kitchen was fast, she should have put off putting our order in.
We topped it off by sharing a dessert. It was baked ice cream. Now maybe I don’t know what baked ice cream is but the I would think the outside would be at least warm. It looked pretty but was all cold. We wouldn’t recommend this at all.
The food was good and the server pleasant. We would return but not order the bean dip. I would suggest if you order an appetizer, don’t put your meal order in until you’re ready to have it served.

Very busy when we went and the service was still great. Typical Mexican restaurant menu. Everything we had was good.

Absolutely the best meal we’ve had this week in Pigeon Forge! Great atmosphere, super service, DELICIOUSLY fresh meal, and the price was fabulous!
My husband & I had the chicken taquito w/​queso appetizer, and shared the Caribbean veggie Fajitas w/​added shrimp… just scrumptious!

We ordered the shrimp fajitas for two and it was a ton of food. The shrimp, onions and bell peppers came out sizzling hot. We added guac and so glad we did. The frozen margaritas were yummy. We noticed in previous reviews that the service was below par but our server was right on.

We come to this area 1 – 2 times a year for last 17 years and took us while to find it (last 5 yearsish) but this has become our #1 restaurant. We come from area of ky that has high Mexican population for our little town (17 Mexican restaurants) it beats them all. Wife really loves the avocado dip made fresh everyday. Prices are 1 – 3 dollars cheaper per entrée then other avg prices in area. Will go home with doggy bags!

I gave this place two stars due to the fact that my husbands food was o. k and the beans were ok. First it we bad food brought to us that was not our food then to hear the server tell the kitchen runner «oh I put the order in wrong it goes over here.» I order steak fajitas and was given three tortillas but I only needed two since the portion was do small the tortillas were hard and the rice was dry. My husband had the Mexican pizza and it was better tasting than the rice. I should have heeded to the warnings on Unilocal.Not only did we first get the wrong food but we also got the wrong check. But as we were leaving a group asked if it was ok and we told them to leave now and to follow what Unilocal says. I gave them some tips based off Unilocal as well. Hopefully they listened to us and found some other place.