Review: Ogle’s Brick Oven Pizza in Gatlinburg

It was tough to do, but on our last trip to Gatlinburg, we decided to try a new pizza joint. You know, for you, the blog world.

You see, we LOVE The Best Italian Cafe and Pizzeria in Gatlinburg. We are pretty sure that it is the best pizza in the area. But the thing about claiming that something is the best, is you can’t, not really, until you’ve tried them all.

So that’s why we ended up at Ogle’s Brick Oven Pizza in Gatlinburg. And we just happened to drive right by it on our way back from CLIMB Works. And we were super-duper hungry.

Ogle’s Brick Oven Pizza serves some fun-sounding appetizers (for example, fried spinach & cheese sticks), soups and salads, pasta, meat entrees, pizza, calzones, and Italian desserts.

There are sandwich lunch specials that cost about $6.

Here’s my analysis:

Things I loved about Ogle’s Brick Oven Pizza:

• A very pretty outdoor seating area.

  Parking! If you’ve been to Gatlinburg much, you know exactly what I mean! It was raining, the baby cousin was sleeping, and we simply didn’t have enough energy to park and walk. So Ogle’s Brick Oven was perfect because it’s close to downtown Gatlinburg (address is 702 East Parkway), but there is a nice parking lot full of free parking. So that’s really nice.

• Very neat and clean. From the outside of this place, you can’t tell if it’s going to be a great experience inside. But it is really nice inside. I was really impressed by how clean everything was.
• Not crowded. Another thing problem you can occasionally encounter in Gatlinburg — crowds!!! We visited Ogle’s for lunch, but we were the only ones eating there the whole time. A few people came in to pick up orders, but no one else sat down. So, if you’re looking for a quiet, kid-friendly place that isn’t too crowded, this may be your spot.
• Food was good! We decided to order breadsticks ($1.99) and two large pizzas: deluxe ($19.99) and meatlovers ($19.99). The breadsticks were very doughy and buttery and pretty good. The pizza had a really nice crust, and big hunks of toppings. Very yummy.
• Great service. Our waitress was super friendly, and we had great service (which may have been because we were the only ones there.)

• A large Deluxe Pizza.

  Yum. Breadsticks.

  Outdoor seating. On our way out, we noticed a really nice outdoor seating area. It was raining while we were there, so we didn’t even think about sitting outdoors. But if you’re looking for a spot with a really nice outdoor seating area on a nice day, this is a great one.

My analysis:

This was a fun stop, and a neat local spot to try. However, it is not as good as The Best Italian Cafe and Pizzeria. So, if you haven’t been there, take my word for it and go toThe Best Italian instead of Ogle’s. The garlic rolls FAR outweigh Ogle’s breadsticks (though both are good), and the pizza is better, too.

But if you’ve been to The Best Italian Cafe and Pizzeria several times and are looking for something new, this is a great stop. We also decided that Ogle’s Brick Oven Pizza might be our new go-to take-out stop. We have driven to The Best Italian several times for takeout pizza, and it takes FOREVER! You have to drive through Gatlinburg, find a parking spot, etc., but for Ogle’s Brick Oven Pizza, you could just pull into a parking place without ever hitting the major downtown traffic.

One interesting point: Ogle’s doesn’t even have a functioning website! How’s that for home-grown? Here’s a group site that can be used for info.