Sweet P’s Downtown Dive

So delicious!!! I had the brisket, Mac and cheese, potato salad, and banana pudding. Mac and cheese is a must! Cool laid back vibe, good selection of beers. My favorite BBQ in Knoxville

OH WOW! Ya’ll know I don’t post too many food reviews but I have to say this BBQ is awesome! – on par with smokin jo’s in davis, OK. And the sides WHEW – COULD MAKE A MEAL OUT OF ANY 4 WE HAD. I RECOMMEND HIGHLY =)

I travel to Knoxville at least twice a month and was so GLAD I found this gem of a dive, the brisket and mac and cheese was some of the best I’ve had and the whole staff was wonderful! See y’all on the my next trip.

Being a resident of the Old City, I was super stoked to hear that Sweet P’s was opening a location just two blocks away from where I live. I waited a couple weeks before I paid a visit to the new location. The loft-​style décor is a perfect compliment to the location. Everything is clean and neat throughout the place. A friend recommended the brisket, so I order that with mac and cheese and green beans. The brisket was really tender and topped with a dry rub when plated. The mac and cheese could be the best I’ve ever had! It has a really good smoke flavor.
On my next visit I tried the wings with a side of, you guessed it, mac and cheese. Another winner! The wings have taken reign as some of the best I’ve ever had. I ordered them dry with sauce on the side. It’s takes a few extra minutes to get the wings, but they are totally worth the wait! A great smokey flavor, crispy from a quick flash-​fry when ordered, and an amazing dry rub! Go… now…seriously!

Cute place, cafeteria style, but hipster! I had the pulled pork sandwich and it was delicious. My food was five stars! My fiancé had the bbq burrito and he said it was just «ok», and that he wouldn’t get it again. Enjoy!

Great. southern BBQ. We did the sampler platter with Mac n Cheese, collard greens, and green beans. We loved the dry rubbed ribs, pulled pork and collard greens best. My daughter also got the banana pudding and loved it.

Good lord this is perfect bbq! We had the brisket, pulled chicken, mac n cheese, and banana pudding… YUM. The brisket was the best I’ve had in years. I would however bring my own preferred sauce next time as we didn’t like the three choices they have. One is tomato based, one vinegar, and one hot. None of them we’re sweet the way i like it.
Two plates of food this damn good for $ 22 is amazing. We will be back.

I am not a BBQ expert. I’m not from Tennessee, Texas, or even North Carolina. I like pulled pork and love a variety of styles of sauces. The majority of my experiences with BBQ really blend together into a montage of delicious, but with nothing standing out really better or worse than others. And then I met Sweet P’s. Holy crap, it’s good! The meat. The sauces. The mac ‘n cheese. It’s all cooked to perfection and makes me want to be a better person.
This little downtown spot is ideal in every way. The location provides plenty of nearby parking, which can be a challenge with any downtown business. They have a great patio in the back. Their beer selection is sufficient and focuses on local. The service here is so warm and friendly. And again, the food is delicious. Their smoked sausage is heaven. The smoked turkey BLT makes me happy when I want something that isn’t going to leave me feeling quite as gluttonous. (Though I usually eat more than I should and feel gluttonous anyway.) I could eat their pimento mac ‘n cheese everyday if it wouldn’t obstruct me from fitting through doorways. And I frequently have dreams of paddling rivers of their pimento cheese dip with their house made chips.
This place leaves me with nothing to complain about and that is quite a feat.

Not my favorite. Maybe I just ordered the wrong stuff because my date’s Mac and cheese was good and his banana pudding made my day… But MY food made it sad again. My pulled chicken was tender but only «good» when I drowned it in they’re bbq sauce (which isn’t bad, by the way), my coleslaw didn’t have much flavor, and my greens and things was just… Not… My thing. Actually, greens are COMPLETELY my thing, just not these.
Would go back to give it a second shot…

This is by far the best BBQ I’ve had in Knoxville. I wasn’t expecting too much because I have been so underwhelmed with the BBQ scene here in general, but Sweet P’s ribs are otherworldly! I highly recommend them. Their green beans were also very good.
The staff was really nice and accommodating!
And you have to get the banana pudding! It is amazing!

My only wish for this review is that I’d gotten to try the pulled chicken too! We arrived quite late on a weekday night after driving all day, but we really wanted to try some bbq in Tennessee and this place had great reviews!
We split the sampler. Ribs, pulled pork and brisket. Had mac n cheese, greens and pinto beans for the sides. The spice rub was fantastic! Not only was the flavor of the ribs spectacular because of the rub, but the freaking mac n cheese was sprinkled with the rub and was probably the most amazing mac n cheese I will ever consume in my life. It really was that good.
We enjoyed the pulled pork and the ribs, the pork was moist and flavorful and the ribs were perfectly cooked, meat just falling off the bone with a just right amount of blackened bits to enjoy. Brisket… being from Texas I think I’m too harsh of a critic, again the rub was great, but I just didn’t think it was a good cut nor cooked well, but flavor was great! I’ve already mentioned how great the mac n cheese was, the greens were really different having the addition of other veggies, spicy and good, the pinto beans were not stand out at all, just there.
The thin and thick sauces were both awesome! The thick sauce was so different though, that I really probably enjoyed that one the best, having never had anything like that before, but I did soak my pulled pork in the thin sauce, very tasty!
Again overall great restaurant, would return to in a heartbeat, sad that we didn’t get to try the pulled chicken as that sounds like it’s the best part (besides the freaking mac n cheese!).

Took a group of (nearly) two-​dozen hungry golf nuts to this joint after a recent round in the area. We took over the picnic area out back for our feast. Everyone seemed to love the ‘Que. I ordered a rib plate with two sides, chose the mac-​n-​cheese and greens.
The ribs were dry-​rubbed and slow cooked, making you have to «work» to get the meat off the bones (which I like). I am a sauce guy, and the right combo for me was to mix both the thin (vinegar-​based) and thick (tomato-​based) together to give it a rib-​sticking tangy flavor.
The mac-​n-​cheese was really gooey and had an excellent flavor (nothing out of the box here). The greens were a little disappointing as they were cooked just the right way but lacked any real flavor.
And who can go to a BBQ joint and not get their banana pudding??? Well, I did order it and it was quite good. Real bananas and pieces of nilla wafers made for a tasty treat to end this meal. Wash it all down with sweet tea… hard to get much better than that.

Oh Sweet P’s how you satisfy my BBQ cravings… This trip was a first for me, as well as fellow friends from West Virginia (he’s a Unilocaler, but a viewer rather than a writer —
). They came down here for work and here I was sitting and wondering all day what I should take them for dinner. And alas, I thought of BBQ at Sweet P’s. Sweet P’s, you, my delicious BBQ friend did not let me down.
As always, the one dish I always recommend to friends or whoever I take to Sweet P’s is always the sampler. My friend was not let down. He thoroughly enjoyed it. His girlfriend ordered the burrito which she only ate half, yes it’s pretty big, but she also enjoyed it.
Is it as good or better than the original location? I honestly didn’t have any complaints, I felt as if the quality of the downtown location and the original location was on par with each other. Of course, I would probably still go to the original location over the new location just for its seating and I can definitely imagine that the seating at this restaurant getting crowded on a busy night after some sort of event.
If you haven’t read my original review here it is:
. However, you could probably just go through my profile and find it. That’s always the easier thing to do.

Bodacious barbecue at a stellar speed.
We stopped here while passing through Knoxville on a road trip and fount that it was well worth the few extra minutes off our route to try a new barbecue place.
I was surprised that their setup surprisingly doesn’t detract from the flavors in the food, but it tasted great so I won’t question it.
They do put seasoning on the meat and then you can choose how much sauce you want on it from the bottles at their tables. They offer a creamy, vinegary, and hot barbecue sauce as options and all three were good.
Their coleslaw is a mix of vinegar and mayo base without it leaning too heavily on either one. Overall a great place to stop!

I had the Brisket with potato salad and Mac & Cheese on the side. The brisket was really tender and combined with their thick sauce (available on every table) was delicious. The only thing that was disappointing was their chocolate chess pie, next time I’ll try the banana pudding.
My friend had their smoked meatloaf (Thursday Special) and liked that as well.

What a difference a location makes. A few years ago, we tried the original Sweet P’s and weren’t impressed. It was average BBQ, at best. Meanwhile, our experience tonight at the Downtown Dive changed our tune. Combining a fun, upbeat atmosphere with better than average BBQ, Sweet P’s is a must-​eat when in Knoxville, at least for BBQ.
While we were disappointed with the lack of sides available few can argue the quality of meats served. We dug in big, ordering a half-​pound of pulled chicken, pulled pork and brisket to split and had no complaints. While the chicken was just ok, the pulled pork was moist and flavorful and the brisket was moist and meaty and nicely trimmed (with very little fat). We did order green beans and fortunately they didn’t resemble frozen veggies in any way. You can tell they are fresh and are worth ordering.
As for the desserts, we enjoyed the banana pudding and the chocolate chess pie is fair, too. Regardless, the food is affordable, the atmosphere is inviting and this business model is one that is destined to survive. Put it on your must-​eat list.

Amazing BBQ and good prime rib. But the prime rib sandwich bread was a fail — hard and crunchy, but not in a good French baguette sort of way. Cool, divey casual atmosphere with Wifi. Fairly clean, but could use some attention in the area of pest control. 3.5 stars

Are ya hungry? Really hungry? I mean, hot dog eat contest hungry? Then get your ass over to Sweet P’s and order the sampler! Pictures do tell 1,000 words and if you eat the entire sample like I did, you’ll be craving this for days.
The meals are served very much like a cafeteria. Simply tell them what you want and they’ll dish it out for you. Everything I had was delicious. I even had bites of their wings, pimento cheese dip, and sausage. All were exceptional.
Locals rave about this place and quite honestly, I haven’t had any BBQ cuisines this good in Hampton Roads. These folks are doing it right…
We ate so much food that we offered people next to us, who we didn’t even know, the opportunity to finish our pimento cheese dip and chips. Really, we were taught growing up to never talk to strangers but we’ll gladly take food from one’s table? That is when you know you’re legitimate.

Oh myyyyyy myyyyy… I think I just found the BEST BBQ in town!!!
This place is very clean and great. The mood in here is great, the music is really good.
The slaw is excellent, the macaroni & cheese is sooooo good. The bbq is excellent.
The banana pudding is good, not the best I’ve had, but good.
Overall…I will be giving them ALOT of business!!!

If Chris and his team do ½ as well as their other location it will still be awesome. You can’t go wrong. Great people serving great products. Downtown really needed this little spot to round out the culinary landscape. When I visited today for lunch I saw two local chefs from other restaurants eating lunch… That’s a HUGE thumbs up in my book.
I tried the burrito and LOVED it. Usually at the other location I’ll grab brisket or pork.