Lake Yellowstone Hotel Dining Room

We’ve only ate at the newly opened dining room and didn’t stay in the hotel. The service was very polite and always accommodating even though it was their first open night after the remodel. We had the salmon and the steak. The fish was amazing and well prepared. The steak with its sides was a bit boring and didn’t really match the price. Besides that the dining room was pretty loud in general. The drinks selection was good and again all waiters were extremely friendly and made us feel welcomed at all times.

Absolutely outstanding service! Gerard and Angelica went above and beyond to make our visit to the hotel gift shop an unforgettable experience. From the moment we walked in, they greeted us with warm, genuine smiles and an eagerness to help that felt truly sincere. Gerard was incredibly knowledgeable and offered thoughtful suggestions that made it easy to find the perfect souvenirs. His attention to detail and friendly demeanor made us feel welcome and valued as guests. Meanwhile, Angelica was equally exceptional—her enthusiasm and kindness were contagious, and she went out of her way to make sure every question we had was answered with care. What stood out most was their teamwork and how seamlessly they worked together to ensure every customer felt attended to. It's rare to find that level of personalized, attentive service these days, and Gerard and Angelica delivered it effortlessly. They are a shining example of what exceptional hospitality looks like. We left the shop not only with great gifts, but with an even greater impression of the hotel thanks to them. Five stars isn’t enough!

Had an excellent dining experience at the newly reopened and renovated dining room. The service was excellent, the food was very good and the prices were very reasonable for upscale dining in a national park. Also situated in a lovely location on Yellowstone Lake with great views. Had difficulty finding the menu online so have attached photos.

The Lake Yellowstone Hotel Dining just opened for the season, the day before we dined. The service was great. The staff were very friendly, efficient, and were working hard. The kitchen appeared to be having a little trouble keeping up. I noticed some of the adjacent tables had long waits between courses. It wasn't a problem for us. We were happy with the pace of our dinner. We were very happy with the food. We shared the scallop appetizer. That was our favorite part of the meal. I had the NY Steak. My wife had the shrimp. We really liked the dishes we ordered. I thought the prices were very reasonable. They were about the same as similar dishes would cost in our home town. Given the great view of the lake and the very remote location, I was pleasantly surprised that they were not price gouging. All in all, this was a very enjoyable experience. Reservations are very necessary for dinner. The folks ahead of us in the check-in line did not have a reservation. They were turned away

The food was great, but what truly stood out to me was our server, Don (Donald). He was incredibly friendly, attentive, and made us feel so welcome throughout our meal. His warm personality really elevated the whole dining experience.

Had a 45 minute wait here for breakfast 7/5/25. I could understand the wait on a holiday weekend, but the place was half empty, and I'd be serving myself, so why the wait? The people were great, the buffet food was decent, nothing special.

Delicious food, beautiful views, elegant dining room and lobby. Wonderful waitress.

The dining area is historic. The service was hit and miss depending on who you got as a server. We were able to bring our trout we caught on a lake charter and the chef cooked it up for us for dinner. We loved it. Would highly recommended eating here. Get a drink in hotel lobby and listen to live music before and after you eat.

This place is open for lunch. The restaurent has a nice lake view, it is big and clean, some tables are even with table cloth, but they didn't sit anyone at those tables, I guess those nicer table are reserved for dinner. The food is very ordinary. The coq au vin sandwich is a plain chicken breast sandwich. There is nothing French about it. It is eatable. The bison burger tasted dry when ordered at Medium. The salad niçoises was good except for the few browned salad leaves. The salmon dip and charcuterie are ok. The bread that came with it was hard. The double expresso was bad. How can that be? Just enjoy the view.

The dining room was beautiful and the service was attentive. Other than that, I'm afraid there is no redeeming quality of what we were served. My husband and I both had a fernet cascade cocktail to start our evening. It was fernet with lime juice, orange liqueur and club soda. As you can see in the picture posted, there might have been a drop (two max) of fernet. It was a weak drink and it felt like a diluted lemonade with a hint of bitterness. Not worth $14.50 a glass! A can of Coke would have been more satisfying. We shared their seared scallops for our appetizers and they were the best thing we had for our dinner. For our main dishes (and they called main dishes entrees on the main menu - very confusing), my husband had trout and I had coq au vin. My husband said he could not tell he was trout, flavour- and texture-wise. If he hadn't ordered it and he hadn't seen the pieces on his plate, he could not have been able to tell what he was eating. My coq au vin had no flavour at all. I felt like I was eating a low-sodium dish and I don't like salty dishes! The dishes served are an embarrassment of a historic hotel dining room in a US national park to foreign visitors. I also feel bad for visitors who don't dine out often and are gouged by the dining service at the hotel because they are captive audience in the park.

Great views, service, and ambiance. However the food was extremely below average. Not very well flavored, small portions for the price, nothing special overall. Would not recommend.

Based on the yelp reviews you'd think it far worse than it actually is. Their dinner service is remarkably good by contrast, so if it's a convenient stop and you have the schedule to reserve a spot you should certainly do it! Very nicely prepared fine dining meal at a fair price for the quality. Food was a smidge slow in coming out from the kitchen (40min for entree though appetizer came out at 15), but service was quite on point, very friendly, and responsive. Located in the general dining room of the lake hotel, which conveniently has a larger parking lot to utilize. This is also the same place you get breakfast from; long story short, breakfast is a reasonable AYCE buffet-style meal, but not as special as dinner service which I highlight here. Reservations required by the establishment for dinner. Their menu is pretty straightforward, though due to shortages they had also run out of the Cassoulet (huzzah for being in the middle of the mountains!). No matter! The specials that our server recommended as an alternative were quite the delight instead. ==Truffile Fries 5/5 - Lightly crispy without a heavy fry but plenty of truffle and parmesan flavor without a heavy coating. Nice tangy and fresh (plenty of cilantro) aioli for dipping. Clean execution. ==Lamb chop special 5/5 - Three perfectly roasted lamb chops with a heaping of creamy cheesy grits. Absolutely fantastic execution on this one, independent of it being right in the heart of the national park to boot. The combination of a light fruity salsa with the creamy grits and the potent lamb flavor is just sublime. I'd eat this again in a heartbeat. ==Quail 4/5 - Delightfully roasted quail with a nice crisp, though slightly dry meat in some parts. Similar moistness issues with the potato, so not quite perfect. However, flavor and tenderness was quite on point and I did love their curry glaze on this one, so points for the cute twist. ==Basque cake 5/5 - Haven't had one of these before, but I'm sold. Extremely rigid cake, but oh boy is it a delight. Slightly sweet for me, but despite its apparent crumble it turns into a lovely smoothness and crunchiness on the crust once it hits your mouth. Definitely worth trying out.

Had heard the Lake Yellowstone Hotel is a beautiful iconic hotel which was well worth the visit. The lobby is extensive with numerous groupings of comfortable seats and couches in which to just lounge and observe the comings and goings of a busy hotel. Dinner reservations are required and we came from the Canyon Village area. Parking is ample and we had no problems using GPS for its location. So if you are here to just enjoy the beauty of a glorious historic facility and the surrounding lake you will enjoy yourselves. Dinner was a bit different. We were seated right at the time of our reservation. The tables, and decor of the dining room was fitting for its setting. We began with the Escargots Bourguignonne, that was delicious but served with the thinest slivers of toasted garlic butter baquette. I had the soup du jour which was a New England clam chowder...it was very disappointing due to the clam meat being overly chewy and the chowder was not creamy and thick that I was looking forward to. Our entrees were Trout Meunierre and Olive Oil Poached Halibut. The portions were rather small and the vegetables that they were served with were meager to find. The sauces were light and not overpowering but nothing on the flavor profile that would seem remarkable. We decided to try their Blueberry Cobbler Cheesecake and I was quite sure it did not taste like a dessert that was freshly made for the day. The crust was very moist and chewy as if they had defrosted it that day. So the meal was below the standard I was expecting for such a beautiful and iconic hotel. The staff were nice and were quite busy. We did have to call a few times to have our water refilled. Perhaps as the hotel is winding down for the season the abundance of enough staff is also affected. The ambience of the hotel is absolutely gorgeous and the evening piano playing was delightful to enjoy. I just wish the level of care to the food presented and how things tasted would have had more care taken to enjoy a fine dining experience.

The perfect end to a perfect trip. Honestly, there are not enough words to articulate how happy this meal and experience made our family, but I'll try. I'm not sure if the bar/lounge right outside the restaurant is part of the dining room, but arriving an hour early to have a perfect cocktail overlooking the lake while deer eat grass and listen to a live string quartet really set the mood for the rest of the evening. Once our reservation time came up, we were promptly seated in the dining room. Dee (from California) was amazing. So friendly and attentive, even with the kitchen delays which was barely noticed with another set of drinks and an appetizer, Escargot Bourguignonne. For entree's, we had Steak Au Poivre, Coq Au Vin, and the kid's pasta. For desserts, Sticky Toffee Pudding and Blueberry Cobbler Cheesecake. All delicious! If we ever get the chance to visit YNP again, this will be #1 on my list to rebook.

Let's start with the overall hotel service being quite awful but let's focus on the restaurant. We started with a bar cocktail where my wife & I ordered gin & tonics. They were good. At the table, my wife ordered another and they brought gin & water. Yuck! When we asked the server, he went to the bar and reported back that they were out of tonic. The bar tender obviously knew this and decided hey, water's good. Then instead of offering us a round on the house for their error, we ordered different drinks and they gave us the G&T price. Woo hoo. The salad appetizer was average. Wife had trout, said it was dry. I had the coq au vin, it was small with little flavor. Overall, a very disappointing meal with below average service but hey, you're a captive audience staying at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel and the privatized (gov't) restaurant is overpriced with under quality.

The dining room is really beautiful with lovely views of the lake. The staff did their best with what they were given. The food was not that great. In fact, it was really bad. Our first night, I had Coq au vin. The chicken was baked and added to the sauce afterwards. It was so overbaked it was unrecognizable. I forget what my SO had, but it was barely enough for an appetizer, let alone an entree. The wine was good and the dessert was ok. But breakfast was abysmal. It was a 30 minute wait for anything from the menu so they forced you to do the buffet. The buffet was barely stocked and people were milling around waiting for the next dish to come out. It was very sad and I felt bad for the wait staff. Very poor planning on the hotel. For the price you pay to stay there, you'd think they'd be able to at least provide decent food. But that was not the case.

It's an awesome, historic hotel with incredible staff and service. That being said, it's HISTORIC! No a/c, basically no WiFi (there is a hardline, but it's probably 20mb at best), and no cell service. The food is basic and not great, even in the dining room. Lots of wildlife, including full rack Elk and bears. Be mindful and aware of your surroundings, especially at dawn and dusk. Just enjoy Yellowstone, discover the wonders, and disconnect from this digital nightmare world for a moment!

Do not pass this place up! Splurge on the New York strip, it's absolutely worth it! My husband and I both got the steak, asparagus, and mashed potatoes and it was truly one of the best meals I've had in a long time. We had a table with a stunning lake view. The service was kind, fast and friendly. I'm counting the days until we can come back!

The one star is for the garlic butter and the flatware. Our food was as bland as our server, Heidi's, personality. This poor and expensive attempt at French cuisine should really have an intervention. Maybe a group trip via zoom to the Inn at Little Washington bc this slop was a joke. Sure, don't bother to explain what's on the charcuterie board; why would you? And please, send out whole romaine leaves in those dumb salad bowls that look like add ons for hot wheel cars my grandson plays with. SMH. Y'all got the park visitors by the stomach. This review annoys me just writing it. Just pass. Either go to the tavern in the other lodge or pack a cooler. This place is a failed dress up at the barest idea of fine dining. Literally the hot dog water of restaurants.

This use to be a very good place to eat. Not anymore. This is a two-three star restaurant pretending to be a five star restaurant. The only thing five star about this place are the very high prices. Service is very good considering the yearly turnover of staff. My wife and I both ordered the olive oil poached halibut and our son ordered the trout. We also ordered the charcuterie board and I ordered the oysters. The oysters were the best part of the dinner. Their version of a charcuterie board leaves a lot to de desired five slices of meat that are very small, four slices of cheese and four slices of bread. The halibut had no flavor and was so dry it would make the Sahara cry. Our son had a tough time finding the trout and said it was terrible. We did not have drinks with dinner only water. This place is very elegant with lots of tables and ample room to move around. Just wish the food was better. As I said the prices are very high considering the portion sizes.

Dinner was great, breakfast not so much. First off, the views are amazing! So starting your day with coffee and ending it with a cocktail overlooking the lake makes up for a lot. Let's start with the good - dinner: We had a reservation so we were sat right on time. We ordered the charcuterie, it was good, not great, but filling. For three people we shared the steak dinner and the tomato & mozzarella salad. The salad was outstanding! The mozzarella was flavorful, the tomatoes were fresh and enormous! The steak was good, though a little too fatty for our liking. The potatoes it was served with were very good and flavorful. One disappointment at dinner was they were out of the chocolate caldera! Such a bummer and this was also the case at Mammoth Hot Springs. So if you want to try this dessert ask early and often otherwise you might miss out! (Thankfully we were able to get it at the snow lodge doing room) Now, on to breakfast - SKIP it! The meats (bacon & sausage) in the buffet are beyond greasy, the eggs are watery and the French toast comes two ways - burnt beyond recognition or soggy you're afraid the egg batter won't be cooked. The Montana grain pancakes were horrible. They were beyond thick and barely cooked, and so heavy they were inedible. The only dish that was worth eating was the breakfast bowl with eggs added. It was very good; much better than the same dish at the Old Faithful lodge; this was definitely an elevated version And finally the bar outside the dining room - the staff was slow and acted as though they couldn't be bothered. We intended to get another round but by the time they came over we called it a day, waiting 20 minutes after your glass is empty to even place another order, no thanks. Oh and we ordered ice cream for our child and watched the waitress walk by it a weal times so that by the time she brought it to the table she had to put it on a plate because the ice cream was melting down the sides of the cup. Not a good look for a place that is presenting itself as upscale. Again, the view is amazing and makes up for several of the missteps but

We had a great experience when we dined here in early June. They did allow us to add 2 people onto our reservation which was great bc it was the time we got to see my nephew. Our waitress was very friendly and honest with her advice which we appreciated. 3 of ordered the scallops and 3 ordered the haddock (not sure if that was the fish special). All were delicious. My husband initially had to send his back bc of some issue and they handled very professionally. We also got salads which were good. The wine we ordered was not coming up in electronic system but waitress went looking and found 2 bottles for us! All in all a great experience.

i can confidently say that the bad reviews for this place really surprised me! and that i disagree with all the bad reviews about the food and service. we came here twice during our stay, we didn't make reservations ahead of time and the only availability they had same-week was either super early (4:30) or super late (9:00). this was fine for my family, and we enjoyed having late dinner after full days of hiking, but it seems like something important to keep in mind. the building is insanely beautiful, looks straight out of a wes anderson movie! we saw a momma deer and her babies run right by us during our meal. that really set us off to a good start. we had two different servers, i forgot to get their names, but they were both nice and attentive. we always had everything we needed. my favorites of the meal were the halibut (the tomato based sauce really sold this dish for me) and the sticky toffee pudding. the second time we came i got smaller portions of everything for dinner just so i could order my own sticky toffee pudding for dessert! highly recommend having a meal or two here during your stay !

Well. This was disappointing for the price Trout overcooked and dry. Steak not well prepared and service is only good if you get a seasoned server. With limited options it's not good. And breakfast was a basic Buffett that wasn't special at all. Very commercial food

We arrived around 7pm and were told that it would be an 1.5 hour wait (my guess is social distancing and being short staffed). Since the hotel is pretty far away from other food service areas, the only other alternative would have been the deli (which in retrospect we should have gone there instead) so we decided to wait. There's no cell phone service or WiFi (the park's website warns you about this) so to kill time, I'd recommend taking a look at the gift shop or grabbing some drinks from the bar. I'm not sure what is the range of the device to let you know that your table is ready, but I don't think you'd be able to take it to the shore of the lake.... The buffet really wasn't worth $30 in my opinion, with the lamb chops being really dry and the trout over cooked. The potato dishes and the bison brats were really good though. There was also salad and dessert, but I think the options were very limited despite it being a buffet. The service overall was abhorrent. The waiter took forever to bring us water and take our drinks order. We had to ask another waiter to bring us water. It also took forever to get the bill and be able to actually pay the check. We ended up going to the manager to ask to to pay the bill.

Incredibly good food and service considering its in a national park. Prices were very reasonable as well.

Stayed here the last night before they closed for the season, all i can say is the view from this place is gorgeous. If you're lucky you get to sit by the windows which oversees the lake. We did dinner and breakfast which i thought was generic and expensive. For dinner i ordered the salmon platter and the hub got a bacon cheeseburger. Burger is kind of hard to mess up and he said that tasted ok, my salmon was meh, the salmon was kinda soft and mushy. Asparagus looked like they were microwaved rather than steamed. For breakfast, you can order off the menu or do their buffet. The hub checked out the buffet line and said it was meh, so we ordered off of the menu. I ended up getting blueberry short stack pancakes and he got the regular stack with just buttermilk pancakes, we thought it was ok. We also ordered a side of bacon.... gotta have baccccon!

We got into Yellowstone a little late and had to rush out of our room after check in for the approximately 30 mins drive to Lake Yellowstone Hotel for dinner. We made it with 10 mins to spare. The dining room is massive, the largest I've even seen in any National Park. Our server seemed anxious and nervous but was pleasant. I noticed he didn't make a lot of eye contact with his guests. Many of the bus table help were from other states or counties. We tried the exotic meats. The rib eye bison cooked med rare was delicious as well as the garlic mashed potatoes. Carrots were served with it. The elk chops were OK and tender but not as good as the elk rib eye hubby tried in Jackson Hole. We started with a beet salad and it was really good. Hubby finished with a chocolate molten cake which I tasted and thought it tasted as if it had too much flour and Hershey's chocolatey taste. This cake would've been better if made with artisanal chocolate. A very nice meal and we thought the prices were reasonable considering Hubby's ribeye back in Jackson Hole cost about $15 more than in Yellowstone.

Our stay was during the staff shortages of Covid, and the need to clear out much of the furniture and curtail the level of service in the Deli. As stated this is a separate review from the hotel, as the dining room is separate from the hotel. The Lake Yellowstone Hotel Dining Room is buffet only. There are no reservations. To eat, you are given a "puck" that lights up when your table is ready. Then, you get in line again at the buffet line for okay, all you can eat food choices. Note that the hotel dining room is the only game in town, unless you want sandwiches from the deli. These are not exciting and pretty much locks in the restaurant as the only dining possibility at the Lake Hotel. The wait staff is slow and hard to find at times. Soup, for example, is delivered by the wait staff. First, you inquire the type of soup, then they bring it. It's not a buffet item. We understand that the dining room and wait area are being managed during covid. But, this level of service would not be acceptable otherwise.

We began our Yellowstone vacation with some really terrible meals, and this was an especially welcome fantastic dining experience! It was pretty much the only food option we had (we were staying in the cabins), and we definitely felt underdressed in our hiking gear, but we were very welcomed and treated like a million bucks. I wish I'd taken note of our server's name, but he was young with a beard and curly dark hair. The service from him and the other staff bringing our food and drinks was unparalleled. First off, the bread was great. We scarfed it because we were ravenous. And the goat cheese spread that came with it was excellent. We ordered lamb sliders, lobster florentine dip, and charcuterie. All of it tasted amazing. My friend got the duck risotto and the rice was a bit too al dente for her. They made her a new one, no questions asked. They also had options for my vegetarian friend who has some dietary restrictions. We also shared the vanilla bean cheesecake, and it was delicious. I was not expecting anything like this. The service was seriously so frickin' great. If you're anywhere near the area, you must eat here!

Beautiful dining room with amazing views of the lake. Since our reservations were so late in the evening, the family wanted a light meal: salads and soups. The waitress was unfriendly and inattentive (Riley?). One of our salads was swimming in water; the fingerling fries were burnt; and the chicken chili was a joke. The chicken chili was essentially garbanzo bean soup with one piece of chicken (smaller than a dime) and a few pieces of vegetables. The broth had good flavor though. To be fair, the manager refunded the price of one salad and the potatoes. The meal still wasn't worth it though. Do yourself a favor and eat somewhere else in the park.

I came here for dinner, and was jaw-droppingly disappointed by the food. You're paying premium fine dining prices, and while the servers are all very nice and the venue is in as fancy of a dining room you can find in Yellowstone, the food was.. well, we felt catfished, is the best way I can describe it. The bison, which we asked for to be medium rare, was very much well-done in a bad way; we sent it back (something my family has never done before), and when it came back, it was so salty that we considered dunking it in water to wash off some of the salt. The steak had a mushy consistency ...apparently their steaks were frozen before. On the bright side, there was no food poisoning, and our server was nice, and the restaurant was clean, and parking was easy. I just wouldn't come here for the food, and definitely wouldn't pay the high prices they charge here.

Perhaps the best food in the Park. But, hard as heck to get a reservation. There seemed to be space every time we were there, but we were kept waiting or told we needed a reservation. Not nice. Buffet was darn good. Thing is- don't stay at Lake Yellowstone Inn.

The service here was terrible. Had breakfast here on the first morning of our stay. We were seated immediately, water, coffee and menu's soon followed. Then nothing. When a server walked by, I asked to place my order. "I'm not your server" I was told. After about 15 minutes, I seeked out the manager and told him of the situation, and he took our order. So, of course, the food takes forever to come out. "Our" server miraculously appears to check in on us and inform me that they are still "working" on my pancakes. Nonsense. When breakfast finally came it was okay. So dinner here that night was a joke too. The place was packed. Our server seemed nice at the beginning, but after screwing up our order he copped a nasty attitude for the remainder of the evening. No tip for him. And again the food was just okay.

By far my favorite dinning experience in both the Teton and Yellowstone area. Everything was perfect whether it's the service, the food taste or the food timing. We stayed at the hotel for two nights so we got to try it twice for dinner and twice for breakfast. The breakfast was a typical hotel breakfast given we opted with the breakfast buffet rather than the menu to save some time. I need to mention that they provide berries (raspberries, blackberries and blueberries) as part of their buffet which is amazing. Other breakfast dishes are scrambled eggs, eggs of the day, bacon, oats, french toast and others. They open at 6:30am and tend to be light if you go during opening. Now for dinner. It's a busy place given the quality of food and the lack of competition. We reserved a week in advance and only had two time slots to choose from (8:45 and 6:30pm) we choose 8:45 even though we prefer at 8pm. The first day we started with the duck risotto and the lentil soup both were good and those gut that the duck need just a bit of garlic to be perfect. The portion of the risotto was good for two people. For the main dishes I went with the lamb and my wife went with the wild caught halibut. Both were really good. For dessert we went with the toffee pudding and it was amazing!!! The portion was big and it was Rick with sweetness, highly recommended. On our second day we started with the lobster ravioli and the lentil soup. The ravioli cream was delicious but the portion was a bit small, only 5 pieces of ravioli. For the main dish I went with the trout which was just ok and my wife went with the cheese ravioli which tasted almost the same as the lobster ravioli given that the cream was the dominant taste. For dessert we went with the German chocolate cake. It was good but the toffee that we had the day before was better.

My wife and I joined friends at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel Dining Room on Tuesday, June 27, 2023. We've previously dined there three times. This was the worse. Very limited and overpriced menu. The portions were small compared to past and not nearly as good. They must be under staffed because everything was rushed. Of course, like many others, we went there because of the ambiance - it's great. Many people take a single trip to Yellowstone and it would be best if the NPS insisted upon a good product for the American public.

If you come to Yellowstone with no food, then you're stuck with very limited options. I tried the breakfast buffet for $18 and was surprised with the limited choices. The buffet consisted of: scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, raspberry crepes, fresh fruit, assorted pastries, yogurt parfait, and a smoked fish. For $18 I was expecting a larger variety considering the appearance of the dining room, however given the limited sources it was a decent experience. The sitting room leading to the dining room is extremely classy. Large comfy sitting areas with large open windows overlooking the clear lake was an experience all on it's own. The dining room itself also has large open windows that overlook the beautiful lake. Service was good, they kept our tables clear of finished plates, and our drinks full. Would consider coming back if I had no other options, but $18 is pretty expensive to be spending on breakfast. I would suggest ordering off the menu if you don't have a large appetite.

We stopped there for lunch, looking forward to a nice relaxing meal in this Gran place. What a disappointment!! A terrible buffet! Probably the worst one i have ever seen. The salad was okay, everything else not edible. No soup. Cookies as desert. And all that for $18.95!!!

Great hotel for Yellowstone stay - makes the park access much more convenient. Only downside is access to food as limited options exist in the park.

1. Restaurants in the National Park system in classic historic hotels with outstanding views of natural beauty: the Ahwahnee in Yosemite, the El Tovar in Grand Canyon, the Jackson Lake Lodge in the Grand Teton, the Ptarmigan in Glacier National Park, and perhaps the Lake Yellowstone Hotel Dining Room. 2. When we were here in June, the coffee shop was not open, and the snack bar had only sandwiches, so there wasn't much choice as to where to eat on the premises, unless one wanted to travel 30 minutes north to the Canyon village cafeteria. 3. West thumb bridge leading to Old Faithful inn was closed due to construction. 4. The first day we checked in to our cabin, and were told that dinner reservations were highly recommended. We tried making a reservation, but were told there were no openings until late that night. They gave us a pager, and said they would seat us when there was an opening. 5. Meanwhile I made reservations at the registration desk for 530pm and 5pm the next two nights -the only time they had openings. 6. 20 minutes later, with both of us reading books in the sitting room enjoying the view of Lake Yellowstone, the pager rings. 7. White linen table cloths on tables on hardwood floors in the 100 year old hotel, with panoramic views through the trees of the deep blue Lake Yellowstone, the largest alpine lake in North America, at 7500 feet elevation. 8. Service was prompt, and servers attentive to our every need. Exchanged small talk with the waiters. Food was presented in spectacular fashion, tasted decent but over priced. 9. The $26 salmon was a bit dry, with toppings of vegetables. The $21 pork tenderloin skimpy in quantity with rice and vegetables, with a bit of mustard sauce, which was a turn off. $3.50 orange juice. $4.40 angry orchard. 10. The following night we had the $27 quail with a lot of bones -the wife ordered it, as I don't like messing with bones. $6.25 house salad. 11. $13.75 gourmet burger -me, of course, for lunch. Nothing spectacular. 12. For dessert the $7.25 berry truffle was a small portion, with blackberries, raspberries, blueberries -practically the only fruit I had on the trip! 13. Watched the next table over, with two junior high school age kids playing with their food -eating only the center of the pizza, leaving a circle of crust! 14. The final night we had the $28 trout -small portion, and the $32 New York strip steak ,10 oz, with a sizeable amount of gristle and fat. The $8 German chocolate cake was fabulous! 15. Very noisy with voices bouncing off the hardwood floors. 16. No refrigerator in the rooms, so no leftovers to eat the next day. Order only what you can consume. 17. $18 breakfast buffet, but we settled for the standard scrambled eggs with sausage, potatoes and toast for $11, and a huge stack of pancakes for $9. 18. People in the sitting room waiting for a table serenaded by a piano player and singing, while watching the panoramic view of Lake Yellowstone. 19. No minimum dress code, as I was dressed in shorts, sandals, and a cat clawed, to be thrown away shirt. If I was at the Ahwahnee, they would have tossed me on my butt on two counts: no shorts allowed, and no flip flops allowed!

On a relative basis within the Park, you can do no better than this place. On an absolute basis when measured against all resturants, this place would not likely survive. My bias on on the relative basis - it takes a lot to deliver decent stuff buried deep in the Park - the people were super nice, the food, while not great, was decent. The prices are high, but we should all take a moment and understand what it costs to run a place in the middle of nowhere. We had the elk ribeye and the trout, and both were good. Also had the lobster ravioli, but it came with way too much cream sauce, so next time I will ask for less goop on the dish. The place inside is nice, and the bar and lobby area of the hotel is a fantastic place to hang out after getting chased by bison and pestered by deer all day. I was happy to experience the joint, would come back for sure, as it was super nice to experience some luxury in the middle of the Park.

We read some good reviews on their breakfast buffet. It was rated as one of the best in Yellowstone National Park so we thought we would try it. We were staying at the Old Faithful Inn so our drive to Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Restaurant was 54 minutes away. We were greeted by a bison grazing just outside one of the dining room windows. Our table did not have a view of the lake. I didn't notice any tables that did. The price for the buffet was $15.95 pp which included a drink. The Breakfast Buffet was MEDIOCRE AT BEST. The following morning we ate at the breakfast buffet at the Old Faithful Inn for $13.95 pp and found the food and selection to be much better. Just a suggestion - have the young man who was carrying food to the buffet wash his apron. It looked like it had not been washed for months! Not worth the drive or money. Won't be back.

This dining room is lovely and elegant but food is slightly lackluster and a bit hit or miss. The menu has wonderful fancy fare given that this is a national park and not a big city restaurant. I had trout for dinner one day and it was fresh but kind of bland. Mushroom truffles risotto with duck for dinner was very nice but quite salty. They have a great breakfast buffet.

I wasn't going to leave a review but now that I see not a lot on there, probably due to no cell service there, thought I should. During our stay only Buffett style for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Waits were never too terrible for us during the week, and would get drinks in the sun room. Our service was good, but the Buffett was pretty terrible. All meat was really really dry and fish over cooked. Biscuits one day were rock hard but another was fine. Gravy was okay one day then tasted like mint (???) the next. The donuts I could bounce off my plate. Salad was good but really lacked options, such as no croutons even just basically lettuce and dressing. The servers were great and we understand short staffing hurts, as well towards end of season. Also note being out in the park transporting food is probably more expensive. Now reading this you're probably like why did they eat there multiple times??? Well there is literally nothing else around besides the deli. So top recommendAtions if you made it this far: "tong test" the food. Is it rock hard? Then don't put on your plate. Also, bring your own drinks in. The bar drinks two nights in a row was basically sour mix that makes you pucker every time you sip. Or pure gin, which is steal!

Very disappointed with the food... asked for medium well ribeye... got rare... lobster appetizer had no taste...was so bad, my wife had to completely skip it...pheasant was the only thing worth finishing The service was even worse... server brought the food out an hour after we ordered...didn't come even once to check on us after he brought the food... even after seeing my wife's almost untouched plate, he didn't ask if there was something wrong with the dish... he even messed up our dessert order... what a way to end the day... first and last time visiting this "fine" dining establishment

We only managed to come here for breakfast. Food was okay. Service was alright. Coming down at around 730 you only have about a 15 minute wait time. although I didn't really see a need to have wait times at all, plenty of tables free.

To our delight, our dinner at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel was a memorable and singular dining experience in the park. We were happy with all of our dishes: - the bread and sundried tomato chevre (the bread would have been even better warm, but the spread was stellar - savory without being too "goaty"), -a delicious poached pear salad with cambozola cheese (which was a nice twist on the standard pear-gorgonzola-pecan combination), -a pressed tofu dish with szechuan vegetables that was seasoned just right (and yes, the whipped cauliflower is an awesome substitution for rice or potatoes), -and the decadent molten chocolate Yellowstone Caldera (solid, but not the best molten chocolate cake I've ever had - I'd recommend that the chefs tone down the deep chocolate flavor on this dish). From the moment we arrived to the moment we left, service was impeccable. We were seated promptly, our server was very friendly, and our water glass was never empty. The setting beside Lake Yellowstone is also spectacular. Though the views from inside the restaurant and limited, the views from the Sun Room bar/waiting area and from the hotel's doorstep are incredible. Dining options in Yellowstone National Park are plentiful, but can also feel like many versions of the same thing. The Lake Yellowstone Hotel offers a great service and flavorful, unique food, and made our trip to one of the most memorable places on Earth feel just a little more special.

5-stars for Ambiance! 3-stars for food and food options (I'm picky) 4-stars for service So all in all, I'm going to go with 4-stars as the average. If you are staying here or even just in the vicinity, you HAVE to eat here at least once just for the ambiance and the experience. White linen tablecloths! It's absolutely hands-down beautiful. It takes you back to another world. And if you get bored enjoying the ambiance inside, the view outside is TO DIE FOR. It's such a warm, lovely experience. I really enjoyed it. Wanna know something sick? I enjoyed waiting to eat here. Because we had time to sit in that gorgeous waiting room, listening to live music, and drinking lemon-water. We hung out, and played cards while waiting for a table. Now, the food: eh. I personally didn't enjoy it that much but part of that is because I am an extremely picky eater. I don't like vegetables, or white sauces, or mixing of foods, etc. Basically i'm a pain in the arse. So i had trouble finding food i wanted to eat, because it can be a little fancy or outside my comfort zone. But my mother totally enjoyed her food. And the service here was great. Talking with all the wait-staff who are from all over the country was fun (we ate here a couple times while staying). You have to chalk it up to an entire experience, and not just the food itself. This place is different than your every day restaurant. I look back on my time here so fondly, and can't wait to go back some day. So even though i didn't totally love the food - you can tell how great this place is that i still want to come back! LOL. Take some time to sit down, relax and ENJOY THE ATMOSPHERE. It's worth it. MAKE MEMORIES.

Anyone up for a class action lawsuit? Yellowstone's Lake Hotel restaurant is passing off farmed salmon for "Wild Alaska Sockeye Salmon". Shame on Xanterra, the company running Yellowstone's food service. I ordered this dish about a week ago (husband the lamb and kids the trout) and Michael, our server from NY, delivered it, along with the other entrées, after more than an hour wait, and walked away. Wild salmon is one of those foods you can spot just by its color and the pale pink fish before me, definitely not wild. Hey Michael, this is farmed salmon. He says it's wild but that he agrees with me about the color. I don't want to eat the $26.25 piece of farmed salmon (they're literally fed chicken poop) or wait another hour for food, so I tell him I'll skip it. He insists he get me something. I pass but he persists, so I order a beet salad ($12.50). He goes off to place my order but I decide I really don't want to give them any more of our money and go after him to cancel my salad and find him talking to Parker, the manager. Parker proceeds to inform me that their salmon is definitely wild and, in a condescending tone, asks if I'd like to see the bag. Yes, yes I would like to see the bag!!! Michael asks that I not cancel the salad, he doesn't want me to be hungry. Okay, salad's back on. Parker stops by our table to inform me that the salmon is in fact farmed. I KNOW!!! And that he doesn't know why the kitchen is using it and will change the menu to reflect the farmed, not wild, salmon. Time for the check; they bill me for the beet salad. Really!?! Michael, you insisted, I waited 1 1/2 hours for food and the stinking salad isn't comped? He says he thought it should be, so he already asked Parker and was told no. Parker, take some classes in hospitality. We hand over the credit card and when Michael returns he says he told Parker we thought he was wrong and he agreed to comp the salad. The lamb and trout had both been over cooked and the sides they came with were uninspired. Ambiance: nice view if seated by the windows but the walls are bare, the room sterile. Too bad Xanterra runs a monopoly on the restaurants in Yellowstone. Just think how many of the 4,000,000+ visitors to Yellowstone are dining in the park and ordering "wild" salmon. LAWSUIT.

Best dinning in park. Good food and service. View was incredible. Wear some pretty nice clothes.

Obviously dining options are limited in the park, and fine dining is particularly limited. If this restaurant were anywhere else, I'd rate it three stars, but it gets four because it could be far worse than it is, given the fact one is essentially stuck in the park. The Lake Hotel has a wonderful ambiance. Beautiful views from its many bay windows. It's not the most beautiful dining hall in the park, but it is among them. Service has always been great. Absolutely no complaints there. The food is good, not great. Certainly not deserving of the prices. The elk has the best flavor of the meats (one can almost taste the campfire), but be aware the serving is small and very little thought is put into its accompanying sides. The Bison filet is good, the most moist of the meat offerings, but do not expect it to taste decipherable different than a normal beef filet. Pork chops are probably the best priced for what you get. I found the ravioli to actually be the best thing they had to offer. Their salads are also quite good. Expect to pay nothing less than $40 a person, and potentially quite a bit more. If you know that going in, you'll have a better time.

It always amazes me when I have to wait for a table when there are clearly empty tables in a restaurant. I waited an hour for a table on a Monday night... and by the time it was time to eat, I was tired and ready for bed. So I ordered a salad. The ingredients were fresh and flavorful. Service was average. I was hoping for a better experience... and recognize that my situation may have impacted my experience. I will give the restaurant another try in the future.

I wish we'd looked at a menu before agreeing to the buffet. Besides everything other than the mac and cheese being bad, the majority of the meats on the menu are animals you passed and marveled at on the way in. The animals they ask you to celebrate, respect and protect. Pass me the elk and bison sausage...no thanks. I eat your typical meats and I understand in this part of the country, these are considered typical. If it had been in any other setting, it might not have been as upsetting but this was just wrong. It's like going to an elephant sanctuary and selling ivory souvenirs.

Overall: It's one of the only options for sit down food in Yellowstone, and is priced very high accordingly. Food and service are good. Food: 4 stars. Very good selection and use of local ingredients. Elk ravioli seemed too crispy. Atmosphere: 3 stars. Some tables had good views of the mountains, but many tables just had a view of the wall or trees. Prices: 2 stars. Very expensive, even for a secluded hotel. A burger was $16 Service: 3 stars. There were about 4 servers who came to the table, so I would have liked to see the main server more often. Food came slow.

The Skinny: came for dinner and was singularly unimpressed with entrees and dessert. Should have just had soup plus complimentary bread and left (2). Service was good -our server took off the cost of the horrible dessert.(4) Value: spent $83 on subpar food (listed entrees and 1 hot tea, no booze) plus tip. Not worth it - would have been okay if we stuck to the soup (2.5). We were really excited to come here after camping outside in 30 F plus the dreary wet weather all day. We were exhausted from a jam packed day and jonesing for a nice hot meal. We made dinner reservations ahead of time because of the limited dining options in the park makes this a popular place on weekends. So we ate seated promptly and we place our order. Being hungry (we bailed on lunch), we decided to split a burger, bowl sized soup, pork tenderloin and roasted chicken with Marsala sauce. For dessert, we got a pear maple tarte tatin. More on that disaster later. The bread service was perfect. Served warm, the bread/crackers came with a great little pot of chevre/sundried tomato spread. A great way to start when you are starving. I wanted to get the nice bowl of organic lentil soup to warm me up. I am glad the hubs told me to upgrade to the bowl size because it was only $1 more but the serving size was much more generous. Plus, the soup was surprisingly good in a homey kind of way. The yellow lentil with a variety of vegetables really hit the spot. Nothing fancy but really good after a long day. After this, everything went downhill from there. The burger was the best entree by a long shot. But even that had its issues. Ordered medium, the burger was overdone. The toppings were a little on the bland side. Yeah - surprise! Bacon and mushrooms can be made to taste bland too. F$%k me if I didn't think that could happen but whatever. The fries were of the shoestring variety and were too thin. It got soggy and unappetizing very quickly. Overall, the burger was okay but not amazing by any stretch of the imagination. Pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon with root vegetable mash: the pork tenderloin was horribly overcooked, dry and under seasoned. Root vegetable mash was okay but again needed more seasoning. The roasted apples needed more time in the oven. The random summer squash/broccolini were also needing salt. The dish really needed a sauce to bring it together. Roasted chicken with papparadelle/Marsala sauce: again bland, overcooked chicken with limp reconstituted dry noodles made for a disappointing experience. The sauce was also pretty bad. The pièce de résistance was the dessert. Pear/maple tarte tatin was horrific from start to finish. Whatever that was it did not resemble anything like a tarte tatin. Tarte tatin is an upside down baked tart with caramelized fruit on the bottom which is flipped up and served. This? The dessert was a crappy piece of prebaked manufactured puff pastry with some poorly cooked pears thrown on top doused in low grade "maple" syrup. Throw in some random chocolate shavings, the whole dish was singularly unappetizing in appearance. Add in the hair we found? Oh yeah, not worth $7.95. We complained to our server and she removed this from the bill without too much fuss which was nice of her. Given the poor experience of the entrees and dessert, I don't think I would recommend coming here for food. Factor in the cost, I really can't recommend this place at all. For what its worth, the ambience is nice and service is very friendly. This place gets a 2.5 starred review.

The two most historic lodge dining experiences in the park are at the Old Faithful Lodge and Lake Yellowstone. You can book your dining reservations a year in advance, and it is highly recommended. Lake Yellowstone Hotel is listed on the park's Register of Historic Places as the oldest standing Yellowstone hotel. The building's construction was completed in 1891. The hotel sits on the shores of Lake Yellowstone, and the dining room windows provide a nice overlook of the lake. The beautiful lobby interior harkens back to the lavish 1920's. We enjoyed a great craft cocktail at the lobby bar before dinner. They had a great selection of locally distilled spirits. The lobby is spacious and comfortable to hang out in. After dinning, we enjoyed some live music while exploring the gift shop. The historic dining room is the most upscale dining experience in the park. The menu is different than at the other dining options in the park. The food was delicious. Fresh, and flavorful. The service was friendly and accommodating. We had several dietary restrictions in our party, and they were amazing at making their experience incredible. They had a nice wine selection and we enjoyed a bottle with our dinner. The desserts were also incredible. The gluten free lava cake was perfection. I asked for a side of Huckleberry sauce, and they added it. I don't know why they wouldn't normally do that! The pairing was perfection. The pear salad I had was incredible. The fries were hand cut and very tasty. Overall an incredible evening.

I'm conflicted between three and four stars but I am choosing three because the service was quite strange. Thinking back we even came a second time because there are not a lot of options in the area. We did not have reservations the second time and had to get all of our meals to go which was an ordeal. The food here was a little better than average. The truffle risotto minus the duck was a highlights and all of the meals were large enough that we even had to take a few back for leftovers the next day. The wine list was nice to you and we did have a bottle which everyone enjoyed quite a bit. The atmosphere in the room was quite lively and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. It was nice to see an older hotel really lively. While we were there a violinist who was playing just outside so you could catch a little of the live music which was really enjoyable. The only real complaint were that the servers didn't know the menu very well and didn't care much. All of the service side just seem to be a little disorganized. Still worth the trip if you are staying here. Not that you have much of a choice in the area.