Kevin T.
Yelp
A decent fast casual eatery with mostly self service, minus food being brought out to you. The CORRAL is a fairly prominently displayed eatery on the side of the main road going through Gardiner, so there's a good chance you'll see it no matter what. While quite a few of the folks in line were raving about it, I can't say I was terribly impressed by my city-boy-palate. It'll certainly serve it's purpose if you just need food, but time permitting I'd recommend looking elsewhere.
It's mostly street parking, but the CORRAL has a number of dedicated spots if you turn onto their corner, so drive by first to see if those are filled up.
Service is mostly self serve as seating is first-come-first-served, water and utensils are available at a station near the kitchen, and you might need to figure out how to avoid roasting in the sun as covered spots are not too plentiful and interior seating is rather limited. The kitchen areas were also rather unsanitary with all the flies around the food plates; I've seen worse to be honest, but less
than ideal to be sure. Water cooler rather finicky to function too. On the bright side, they had a nice outdoors swing and slide set for kids/families to play with, so there's something for younglings to work off their boundless energy on.
The food at CORRAL is very much presented in a no frills, 'simple is best' kind of approach. All burgers are the same, just with the patty mixed around. I would nominally see the appeal, but I don't feel like the execution was quite there.
Now the fries were solid; lightly seasoned but moderately crispy exterior and a good (if slightly dry) interior. The cookies and cream shake we got was a nice heavy creaminess that came out quite fast and was quite full bodied (they didn't have the huckleberry stuff I wanted but good enough).
The main burgers were unfortunately just alright. Very much a simple presentation with minimal compositions to distract from the patty (cheese is an add-on that we both opted for, but it was quite mild and didn't add too much). The elk was done rather dry/lean (also my patty broke apart and they still served it so...). The bison was well done, very lightly seasoned and slightly dry. Not a great burger experience even with the notable gaminesss of the different meat.
All in all it was satisfying eat for sating our hunger near Yellowstone, but there are better options in the area to be sure.