Frommer's National Parks of the American West - Don Laine [421]
If you're not up for restaurant dining, there is counter-style fast-food service at the Yellowstone General Stores, and snack shops and cafeterias in the villages at Canyon, Mammoth, Grant Village, Yellowstone Lake Lodge, and Old Faithful.
MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS
You'll find the Terrace Grille at the opposite end of the building that holds the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Dining Room. It serves typical restaurant fare in a less formal—and less pricey—dining room, but it doesn't take reservations.
Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel
Mammoth Hot Springs. ☎ 307/344-7901. Dinner reservations required. Breakfast $4–$8.50; lunch $6–$9; dinner $9–$20. AE, DC, DISC, MC, V. Summer daily 6:30–10am, 11:am–2:30pm, and 5–10pm. STEAK/SEAFOOD.
In this big, high-ceilinged dining room, the breakfast buffet features scrambled eggs, French toast, and muffins. Delicious omelets are served with home fries and toast. Lunch features an array of sandwiches, including smoked turkey on Parmesan-crusted sourdough, grilled veggies, and grilled German bratwurst. With a beef- and seafood-oriented menu, dinner is a bit more substantial. The house-smoked entrees are quite good.
CANYON VILLAGE AREA
Arrayed around this busy village parking lot are a casual, soda fountain–style restaurant, a cafeteria, a take-out place, and a conventional dining room.
The Canyon Glacier Pit Snack Bar, operated by Yellowstone General Stores, shares a building with a convenience store and souvenir shop. Seating is on stools in the fashion of a 1950s soda fountain; you can expect to wait up to 30 minutes during peak hours. Breakfast consists of egg dishes, lunch is soup and sandwiches, and dinner is traditional Western food. The snack bar is open from 7:30am to 10pm daily from mid-May to late September.
The Canyon Lodge Cafeteria is a fast-food alternative across the parking lot in the Canyon Lodge area. Hours are the same as the snack bar's, and the menu bears some striking similarities— but you may get through the cafeteria line faster than you would get a stool at the soda fountain. The cafeteria is open from June to mid-September.
Canyon Lodge Dining Room
Canyon Village. ☎ 307/344-7901. Reservations required. Breakfast $4.50–$8.50; lunch $5.75–$9; dinner $9–$20. AC, DC, DISC, MC, V. Daily 7–10:30am, 11:30am–2:30pm, and 5–9pm. Closed mid-Sept to May. STEAK/ SEAFOOD.
This spacious dining area, a tad sterile perhaps, gets noisy when it fills up. The salad bar is long and loaded, but otherwise the fare is largely geared to the carnivore, with a wide selection of steaks alongside seafood and pasta dishes. The decor is 1950s style, and the place has a relaxed and unhurried feel that you don't find at some of the other busy areas in the park.
TOWER-ROOSEVELT AREA
Roosevelt Lodge
At Tower Junction. ☎ 307-344-7901. Breakfast $3.25–$7; lunch $5.25–$9; dinner $9–$19. AE, DC, DISC, MC, V. Daily 7–10:30am, 11:30am– 4pm, and 5–9pm. Closed fall–spring. STEAK/ SEAFOOD.
Advertised as family-friendly and cowboy style, Roosevelt is an alternative to the fancier eateries at the big hotels, but the unadventurous menu will win over only the most naive city slickers. Like the aging cabins that take you back to the early days of auto camping, Roosevelt's dining area is simple and spare, a collection of tables that take up one side of the lodge's big lobby. Our recommendation: Join Roosevelt's Old West Dinner Cookout and ride by horse or wagon through the Pleasant Valley to a chuck-wagon dinner that includes cornbread, steak, watermelon, beans, and apple crisp. It's $49 to $59 for an adult, depending on the route of your horseback ride, or $39 if you go by wagon. Children pay $10 less.
YELLOWSTONE LAKE
For the eat-on-the-run traveler, a deli in the Lake Yellowstone