Meadowlark Lake Lodge — Hotel in Meadow Lark Lake

Stopped here for dinner during a camping trip at the nearby Lakeview campsites. We had come here many years ago on a similar camping trip and had a great experience but this time our dinner unfortunately fell a bit flat.

The good: The location is beautiful. Meadowlark Lake is a stunning area. We were able to get some gorgeous views of the lake. The restaurant area and bathrooms were clean and the gift shop is pretty cute as well.

The au jus with the prime rib was good and the prime rib itself was seasoned well. Their mashed potatoes are very nice, though they did not come with a gravy or another kind of topping, which would have been my preference. That said, the potatoes are quite good even on their own so they are not without their merit. They were, surprisingly, the best part of the meal. Which leads me to…

The bad: When we were seated, a member of our group asked what whiskey they had, and the gentleman who helped us didn’t know. In and of itself, this isn’t necessarily bad, but his attitude about not knowing was a bit rude, and he told the gentleman in our group that he should just go over to the bar if he wanted to know what they had. So, the gentleman in our group who asked had to go back to the bar and had to quite literally point out how to make the drinks.

After the drinks were made, he came back to take our order. Their dinner entrees come with a chef’s choice potato, vegetable, and a dinner salad. The gentleman in our group has some food allergies, so he asked the server what the vegetable of the day was. Again, our server had no idea. Not knowing the whiskeys they have is one thing, not knowing the vegetables being served is a bigger deal. Our server was a bit huffy about having to ask, but did so anyways. When he returned and told us what the vegetables were for the evening, the gentleman in our group told him he was allergic to them and the server offered an alternative, which was very kind of him.

Their salads have three dressing choices: ranch, blue cheese, and thousand island. I would prefer a lighter dressing, like an Italian, but hey— it’s the top of a mountain, sometimes you gotta take what you can get. However, the blue cheese dressing came of its cup in a solid clump which was not ideal.

Three members of our group ordered beef entrees: two steaks and one chicken fried steak. The steaks were ordered medium rare— any chef should be able to cook a medium rare steak— but all three beef dishes were extremely overcooked. The chicken fried steak had the texture of a hockey puck and the steaks did not have any pink and were subsequently quite dry. The cut of prime rib itself received was the thinnest I have ever been served— I have paid much less for much more meat. We would have loved to have spoken with our server about this; unfortunately, after getting us our entrees he never came back to check on us, so we decided to just eat. We also did not receive steak knives and had to attempt to cut our overcooked steak with butter knives. Conversely, the vegetables were undercooked and quite bland.

Overall: Our dinner experience here was unfortunately not what we were hoping for. Between the lack of customer service, the overcooked beef, and the undercooked vegetables, I have genuinely had better meals at an Applebees before, and they didn’t cost even half as much as our dinner here. If you’re looking for food in the area, I would honestly recommend you drive to Buffalo or Tensleep for...

We checked in and was told that the half of unit we rented was taken by a person in the unit next door that thought they had rented that unit of ours for the next day and the lodge could not get a hold of them because they were away from the lodge out in the hill somewhere so we stayed there and originally we were planning on having our family stay in the other unit that they had rented so they had to stay in another unit and they were told that if it’s dirty, just give them a call and they’ll come clean it cause they’re having problems with their help and it was dirty wasn’t cleaned at all dog hair all over the place and dirt everywhere and so they put them in another unit next to it, and they were told a short time later that they would have to move out of that unit into a smaller one because somebody had rented the one they were in that they were given online while they were talking to the lodge manager and we spent two nights there in our unit the last night electricity was off for over two hours during the day with no storms or anything and they have generators there, but they did not start the generators and we ate at the restaurant. There was 14 of us and after we ordered, it took an hour and a half to get our food and my food was overcooked and dry and all the food is way overpriced. Actually the whole place is overpriced and there is no refunds on anything because we asked because the unit my son was in with his family. His daughter got elevation sickness and they had to leave and they absolutely would not do anythingto maybe refund a little bit in And R unit which was a big unit there was no TV no radio, and actually there is only a couple TVs in the whole lodge unit the big window facing the lake in our unit had no curtains or anything on it so in the morning, the sun...

We stayed two nights in a cabin at Meadowlark Lodge. The quiet, peacefulness, and beautiful scenery was perfect. But, for $200 per night (224.00 with taxes and fees), the cabins are hardly worth the stay. No amenities of any kind…no microwave, no mini refrigerator, no coffee pot, etc. You got a couple towels, a couple wash rags, and two bars of soap. There were two chairs and a table inside and one chair on the deck and a shared picnic table between two cabins. If you wanted a campfire you had to purchase wood. No way to cook (outside only) unless you brought something to cook with. Room was pretty clean, however there was lots of dust under both beds!!! The bath house (only potty facility) was very clean; however, no hand washing soap or means to dry hands (paper towels or air dryer). Choices at bar very limited on beverages…no white zin, no Busch lite, no Michalob ultra, no kahlua, etc and pretty high priced. Went to supper first night at restaurant; the two waiters looked at us several times, cleaned tables and did other busy work before we were even acknowledged (about 12-15 minutes) and food super expensive. They don’t provide any means to buy essentials like milk, bread, etc. And coffee, which you must purchase, they have to get it for you a cup at a time. The cabin itself had a horribly steep and narrow three steps and no rails around the deck, if you stepped off you would either die on the large boulders or fall a hundred feet or so, NOT SAFE AT ALL!! For amount of money they charge, they could do so...