El Tovar cocktail lounge — Restaurant in Four Corners States

My husband and I recently travelled to the Grand Canyon. We decided to try the El Tovar cocktail lounge for dinner one evening as the restaurant was fully booked. The experience began well, with us seated at a lovely table facing the window where we could watch the sunset. Our drink order was taken quickly and we ordered an appetizer at that time as well. The drinks were excellent as was the appetizer, a crab cake. But the evening went downhill from there. We had to wait a long time to catch our server’s attention and place a dinner order. Then, we waited an extensive time to actually get our meals, a pulled pork sandwich and a bowl of chili. The sandwich was fine, but I was hard pressed to find any meat in my chili. (When I got the bill at the end of the evening, I found out why: the server gave me the vegetarian chili rather than the pork chili I had ordered. She also failed to give me the cornbread muffin that was to come with the chili.) As we ate, we tried to catch our server to order a glass of wine. But she was either out of the room (pulled into the dining room to help out there?) or so busy trying to serve all of the tables in the lounge that it was next to impossible to speak to her. It was quite clear that everyone in the lounge was feeling as abandoned as we were. There was an older man in the lounge who appeared to be a server, but I only saw him serve drinks to one table and fill up some water glasses at a few others. An hour and a half into our time there, we stupidly decided to order dessert. That was a good 20 minutes coming. My husband had the flourless chocolate cake and I had the apple pie. Neither was spectacular. Then we sat…and sat….and sat!! Even after we were finally able to ask for our bill we sat some more! So, what we thought would be a quick bite while watching the sunset turned into a lengthy evening of at least 2 1/2 hours where most of it was spent sitting and waiting for what ended up being just an okay meal. I had heard some good things about the El Tovar, but I will not be returning to eat there and cannot recommend the lounge for anything but a drink. Just expect to be there...

Came in to get a quick bite since we were visiting the grand canyon and making time to hop back on the grand canyon railway. Boy what a mistake. We waited in line, we were next couple duento go in and once we walked in the waiter told us to get up from he table he pointed us to sit at and told the Caucasian couple behind us to go ahead and sit there as that was a better view. He then told us to sit at another table by right by the entrance to the lounge. He came by and literally threw a menu on my wife's sunglasses without an apology. He kept disappearing to the back and when he would walk by he would bump the tables.i mean the people sitting beside us kept shaking their heads. When the waiter finally walked back I said excuse me may I have a menu preatty loud where other people would hear to which he stopped walked back grabbed a menu and threw it on the table again. At this point after about 20 minutes we stood up and left without even ordering.we turned to the waiter and said Sir you need to work on your person skills. It was apparent that because I look Hispanic I was treated in such a disgusting way. On our way out two couples said wow Sir the way you handled that, I don't think I could be so calm and by the way Thank you for your Sevice as I was wearing my Retired/Combat Veteran Hat.. I was excited to be able to experience the Tovar since it was one of Teddy Roosevelt's fav places but boy did I leave disappointed and will never return nor will I recommend anybody going there while this waiter is there. Save your money, walk past the beer garden and enjoy some...

The magic of El Tovar and the history this place represents is awesome. The lounge is well appointed and clean. The lite fare cocktail lounge menu fits the purpose of the place. Our chili was decent.

Sadly, our server Zach was beyond poor. He was rude, condescending and downright disrespectful to our party as well as several others within earshot. Everything during our brief visit was done on his agenda. Don't plan to ask questions, Zach will tell you to read the menu and will come back later. He then coached us to understand that he runs a fast paced shift. Ordered a beer and the tap ran dry after pouring a partial glass. He brings us half a beer. No offer to provide another option. No apology, only announced he would bring the rest later. After several minutes Zach returns... With another half glass. Who serves a half glass of beer, much less two? There was so much more wrong with our experience, and all of it surrounding our server. The rest of the place was great. Zach needs a serious attitude adjustment or perhaps could find success in another career, perhaps one that limits his customer contact...