Chisos Mountains Lodge Restaurant — Restaurant in Texas

It’s not bad for being in the middle of nowhere and it’s your only restaurant choice in Big Bend Park. They are only open for dinner from 5pm to 9pm. Breakfast and lunch hours are different, so check their website.

Only nine entrees on the menu and most of them seem like Sysco frozen foods. I don’t want to knock them too much, because as I said, you really have no other choices - they also have a full bar.

Marinated portabella mushroom ($18.95) topped with bell peppers, spinach, and parmesan cheese. Wild rice and asparagus on the side. The grilled mushroom cap was fresh, extremely juicy and went well with the combination of the spinach and chopped bell peppers. The asparagus was tender and perfectly cooked without being too mushy.

The 12 oz ribeye ($21.95) was more of a let down. Just not a good quality cut of meat. Yes, I know ribeye is supposed to be marbled and a bit fatty (that’s what give it the great flavor after all), but this one had more grisle than fat or marbling. It was served with a scoop of mashed taters and asparagus. Mashed taters are just “ok.” Not bad mind you, just “ok.”

Penne pasta with alfredo sauce ($11.95) and added portabella mushrooms for an extra $5. The portabella ‘shrooms were marinated just like they were in the portabella mushroom entree mentioned above. The menu said the pasta was linguini, but it was penne pasta instead, so ask before ordering.

Chicken Fried Steak with green beans, toast, and a dollop of mashed taters. ($12.95) CFS was good, not overly breaded, and not full of gristle - but it was obviously pre-prepared. Gravy was decent and so were the green beans. Again, the mashed taters were just “ok.”

The dining area is mostly glass and it faces directly west, so it gets pretty warm when the sun starts going down - BUT it provides an awesome view of “The Window” trail and you can see the sun set. The bar area is separate and it’s a lot cooler in there, so you might want to see if you can dine in the bar area to stay cooler. There are a couple of tables in there, so who knows?

The bottom line is, although it's not the best food in the world, you should at least have one meal while here, to give yourself a break from campground or...

This review is for lunch Wednesday the 8th 2023 November. The dishwasher was broke down so the menu was limited to sandwiches and salads. All the utensils were picnic style paper and plastic. We ordered the grilled chicken sandwich and the simple burger with avocado. Both come with fries or chips. We chose the fries. Both were great considering the condition the kitchen was in. We also got the egg roll appetizer which is a southwestern style and comes with a avocado ranch dip and it was very good both the dip and a egg roll. The egg roll is basically two medium size egg rolls cut in half with the dip for $11. Both the sandwiches were $13 and $2 extra for the avocado on the burger. The only complaint I had about the food server was that he never came back to ask how the meal was and when he came to see if we wanted anything else before the check he didn't ask at that time how was it the meal. I'm getting used to this I guess these young people it's not their fault it's the fact that they're not getting trained the way they should be like when I was in the food service business at that age. They just don't know any better so I have to blame it on the management. As far as the atmosphere goes you can't beat a window seat in The Lodge Restaurant for the great View of the chisos basin. It's a shame it's all going to change after they tear down the lodge / restaurant next year to build a new modern Lodge. Everything I read about it says it's going to be modern and great but I can't help but believe that it's not going to be the same and I will miss the old Lodge but I know it's a necessity considering the age and deterioration that the...

We stayed at Chisos Basin Lodge for 3 nights in September 2021 and were looking forward to eating here, but we were disappointed with the food quality. The dining room is closed due to Covid, but they allow you to fill in a form and order food to pick up at a specific time in the evening. The idea of this is fine; we did the same at Bryce Canyon National Park and the process there was smooth and the packaged food was amazing. On our first night in Chisos Basin we ordered the salmon with rice, a salad and side of fries. The 'glazed' salmon had a couple of tiny squirts of sauce and was otherwise small, flat, dried out and cold. The fries were thin, cold and undercooked. The vegetables seemed to have been microwaved many times. The salad was alright. This was the worst food we had on our road trip. The similarly priced food at the Bryce Canyon Lodge was SO much better. On our other 2 nights here we ended up microwaving food we had brought from a...