Lake Yellowstone Hotel Dining Room — Restaurant in West Yellowstone

I’d like to start out saying this building was absolutely breathtaking. I’d like to tell you of our experience and then I’m going to go into the pros and cons to help you make the decision for yourself.

When we enter the lobby, it was no information on where to go so once I found it, I checked in. There was a very long line next to the table. They told me to wait in that line with the first come first served people that did not make reservations.

Now normally I wouldn’t care, but due to the fact, we made our reservations over 6 months ago and it was our anniversary and we were paying exceptionally large amount of money for dinner. I would expect to not have to wait in line with the people that made absolutely no plans.

I told her we would wait in the lobby area and they could call us when they were ready for us and she said no, I had to wait in the line and go in and basically fight for a table.

Pros it’s a beautiful atmosphere Half the food tasted good the waitress was very sweet

Cons waited so long for service at the bar for a drink I ordered two of everything because I didn’t want to go back. And I was the only one there ordering anything. They just kept ignoring me and leaving the bar to go into another room. I would have walked away if it wasn’t for my family wanting them. poor communication on the part of the staff Expecting an upscale dinner, I was surprised when we ordered beer and they just handed us a can. They got our order wrong There was a fly, buzzing our heads almost the entire night. The tables around us had changed people three times before we even received a check. We had to wave down our waitress several times because she forgot about us . We had to find a different waiter just to get salt and pepper on the table and he was not pleased to have to help us . the food was absolutely bland! Two meals were not but the other two had LITERALLY no flavor. Air had more seasoning.

All in all we paid for the experience more than the food or the service.

And if that’s the case I’d probably just go and relax and bring a flask and head over to Old Faithful restaurant where they treat you like kings and queens.

For over 300.00 of food for 4 people, I...

Our party of three senior adults, relatively experienced with US and world travel and mid-scale facilities, stayed for one night over at Lake Lodge but had dinner in the Hotel Dining Room.

One of us had the cassoulet, duck leg and "jackalope" sausage. The duck was somewhat fatty, though I'm not a big fan of duck so your mileage might vary. The sausage was mostly pork, and OK, but considerably hotter-spiced than I expected or the menu informed. The cassoulet was a bit of a problem...the beans might have been prepared from dry by soaking in water and minimally cooking. One might think that any competent chef would understand bean chemistry, and the use of pressure cookers...or just sourcing competently pre-cooked beans. Whatever the situation, eating the provided meal resulted in considerable gastric distress through the night.

Another of us had the trout. What arrived was a small filet, perhaps baked several hours before and held at temperature.

The third of us had the coq au vin. The diner described it as OK-for-a meal-at-half-the-price.

The bowl included two large pieces of fatty salt pork, presumably to add flavor in cooking. Why didn't the cook remove them before serving?

A shared salad was made with limp greens.

The young woman who served us was probably well-intentioned, but unskilled and inattentive. One of us ran out of water halfway through the meal, and got none until we were done eating. The server certainly was untrained, and didn't belong in a dining room that professes to offer fine dining.

While we were finishing our meal, the wait staff was sweeping the floor and generally preparing to close down. It's irritating to have one's dining experience degraded that way.

Because we had a long drive from the Old Faithful area where we spent the afternoon, our reservation was for the last seating at 9:30 PM. Perhaps the kitchen and dining room are not capable of those hours, and they do better at earlier times. But it's a very limited menu, and we didn't do well with three of the entrees. Next time we'll go somewhere...

The Google form for reviews is for a hotel not for a restaurant, and has the wrong form and questions.

Just like every other Xanterra-managed property in the park, management just can't fit all the pieces together to make a seamlessly good experience.

I arrived at opening for breakfast prior to a backpack. I wanted to enjoy a good hot meal before starting in on freeze-dried food for the next 5 days.

The hot buffet was typical USA breakfast fare. Especially disappointing were the fried potatoes which should have been made with fresh sliced potatoes but were instead deep fried from pre-prepared, pre-seasoned potato cubes provided from the Sysco truck. The link sausages and bacon were good, and the baked egg casserole with spinach was excellent, especially when topped with a little whipped cream cheese from the lox bar.

Speaking of which, there was also a lovely spread of cured salmon with nice accompaniments like chopped red onion, chopped boiled egg, cream cheese and more. But as a telling example of how Xanterra just can't get it right, the bagels were cold and hard as if taken from a freezer bag and dropped onto a platter. Tough and hard. And that was, in fact, the only form of bread on the whole buffet, not counting the stale sweet pastries that also clearly had been delivered from the Sysco truck in a box.

So I opted for the traditional egg and bacon breakfast. I took a bagel but couldn't stomach it, so I asked whether there was a toaster. Answered yes, I requested brown toast. That cost me $3, but two pieces of toast were served hot, buttered, crispy and tasty. The buffet ain't cheap, and it's galling that toast is extra.

Oh, and I almost forgot the coffee. I asked for a cafe latte and was cheerfully served a cappuccino instead. Fine. Except it wasn't. Truly awful. I might have sent it back, but espresso drinks are next to impossible to find in Yellowstone, so I choked it down solely to avoid a later caffeine headache. More than US$40 later I headed out to...