Roosevelt Lodge Dining Room — Restaurant in West Yellowstone

The poor service was comical for a while, but my good humor wore thin by the end. Being that the Dining Room had only just opened up for the season about a week before we arrived for lunch, I do extend some benefit of the doubt in the stars, although I still wish to document the experience for posterity.

We waited on the porch for a short while, which was just fine given the marvelous rocking chairs out there and any given view in Yellowstone. They were able to seat our party of six pretty quickly, though, a real rarity during our time in the region. But things went downhill from there!

My first perturbation was that, according to our server, they do not serve libations (read: liquor) until after dinner. Well, I wanted a dadgum whiskey, and I felt like Mr. Roosevelt would be turning over in his grave if he knew that a lodge named in his honor was withholding libation from a paying customer. (I have since discovered that T. Roose actually sued for libel when a journo called him a drunkard, and he claimed in court to have only enjoyed the very occasional mint julep.) The Dining Room would consent to serve me a beer, a local cream ale that I quite enjoyed, albeit not as much as I would have a whiskey or cocktail. Also, our silly server first asked if I meant beer "like, with alcohol?" WHAT?!

The comical portion of the experience came at the expense of one of our party who kept ordering things that were not available. Bison Tamales. "We actually don't have that." The Quinoa-Crusted Shrimp, then. "We don't have that, either." Poor thing ended up with a gosh darn grain bowl! She also wanted some hot tea, but our server didn't know what hot teas they had. It took her about an hour to get back to us on that, and then many minutes more to come back with an "Oops, we actually don't have green tea like I said, but here's some other kind of tea you didn't order!" Finally, my sister-in-law inquired about the ice cream, our server referred us to a desserts menu, said menu said "ask your server," and then upon asking our server she just frowned at the menu, took it away, and never got back to us!

It took well over an hour to get our food, during which time my sister-in-law told us about how she had once, as a waitress, forgotten to put in a family's order for over an hour, so the kitchen hadn't even started it after the hour! The more we waited, the more we felt like our server had done the very same thing. She was definitely trying, poor thing, but she was clearly overwhelmed and wrecking nervous.

When the food at last arrived, I had the smoked trout, served room temp, probably sitting out for an hour while the other dishes were prepared. It came with some fixings and baguette slices, so I made little fish bites, and it was good by me, though I'd have liked it better were the fish hot or cold or even just chilled. My brother enjoyed his Applewood-Smoked BBQ Ribs and the Roosevelt Beans they came with, but his dear companion sure did not care for her grain bowl! I can't remember what anyone else ordered, but I think they were satisfied well enough, though that may not be saying much given the adventurer's hunger and the excruciating wait here.

There was another long wait after our meal, because our server couldn't figure out how to run our credit cards. When three cards "decline"—no matter Master, Disco, credit, debit—then it's either their machine or user error. In any case, it was rather inconvenient and time-wasting.

Finally, there was the plumbing. Apparently they were having some plumbing issues, so the commodes were backed up, as were the lines to use what functional units remained. For me, this was a real pain in the very area I needed to relieve, if you catch my filthy, stinking drift.

Anyway, you take all this in stride—or, in my case, with a slight, uncomfortable limp. The food was decent at best for the price, and our service was rather rubbish. But life goes on. Or, in the words of T. Roose, "It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to...

My family and I ate at Roosevelt lodge while camping and touring Yellowstone for the day. We were starving and looking forward to a meal out. The menu looked extremely promising with lots of bison and elk on the menu, but the food tasted and looked like poorly made home cooking. Also, the service was also extremely slow and inattentive for a half empty dining room. For our food we began with the special appetizer which was fries topped with thousand island dressing, caramelized onions and cheddar cheese that the sign garaunteed to leave us feeling stuffed like pigs. We hungrily waited around for it while parties sitting down for dinner service were greeted with baskets of warm cornbread. When it finally showed up my brother and I actually chuckled because it was the saddest little pile of stiff fries with stringy cheddar cheese on top. Underneath the cheese, the fries were soaked with dressing. Regardless, we scarfed it down quickly and were left again to await more food. For our main dishes my brother and dad both got the bison burgers which they said were 'decent', but hadn't noticed a big difference to a beef burger. My mom and I shared the wild game Bolognese which was under salted, somewhat tasteless with very overcooked noodles. I was so hungry and we had waited so long that I hadn't even considered sending it back. Because we ordered the 'large' serving (i.e. 9oz) and it had 'wild game' in the sauce, this dish that I might generously call mediocre cost $17. Not to mention that for all I could tell the wild game was actually just ground beef. In addition to the pasta I got a cup of wild game chilli. Now, the chilli was fine, but again the meat just tasted like ground beef and it was filled with beans, peppers and onions (which I know is against a cardinal rule for many). It did come with a cornbread muffin which was warm and crumbly - the best thing I ate here. Now for the service. We had been driving around and seeing sights in the hot sun so we were thirsty. We quickly downed our waters and after no one came to refill them we asked our waiter, who either passed it on to someone who forgot or forgot about it himself. After a while we had to ask a second time at which point they were filled promptly. Food came out extremely slowly, as mentioned above, for a slow time in the day and dishes weren't frequently cleared from the table. Now, I mention slow time of day and half empty dining room, but you also have the realize the dining room is filled with staff. At least 5 waiters/ waitresses for maybe 20 tables (many empty or parties who were finished eating) as well as a hostess and someone who appeared to be a manager walking around. To be fair our waiter was polite, our orders were received correctly and we never really complained about the food to have our problems remedied. However, no one seemed eager to attend to our needs and provide good service. At $15 an entree at lunch for just edible food with poor service, my family left disappointed while my mother left fuming out the ears from the experience. This put a damper on our day out and we would have been happier had we just packed sandwiches to eat...

I was put out from the beginning when I went early (6 pm), hungry after checking into the lodge after a 5-day backpack to discover that the half-empty restaurant had a 1-hour wait for a table. I was obviously puzzled, and the hostess explained that they were short-staffed. It just isn't possible in a Xanterra managed property to have everything working, it would seem. I am sympathetic to the management plight of gearing up a large-scale four-month operation in a hurry using temporary college-age employees who think they're there for a vacation, probably at minimum wage. But a reviewer has to call 'em as he sees 'em.

I was finally seated and tried to quickly decide my dinner choice. In a place like this, I usually try to figure out what items require the least kitchen skills, and was thinking about a burger. But my server suggested the carnitas and she seemed very sure about that, so carnitas it was. Well, it turned out to be EXCELLENT. Three fresh flour tortillas were slightly crisped on a comal and served hot and folded into triangles. The pork was tender, juicy and well-seasoned. The salsa, guacamole and sour cream were tasty condiments, if a bit bland. Really liked it.

It was offered two sides of my choice. My server suggested the mashed potatoes and sauteed zucchini. Although not typical pairings for carnitas, I went with her recommendations. The mashed potates were excellent, but the brown gravy was clearly from a powdered mix, not great, and the zucchini was bland and more stewed than sauteed. Oh, well, I was hungry and generally satisfied with the meal. But, why, oh why can't Xanterra ever get all the details lined up for an overall great experience? Great carnitas, mediocre sides, and poor service. It could have been so...