Slippery Otter Pub — Restaurant in West Yellowstone

Yes I know, it’s an email nickname that I’ve had since I was 18. I don’t ever leave reviews, but this was the worst service I’ve ever experienced, and I travel a lot.

Now for the review.

Was so excited to try out this place. The name alone had me laughing, and knew I wanted to go the first chance we got. The atmosphere has a nice comfy pub-like feel and we were seated quickly, despite being fairly busy.

Was taking my son to dinner for his 21st birthday, and being that we were at the park all day we were ready to eat! His meal came out great, mine not so much, and it was the service at the end which is why I give this place such a low review.

When I had orders I said I wanted to get the “steak salad with ranch dressing” the menu does state Balsamic dressing, but I specifically asked for Ranch.

Meals came out, and didn’t notice until the first bite, there was balsamic on it. I was so famished that I thought I would just eat it. But the taste of the vinegar was very overwhelming and started to make me nauseous. I asked for the server to come over to the table.

I told the server and he said he would speak to the manager. He comes out later saying that he took half off my meal. HALF. I had two pieces of steak, and pushed away the rest. No, I would need to talk to the manager, as he was walking away he said “this is not my fault, you ordered, and that is how it is written on the menu” And no he did ask any clarifying questions when I placed the order, but as someone who use to be a server, when someone asked for something different than what is on the menu I would ask if they wanted the other dressing too.

By the time the waiter went back a third time a man comes out, telling me that’s the best they could do, that I “ate half the salad”, and then had the audacity to tell me how to order as if I was a child. When I told him I wasn’t paying for something I clearly wasn’t eating. He threaten to call the police on me. I had to clarify I was paying for my son’s meal and my soda, but I wasn’t paying for a meal I could not eat.

No where in this conversation was there an apology nor an offer to remake the meal. As I said I was hungry! I wasn’t looking for a free meal; I was looking for food! Good food in a good atmosphere to celebrate with my son. We could have stopped at McDonald’s. I just couldn’t stomach the balsamic, then told it was all my fault, and that I still need to pay for something I wasn’t eating.

It was very unfortunate, my experience, from the waiter, and management there. As I was looking forward to having a nice time in this restaurant. I would hope they learned something from this situation other than “that’s not my fault”.

After a long drawn out process, and I’m sure a scene, he finally took the salad off of the bill. Then again instructing me how to order food, when I just wanted to pay for what I intended to pay for, and get the heck out of there!!

Make sure you give your order to the server like he is 3yo, otherwise you may be in a similar situation.

If you do go, hope you have a better experience than I did, because as I said the atmosphere...

We recently visited this restaurant as a group of four adults and two young children (ages 3 and 4), hoping for a relaxed dining experience. While our kids were admittedly a bit energetic, the dining room was nearly empty—only one other table was occupied—and they didn’t seem bothered. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the staff. From the moment we arrived, both the hostess and our server appeared visibly annoyed by our presence, setting an unpleasant tone for the evening.

Despite our party being just four adults and two small children, we were surprised to see a 22% large-party gratuity automatically added to our bill. We ordered a full meal for each person, shared an appetizer, had a bottle of wine between two of us, and beers for the others—so certainly not a light order.

As for the food, it was a mixed bag:

The wontons had potential with a great sauce, but they were undercooked and soggy, lacking the crispiness you’d expect.

The elk burger was dry and disappointingly bland.

The lamb burger, on the other hand, was juicy and flavorful.

The steak and fish and chips were both solid, no complaints there.

The kids’ pizza, shaped like a bear, was a cute and thoughtful touch.

I opted to substitute elk chili for fries, which I enjoyed, but was charged a dollar more than was stated on the menu. I was also charged a dollar more than stated for cheese added to the lamb burger, again without any notice

On the plus side, the food came out very quickly after ordering. Still, speed alone can’t redeem an experience that felt unwelcoming and overpriced. Between the lackluster service, questionable charges, and inconsistent food, this isn’t a place we’ll be returning to. Not...

Came here with my family and some friends. They said they couldn’t seat us together so they put our friends in the elevated booths and my family on a table away from our friends. A table opened up by our friends and we asked if we could move there so we could talk with them. The server said we could. We also asked if we could move our table on the ground closer to the elevated booth so we could talk with our friends easier. She said we could. About 5 minutes later some big dude from the back came out and told us we had to move our table after being told we were allowed to move it. Guy was pretty angry at us for nothing. We moved our table and the guy seemed happy. Not even 10 minutes later some other guy came out and complained that our table was too close and a complete jerk about it after the first guy said we were good. Whatever…. We moved our table and I asked him if he was happy, finally he was.

Long story short we didn’t even get to visit with our friends at dinner. The part that makes me upset is they charged us 22% and still wanted a tip for “large party” that they could not even accommodate us. There were 8 of us total, 5 adults and 3 kids that could not even talk during dinner.

Food was meh, won’t be back after this.

Don’t bother going with friends, probably won’t be seated together and then charged 22%.

Plenty of other places...