2012 Restaurant Reviews Needed

[llholmes1948]

Just wanted to suggest that we could use some updated restaurant reviews on the Chat. There may be new places opened up, some places expanded, changed hands or closed, etc. We haven't had any reviews of the restaurants at St. Mary Lodge in St. Mary or Grouse Mountain Lodge in Whitefish since they have come under GPI operation. Are the Babb Press and the Firehorse Cafe in Babb still in operation? We have not had a review of Serrano's in East Glacier for quite a while and I don't think we have ever had a review of the Village Restaurant in East Glacier. If you have checked any places out in or around the Park, let us know how they were. I think people who use the Chat to plan their visit to Glacier would find updated reviews to be quite helpful. (I am posting a similar message in the lodging review section as well.)
Thanks,
Lyman

[ilovethemountains]

Serrano's in East Glacier is hands down our favorite restaurant in Glacier. If you love Mexican food you will not be disappointed. Their Serrano's burrito is huge, but perfect after a day on the trail. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! Because of it's popularity, there's usually a line waiting for the doors to open at 5PM (they are not open for lunch). To make sure you get seated, it's a good idea to get there a little early or you may have a long wait...but you will not be disappointed!

[Tsmith]

Serrano's - Excellent
Cattle Barron Supper Club - Excellent
Belton Chalet - Excellent
Two Sisters Cafe - Good one night yet average on another
Park Cafe - Good
Eddie's Cafe at Apgar - Very Good for Park Food
Jersey's Boys Pizzeria in Whitefish - Excellent and very affordable

[Tara]

We only had a few days in the park this time and one of those nights was at Bowman. But here are a few updates:

Polebridge Mercantile: Still divine pastries. Those huckleberry bearclaws...drooling just thinking about them!

Cattle Baron: I've always been a huge fan of theirs as some of you know. This time we went there and the prices are significantly higher than a year ago. High enough that we didn't stay. As my daughter said "the only reasonably priced thing was the escargot" which she did not want to eat!

Park Cafe: Food as good as ever, pie as good, and service the best we've ever had!

Swiftcurrent Motor Inn restaurant: Service slow as always, breakfast slightly better than previous times we've tried it. Didn't plan to eat there but after extreme cold and torrential rain and a leaky tent, I needed a hot breakfast that was cooked by someone else!

[yosemitesam]

Two Sisters: We have always loved the margaritas at Two Sisters, however this year they charged a whopping $15.00 per margarita (basic cadallic Patron & Grand Marnier)

Baron's Cattleman supper Club: For about $38.00 (excluding a good bottle of wine) where else can you share an awsome steak dinner for two and have enough for breakfast the next morning?
that equals out to about $9.50 per meal for 2 people.

Swiftcurrent cafe: I think the cafe is OK - the cheese burgers taste really good after an exhilarating day hike to Cosely Lake However, the Huckleberry Wheat beer leaves a lot to be desired

Polebridge Mercantile & the Northern Lights Saloon: The Mercantile bakery is yummy especially the jalapeno cheese savory rolls What can you say about The Northern Lights Saloon except that the beer was great and the food looked really good although we didn't eat there. This place was so fun! We just chilled after hiking, drank beer and watched the local volleyball games. We made 2 visits while we were in the area and plan on returning next summer

If you are fortunate enough to stay in a place where you can bbq and cook your own food - that's the ultimate ticket

[Hockey Ref]

August 15-23, 2012, in the order visited:

Swiftcurrent Motor Inn restaurant
Rating: Fair
Review: Friendly sever totally botched my order and delivered a completely wrong pizza (I didn't notice until after I'd eaten half of it since I was so busy talking). The server apologized profusely and immediately brought the correct pizza, which means that my original order must have still been sitting in the kitchen. Both pizzas were bland and nearly tasteless, but I ate them because I was hungry. The three people I was with had equally bland meals. We also had a breakfast that wasn't anything to write home about. This restaurant is convenient when you don't feel like driving to Many Glacier Hotel, Babb, or St. Mary, but that's about it.

Cattle Baron in Babb
Rating: Poor
Review: After having a tremendous meal at the Cattle Baron in 2010, we had the opposite this year. Service was slow. Our steaks were stringy and full of gristle, and mine was very undercooked (I asked for medium and got very rare). The baked potato was no more than a quarter of a whole potato and the vegetable side was nearly unrecognizable. The best part of the meal was the dinner salad. At $35+ for an entree, the meal was very overpriced considering the poor quality. We were all disappointed.

Park Cafe in St. Mary
Rating: Poor
Review: After a short wait we were seated on the outdoor porch on the side of the building. There were flies swarming all over us, the table, and everything on it (inside was full so we couldn't ask to be re-seated without a further wait, which perhaps we should have done). The food was awful. I had fish-and-chips the likes of which I'd never seen before. I have no idea what the fish was, or even if it was fish, but it was terrible. My daughter had a burger that was little more than a hockey puck. The other two meals in our group were equally bad. The cafe is known for its pies, however, so we decided to order some "to go." The restaurant was sold out of all of our first choices, so we had to settle for second choices. We took the pie back to Swiftcurrent and ate it outside our cabins. None of us were impressed. It just wasn't that good. Also, the staff refused to split a check. All we asked is that they divide it exactly in two for credit card purposes, but they said they couldn't do that, which was annoying, especially considering how bad everything else was.

Ptarmigan Dining Room, Many Glacier Hotel
Rating: Excellent
Review: The Ptarmigan Dining Room is newly renovated and looks very nice. There were six of us. The staff was friendly and attentive. The menu selections weren't all that numerous, but there was enough that we all found something we liked. The food was excellent all around, the portions were generous, and the wine was very good. Best of all, the prices were reasonable. It was the best meal of our trip by a long shot.

Two Sisters, near Babb
Rating: Good
Review: We ate at Two Sisters twice, and it was good both times. Wait times were minimal, the staff was attentive (we had the same server both times), the service was fast and efficient, and the food was good and filling. The atmosphere inside is always great. There's no mistaking Two Sisters for a gourmet establishment, but what you get is good and a great value for the money, especially after a long day of hiking.

[pitamakan]

I'll throw in a couple of reviews from the west side:

Belton Chalet
rating: good

I was at the Belton for dinner in early August with a group of about 25 (we'd reserved roughly half of the dining room) -- and though the group size may have been a factor, the service was mediocre at best and most of us left with a notion that the restaurant just wasn't quite what it used to be. The food was very good, but just not up to the level of a few years ago. Maybe now that they've achieved a popularity threshold, they figure they can keep the place full without working quite as hard. It's still the second-best dinner place anywhere in the Glacier area, though. (The best being the Northern Lights, without a doubt.)

West Glacier Cafe
rating: very good

The West Glacier Cafe is the best of the three "standard" restaurants in the West Glacier area. Menu items are pretty standard, but good-quality and with big portions, and the service is friendly and generally excellent. (This is the breakfast place of choice for most of the locals.) I also definitely recommend the Glacier Highland, which has the added advantage of being a little less busy sometimes. The other mainstream choice is Eddie's Cafe in Apgar, which I'm not a fan of.

Glacier Grill, Coram
rating: very good

This is my current lunch choice in the West Glacier area (Coram is about five minutes west of West Glacier on US 2). Excellent sandwiches and very good service. They do pizza, too. The other place in Coram is the Spruce Park Cafe, which is where everybody used to go until the Glacier Grill opened up ... I still recommend that place, too, especially for the pie.

Polebridge Merc
rating: excellent

The Merc is almost your only choice for breakfast or lunch in the North Fork country ... but the baked goods are exceptional enough that you wouldn't want to go anyplace else, anyway. (I've actually made the nearly-600-mile roundtrip from Bozeman to Polebridge in a day, just to buy cookies there.) In addition to the bearclaws and cinnamon rolls, they make a wide variety of breads and several hot sandwiches, which are kind of like pasties. I've fed myself at the Merc roughly a million times, and never had a bad experience there. The owners are great, too.

Northern Lights Saloon
rating: excellent

Like the Merc, the Northern Lights underwent an ownership change recently, and for a while I was worried about its future, but the food there is still as good as ever. It's definitely the best dinner place in or near the park, I think, and by a fairly good margin. Service is very informal, and since the kitchen and staff are small things slow down when it's really busy, but the food is worth it and the vibe of the place can't be beat. Note that most of the tables are outside on the lawn, so if you're heading up just for dinner choose a day when the weather's good. They do theme nights now, too, so you can check on the schedule for a menu that sounds particularly good. Fridays are pizza, for example, and they did regular French nights this summer. Good French food in Polebridge, Montana ... how incongruous is that??

[July Guy]

West Glacier Cafe
rating: very good

The West Glacier Cafe is the best of the three "standard" restaurants in the West Glacier area. Menu items are pretty standard, but good-quality and with big portions, and the service is friendly and generally excellent. (This is the breakfast place of choice for most of the locals.) I also definitely recommend the Glacier Highland, which has the added advantage of being a little less busy sometimes. The other mainstream choice is Eddie's Cafe in Apgar, which I'm not a fan of.

We've been to the West Glacier Restaurant many times, as well as Glacier Highland and Eddie's. Where is the West Glacier Cafe?

[pitamakan]

Oh, it may say "Restaurant" on the outside of the building, but deep down in its heart of hearts, the place knows it's really just a cafe.

[Bowlingr]

In Sept 2012 we visited:

Two Sister's (twice): Dinner - enjoyed it quite a bit. Food was solid, good as expected. Atmosphere was warm and welcoming.
Luna's in East Glacier: Lunch - excellent food and service. Terrific pie. Nice folks
Prince o Wales: High Tea after hiking: Brutally expensive but worth the "experience". Howling windy day, but bright and sunny. Terrific architecture and "die-for" view.

Sperry Chalet (two nights): Dinner was good quality and plentiful. B'fast was hearty and wholesome. Lunch's were over the top. High quality and lots of it. Still lost weight from all the miles.

Pub at Lake McDonald: Good food, excellent beer selection, service as expected for busy pub.

Randy

[tibber]

Jammer Joes in 2011 and 2012. I enjoyed it both times. I always get the bratwurst (2011 elk, 2012 bison). My cohorts got the pizza and were pleased. Plus we had huckleberry soda, beer, wine and ice cream. The service was typical park service both times (a little slow/nonchalant).

Great Northern Dining Room 2012 for the first time and though expensive (I didn't have to buy ), it was scrumptious. I had some wonderful trout (it was a big 'un) and then of course huckleberry ice cream. The service was top notch. In fact our waiter had worked down at Phantom Ranch. (I have to share with you that when I was up at the N Rim Grand Canyon store, one of the workers had Grinnell on her name tag and she was indeed a relative of THE Grinnell).

Two Dog Flats 2008-2010-2011-2012. The service is typical park service in the lesser expensive restaurants, which was slow. The food is usually pretty good but the one breakfast we had in 2012 was not very good. In 2010 they had some killer fish and chips and when we went back in 2011 in pursuit of those fish and chips, it had been dropped from the park menu. The box lunches are very good.

Cattle Baron 2008-2010-2011-2012. I always order a steak, in 2008 it was too rare, in 2010 and 2011 very excellent and 2012, not quite as good and the potato defnitely shrank. The service is always spotty with sometimes good and others not so good.

Polebridge Mercantile 2012 - yep, those bearclaws are everything and more than what folks brag about.

Park Cafe 2012 - crowded and the service was so, so. They had run out of huckleberry pie; my primary reason for eating there (I missed out on my huckleberry pie the previous year due to the Big Fork restaurant being out by the time I got there). We ordered 3 pieces to pick up the next day. The pie was good tho they mixed the huckleberries with blueberries so it wasn't nearly as tasty as the Huckleberry Patch pie. I too ordered the fish and chips which were good and totally agree about the fish; I think it was salmon or something. Anyway, it didn't fit the bill.

Home Ranch Bottoms 2012 - boy did I get an unexpected treat with a homemade HUCKLEBERRY malt. OMG!

Eddies in W Glacier 2012 - service was questionable at best and the food was so-so.

I can't remember the name of the Cafe (West Glacier Cafe 2012 maybe) next to the Belton but we went there as the Belton was filled to the gills and hot! Anyway, the service at this restaurant was top notch, finally got my fish and chips and had a huckleberry soda that wasn't the best... not sure what it was. Anyway lots of food for a good value.

Sperry Chalet 2012 two nites - service was impeccable but the food didn't live up to the expectations.

Guess that gives you a quick overview. Happy Trails!

[Selkie]

Wow, Tibber! Phenomenal memory! Or journal notes!
(The many food mentions did elicit a suppressed memory of someone at Logan Pass complaining, "There's not really any decent place to eat in the Park." I blushed for him).
My most memorable food was some huckleberries I got at a little white shack on the road, just a bit before the entrance to W Glacier. No one was in attendance when I stopped. After a bit an elderly, hale individual rode up on a bike, got off, parked the bike, went into white shack. I asked for "this much," with my hands, and he gave it to me and a fair price. They were yummy, sweet and ripe. I had them with yogurt and everything else. The generosity of berries...

I like that little cafe too. They allow me to purchase from the children's menu.

[pitamakan]

I think you guys are talking about the Glacier Highland Cafe in West Glacier. I like that place, too ... they've got a hearty comfort-food menu, and the owners are nice people. They also try to have a longer operating season than the other West Glacier places, so there's a place in town to eat during the shoulder seasons.

Back when I worked in the park, the Highland was actually open all winter, and I loved it for that. For several years back then, the place had a baker who was a former nun, and she made the finest cinnamon rolls in the entire galaxy! I'd kill for one of those today ...

[pitamakan]

Oh, and it's where I bought a watercolor print called, "Almost Home," that now graces my living room wall:

[Jen]

Oh, and it's where I bought a watercolor print called, "Almost Home," that now graces my living room wall:

I WANT THIS PRINT!