Where to Eat in Yellowstone National Park
When visiting Yellowstone National Park, it can be helpful to plan out where you’re going to eat in advance.
After all, this national park—the world’s first!—is massive, so knowing where to get your next meal is helpful in determining your overall itinerary.
Because of Yellowstone’s size, running out of the park for lunch or dinner can add on unnecessary driving and can otherwise take away valuable hiking and sightseeing time.
Thankfully, the park has a variety of food options within its borders, making meal time much easier to fit between your other activities.
In the guide below, I’m sharing my favorite places to eat inside the park, what activities are closest to each meal option, and suggested dishes at each.
A big plate of comfort food at the Old West Cookout in Yellowstone
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What to Eat in Yellowstone National Park: An Overview
Stretching over 2 million acres in Wyoming’s northwestern corner (plus a few bits of Montana and Idaho), Yellowstone National Park is extensive.
Because of this area, you are often 45 minutes to an hour between food options, so a trip here requires some pre-planning. A hangry Yellowstone visitor is NOT a happy visitor, after all!
Unlike Grand Teton National Park to the south, where you can easily run into nearby Jackson, Wyoming, getting to a location outside of Yellowstone’s borders can be quite the hike. And, with all of the driving you’re already doing within the park, you don’t want to do more just to get a sandwich or candy bar.
While Yellowstone, therefore, has a bit of a captive audience when it comes to their dining options, you do have some decent options. Overall, we found the food in Grand Teton National Park to be better in quality, but the places I’ve recommended below in Yellowstone are still worth your time.
One thing to be aware of is that there are 2 different food vendors that service most of the Yellowstone restaurants: Xanterra and Delaware North.
In general, we found that the Delaware North restaurants had food that fresher and had a better dining experience. Inversely, the Xanterra restaurant menus were often larger to appeal to bigger groups, so you’ll have to try both to see which works best for your family.
Whenever possible, I’ve done my best to note if a recommended restaurant below is serviced by Xanterra or Delaware North.
Here’s where to find something that will fit just about every budget and taste from sit-down restaurants to snacks and groceries. There are even plenty of options for picky kids, too!
Best Restaurants in Yellowstone National Park
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Below, you’ll find what we think are the sit down places to eat in Yellowstone.
It’s not meant to be a complete guide to dining across the park, as each lodge and hotel has its own restaurant (and sometimes more than one!).
With that number of options, a huge list doesn’t actually help all that much.
Instead, I’ve provided an option or two at each of the major hubs around the park that consistently offer up above standard meals.
I’ve included a variety of meal options at different price points so you can get a great meal no matter your budget.
Please note that this list doesn’t include any options outside of the park’s borders.
So, for example, even though West Yellowstone, Idaho, is only a few miles from the park’s western border and has multiple restaurants, we haven’t included it.
Learn how to plan your time at Yellowstone:
Grant Village
Grant Village, the southern most area in Yellowstone, has 2 dining rooms: Grant Village Dining Room and Grant Village Lake House Restaurant.
Both have views of Lake Yellowstone, but only the Grand Village Lake House is directly on the lakeshore.
Both are run by Xanterra, but each has its own menu offerings.
The Dining Room serves 3 meals a day, while the Lake House just serves dinner (and a streamlined one at that).
The Dining Room leans heavily on classic American comfort food, so you’ll see French toast, eggs, bacon, and sausage for breakfast; salads, soups, paninis, and pastas for lunch; and burgers, roasted chicken, and steak for dinner.
If you’re really hungry, you can opt for the extensive dinner buffet, which has everything from prime rib to mac and cheese to berry cobbler.
The Lake House, on the other hand, has a super simplistic menu: a dip sampler appetizer, 5 taco options, and a handful of beverages, both alcoholic and non. The churros are the only regular dessert item—the other is a rotating chef’s choice—and they are great.
Canyon Village
Funky decor and cafeteria style seating in Canyon Lodge Eatery
Canyon Village, located in the eastern section of the park, has the largest selection of food options anywhere in the park.
Here, you’ll find a cafeteria style dining room called the Canyon Lodge Eatery and grab-and-go snack counter called the Canyon Lodge Falls Cafe; these share a large building with a gift store near the post office.
The Canyon Lodge Eatery has multiple stations for all three meals, each serving up its own themed meals. For example, there is a burger station and a stir fry station. For breakfast, you can choose from a variety of fresh favorites like scrambled eggs, an oatmeal station, omelets to order, or pancakes.
One of the many food stations inside Canyon Lodge Eatery
There’s a huge amount of long, cafeteria-style seating here, though the best seats are by the large fireplace in the middle of the building.
The food here was a step above a typical cafeteria, though overpriced for what it is (but that’s par for the course in Yellowstone).
In the Canyon Lodge Falls Cafe right around the corner, there were some good sandwiches and muffins, but the service was so slow that we left the first night to get food elsewhere. There is one person working the entire stand, so you wait for each individual piece of food to get warmed up or pressed in the panini press.
Waiting for our food at the Canyon Village Fountain and Grill
At the other end of the Canyon Village complex is the Canyon Fountain and Grill, which shares a building with the Canyon Village General Store.
I know—they really didn’t get creative with these names!
The food at the Canyon Fountain and Grill is provided by Delaware North. We ate here, and at the sister properties elsewhere in Yellowstone, several times, and the food consistently was more flavorful and fresher than that of the Xanterra cafeteria style food at Canyon Lodge Eatery.
The theming at the Canyon Fountain and Grill is that of a 1950s lunch counter or diner, so you sit at these long, communal counters with fun, twirling seats. The menu is short but everything we tried was delicious.
My parents and I tried the burgers and grilled chicken sandwiches here, all of which were served up juicy and hot. The fries are pretty standard, but are still good.
My kids loved the grilled chicken strips and fries, so much so that they ate the same meal on more than one occasion. The kids’ menu also has other favorites including PB&J and grilled cheese.
I didn’t get a photo of the menu here, but it’s nearly identical to the one at the Fishing Bridge Fountain and Grill, below.
More outdoor adventures in and around Yellowstone!
Fishing Bridge
Inside the Fishing Bridge General Store is the Fishing Bridge Fountain and Grill, which is nearly identical to the Canyon Village Fountain and Grill, above.
The menu here is also essentially updated diner food done well. After our great experience with the Canyon Village Fountain and Grill, we were excited to try out this sister restaurant in the Fishing Bridge area of the park.
I tried the black bean burger, which comes highly recommended. It has a bit of zest thanks to the combination of cumin and other spices in the burger as well as fried jalpeños on top.
You also cannot go wrong with the bacon cheeseburger or adult grilled cheese sandwich, both of which come with generous portions of fries.
It is still tough paying nearly $20 for a burger and fries, but 1) that’s just Yellowstone pricing for you, and 2) I felt that the quality of the food was better than similarly priced meals elsewhere in the park.
Mammoth Hot Springs
Mammoth Hot Springs is located at the northwest entrance to Yellowstone, near the town of Gardiner, Montana. (For more information on the multiple ways to get to Yellowstone, check out my post on the Yellowstone entrances compared.)
The best bet for eating in this part of the park is at the Mammoth Dining Room inside the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel near the visitors center. Here, you can get breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The breakfast menu is fairly streamlined and leans heavily on classics like pancakes, biscuits and gravy, and eggs and bacon. There is a build your own omelet option and huevos rancheros for those who’d like something a little different.
Lunch is heavy on salads and burgers, though the small plates offered are worth checking out. The elk sliders and bison carpaccio are an easy way to try out some of the local fare without committing to an entire meal’s worth. The Basque cake is the way to go, as it uses cherries from Flathead, Montana, and freshly made cake from a local baker.
Dinner is a more formal affair, and you will need reservations. However, much of the dinner menu is available at lunch if you’re just looking to try one of the dishes.
The dinner menu has substantial entree options, including a roasted chicken, elk bourguigon, and chicken linguini. There are also specific vegetarian entrees like the mushroom tortellini and cauliflower steak.
I do appreciate that this dining room, which is run by Xanterra, does include locally sourced breads, meats, and fish whenever possible. That helps to elevate the food here from just another Xanterra restaurant churning out industrial-sized quantities of food to something more memorable.
TRAVEL TIP: As you’re driving around the park, download the inexpensive but fantastic GuideAlong audio tour for Yellowstone.
For less than the price of a sandwich and chips in the park, you can get this high quality tour that starts and stops automatically as you reach points of interest. We love these tours and have used them as we’ve explored over half of the U.S. national parks!
You’ll learn about history, geology, wildlife, important park figures, and much more, deepening your understanding of what you’re seeing as you drive through the park. Plus, you can skip forward or backwards, or repeat any of the segments for a customizable experience.
Tower-Roosevelt
Tower-Roosevelt has very, very few amenities, so you either need to bring in food for your stay or lean into the limited options here.
There are essential 2 things at Tower-Roosevelt: the Roosevelt Lodge and Cabins, and the Corral.
The Lodge has a main dining room that leans into the rustic, historic nature of the property. Here, you’ll find rough hewn log walls and a huge stone fireplace.
The exterior of the Roosevelt Lodge at dusk
Like the other Xanterra-run restaurants in Yellowstone, the Lodge Dining Room leans heavily on classics and stick-to-your-ribs comfort food. Breakfast offers up basics like French toast, eggs, and bacon, while lunch and dinner have ribs with your choice of baked beans, salad, mashed potatoes, and coleslaw.
If you’re staying at the cabins and don’t want to pay for breakfast, you can pick up a continental breakfast bag for free each morning.
The Old West cookout has meal options for even the most discerning little cowboys.
We had these the morning we checked out of the cabins, and they were a great quick option for my kids and I. The bags included free coffee or tea, yogurt, granola, a fruit medley, and a roll.
NOTE: We stayed on property at the cabins at the foot of the main lodge. Check out my Roosevelt Cabins at Yellowstone review to learn more.
By far the best dining option in this part of the park (and my personal favorite anywhere in the park!) is the Old West cookout and trail ride.
You ride to the location of your cookout, either by horse or by historic stagecoach.
Once you get to the outdoor kitchen and dining area, you are entertained by a live fiddler and then with a cowboy sing-a-long.
The food is all-you-can-eat, so your plate will be piled high with cornbread, baked beans, potato salad, steak, watermelon, and much more.
>> Read my complete review of the Old West cookout and trail ride in Yellowstone here. <<
Old Faithful Area
The Old Faithful area stays busy during the season, so this is one area of the park where you’ve got multiple dining options within easy walking distance.
Only steps from the famous geyser you’ll find three different lodges (all confusingly with nearly the same name): Old Faithful Lodge, Old Faithful Inn, and Old Faithful Snow Lodge.
Each has its own dining options, including sit down dining, quick meal options, and grab-and-go meals.
The option that’s the best for a family with a wide variety of tastes is the Old Faithful Lodge cafeteria, where you can pick from meal options at 6 different stations. There are burgers at one, Asian fusion at the next, ribs and barbecue at another, and salads at yet another.
There’s a large dining area past the cafeteria with huge glass windows, perfect for watching Old Faithful erupt while you’re eating.
Old Faithful Snow Lodge Obsidian Dining Room has a similar menu to the one found at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel Dining Room. The breakfast menu is nearly identical, but the lunch and dinner menu have some interesting nods to the retaurant’s wild game inclusions.
For example, there’s a duck poutine appetizer, bison chili cup, bison pastrami Reuben, and bison short rib mac and cheese.
Where to Get Snacks in Yellowstone National Park
My son working on his Wilcoxson’s ice cream at the Canyon Village General Store
Ice Cream Locations
There are several places in the park to get ice cream if you’re craving a sweet treat:
Canyon Village General Store (Delaware North)
Canyon Lodge Ice Creamery (Xanterra)
Fishing Bridge General Store (Delaware North)
Mammoth General Store (Delaware North)
Old Faithful Inn Bear Paw Deli (Xanterra)
These are all hand scooped, and each has a wide variety of flavors.
At the 3 general stores, you’ll find Wilcoxson’s ice cream, which is made in Livingstone, Montana.
There are some inventive local flavors served up there, including Montana Moose Moss, Moose Tracks, Huckleberry, and Maple Nut.
We preferred the Wilcoxson’s ice cream at the Delaware North-serviced locations to the Big Dipper brand served at the Xanterra-serviced locations. Try both to see which you like!
Old Faithful Snow Lodge Geyser Grill
If you’re looking for something quick and easy near Old Faithful, try the Old Faithful Snow Lodge Geyser Grill, where you can get quick snacks and selections from their limited sandwich menu.
There are also some easy kid-friendly options here, including small milk cartons, yogurt parfaits, and chicken fingers.
The grab-and-go cold salads and sandwiches are worth a visit, but if you’re in the mood for burgers, fries, or a hot dog, I’d do one of the sit down restaurants mentioned above instead. You’ll get a fresher meal with more ambiance!
The small Sinclair gas station and convenience store near Canyon Village
Sinclair gas stations
While you’re driving around the park, you’ll likely need to top up your car’s gas tank, and there are several Sinclair stations available.
Each of these also has a small convenience store attached to it with coffee, candy bars, cold soft drinks, and chips.
Here’s where to find the Yellowstone gas stations:
Grant Village
Fishing Bridge
Canyon Village
Tower-Roosevelt
Mammoth Hot Springs
Old Faithful area
Lake Yellowstone Hotel Deli
This cute deli near the front desk of the Lake Yellowstone Hotel has a vintage coffee house vibe to it, and it’s the perfect place to rest for a moment before heading out on your next adventure in the park.
In addition to hot and cold coffee drinks, you’ll find bottled juices, waters, milk (almond and regular) and soft drinks alongside bagel sandwiches, yogurts and muffins.
M66 Lounge in Canyon Village
On our last night in the Canyon Village area, we went to the M66 Lounge for a light meal. It’s located in the Canyon Lodge near the Eatery, and it’s perfect if you’d like something to eat without committing to an entire dinner.
The Lounge is centered around an L-shaped bar, but there is additional seating inside and out. Kids are welcome everywhere, and we saw many families while we were visiting. (If you want a complete meal, the M66 Grill next door has a full menu.)
At the lounge, you’ll find a limited menu of appetizers that are great to share. My parents, kids, and I shared the sampler platter, which came with 3 dipping sauces, onion rings, mozzerella cheese sticks, fried pickles, and wings.
NOTE: If you want to refill your water bottle, there are free stations throughout the park. Just look for the large “Water Filling Station” signs in the stores.
Where to Buy Groceries in Yellowstone National Park
The inside of the Canyon Village General Store
Much like everywhere else in the park, the grocery options are higher than what you’d find at a comparable store outside of Yellowstone.
If at all possible, make a stop in Bozeman, Cody, Jackson, or Gardiner for groceries. The further away from the park you can shop, the more reasonable the prices should be.
That being said, I know that it’s not always possible for visitors to pre-shop before they head into the park, so that’s where these general stores come in handy.
Please note that, while these stores do have a variety of basic food items, they don’t have specialized items like baby formula, baby purees, toddler snacks or diapers. If you’re visiting Yellowstone National Park with kids, you’ll need to plan ahead and bring those with you.
Canyon Village General Store is located inside the same building as the Canyon Village Fountain and Grill, above.
This is the general store with the most variety of food items, and you’ll find everything from packaged noodles to cream cheese and sandwich bread here. It also has a selection of beer and wine in addition to quarts of milk, orange juice, soft drinks, and iced coffee bottles.
Grant Village is a great place to stop since it’s close to the border with Grand Teton National Park, and, thus, tends to be well stocked. It’s not quite as large as the one at Canyon Village, but you can still find cereal, milk, bread, basic medical supplies, snack cakes, Pop-Tarts, and chips.
There are other places labeled “general stores” throughout the park, but the ones listed above have the largest number of food items. The others have much more limited food items (usually just snacks and drinks) and a heavy concentration on souvenirs.
Final Thoughts on Eating in Yellowstone National Park
Not much of the food at Yellowstone is surprising and the menus here are heavily reliant on comfort foods and American classics. While I understand why the powers that be do this—it’s easier to appeal to a wide group this way—it would be nice to have more signature dining experiences within the park.
The infrastructure is already there, and people are already paying high prices for this food. I’d love to see more inventive dishes than the standards of burgers, Caesar salads, and the like.
Ultimately, if you had to pick ONE dining experience in the entire park, I’d make it the Old West cookout and trail ride, which is a wonderfully unique meal.
While you might have to stick to an overall basic set of dishes while you’re dining in Yellowstone, at least the food is reasonably good and easily available throughout the park. (I’d still bring some groceries and snacks from home to help offset the budget!)
