Bethany’s Yosemite Guide: Places to Eat

To address the questions that I’ve been asked regarding everyday living at Yosemite, I’ve decided to make a little guide. This is a picture guide, so you’re welcome for going around everywhere and taking pictures of everything…like a touron. :P I decided for my first edition, I would start with the most important aspect—food! So here are the majority of places you can eat while you’re in Yosemite, not including cooking your own food in the employee kitchen. :)

Food options in Half Dome Village include: The Grill, The Pizza Patio, The Pavilion, and the Coffee Corner (ice cream).

A—The Grill:

The Grill is where Abby works as a cashier. They serve food that you would expect from a grill—hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese, chicken sandwiches, pulled pork, veggie burgers, salads, etc. My favorite thing to get from The Grill is the Deluxe Grilled Cheese with a side of bacon. The Deluxe Grilled Cheese is on funky bread and it comes with tomatoes and onions on the inside, so I pick those off and put the bacon in. Delicious!

B—The Pizza Patio

The Pizza Patio is said to be the busiest pizza place in California in terms of sales per day (or something like that). They are almost always super busy, but they are decent about cranking out your pizza in not-an-extreme-amount of time. Pizzas start out as cheese and then you pay per topping that you add. It can get pretty pricy pretty quickly if you’re not careful. Sabas used to order all the housekeepers pizza on Sunday (the busiest day), but people started taking it for granted, so he pulled the plug. This Sunday the lifeguards ordered a pepperoni/pineapple pizza and we’re just going to rotate who pays for it the next three Sundays. The pizza here is actually pretty good; they just need bacon.

C—The Pavilion

The Pavilion is semi-cafeteria style in that you wait in a main line for the entrée/side dishes and you just pay for whatever you pick up. They also have a dessert corner and a salad bar/soup station. They’re the only place in Half Dome Village open for a full breakfast meal. They close for lunch and reopen from 5:30-8:30 for supper. Most of their supper food is delicious; however, for breakfast I would recommend the Lodge for most foods over the Pavilion. The biscuits and gravy is an exception, but it’s obviously not as good as homemade. What I like to do there is go on the day that they have mac & cheese as a side! Sides are less expensive, but the nice people usually fill my plate with mac & cheese. My favorite thing here though for supper is probably the mashed potatoes! Super delicious!

D—Coffee Corner

The Coffee Corner is my favorite place in Half Dome Village!!! It serves breakfast pastries and muffins in the morning and then switches over to ice cream at 11:00 (in addition to all of the drinks they serve). Far surpassing the Lodge in flavors and creations, the Coffee Corner is the place to go for ice cream, which they serve until 10:00. On the weekends they have more flavors than during the week, but it’s still fantastic no matter what! I don’t know if I have a favorite food to get here, but one of the things I order most frequently are their sundaes—single, double, or triple scoop with hot fudge or caramel, whipped topping, nuts, sprinkles, and a cherry. I typically stick with single or double, hot fudge, whipped topping, nuts, and sprinkles. Rocky Road, Peanut Butter Cup, and Cookies & Cream are my go-to choices along with random special flavors that they have.

E—Lodge Cafeteria

Over at the Yosemite Valley Lodge is a fantastic cafeteria! They open the earliest for breakfast at 6:30, and they serve lunch and supper. I’ve only been to the Lodge for breakfast once, but I can tell you that my French toast there was absolutely fantastic! See, the Lodge cooks the food in front of you at certain stations that you go to, as opposed to the Pavilion which is like a cafeteria line. No biscuits and gravy at the Lodge though. :( For lunch, their burgers are the only ones I’ll eat in the park. In my opinion, they’re actually really good! I would go to the Lodge cafeteria more often if it wasn’t so out of my way because I think it is actually pretty good.

F/G—Mountain Room Lounge/Restaurant

I have never personally eaten at either of these places. Regardless, the Mountain Room Lounge is semi-casual and I believe the Restaurant is considered fine dining. Don’t quote me on that. Neither has a ton of menu options, and they’re both more expensive than I would generally pay for a meal. (Neither as expensive as the Ahwahnee, but we’ll get to that later.)

H—Degnan’s Deli, Café, and Loft

The Deli and Café at Degnan’s in the Yosemite Village area close at 5:00, so I’ve never eaten either of those places. I’ve heard they do well in their breakfast sandwich making though. The Loft is another pizza place; however, even better than pizza at the Loft is their rice bowls! You choose between a 1 meat/1 veggie and a 2 veggie rice bowl and then you can add additional toppings if you want. Luckily for me, pineapple was listed under veggies, so I had a chicken, bacon, and pineapple rice bowl with the white sauce whose name I’m completely blanking on right now…So if you want pizza—go the the Pizza Patio and get a rice bowl at the Loft!

I—Village Grill

Disclaimer: not my picture, I forgot this little guy was tucked away behind the Village Store. It closes at 6:00—another inconvenient time. When I went there, I had a grilled cheese kids’ meal with a fruit cup and chocolate milk. Again, don’t quote me, but I’m fairly confident their menu is very similar to the Grill at Half Dome Village.

J—Ahwahnee Dining Room

If you have a large pocketbook or are just interested in a fancy meal, then this is the place for you. Employee discounts don’t work here and regardless, I have no desire to spend that kind of money on one meal. Also, if you’re going to eat here, you should call a few months in advance. No joke. Their reservations are nuts! Just to give you an idea, the Sunday brunch buffet is $48/person. Dinner meals are somewhere in the $60 range. Crazy…My roommate Cassidy is an intern in the pastry area of the kitchen. When she works the morning shift, she makes things like pancakes for breakfast and then does all the desserts for lunch. When she works the evening shift, she does desserts all day. On Mondays, she makes the dessert special. I think there’s another intern who has a different day. Last week, she brought me a leftover piece of whatever it was that she made—delightful! It was so good!

(Also, last night Cassidy brought Abby and I s'mores cheesecake while we watched one of the X-Men movies. Remarkable.)

Well, that’s all the places that I can think of to purchase food that’s made for you. (Both village stores sell food, but it’s packaged food.) Stay tuned for the next edition of my guide where we’ll look at different places to stay while you’re in Yosemite (visiting me)!!!