Wawona Hotel Dining Room

Yes, the hotel is dated & undergoing construction, but the dining service for lunch was excellent & we enjoyed our food. We had the BLT & Angus burger & both were good. It's a great stop before or after going to Mariposa Grove. Take a walk around the grounds afterward & appreciate that this historic establishment is still running & they are taking steps to further preserve it.

Run down hotel. No ac. Food is terrible but the service has heart. Avoid if possible.

Excellent service. I believe our server was Ms. Lori, she was great and very attentive. We ate breakfast and dinner here. French toast and omelettes were very tasteful.
For dinner we ordered the Marys chicken and New York steak, both very flavorful.

We were at YNP for the weekend and decided to eat here one evening. Place was spacious and was not busy (maybe because of BBQ they had outside). We were seated right away and the waiter was kind enough to give us time to order food and got us chilled water right away. Staff were super friendly and food came in about right time.

This place is historic and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987. Basically it has a classic Victorian era design.

Knowing we are in a National Park, food was decent. We had:

Salmon: Salmon was cooked well and risotto was cheesy and creamy in a good way (this is not an Italian restaurant so don't expect food as if you are in Milan). I wish the seasonal vegetables they mentioned in menu was more than just two broccoli stems.

Pot Roast: Meat was delicious and super soft! Sauce was excellent and it went very well with mashed potatoes. Overall it was well prepared.

Also, this place have no air conditioning - so it was warm being seated inside during 4th of July weekend.

I recommend to check this place out if you are in the area.

This is such a great place to grab breakfast before heading down the hill to explore the valley! We had an amazing waitress both mornings who was welcoming and helpful. She was excellent in helping us work around our daughter's food allergy, and she made sure we had options that would work. The dining room is beautiful and feels classic as well as timeless. The price point was solid for being in the park as well.

The dining room at the Wawona Hotel is very popular, but I was fortunate to be able to enjoy having lunch there on a weekday in November. It was not crowded at all. I ordered the hamburger and fries which goes for $15. That's pretty reasonable given that you are at a nice hotel inside a national park. The food was delicous and I found the service to be attentive and friendly. The dining room has an open feeling because they have big picture windows to look out at the scenery. It was a real pleasure to enjoy a meal there.

Don't waste your time and money on this place, food is the worst. It's like eating school meal. Pasta with thickened milk or whatever it is they mixed it with. So called angus burger with paper thin patty and old bun. One thing going on for them was a friendly staff. Place was decrepit too feels like the ceiling of the res by taurant was gonna fall on the patrons.

Had lunch there a couple of weeks ago. Lunch menu is mostly sandwiches. The burger was decent. The portobello burger was great. The process were reasonable for the setting and level of service. Our server was very pleasant and attentive. (I think her name was Nathalie)
They also had a small but decent selection of wines.

The veggie entree was very good (2 / 5 Green Stars)
Was overall very happy with staying at the Wawona Hotel and glad I didn't take the nitpickers too seriously. The dining room is a bit fusty but it's a historic hotel (Theodore Roosevelt visited!) so I think it's best to make allowances. After sitting down it felt welcoming, especially thanks to our friendly waiter. We really liked the cheddar biscuits (a bargain at $4), the baked goat cheese bruschetta ($13) was tasty, and I liked the tofu dish a lot. The chef/cooks are skilled with veggies so it's a pity there aren't more veggie entrees. We got a lovely cheesecake at the end with birthday greetings piped onto the plate. Recommended dish: Crispy Tofu & Sweet Potatoes with Tamari-Honey Glaze, Pickled Scallion, Hot Sesame Oil, Salted Peanuts ($22).

I'm giving the Wawona Dining Room 3 out of 5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact, for these reasons:

* Three of the appetizers are vegetarian but only one entrée (the tofu dish).
* Two of the five entrees use beef as the protein (and lamb is served as an appetizer). This is the main area where the Wawona could improve on sustainability - add another veggie entre and cut one of the beef / lamb dishes. Beef and lamb have much larger carbon footprints than other animal products.
* Could do a much better job at communicating on ingredients sources. Even though the menu has abbreviations on the menu key for sustainable (S) and organic (O), none of the dishes are listed as such. It would be accurate to label the tofu dish as sustainable since it's estimated to have a carbon footprint about 98% lower than beef!

We stayed at the Wawona and so ate at the dining room. Both breakfast and dinner. I found the food was very good and would go again next time we are in the area.