Best Dining Bets

In the Park

Don't expect five-star dining (with one exception) or a great variety, but the food is well prepared, the servers are cheerful, and the dining rooms are mostly big, convivial gathering places.

Jenny Lake Lodge Dining Room, Grand Teton (tel. 307/733-4647): This place gets my five-star award: Dine where presidents have dined on five-course meals featuring such delicacies as smoked sturgeon ravioli. Breakfast and dinner are included in the price of a room; nonguests can call for reservations, but it's not cheap.

Signal Mountain Lodge, Grand Teton (tel. 307/543-2831): Trapper Grill and Deadman's Bar here make good casual meals (including mountainous plates of nachos in the latter), with a view of Jackson Lake and the Tetons or, in the lounge, a view of one of the few televisions in the park. Peaks offers finer dining, with a largely organic menu.

Outside the Park

This is food so good that you won't mind spending $15 to $30 for entrees.

In Jackson, Wyoming: Rendezvous Bistro (tel. 307/739-1100) offers steaks, seafood, and game dishes with creative twists, not to mention the perfect balance of chic and casual. Mornings, though, you'll find me at Nora's Fish Creek Inn (tel. 307/733-8288), in nearby Wilson, with a bottomless cup of coffee and a huge plate of huevos rancheros.

In Gardiner, Montana: the Park Street Grill and Cafe (tel. 406/848-7989) is the best eatery on Yellowstone's North Gate, conjuring succulent porterhouse pork chops with a mellow habanero sauce and otherworldly huckleberry crème brûlée.