The Ptarmigan Dining Room - Babb

We had a nice family dinner here on our recent trip. We always try to do one meal at a lodge restaurant, and we chose The Ptarmigan Dining Room for our Glacier trip. It was fun service was good and friendly. My wife and I shared the trout, which was good. The standout was the dessert, which was relatively inexpensive (decaf coffee, berry ice cream). Solid!

This dining options really adds to the GNP experience. The hotel dining area and views are most spectacular. All the food had to be ordered to go and you can eat in the dining or bar/lounge area so you you can still take in the beautiful views. There was no wait service or refills on drinks and they didn't offer water service either so be sure to bring your water bottle and fill up at the bottle fill station. After dining you can walk outside by the water, it is so pretty!

Beware they can not seat a party of 14 because it is a fire hazard. I called months in advance, asked the evening before and was reassured each time but the day we showed up I was told we could not all sit together. It was a disappointment for our destination wedding not to celebrate a nice dinner together as a family.

Not recommended. Try instead the smaller restaurant at the Motor Inn down the road. Do not go to the Swiss Lounge either. They share the same menu and kitchen as the Ptarmigan but have fewer entree selections. Five stars for the atmosphere. One star for the food. Minus 3 stars for value. THE GOOD The scenery is amazing. You can't beat the location. This is one of the most epic locations for a restaurant in the world. That is not hyperbole. Maybe just go here for drinks. The building itself is historic. The dining room is the size of a football field, with high vaulted ceilings. The building is a feat of engineering and a testament to American ingenuity and craftsmanship and pride. It's beautiful. Our server was polite. THE BAD Value matters, though. We waited 80 minutes after checking in to be seated. Which is not surprising given that the only other place to eat in Many Glaciers is the smaller grease pit at the Motor Inn a half mile down the road. I wish we had gone there instead. The food selection was great. But the portions were ridiculously small. That in and of itself isn't necessarily bad and I didn't deduct for that. We ordered the crab cakes appetizer. It was mediocre at best. We regretted ordering it. But my wife ordered the Buffalo Tenderloin. It was overlooked and the potatoes were dry and she couldn't eat them. For $40 she expected much better. We don't normally spend that much on a plate but figured what the hell its Glacier and a cool place. Our water glasses spent more time empty than full I was parched, but it seems like they were really busy too busy so they couldn't attend to us and we waited a lot. I left the restaurant thirsty. My plate was mediocre. I ordered the surf and turf I recall it being about $20 but I've had much better burgers for $7. Heck, even an In and Out Double Double was better than this burger. The mushrooms do not blend with the rest of the burger. They ruined the taste for me (and I like mushrooms) so I scraped them off. That made it edible for me. Our tab came to $75 with the one appetizer and two entrees. We don't drink alcohol and just had water. We waited forever to get the check. We only had cash (a $100 bill) and as a result of waiting forever (more than 10 minutes) for the waitress to come and collect it to give us change so I could tip her, we ended up just leaving because we were so angry. So that waitress ended up with a hell of a tip even though she did a lousy job. We just didn't want to waste any more time in there because the sunset was coming on and that was worth more to us (and leaving that place) than waiting for my change. I cut my losses and we enjoyed an epic sunset.

This place was so amazing we ate here twice in two days. The wait staff are amazing, especially Jessie who made our elopement dinner extra special by snagging us a table by the window with a beautiful view and recommending the perfect bottle of bubbly to get in lieu of champagne. The fried portabella mushrooms were delicious; lightly battered and flash fried so they weren't too heavy or oily. The lemon parsley aioli they came with provided a nice balance of acid and creaminess. The crab cakes were some of the best we've ever had. They had the best possible ratio of crab to breading and veggies (red and green peppers and red onions). These were also perfectly fried with no excessive oil with so much flavor and not at all fishy. For our main both meals, we got the lentil burger. It was fabulous! The lentils and whatever else went into had such an awesome taste and texture. It was topped with yummy caramelized onions and a balsamic glaze. We truly loved dining here!