Sierra Restaurant

We came here for breakfast and it was absolutely disgusting. We had a great stay at tenaya Lodge so I’m kind of disappointed that such a nice place can have a terrible restaurant.

Despite some of the reviews we had read we decided to give it a try. We are so glad we did, it may have been a little pricey but that is to be expected at a resort. The food was fantastic, we had the pork chop, it was cooked perfect and had a great sause. Or kids had the filet mignon and the burger, no complaints at all. The burger came with a really good, out of the box, jam that gave it great flavor. We also highly recommend the pan cookie for desert. If I had any negatives it would be that the coffee was a little weak. Over all great and friendly service.

Food was expensive and pretty mediocre. Salmon was dry, mashed potatoes were crumbly and short rib was overcooked. Definitely not worth the crazy prices. Pretty disappointed.

Resturant wasn’t worth the wait, the staff wasn’t very welcoming, seemed almost bothered to answers and questions we had or to even check up on us. I ordered a pasta and the pasta came out cold and crunchy like it’s been sitting out there for awhile. Wouldn’t recommend eating here unless you like your food to taste like it came out of an easy bake oven. If you like your food to taste like plastic then this is your restaurant. Unlike me I don’t like plastic food. Waste of money for a mediocre meal.

Food is overpriced ($ 10.95) for a cup of soup, service was super slow, and overall food was just so so.

After reading the recent reviews we were a little weary to eat here, but as others have mentioned driving 25+ miles for dinner is difficult, so my wife and I bit the bullet.
The prices are definitely gouging, I ordered the $ 23 burger (yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever spent more that $ 16 for an amazing burger in SF) so this must be amazing, right? My wife ordered the $ 32 Cedar plank baked salmon, their ‘most popular dish’. We had low expectations after reading prior reviews, but how bad could it actually be?!
Answer: BAD
Food showed up after 40 mins. The burger and fries had definitely been under a heating lamp for at least 20 mins., the bun was over-​crisped, the arugula was wilted, the bacon strip on a skewer crumbled into bits when I tried to remove it and the shoestring fries were cold. The salmon was OK at best, slightly dried out, but those wasabi mashed potatoes… Have you ever seen mashed potatoes crumble when you try to scoop them up?!
Our poor waiter tried to remedy the situation for us, but for the prices and absolutely poor care of the ingredients/​dishes there was really nothing he could do…
Such a terrible disappointment. Tisk tisk Sierra Restaurant, you have an incredible opportunity with this captive audience to be so much better…

We were told there would be a ten minute wait. After 20 minutes, we double checked and found out they had forgotten about us. After being led to our table, we could see that the restaurant was half empty. Then we ordered $ 30 mac and cheese. It was lukewarm slop with a tiny bit of crab. Fine for $ 7. Unforgivable nonsense for $ 30. Awkward, unfulfilling price gouging. Do not come here.

Stayed at lodge with tour group and dined here for dinner. Server was overwhelmed with tables so it took 45 minutes to get drinks and longer to be served apps and entrees. The best part of my meal was the brussels sprouts app and ice cream. Burrata salad was returned and might have been rancid. Steak and shrimp entrees were good not great. Mgr did comp us for drinks which was appreciated.

Delicious food, slightly overpriced though! We enjoyed a filet mignon and the special of the day, which was a prime rib with mashed potatoes. Also, we shared the cookie pizza for dessert — amazing and definetly worth all the calories! ;) As said, prices are a bit too high, which makes the whole experience a little less enjoyable…

Bah, a totally forgettable experience. The waitress was MIA most of the time, the food was over-​priced, and my wife’s shrimp tasted like a Goodyear tire. I completed a resort survey and ended up receiving a call from the restaurant manager and a refund of my entire meal, which was a nice gesture.
You’re a captive audience when you’re at Tenaya as the next closest restaurant is a good 25mins away, so I feel like they know that they can charge $$$ for lower-​quality food and get away with it. Come on Sierra, up your game a bit.

My friends and I stayed at Teyana Lodge, a very nice hotel. We figured the restaurant would have good food, but we couldn’t be more wrong. The prices were high enough that we expected to have some great meals. I ordered a Cesar salad and the Mac and cheese. The salad was very small, more of a side salad than a whole meal. The mac and cheese was runny, bland and not what I expected for being a featured entrée.
I don’t mind paying for a great meal, but this was far from great. Next time I go to Yosemite I’ll pack some pb and j sandwiches.

The food and service were good but I don’t understand how this can be called a 2 $ restaurant. It is easily a 3 $! Also, they don’t take reservations for seating. and the bar is usually crowded, so that doesn’t work as a waiting area.

Just had the breakfast buffet here, which is something I rarely do. Not a fan of buffet style dining because of other peoples habits around food. In any event, I thought that the buffet price was pretty reasonable for its offerings. Service was ok, took a long time for her to come around, but the floor manager made up for it. Huge variety of food, but one recommendation that I think people would hugely benefit from is labeling the dishes. There were a handful that I and others around had no idea what it was. This is especially helpful when people have dietary restrictions and allergies. Not very likely that I would return as a guest of the Tenaya since I was underwhelmed, but this is a nice restaurant option if you’re staying at the property.

I had a lovely birthday dinner with my husband, my brother and his wife at the Sierra Restaurant. We were quickly next to the fireplace by the restaurant manager and promptly greeted by our server, Nick. We shared an appetizer of calamari with fried jalapeño peppers, it was delicious as was my filet with a wine reduction sauce. Everyone in our party was pleased with their meals and Nick went out of his way to make us feel welcome and appreciated, as did the manager.
Thank you for a great evening. We are locals and will be back!

Another nice evening at Sierra Restaurant. This time we started off with the crab cakes instead of the Brie. Very good. I had the ribeye again only this time with a wine sauce as a change.
Best part of the evening is just as we were finishing it started snowing. Nice touch Tenaya.

Service was excellent and 5 stars.
However the rest was deeply unsatisfactory.
Overpriced, mostly-​mediocre food. Nice location, nice place, but needs updating.
No ambiance. In fact, we asked if they could turn on some music (ANY music) during our Christmas Eve dinner. They never did. I think paying over +$ 200 for 2 adults and one child for a nothing-​special dinner is just gouging; and without any kind of music it felt like going to MCL Cafeteria with my grandparents.
The buffet on any given day was awful. Expensive and you get the same food at Denny’s.
It’s obvious that the corporation who runs the restaurant is interested only in the bottom-​line and not the quality of the food.

Had a really nice dinner here. Wait time was quicker than we were told and service was good. Baked Brie appetizer to start was really good. I had the steak and shrimp scampi and it was good. My girlfriend had the trout and was equally tasty. For desert, we shared the chocolate chip cookie pizza. Overall, it wasn’t fantastic but good for a resort far from everything. Wish I could do 3.5 stars… it was right in between 3 and 4… had to go with 3.

Pretty good food, great service but just a little high on the price. I think if prices were 15−20% less it’d be for stars.

I wish I could give more stars but this place really sucked! We are here because it was convenient since we were staying at Tenaya Lodge.
First off, the menu is literally only 2 pages long. The meals are between 20 – 45 dollars, which would be ok if the food was any good.
I ordered the beef brisket, I was expecting yummy tender slices of slow cooked beef marinated in bbq sauce. What I got however, was nothing like what i just described… I got these thick slices of flavorless fat! Yes, I said fat, I had to search for the meat. It was so bad I had to send it back! 30 dollars for fat? Ridiculous!
The two stars: one for the garlic mashed potatoes which were pretty good n one for the server who was friendly and accommodating.
Final verdict: eat somewhere else! There’s a Dennys about 10 miles away.

After a full day of driving from SF to Yosemite, and hiking all afternoon, my bf and I were pooped. We were staying at a nearby lodge 5 mins from one of the Yosemite entrances, and noticed no food options… so our lodge recommended us to go to one of the restaurants at Tenaya Lodge. Of course, knowing the Unilocaler in me, I had to Unilocal all of the restaurants that were recommended… and saw that each had 1 star to 2.5 stars at most. Yikes! After freshening up and reviewing some of the menus/​pictures, we decided to go to Sierra.
So all 3 restaurants in Tenaya meet at the same entrance. I thought that was very interesting, so you wait in line at the host/​hostess and tell them which restaurant you want to eat in. So far, great start — everyone was so friendly and welcoming, even though it was peak dinner time and it was quite busy. Even the valet was nice =)
The restaurant turned out to be nicer than I thought, and I did feel a little under-​dressed (hey, we only had hiking clothes) but no one judged us or made us feel unwelcome. The atmosphere inside was very comfortable, sort of romantic with the fire going and dim-​lighting. There were a lot of families and couples dining.
Now onto the food:
— AHI TUNA POKE: We were surprised to see a Hawaii dish on the menu, which is basically sashimi grade raw fish with a ginger soy sauce dressing and onions. Super simple but extremely popular where I’m from, so we just had to try it. Now, I’ve had it at least a million times back home, and Sierra served it like how the fine dining restaurants at home serve it (poke on top of avocado, served with chips and sauces on the side — see my pic I uploaded). It was very good!
— FRENCH ONION SOUP: Deeelish! Just the right amount of bread and a load of cheese on top.
— PAN-​FRIED TROUT: Yummm! Rainbow Trout served over mashed potatoes, topped with leeks and with lemon caper butter.
— CAPELLINI D’ANGELO: BF had this, oh it was yummy! Angel hair pasta with a tomato/​garlic sauce. He ordered it with shrimp and it was delicious!
Overall, awesome meal after a long drive with fast food and snacks all day. All this with a few draft beers came out to about $ 100ish before tip. A little bit on the expensive side, at home we can eat the same amount and quality for about $ 70−80ish with tip. but the food, service and atmosphere were awesome! We left with happy tummies, thank you Sierra! =)