The Lumber Mill Bar and Grill

Great burgers and great Mexican all under one roof. The chicken burrito and the carne asada are both great. Good service to boot. Nothing fancy but these people know their business. One of my local faves.

Great place for lunch. The Asada burrito is my favorite. Fast friendly service and right in town. Open later than most places.

Complete and utter scam operation. Took an hour for a to go order though the place was empty. No sign of customer service. No napkins. Then gouged the price of the check. Avoid unless you enjoy poor service and 12 dollar burritos

Best pastrami sandwich ever! Cold beer, needed it to listen to the krapeeokee! All kidding aside I highly recommend.

My steak was good but the fries came out wet with oil. They are open late for the area and parking is easy. The menu is short & simple. My biggest problem is that once my food came out, no one really checked back. I had to keep trying to get the attention of the server who also waited on the bar.
After being gone for 20 mins. the servers would walk by to another table and not even look at me. I think of it as a bar that serves food more so than a restaurant.

Amazing food and service! Our server was super attentive! I got the Chicano burger, the meat is really juicy and flavorful. I will definitely be coming back to this spot!

We wanted a fat, juicy burger so we chose to check this place out based on other reviews. I’m glad we did. My bacon cheeseburger was really good, a little on the greasy side but juicy, too. It was cooked perfectly (pink in the middle) and came with a mountain of fries. The beer selection was a little limited but I found an IPA to quench my thirst. I would definitely recommend this spot over some of the other (pricier) joints in this sweet little mountain town.

Excellent Jose Burger, better than the one at Paradise Valley Café (though both are really good). Decent beers on tap. Service is small town vibe so don’t go here if you’re in a hurry. Recommended!

I have found The Lumber Mill to be the best burger place in town. As burger joints come and go, here in Idy, The Lumber Mill has stuck, for good reason. It provides a great selection of food, made in a quality manner. The quantity of food is good, especially if you indulge in the BIG FOOT or Paul Bunyon, and the array of burgers is copious. The Juicy Lumber is great, derived from Chi Town’s Juicy Lucy (cheese filled patty) and the Texas Toothpicks give you a spicy option for a fried side, They take special care in their food, at The Lumber Mill, and you won’t be disappointied… for a small, touristy (a bit over priced), mountain town. I like it!

Their garlic chicken wings are superb. Probably the best burger on the hill!
Fridays are karaōke nights, and the crowd is inclusive and fun, aside from the casual shrieker… Hehehe

Had the Juicy Bison Burger. Yum. Want a good burger… this place is it. Their Mexican Food is outstanding, simply because it’s homemade. Peace out…

We stopped in here for lunch while staying at our family cabin for the weekend. I have to say, the food was surprisingly good! Not to say I wasn’t expecting much, but we were at Mustards Grill in Napa this week and the casual food here far surpassed my meal at Mustards. Wow!
I had the turkey burger, it was juicy and the bun it was on was soft and fresh. Daniel had the BBQ chicken sandwich and his was great, too. Thanks for a great meal!

We had the Hawaiian Burger and the Big Foot Burger. Wasn’t impressed with them, unfortunately they use processed cheese YUCK! Also we both had the worst stomach ache after we are and lasted until the next day. Disappointed because the reviews on this place were pretty good.

The star is for the burger probably one of the worst burgers I have ever eaten. Ordered it med rare it came completely well done and more like a hockey puck asked for 1000 island on the side and they slathered it all over the bread. My husbands burger was a hockey puck too and he ordered medium and it came well done and somewhat burnt. He asked for no tomatoes and they put tomatoes in it. We won’t be coming back here.

The good:
I had been craving a good burger and this place helped cure that craving. These burgers are tasty! I had the Hawaiian burger with grilled onions. It was messy with teryiaki sauce and cheese going all over the place but I gobbled it up so fast, this wasn’t a huge issue. My only complaint is that I ordered my burger medium and it came well done, however, the meat has a good texture to it so it didn’t matter much.
The bad:
Even though the burger was so tasty, I’m hesitant with giving this place a 4-​star review as the place is a little too dirty for my taste. I was sitting in the corner with a bunch of giant ants, the restroom wasn’t very clean and is used to store their Christmas decorations. Also, the waitress we had wasn’t in a great mood and it showed. I ordered a shock top and I received some IPA instead but didn’t want to make her day worse so I refrained from saying anything.
Despite the messiness of the restaurant and attitude of the waitress, I would highly recommend coming here to chow down on a burger.

I am giving the Lumber Mill one star for the simple fact that I have eaten here five times and 3 of the times have been good, one was so so and the last one was terrible will never go there again sort of experience. Service has always been mediocre to bad but this seems to be a thing in nearly all the places in Idyllwild which is just odd, you would think in this town you would be happy …
1^st experience– fantastic ! Ordered burgers and fries, food came in about 40 minutes which was unreasonable but the food kind of blew us away.
2^nd experience — pretty good split a meal with my cousin, it was early in the day just opened the waitress was nice and accommodating and very charming.
3^rd experience — pretty good, no real issues.
4^th experience — Food was good, took about 45 minute to get there. Waiter and waitresses were very rude and literally refused eye contact when I tried to get their attention… Which is really hard because the place is like ten tables… tops… including outside. The worst part is we were raving about the place to my dad and his wife and. not so much.
5^th experience — This is the one that ruined it for us. Let me preface it by saying — they sort of did the right thing by not charging us for our food but they MESSED UP and argued with us twice on… but. yeah prepare yourself.
I ordered their barbecue burger my wife ordered the one with the melted cheese in the middle. It takes about 40 minutes (seems to be average there for food time) after waiting in line for a table for about 15 minutes… we get the food…
My wife takes a bite or two, I am going to town on mine. She slowly stops eating and I notice she puts her burger down and is just grazing on her fries. I ask her whats wrong and she shows me the burger… It was just plain raw. Not pink raw, but blue raw. Like uncooked, not even warm but cold to the touch raw. Like it touched the grill for a few seconds raw. Sure it had a sear on the outside which tells me the cook dropped it on the hottest part and took it right off but it was not cooked, she ordered it medium by the way because they gave her an actual choice…
So I get the attention of the waiter, he stops looks at it and I ask if they can remake it because its raw. He proceeds to argue with me… Yes. He argued with me and told me it was suppose to be raw. I look at him and Im like «you are kidding right? She told you medium, you wrote down medium and its raw.» He then argued with me and told me its suppose to be like that because the way they make them to not burn the cheese in the middle it has to be undercooked like that…
So, he offers to make her a replacement burger but then says but you dont want this one because if we make you another it will be like this. I knew he did not think it was raw I was trying to tell him to touch the meat to see how uncooked it was since he was going to remake it anyways. So she orders a basic cheeseburger… takes 25 minutes to get there…
She takes a bite of the burger… and long behold… two pieces of hair are sticking out of the meat… not just sitting there… but literally cooked into the top of the patty were two long pieces of hair… in the meat… I could not believe it.
The waitress that has helped me 3 of the 5 times I have been there walked by so I got her attention and explained the situation. She was extremely helpful and apologetic and professional, she just said no charge and she was angry with the other waiter.
Im not one to try to seek out free meals, in fact I was embarrassed by this entire situation as people were staring at us listening to the conversation … You end up feeling like they think you are trying to scam them out of their food… but I was willing to pay for mine and my sons food but yeah it really ruined our day.
Its not about the money its about the fact that the idiot was willfully arguing with me and that for me, formerly working in the industry I know that 2 mistakes like that are not coincidence they show a poorly ran and managed business.
Its a shame because their food is good when its cooked and missing hair. We go up and dine in the town at least every other weekend. This city relies heavily on its tourism and its lost a customer that brings up a people to the town all the time.

The burgers here are big and tasty. I would suggest to the kitchen to put 1000 island on less things haha it’s on almost all the burgers.
Service was aright because there was only one guy working. He did his best to serve us so I can’t fault him for that.
There are not to many choices to eat when in this area but if you are near and hungry come on in!

Loved it here. Tons of burgers, full bar, creative menu.
Good for kids
Great people watching.
If I come to Idyllwild again it will only be to eat here!
Yum

BOMB DOT COM. The lady and I grabbed a seat at the small bar after driving up from San Diego on a Friday evening. The bartender was extremely friendly, had good food suggestions, and did a great job of keeping my glass full with beer.
I did some research before the trip and wanted to try the 1lb burger which I believe is called the Paul Bunion. Unfortunately I screwed up and ate a large lunch and decided to get a regular burger. I think it was the no way jose or something along those lines. It was AMAZING! I kid you not, it was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had and I’ve had ALOT of burgers. The wife ordered a burger on sourdough bread and she loved it as well.
The burgers were delicious, the service was great, the beer was cold. What else can I say?
Oh, one complaint though: karaōke on a Friday night made me want to cut my ears off.

Don’t come into the Lumber Mill expecting anything fancy. Of course, since you’re in Idyllwild, you’re already not expecting anything fancy, but still. Good old-​fashioned diner up in the mountains above the Coachella Valley.
If you’re in the mood for a decent burger, or fried chicken dinner, or if it’s a little earlier in the day and you want pancakes or biscuits and gravy, you can certainly do a lot worse. Makes you appreciate that you don’t have to mess with the likes of Denny’s and Coco’s when you’re in a place like Idyllwild.
That said, it’s far from the best breakfast I’ve ever had. But it’s certainly more than adequate, and unless you plan on driving down the mountain 45 minutes into the desert — not that you’ll find much better there — The Lumber Mill will certainly do the job.