Metate Room

We enjoyed our dinner in this restaurant at the Far Sight Lodge in Mesa Verde. We ordered the tortilla soup, house salad, trout and relleno and enjoyed our food. Service is by foreign students working in National Parks for the season and it’s always a delight to strike up a conversation with them.

4* Metate Room
Is at the Far View Lodge, Mesa Verde
Dining with a beautiful view of the valley
Great food
Loved the chile pork stew and the tortilla soup
Vegetable salad with salmon was the bests
Homemade tres leches dessert was the bomb
Excellent wine by the glass
Friendly international student interms
Holli was the absolutely fabulous food server

The view was great and the staff were very friendly. However, the food was mediocre and expensive. The elk shepherds pie was surrounded by frozen vegetables that were not very good and the sauce tasted like chef boyardee ravioli sauce. I would expect fresh vegetables for the price we had to pay. The meat and the potatoes were good, but that was about it.

Great view. Incredibly overrated food. Beyond uninterested service (except for very nice hostess).
Four of us shared two appetizers that were fine but not special and all 4 entrees were unexceptional. The flatbreads were soggy and inedible. For four hungry hikers there was a lot left on plates. The after dinner chocolate bars found in the gift shop were the best part of the meal. Go upstairs and eat quesadillas for a lot less money and the same view.

Great food on our visits both in 2001 and 2015. Loved the Elk sheppards’ pie and the Cliff Palace dessert.

Good food for a raesonable price. I had turkey with a delicious sauce. My son had salmon, witch was over cooked. The wine was good for a reasonable price.

I’m surprised at the mixed reviews here. My husband and I had an outstanding meal here in October 2014.
I had fairly low expectations — it being our only food option unless we wanted a 30-​odd mile round trip — but was so surprised how good the food was considering the monopoly they have.
I had Masa Chicken Asadero — delicious! Flavourful and a subtle hint of chili. I fully recommend this one.
My husband had the market mixed grill which was Elk, Quail and sausage. Pricey but worth it.
Desert selection was good and we enjoyed a delicious tres leche.
Good wine selection (including lots by the glass) although my first choice wasn’t available as they were running down stocks at the end of the season, which was understandable.
Service was excellent and the view was wonderful.

I am staying at the Far View Lodge, which I will write a separate review for. Basically, it has a monopoly as the only place to stay within the national park — it’s 20 miles in, up dark windy roads, so pretty much anyone who stays here also eats at Metate Room to avoid having to drive 45 minutes out of the park, on winding roads in the dark.
On a Tuesday night, at 7pm, I headed down to the Metate Room, the «fine dining» restaurant, which does not take reservations. There was a wait of OVER AN HOUR. On a Tuesday. In the ONLY place within 45 minutes to eat (there’s an upstairs bar that serves only appetizers). The whole lobby area was filled with hungry, grumpy people. And really, there isn’t anywhere else to go, so everyone staying here is sort of stuck waiting.
Since I was dining alone (here for work), I asked if I could order food to go. I was told by one person that the wait would still be an hour, and by another that it would only be 10 – 15 minutes. I ordered probably the simplest thing possible– chili and a side salad and decided to wait. It took an incredible 50 minutes for me to get my extremely simple order. Now I’m no restauranteur, but as I watched the dining room in action, it seemed incredibly inefficient. It was a large space, with sparse tables. They could have easily fit more tables. A table for 8 sat empty the entire time I was there, and could have been split into smaller tops. Servers and the host sort of meandered about, looking un-​phased by the incredibly long line of people waiting to be seated.
Now really, I wasn’t in a big hurry, and might not have even posted a review had the meal been decent, but I about died laughing when I unpacked my to-​go order that I had waited 50 minutes for, and cost $ 41 (I had wine too). Remember, this is a pretty pricey fine dining restaurant. I got my $ 11 white chicken chili IN A STARBUCKS CUP. And not even a big one– it was just a tall :) The $ 9 salad was bitter dry mixed greens with about 10 corn kernels on top in a tiny to go box. Greens without dressing are just cruel. And I even like salad. The only pro is that the starbucks cup chili was actually pretty good, as was the cornbread. If I can figure out how to get a photo of my hilarious meal up here, I will.
I mean really, thank god for the wine.

So…
This review is actually for the Far View Lounge which is above the restaurant. I gotta tell you, we were VERY impressed.
The view from their terrace is surreal, so you’re off to an amazing start right out of the gate. We ate there on 3 different nights, and our waiter Christian was outstanding. Very attentive and extremely personable. The other wait staff were also great, and the live music added to the ambiance.
They had about a dozen Colorado beers in bottles and 3 more on tap, so the beer offerings will satisfy you for more than 1 trip. The food was very creative and well made. We had most of the appetizers on the menu, including wild boar sliders served with Chipotle pita — unusual and outstanding. Quesadillas with an excellent chipotle cream sauce, Multicolored tortilla chip encrusted turkey strips served with prickly pear and pepper relish, and a queso that was very complex and excellent.
I expected an experience worth 3 stars, and have to extend 4. These people know how to deliver interesting fare at a good price for the quality. Foodies will be impressed, so don’t hesitate to give them a try when visiting the National Park. They can only enhance an already magical experience.

Some of the best food we have eaten, and for the very reasonable price and incredible views (including of Shiprock in New Mexico), it is worth the out of the way trip to Mesa Verde! I had the blue corn meal coated trout and it was out of this world, as was my wife’s portabella
mushroom quinoa explosion. Order the carrot cake but have at least two people to eat.

What a wonderful place to eat in a National Park! The vegan and vegetarian dishes were amazing, the soup and salads had great flavor, the wine was super and the view from the restaurant was AMAZING!!! We were in the Park for 2 nights and ate here both nights and loved everything. It was all great quality and the service was excellent.

Best food in the area.
Well worth going to if you are staying in the Park.

My $ 9.50 caesar salad was five leaves of romaine on a plate. The dressing was NOT a caesar but a sweetish balsamic. My server was kind enough to bring another when i mentioned the small portion. But it still wasn’t very good. The mushroom soup was fine and the elk pie my husband had was tasty.

I’ve been coming here literally for fifteen years. Sometimes I think it’s one of the main reasons I come to Mesa verde, but the truth is, I al out never have a great meal here. Some are good, some are poor but all are dominated by the fantastic view over the mesa that you just can’t get anywhere else.
Location: The restaurant has about half its back overlooking the Mesa with enormous windows. The best seats are those near the windows and they go fast. Even watching a storm rolling in is worhth the cost of often mediocre food.
Service: service varies widely in terms of competence because these are seasonal workers. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes not so much. But I’ve found it to almost always be friendly and pleasant.
Food: I’ve ordered lots and lots of items and seen the menu go through many changes. If there is anything to be learned from these experiences it is to order the simple things. The more complex the more likely I am to be disappointed. I’ll review the most recent meal here: I tried the fry bread pizza as a starter. The fry bread resembled dry pita, nothing like usual fry bread. There was a light dusting of flavorless toppings. I ate two pieces just to try to convince myself I was missing something. I wasn’t. Left the remainder. couldnt even get the rest of the group to eat it. I also ordered the chile rellenos. This literally gagged me because there was so much stringy cheese in that I couldn’t even chew and swallow it. I gave up on the filling after two bites and just worked on the chile itself which was fried in a light cornmeal batter. The rest of the table shared a salad which was fine. We also ordered some food from the chidrens menu to go. This was a good deal. It included spaghetti with marinara, rice and French fries.
A note on the lounge upstairs: you can get great views upstairs from inside or from the outside deck (very windy). They serve small plates, cocktails and beer and wine up there. But our experience was poor due to the service. We asked if they would make a golden Cadillac, the waiter replied, «no, but even if I could you wouldn’t want it because it would cost like $ 12». He was unable to recommend a beer off the list, just kind of shrugged when we asked. He would not give us a new empty glass to pour a watered down Pepsi in, and he was generally unfriendly and inconvenienced by our party. I did not include this experience in my ratings of the restaurant, but would give the lounge only two stars.

WOW!!!
The MOST impressive National Park food I have ever had. If you have time for a nice, romantic, authentic and well-​prepared meal… come here!!! Sadly, no reservations are taken here.
Yes, the prices are on the higher side (remember the tax is only approximately 2%), but the quality of the finished dishes, service and atmosphere (darkened room, less small children, linen tableclothes, Mesa vistas) is totally worth it. I do not think the prices are unreasonable or unfair.
The meal starts with the most amazing basket of bread ranging from pita to corn bread and local pinto/​black bean spread.
I had the quail– 2 well seasoned quails, a healthy scoop of polenta and sauteed squash. The birds were cooked medium and still very juicy. The side dishes were particularly impressive because corn and squash are native Mesa Verde ingredients, as is quail. I loved the modern twist on the Native American ingredients.
My husband had the Elk Sheppard’s pie. The dish was HUGE and had a bit of a kick. We took some home as a snack for the next day. The elk had a taste of game, but well done.
The quality of the food is in line with major city fine dinning… think NYC, Miami, etc. The service was spot-​on; our waitress was very cute, chatty and earnest. She was more casual, which gave the entire experience the perfect, classy national park vibe.
Overall, with two glasses of wine, a salad, two entrees, tax and tip our bill was $ 85.
Bottomline: Splurge for the nice dinner– it is totally worth it after «roughing» all day on the Mesa.

Food was delicious. I had the three sisters vegetarian meal and it was one of the best vegetarian meals I’ve ever had. Besides the food, the service was subpar. We waited 30 minutes past the wait time they estimated. The host was rude and briskly walked to our table without looking back to make sure we were following. As a result, we almost had to find our table on our own. Once seated a woman asked if we would like wine. I said, I had a beer at the bar and before I could ask for one, she said, «I like beer.» then she turned around and walked off. We were dumbfounded. Our waiter, who was very professional, and the food made the visit worth while.

The chef at the Metate Room has won awards for his cooking:
Chef Brian Puett is indeed talented. Although the menu is omnivore we had some vegan/​vegetarian dishes that were as good if not better than Millennium!
We actually had dinner here twice.
Before our meal we were given a basket with crown bread, chipotle bread and some delish spreads, including a spicy black bean.
The first meal we had:
Me: Poblano Chile Relleño, which is Puett’s signature dish.
It consists of a giant Poblano chile stuffed with cheese and covered in an ultra light and crispy batter… ohhhhhhh so good!
The chile was covered with black beans and nestled upon a polenta with red chili sauce. Super tasty!
Mr. Rinky had a vegan penne dish that came with a light tomato sauce and vegetables. Also very tasty.
For dessert our server brought out a tray with at least 7 different kinds of dessert – each one looking more appealing than the others – I vaguely remember the
crème brûlée cheesecake, some puffed pastry with chocolate and whipped cream,
chocolate cake, a pie thingy and my pick, crème brûlée with a prickly pear sauce.
OMG! OMG! It was so spectacularly good! The crust was perfect and the crème part was so rich and custardy… yeah, I did lick the plate.
Meal 2 – we both had the vegan special which was also spectacular.
I usually avoid Portabella mushrooms but these mushroom were marinated in a balsamic teriyaki sauce — OMG! So delicious. They came with 6 half yukon potato halves stuffed with seasoned potatoes, onions, garlic, squash and other veggies.
In the center was a bed of spinach flavored perfectly.
We loved this dish so much that I asked our server if she would please hug the chef for us. She did and said he was pleased we enjoyed the food sod much.
We were on a group tour so the chef invented this dish for the 8 or so people who
wanted a veggie meal. He should put in on the regular menu!
Our fellow travelers who had the meat or chicken dishes LOVED their food too.
Meals are on the pricey side ($ 15-​$ 20+) for an entrée. A little expensive but not crazy expensive.
The vegan meals we had here are probably the BEST vegetarian meals we’ve ever had!
I think if Brian Puett ever decided to go to some big city his meals could easily go for 2 – 3 times the amount that is charged at Metate.

We had dinner here recently while staying at the Far View Lodge in the park. As others have noted, it’s one of only 3 options (the other two being cafeteria style) and is therefore maybe slightly overpriced. We arrived in a short window between two bus tours and luckily didn’t have to wait long for a table. Our service was great. The focaccia they serve with black bean hummus when you are seated was delicious. The menu offered several interesting/​unusual options — I ordered a white sauce pasta dish with chicken, mushrooms and dried cherries. It was delicious — I have never seen dried cherries served in a pasta dish before (cranberries yes, cherries no). The portion was large and I took some back to the room for dinner the next evening.
I would definitely eat here again if I were visiting Mesa Verde, just to try another interesting item from the menu.

Metate Room Restaurant is the 3^rd out of 3 eateries offered in Mesa Verde National Park. Located inside the Far View Lodge, this is the more «upscale» restaurant of the bunch but I’d judge that by price over anything else
…well, maybe b/​c it’s also a real sit-​down restaurant w/​real menus
Props for offering a couple veggie options in your lineup but have to say my choice was mediocre at best
Veggie dish (Three Sisters Harvest) consisted of: Yellow Squash, Zucchini, undercooked Potatoes, a few Black Beans & a few Corn Kernels… lots of cheese & a dry /​stale puff pastry sitting on top. The sauce was good & I was loving the abundance of cheese — just wished there were more beans & corn & that the taters had been fully cooked
Buddy got the Chicken & said it was dry — not a lot of sauce came with it. Plate wasn’t cleaned
Too tired & too full for dessert — they looked tempting but given our average meal, we didn’t want to take the chance
Would also like to point out that offer a very nice wine list & they had a particularly yummy CA zin. Prices for their glasses were what I’d find here in SF
Didn’t see a beer list, yet as we were leaving, there was someone w/​a bottle of beer… hmmmm
Price for 2 dinner entrees & 1 glass of wine? $ 42 (before tip)

for what it is, it’s very good. it wouldn’t be fair to compare it to gourmet restaurants, because it’s really a NPS dining room with a great mesa-​top location. The views are awesome, the wine we ordered was very good, and our appetizers and entrees were great. As other reviewers have mentioned, the view is part of the experience, so try to arrive well before nightfall, so you can enjoy the panorama.
We had a great server & very attentive service, but I heard two different parties complaining to the manager that they were ignored for long periods of time, so YMMV.