Wawona Dining Room

it closes at 1 for lunch so hurry up.

We were supposed to be staying at a campsite Friday night, but decided instead to stay at Womona Hotel! It was cold outside (around 12 degrees) and the campsites look dreary. Womona on the other hand looked warm and welcoming.
We walked into reception area and get a room for the night. After checking in we journeyed back to the Wamona Dining area and sat at a table adjacent from the pianist.
It was a really fun environment with the piano playing — we grabbed a puzzle and ordered night caps.
Service was fast, drinks were good, and the piano player was a lot of fun!
Would definitely return!

We stayed at the Wawona Hotel so we figured we would eat here for a nice dinner. It was very expensive for the quality of food. I had a large Caesar Salad, which had way WAY too much dressing! We also shared the cheese sampling appetizer. You get four TINY slices of four types of artisan cheeses and four small slices of bread. I was shocked at how small the portions were. It’s not worth the money at all!

Start your day right, they say. Good breakfast is a must on hiking adventures — and Wawona got it right.
First of all, service is incredibly quick — they know there is not enough hours in a day to see everything in Yosemite.
Dining room is bright and spacious. Sitting by the window, your backpack leaning against your chair, watching tall evergreens sway in the wind while sipping good strong coffee — incredibly peaceful.
Breakfast portions are huge — fuel for the hiking it is, for sure! Egg Benedict, with bacon bits, potatoes, fruits — everything was pretty good. And freshly squeezed orange juice — oh, that was just perfect!
I am stuffed. I need a nap in one of those white Adirondack chairs on the porch…
May be just for a bit… Wake me up in half hour… #PowerNap!

Why five stars? The dining room here is totally lovely inside. All the staff are seriously the kindest servers I’ve had anywhere in years and they have made an effort to have good variety and interesting menu with healthy options. The trout in particular is really good. The staff packed our breakfasts to go for our 4am hike and even fed us when we showed up right at closing time after getting off half dome later than planned on a Monday. The night we dined in, our two servers were just beyond accommodating. I wouldn’t recommend coming here expecting the food/​preparation quality of urban settings and I’m not basing my review on that. It could be tastier, but I was so glad to be able to get high quality food with fresh ingredients inside a remote national park served by nice people in a beautiful setting.

We had lunch. Our server Tim was excellent. Better service could not be expected in such rustic settings. Even though I could tell he was juggling a tour bus that had blown through. I had the beer battered fish and chips and for once I could actually taste the beer. The staff was very gracious to my 15 month son. Good place to treat yourself after a long days hike. The price is a little high but if you factor in your in a tourist spot and I like to imagine a few dollars of my meal go into keeping the historic place alive it’s actually a bargain.

We had brunch here today, Easter Sunday. Was very pleased with our server, Susan S. She introduced herself immediately, offered beverages and went over the routine for the Buffet. She came back frequently to make ask if we needed anything. When there was a delay in getting a refill on iced tea, she explained why and offered other choices.
As far as food, it was a well done buffet with an acceptable variety of food. My wife loves lamb, she was not disappointed. I loved their beef with a horseradish sauce. They also ha a couple of style of eggs, fruit, potatoes, salmon, and an incredible array of deserts. Very worth while at $ 22.25 each.

Starting off 2015 reviewing by finishing my 2014 drafts… here we go.
If you’re within a reasonable distance of getting to Yosemite National Forest, the Wawona Hotel and Dining Room is the place to be. Especially in the late fall or Winter.
Compared to other places to dine during this time of year, its the best deal you’re gonna get. The next stop is a general store about 100 yards away or the hotels in the Valley… and that will cost you dearly. Cost you mainly because the valley is mostly shut down until spring. So I hope tree sap and bark is what you enjoy as an entrée.
Food:
The quality and variety of food is decent. Its warm, well presented but kinda pricy. Id say the pot roast or turkey meatloaf is your best bet. Not in to meat? There are pasta and veggie selections available too. I don’t recommend the Pasta Alfredo. It was bland, luke warm and basically dead unless you add some chicken to it.
Service:
The service is hit and miss here. Ive had «OMG stellar» and «pretty fucking lame». So this will depend on your server. Or maybe its cause We’re Angelenos and are inherently impatient. I dunno?
Other:
I do like that if you are a guest at the hotel you get an included continental breakfast (muffin, fruit, yogurt juice and coffee) or the choice of a discounted actual breakfast (omelets with meat, pancakes etc).
There is a cocktail hour in the main room with a piano player making things lively before you go in for dinner. Very relaxing and an opportunity to chill.
The Moore Cottage is said to be haunted. Yeah I know this has nothing to do with the review of the dining room but it needed to be said.
Overall:
This was our second visit to the Wawona and am looking forward to the next one. With some imperfections aside, Its a great place to stay and eat before you explore Yosemite National Park. Yep I give it a thumbs way up.
Ay los Watcho.

We ate here twice during our stay last month and thought the food was very good. Tried the vegetarian portobello dish, turkey meatloaf and scallop boat and all tasted great. The rolls however were hard and obviously reheated. The complimentary breakfast and the one we paid for were plenty of food and very good.
Unfortunately the girl at the desk told us when we checked in that we didn’t need dinner reservations. Wrong! You will want to put your name in as soon as you get there and be prepared to wait an hour when the piano player is there. Cocktail service was very slow and only 2 cocktail waiters for both dining and lounge.

We were in the sitting room in the lobby, waiting for a table, watching the empty piano bench. The pianist was off tonight, hopefully not recovering from indigestion from eating the food here, if previous bad reviews are of any indication!
Well we are 30 miles from nowhere, and they have a captive audience, and we aren’t about to eat bread and fruits for dinner, like the poor couple from Camp Wawona sitting on the Veranda in front of our room!
The maitre d’ is fully dressed in a very spiffy looking restaurant uniform, and the waiters are in black pants with white shirts, bow ties, and black coats. The place reminds me of the Ahwahnee dining hall. I ask her if there is a dress code here, and she says come as you are dressed –me in my $ 100 womens Chaco sandals, Disneyland tank top, and 1990s Fila tennis shorts!
No, it is indeed not pretentious like the Ahwahnee dining hall. No dinner jacket requirements, and no dress codes of collared shirts and long pants like that stuffy restaurant 40 miles up the road!
Beautiful dining room, with windows up to the ceilings on two sides, white table cloths, candles, flowers, and a beautiful view of the water fountain, with the sun setting behind trees in the distance. How romantic, the wife says!
Unfortunately the window seats on the fountain side are taken, and we get a window seat on the far side, with a considerably less romantic view –that of a walk in freezer compartment, and equipment sheds. This is where your dinner was last night. It could be worse — a view of the dumpsters!
It’s 97 degrees outside, with no AC, and oscillating fans everywhere. Hot and sweaty. Everyone is in shorts and sandals, even the men who never wore sandals in their life, not just me! Granted some of the older men are in socks and sandals, a fashion faux pas, but would you rather see their big veined hairy feet and gnarled toenails?! My appetite is gone just thinking about it!
Biscuits are served with honey butter, and are to die for! We ask the waitress and she recommends three dishes: the $ 30 flat iron steak, the $ 27 pot roast, and the $ 28 trout. The neighbors are having the trout and the $ 29 pesto seafood pasta, and gives us the thumbs up! We copy cat their order, and my wife gets a glass of $ 7 red wine –red wine with fish?! Well after 10 years of marriage, I’m not about to argue with her.
Besides being pricey, this is not a place to eat if you are in a hurry. After a very long wait, dinner comes. The wife gets the $ 28 trout with brown rice and assorted vegetables, and devours it like it’s her last meal –it’s that good!
I get the $ 29 seafood pasta, a pesto sauce with halibut, sea bass, and salmon. I skim the top and take the fish least drenched in the sauce, leaving my pesto loving wife the bottom portion. Even she agrees that the pesto sauce is too strong for the fish, overwhelming the fish flavor.
The next day we are back for our continental breakfast, that comes with the $ 170 130 square foot room– comparable in price per square foot to our room at the Ahwahnee!
This time we do get a seat right by the front window, with the tall water fountain in the background. Breakfast comes with a bagel, yogurt, granola bits, chopped and peeled fruit bowl, orange juice, milk, coffee, various shortcakes and breadcakes. Not bad for a continental breakfast, and the ambience is wonderful. Living at its most decadent, in the victorian Wawona dining room!

I really wanted to like this place because it was in the middle of a wonderful landscape, staff was super friendly and the hotel was charming. They gave us a spacious area to eat with my baby’s stroller and the changing table in the bathroom was very clean. It actually had the disposable pads that are always lacking in changing tables in any public bathroom.
However, the pasta and the soup was so terrible that we will not go back. I probably had the worst pasta I ever had in my life, you are better off buying the frozen prepared pasta at the supermarket, it is much better. Two people sitting next to us return the dishes and got their money back. The other dishes were OK but not worth for the price.
I hope I can go back when they fix their kitchen because this place has soooo much potential…

The food gets two stars. The value gets less than one star. I can’t understand how a historic hotel like the Wawona chooses to serve such consistently mediocre fare. They obviously don’t care.
The continental breakfast is a total joke. Came with a tiny muffin past it’s prime, a slide of blah poppy sees bread, and the granola was a thimble full (I asked for milk instead if yogurt for the granola), two teaspoons full. No kidding.
Dinner was a bit better but expensive. Turkey meatloaf and salad for just under $ 30.
Cynical «we gotcha and there’s nowhere else to eat, hahaha».

This is a review on the lunch menu. Let’s state some facts here. When you’re at Yosemite, you’re not there to enjoy fine dining but to see the amazing park and scenic views. This place was unusual because I expected it to be overpriced and mediocre. Although it was expensive for what it was, the ambiance was fantastic after an exhausting day under the sun. The porch is very charming and so are the wait staff. The food was good and made to order but the Salmon burger is a frozen patty. The beef burger was hand made because it was loosely packed. The pickles were good and so were the salads. Overall, this is a good option if you are heading to or from Mariposa Grove. A good way to rest in the middle of the day.

We enjoyed two dinners here, having changed our minds about a more famous and expensive locale whose lunch tasted like airline food with a slower arrival time. We enjoyed the warm ambiance, coming in from the rain on both evenings and the piano man in the lobby is a virtuoso with rags and gags and really entertained us during a brief wait. The hostess and all the staff who helped us are very nice and personable.
While the room has a quiet elegance, there is no pretense here and the staff is friendly and casual. The menu is limited and a little pricey but considering where you are, this is to be expected.
Their crab cakes are better than any we’ve had here at home in Monterey and the Caesar salad, large enough to split, was very good (although for my taste, needed a bit more lemon and next time, I’ll ask for some on the side) The biscuits are a tasty compliment served with warm butter as soon as we sat down. Wine and drink prices are very fair including a $ 14.50 corkage and the hot chocolate is served hot, delicious and very rich.
The pork Porterhouse, pot roast and cannelloni were all good and the vegetables quite memorable, fresh and cooked to perfection. Note: they serve smaller portions for some of their items which might be more-​than-​ample in the case of the pot roast, especially if you have a salad or appetizer.
Alas, why I give the Wawona only 3 stars is their desserts We tried the apple/​berry cobbler, crème brûlée and bread pudding and all were horrible. The only chocolate offering on the menu was a sundae. At a place like this, there is no reason to end a meal on a bad note and even these basic comfort food items can be gold stars if made correctly. We suggested to the manager that they employ a pastry chef since even pre-​made frozen desserts from the market are better than what we were served. If hand-​made, I know there are some better recipes out there to follow.
We plan to return, and look forward to staying at the Hotel as well, BUT… I would not order dessert until they raise the bar considerably. Have a hot chocolate instead. Caveat Emptor.

This place used to serve a really amazing everything full cooked breakfast that was included in the price of the room. The evening meals were very good too. But sadly this is no longer the case. The new management or parks service or who ever they are have decided to change things…
Now you get a very basic breakfast included in the room price and anything additional costs extra. The evening meals are even worse! They don’t even have proper soup bowls and the staff are super unmotivated. The food is only OK but they are still charging top dollar.
This place has lost it! Go elsewhere…

The bread that was served was old and stale, the Brie appetizer, was made hours before and while the cheese was melted it was cold and the bread was old cold and hard. The NY steak was ordered medium and it was served rare with BBQ sauce???
The lamps are covered in dust and spiderwebs, the view out the window from our table was of a portable walk-​in freezer.
The chef of this restaurant should be ashamed of himself, I will never eat here again.

This should be a 3.8 star review =)
On a whim, and at 8pm, my co-​worker and I stopped by the Wawoma Dining Room after a 8.75 mile hike around the Yosemite valley floor since we knew that if we drove all the way to Coarsegold, our dining options would be very limited by 9pm.
The host was very gracious and seated us immediately. No mention was made of our casual dress (shorts, tank top and legs streaked w dust). We were made to feel comfortable and welcome.
The hotel and dining room evoke a very spacious plantation w forest/​cabin décor with very high ceilings (like 20 feet?). White shutters.
Since it was late, I ordered the organic greens salad (w golden raisins) and cheese plate for my dinner. They were just as expected– salad w cheese. Nothing special, but exactly what I wanted. So I’m happy. My co-​worker, who is vegetarian– ordered the vegetable ricotta canneloni (sp) and she really enjoyed it.
For dessert, I ordered the hot fudge brownie sundae. It was very rich and gooey. Could have been a little warmer. My co-​worker ordered the crème brûlée and really enjoyed it. She said, «If it were socially acceptable to like the bowl, I would.»
We both agreed that we would totally stay at this hotel…

This is for the continental breakfast only. The breakfast is pretty simple, like a holiday inn, but in a very old hotel. The usual bagels, toast, fruit, coffee, hard boiled eggs, yogurt and snack bars for you pockets! Simple, and comes with the room. You can order off a menu, however, note this review is only about the continental breakfast.

Good food and service. No A/​C but comfortable in the evening, I had the post roast and it was very good. prices are very high for what you get but overall a good experience. The Wawona is an historic monument and is worth seeing.

So after a long day and dealing with the rain, it was time to have a relaxing evening. We arrived and were seated almost immediately. The dining room was very nice aesthetically, very classic looking. Our server came to the table, with a very lack luster personality. We immediately ordered some soup, something to warm us up. I can personally review two of the five meals ordered.
Starters: I ordered the Black Bean Chili, which I really enjoyed, having the right amount of heat. My partner ordered the Turkey chowder, it was ok, I’m a believer that you should never have to add any extra salt and pepper to a dish, as a true «Chef» should know how to prepare it perfectly. Now I know peoples pallates are different. That being said, I had to add salt, and I wasn’t to wild about it.
Entrees:
1. Tortellini: I thought I had seen a plate go by that looked pretty good. It was then brought to the table. It was lacking anything resembling the plate that went by me, and reminded me of your typical hotel quick fix, throw in some overly oiled tomato sauce, throw in some capers and there you have it. Really wasn’t worth it.
2. Bison Burger: It was interesting, cooked medium rare. It was accompanied with Steak fries. For a «gourmet» burger it was middle grade. If you just want a burger, I’d probably get this.
Dessert:
Now I suppose I have higher standards, sincer I’m a baker by hobby, so I like to ask any server if their dessert selections were made there on the property. If you sense any kind of hesitation then it’s usually an item ordered from a manufacturing food supplier. We assumed that the cheesecake was brought in. So we asked the server, and he said, however with a crack in his voice, that it was all made there. (yeah uh huh)
We ordered the Chef’s Special Cake. On this evening, the special was Black Forrest Cake. It really had this not fresh taste to it, and came across as if it had been thawed, then had some nuts thrown on the side, not so Chef’s Special. Oh well.
So overall it wasn’t worth the price they’re charging. The grounds themselves are very nice looking and inviting. The staff just didn’t put much effort into their jobs. And it reflects loud and clear.
I would really rather eat in Curry Village.