The Dining Room

We had breakfast this morning. Amazing views and friendly staff. Other than that, you can go to Denny’s and get food with more flavor.

The view is amazing, food is good but nothing super amazing that I couldn’t get back home. Prices are outrageous. 5 $ for one small scoop of strawberry ice cream? Meals are outrageously priced as well. We stuck to two meals a day to save money.

This review is based on 2 breakfasts we had during our recent stay, as well as a wine tasting with Don in the cellar.
Breakfast is surprisingly standard — nothing fancy or very creative. However, everything is made with fresh, local ingredients. Sometimes simpler is the best way to go. And the service is attentive without being overbearing. We enjoyed sitting by the window for the view over a relaxing breakfast.
We also attended one of Don’s wine tastings in the cellar. He had a over a dozen wines you could choose from and we selected 4 each for $ 20. He started us off with one of his picks, we moved to our 4 picks, and then he through in a bonus tasting. It was really fun to sit around the big table tasting with a cornucopia of others fluttering in and out. Don is very knowledgable and offered a discount on bottles as well. We took 6 home. Thank you Don!
Next time we will try dinner here. Overall a lovely place.

I can only comment on breakfast here, but since it’s included in many packages at the otherwise wonderful Sun Mountain Lodge, I think my impressions might be useful.
First of all, the view, as others have mentioned, is spectacular. With the sun behind you, lighting up the Methow Valley, the glacially formed landscape is a wonder to behold.
Alas, as with so many view restaurants, the management seems to consider a good view enough to justify moderate hotel breakfast prices for what is just OK diner food. With a few exceptions, the ingredients all come from a Sys*o tractor trailer (I saw it unload myself).
The first morning I had one of the few exceptions to the above, pancakes with some emmer flour from nearby Bluebird farms, one of the great grain growers in the state. Much to their credit the maple syrup was maple syrup!
The second morning I made the mistake of ordering the oatmeal. For $ 9.00 one might expect tasty steel-​cut oats. What you get is a vast bowl of little cardboard-​like flakes of «5-​minute» oats. They taste like water in which oats have soaked. The teaspoon of local Okanogan Valley Braeburn apple chutney did little more than suggest what the oatmeal could have been, if the cook had put his or her heart into it. What a disappointment!
The other breakfast entries included omlets that were ok, toast that was plain, banana bread that could have come from a package. And juice package long ago and far away.

So the Sun Mountain Lodge has 2 establishments to eat at if you happen to be there, like I was. The first is the Wolf Creek Bar & Grill. The other and I think better, is simply called the Dining Room. They’re both located int he same lodge and are right next to each other.
Now the interior of the Dining Room is the same as the Wollf Creek Bar & Grill. It has a very outdoors feel to it and it should it’s a lodge. As with it’s sister restaurant it offers a spectacular view of the Methow Valley. The Dining Room is definitely more upscale than the Wolf Creek Bar & Grill in terms of table setting and service.
The staff was very friendly and helpful. They were also very attentive to our needs and would regularly check-​in with my girlfriend and I to make sure everything was to our satisfaction.
The Dining Room offers everything from fish to steak on the menu. I however ordered the special which included osso bucco, mushroom strudel, and dessert. I’m pretty sure there was something else included, but I forgot since I was a little delayed in writinng this review. In any case the osso bucco was very good. It was a little too salty, but not so much and that it made eating difficult. The meat was well cooked and easily fell off the bone. The dessert was also equally as delicious. It was a passion fruit mousse. It was creamy and delicious. The dish that stood out the most was the mushroom strudel. Holy cow that was fantastic. It was a flakely buttery pastry on the outside and inside was a flavorful sliced mushrooms in a sauce. It was sooo good. I’d go back just to have that again. In addition my girlfriend got me a cake for my birthday. The cake was a little unexpected so I wasn’t prepared for it. Basically I was already sugared out. But I did eat a slice. It was a rich think chocolate cake with a thin fruit layer in the middle. It was welled baked and moist.
Overall my experience at the Dining Room was good. If I went back to the Sun Mountain Lodge I would definitely eat there again.