El Tovar Dining Room Review
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Wondering if El Tovar Dining Room is worth it? Here’s our honest review of the food, atmosphere, canyon views, reservations, and what to expect.
Estimated reading time: 17 minutes
One thing I really love about visiting national parks is that even if you don’t stay at one of the historic national park lodges, you can still experience it.
And sometimes, honestly, that is enough.
We stayed at Maswik Lodge during our Grand Canyon trip, so we weren’t staying at El Tovar. But we made reservations for an early dinner at the El Tovar Dining Room, which gave us a chance to see the hotel, walk around inside for a little while, and have what turned out to be a really fantastic meal.
Because here is the thing with national park dining. Sometimes the food is pretty basic. It isn’t bad. It does the job. You have been out sightseeing all day, you are hungry, and you are happy to have somewhere convenient to eat.
And then sometimes you get a meal like this.
The El Tovar Dining Room really wowed us.
El Tovar Is Worth Seeing Even If You Aren’t Staying There
First of all, the hotel itself is just really cool.
El Tovar is one of the historic lodges at the Grand Canyon, and the second you walk inside you can tell that this place has been here for a while.
There are massive wooden beams throughout the lobby, a big stone fireplace, old paintings hanging on the walls, and quite a collection of mounted animals.
And yes, there is a very large moose looking down at you.
You can see in my photos that this is not a bright, modern hotel lobby. The wood is dark. The ceilings are heavy with timber. Even the lights and furniture fit the historic lodge feel.
I loved it.
I am kind of a sucker for these old national park lodges anyway, so even though we weren’t staying here, I was really happy that dinner gave us an excuse to go inside and look around.
It is just part of the Grand Canyon experience.
We Had One of the First Dinner Reservations
We had a pretty early dinner, and I believe we were some of the first people seated for the evening.
That worked out extremely well for us.
We got a table right next to the windows.
And the location of this dining room is kind of ridiculous, in the best possible way.
El Tovar is right on the rim of the Grand Canyon.
So there we were, sitting at dinner, and just beyond the windows was the Grand Canyon.
You can see it in the photos from our table. There are trees outside and the rim path between the hotel and the canyon, so it isn’t like the windows are hanging over the edge or anything. But you can absolutely see the canyon from inside the dining room.
That was pretty amazing.
Obviously I would never book dinner here with the expectation that you are definitely going to get a window table. There aren’t that many of them.
But if you are able to get one, it is a pretty spectacular place to sit.
And I do wonder if having such an early reservation helped us.
The Dining Room Is Very Nice… But You Are Still at a National Park
The dining room itself is beautiful too.
It carries over the same look as the rest of El Tovar, with all of the dark wood, timber framing, warm lights, and historic artwork.
It definitely feels more upscale than most places you are going to eat inside a national park.
But don’t read “upscale” and think you suddenly need to pack dress clothes for your Grand Canyon vacation.
You don’t.
This is still the Grand Canyon.
People have been sightseeing all day. They have been walking along the rim, riding buses around the park, and probably getting dirt on their shoes.
We didn’t dress up.
The restaurant feels special because of the setting and because of the food, not because everybody is sitting around in fancy clothes.
That is actually one of the things I liked about it.
You can have a genuinely nice dinner without it feeling fussy.
And This Was Not Basic National Park Food
The food was probably the biggest surprise for me.
I knew El Tovar was historic. I knew the dining room was supposed to be nice. And obviously I knew the location was going to be fantastic.
What I didn’t necessarily expect was for the food itself to be that good.
This is clearly a kitchen doing more than reheating standard tourist food.
The dishes were beautifully presented. And the menu here is definitely more elevated than what you are going to find at most national park restaurants, but it isn’t so adventurous that there is nothing for a normal person to eat.
There were quite a few entrée choices.
All three of us ordered something different.
And all three of us were very happy.
What We Ate at El Tovar
The menu at El Tovar is going to change.
That is important to know going in.
This isn’t one of those restaurants where I would tell you, “You absolutely have to order this exact thing,” because there is a very good chance that by the time you visit, that dish won’t even be on the menu anymore.
The restaurant is much more seasonal than that.
But based on our dinner, I would feel pretty confident ordering whatever sounds good to you.
Because everything we had was prepared really well.
My Entrée Was Fantastic
I wish I could tell you with absolute certainty what I ordered.
Looking back at the photo, I am pretty sure it was either chicken or duck.
And since this meal was a while ago, I am not going to pretend that I remember something I don’t.
But I definitely remember the plate.
There was this beautifully cooked piece of poultry with a sauce underneath it, and then these tiny carrots and other vegetables arranged around the plate.
And those carrots were amazing.
I know.
Carrots.
Not exactly the thing you expect to remember from a really nice dinner.
But I remember them.
They were those little fingerling-sized carrots, cooked perfectly, and whatever they had done with them made them way better than carrots had any business being.
The whole dish was like that.
It looked fancy when it arrived, but it wasn’t one of those fancy meals where you get three bites of food and leave hungry.
It was just really well done.
My Husband Loved His Pasta
My husband ordered what looks from the photo like some kind of bolognese-style pasta.
And he loved it.
It had a rich meat sauce over the pasta with cheese on top, and it was exactly the kind of meal that works really well after spending the day outside at the Grand Canyon.
Comfort food, but elevated.
That is probably the easiest way to describe a lot of the menu here.
The dishes felt special, but they were still recognizable.
You weren’t looking at the menu wondering what on earth half of the ingredients were.
Even the Salad Was Really Good
We also had a salad that was incredibly fresh.
And again, this sounds like such a small thing, but it is one of the details that stuck with me.
The greens looked crisp. The vegetables were fresh. Everything looked like somebody had actually assembled it shortly before it came to the table instead of pulling a pre-made salad out of a refrigerator.
That was really the overall feel of this meal.
Nothing felt mass-produced.
The Bread Basket Was a Hit
And then there was the bread.
My daughter was very happy about the bread basket.
It came out warm, which immediately made it better, and it was one of those things where everybody starts tearing pieces off before the rest of the food arrives.
It was simple.
But really good.
And honestly, when a restaurant gets the bread right, I am already feeling pretty optimistic about dinner.
Definitely Save Room for Dessert
I don’t remember what everyone else ordered for dessert.
I do remember mine.
It was this chocolate dessert with fruit sorbet.
And it was fantastic.
You can see in the photo that it was plated like an actual restaurant dessert, with the chocolate portion in the center and the sorbet and fruit alongside it.
The chocolate was rich, and the fruit and sorbet gave it that tart contrast so it didn’t feel too heavy after dinner.
I would absolutely order something like that again.
And that is probably my best advice when it comes to dessert here.
Take a look at what they have when you visit.
Because if dinner is any indication, dessert is not an afterthought.
Is El Tovar Dining Room Good for Kids?
Yes.
At least I think it works really well for families who want a nicer meal without needing the meal to become an entire production.
The restaurant is upscale, but it is not intimidating.
My daughter was completely comfortable there.
There were things she liked.
There was bread.
There were familiar food choices.
And nobody was expecting a kid eating dinner at the Grand Canyon to behave like she was dining at a Michelin-starred restaurant.
That is one of the reasons I think this works so well as a special family meal.
You get the nice dining experience without it becoming stressful.
The Menu Has More Variety Than You Might Expect
One thing I noticed when I looked at the dinner menu again recently is that there are actually quite a few choices.
That surprised me a little.
When you hear “historic national park lodge dining room,” it would be easy to assume you are going to have a tiny menu with a handful of expensive entrées.
But there is enough variety that most people should be able to find something they like.
And I think that matters, especially if you are traveling with a family where everybody has different tastes.
The exact dishes will change over time.
The prices will change.
The seasonal ingredients will change.
But based on our meal, I would not get too hung up on trying to figure out the one perfect thing to order.
Pick what sounds good.
The kitchen clearly knows what it is doing.
Make Reservations Ahead of Time
If you want to eat at the El Tovar Dining Room, I would definitely make reservations ahead of time.
This is one of the more popular restaurants at the South Rim, and lunch and dinner reservations are required in advance. The exact booking window can change, so I would check the current El Tovar information when you are planning your trip rather than assume you can just walk in.
And based on our experience, I would seriously consider an early dinner.
Partly because that is how we ended up with such a great table.
But also because it gave us time after dinner to walk outside and enjoy the rim before it got completely dark.
That ended up being one of my favorite parts of the evening.
El Tovar Is Really Easy to Reach Without Driving
Another thing I liked about eating here was that we did not have to worry about moving our car.
We were staying at Maswik Lodge, and the Village shuttle made getting back and forth pretty easy.
The stop for El Tovar is the Train Depot stop on the Village, or Blue, Route. That stop also serves Hopi House and Verkamp’s Visitor Center.
And this is the part I remembered very clearly from our visit.
After dinner, we walked downhill from El Tovar toward the train depot and across the tracks to get to the shuttle area.
Then we could ride the Blue Route back toward Maswik Lodge.
So if you are staying somewhere else in Grand Canyon Village, you absolutely do not need to stay at El Tovar to make dinner here work.
Just pay attention to the shuttle schedule for the time of year you are visiting, especially if you plan to stay out for sunset.
Yes, the Grand Canyon Railway Is Right There
The historic Grand Canyon Railway depot is directly below El Tovar.
You can actually see how close everything is once you are there.
The hotel is up on the rim, and the depot and shuttle stop are down the hill below it.
So if you are arriving at the South Rim by train, El Tovar is incredibly convenient.
I would not say that everyone who rides the train needs to stay at El Tovar.
But I can certainly understand why it would be appealing.
You basically step off the train in the historic village, with El Tovar sitting right above you.
Stop at Hopi House While You Are There
Right near El Tovar is another one of the historic buildings at the South Rim, Hopi House.
That is the pueblo-style building you can see in my photos.
We did not actually go inside.
I believe it was closed by the time we were there.
But even from the outside, it is one of those buildings that makes this entire section of the Grand Canyon feel different from a normal hotel area.
It was designed to resemble a traditional Hopi pueblo, and today it is used for Native American arts and crafts.
So if it is open when you are there, it would be very easy to combine that with dinner.
El Tovar, Hopi House, the rim, and the train depot are all right together.
Definitely Walk Out to the Rim Before or After Dinner
Even if you do not get a window table, you still get the view.
Because the Grand Canyon is basically right outside the hotel.
And I mean that literally.
You walk out of El Tovar, and within a couple of minutes you can be standing along the rim looking into the canyon.
That is exactly what we did.
After dinner, we walked outside and caught sunset right around El Tovar.
It was gorgeous.
And I think that is one of the best reasons to make this meal part of your Grand Canyon plans.
Dinner does not have to be a break from sightseeing.
Dinner can be part of the sightseeing.
You can spend the afternoon exploring Grand Canyon Village, have an early dinner at El Tovar, walk outside for sunset, and then hop on the shuttle back to your lodge.
That is a pretty great evening.
Is El Tovar Dining Room Worth It?
For us, absolutely.
This was not just a meal we ate because we happened to be at the Grand Canyon.
It was one of the experiences I remember from the trip.
I remember walking through the old lodge and looking at the huge fireplace and all of the timber beams.
I remember getting that table next to the windows.
I remember those tiny carrots.
I remember my daughter being very happy about the warm bread.
I remember the chocolate dessert.
And then I remember walking outside afterward and watching the sky change over the Grand Canyon.
That is a lot to get out of one dinner.
So even if you are not staying at El Tovar, I would still put the dining room on your list.
You get the historic lodge.
You get a really good meal.
And when dinner is over, the Grand Canyon is waiting right outside.
More Grand Canyon Trip Planning
If you are planning a trip to the South Rim, I have quite a few more Grand Canyon guides that can help you put the rest of your visit together.
Start with my Grand Canyon South Rim Guide for the big-picture overview of what to see, where to stay, how to get around, and how to plan your time.
If you want incredible canyon views without tackling strenuous hikes, check out my Best Grand Canyon Viewpoints Without Hardcore Hiking guide. This is especially helpful if you want to experience a lot of the South Rim without spending your vacation climbing in and out of the canyon.
Visiting during spring? My Grand Canyon in March guide covers what our trip was actually like, including the snowstorm that completely changed some of our plans.
For one of my favorite Grand Canyon experiences, read my guide to Sunrise and Sunset at the Grand Canyon. We caught sunset right outside El Tovar after this dinner before I continued along Hermit Road for twilight views.
Still figuring out how much time to spend here? My How Many Days Do You Need at the Grand Canyon? guide explains why I think two full days is the sweet spot for most visitors who aren’t planning a major hiking or backpacking trip.
And if you are trying to decide where to stay, don’t miss my Maswik Lodge Review. That is where we stayed during this trip, and we loved having a comfortable, recently renovated room within an easy walk of the rim.
You can also use my One Day at the Grand Canyon itinerary if you are working with a shorter visit and want to make the most of the time you have.
