Utah Snowbird : Food Questions

[silverback]

Expecting good pizza other than the NJ/Philly/NYC area is a pipe dream.

I miss going to Frank's Pizza during lunch at work, back when I lived in North Jersey

Tell us you haven’t been to Portland (Oregon) without telling us.

or New Haven, CT

 

[snwbrdr]

On Bloomfield Ave? That's close to my neck of the woods.

I used to go to the ones over on Rte 15 in Jefferson Township and the one by Rockaway mall

 

[zeak]

I've stayed at the Cliff a few times with my family... in fact, we'll be there next week.

All the restaurants are decent, if somewhat inconsistent. The Lodge Bistrot is maybe my favorite of the group, and we'll dine there one night this trip, but I've yet to eat at the Steak Pit. I think we're trying it for the first time on Wednesday.

I've had a good meal at SeventyOne, but also a disappointing one. It's basically bar/diner food. The Wildflower pizza is, well... I'm from North Jersey and spend a lot of time in Italy, so when I'm traveling my expectations for pizza are really low anyway. Ha! It's not too bad. We'll hit it at least one time.

The Aerie is more expensive than the others, so it depends on your budget, but I don't feel it's worth it. Personally, our plan usually involves destroying ourselves during the day to the point that come evening, we'll take anything that's hot and provides sustenance for the following day. That is also why we shuttle it up there. We go there to ski, and don't mind being sequestered for a few days. Last year on a trip to Soli/Brighton my son and I had a car, and frankly it was a pain to drive up and down each night for dinner. But there it was a bit more important since they don't have the same number of dining options, plus it was late in the season.

I'll be staying at the GMD for the first time in February, solo, so looking forward to seeing how they do it. This trip we'll split our days, between resorts, but ski Alta more as we prefer it.

Thanks that's extremely helpful. As long as the food is warm and decent we'll be happy after skiing so much. Some reviews talk about food coming an hour late and super cold. We'll def shoot for pasta at Widlflower one night and wing it the rest of the nights.

 

[Crank]

We are staying up there Jan. 15-20 so report back on restaurants please.

Have stayed up at Snowbird before but not in about 8 or 9 years. Italian place in Iron Blossam was OK. Steak place in main lodge was way over priced but ok. Cliff Lodge had a kind of decent Mexican place but I don't remember the name or if it's still there, Crappy but edible pizza take out in main lodge and the little, expensive grocery deli store.

Telluride has great restaurants all over including on the hill. Sometimes they have great snow too!
Jackson Hole has great restaurants at the base and in town and often has great snow too!

Snowbird, not so much.

 

[SIMMS7400]

The Wildflower in Iron Blossom is great for your standard pub fare. Good bar pizza, wings, burgers and cold beer - what else do you need after a long day skiing? The other restaurants are fine but extremely overpriced. In addition, the General Store may be hands down one of the biggest rip offs I've seen in a long time.

If you are lucky enough to be staying in a suite or a room with a small kitchen and fridge, do yourself a favor and buy groceries in SLC. If that's not an option as you have a shuttle from the airport, there is a guy that will make a grocery run for you. Tt is pricey but still WAY cheaper than shopping at the general store. Let me try to dig out those details for you.

 

[ejj]

Nothing new here: Snowbird (and Alta) has no real town/village like some resorts do--see Telluride, Jackson, Whitefish, etc. So the resort has essentially created a few dining themes for your taste and wallet comfort. I use those terms loosely, as most of the food is expensive and mediocre.

Yelp: Some people just had a great day on the slopes and spirits are high and everything is good. Others are used to real restaurants with regular servers, etc. Do not compare Snowbird options to real restaurants that don't survive on a captive audience. LCC is one of the best ski locations anywhere. But assume your food will be crappy. I often avoid the "fancy" resort options since they are rarely as good as they hope to be. (However, have you been to Telluride? Great on-mountain and town-food options)

Groceries: if you have a private shuttle, they will plan a 15 minute stop for you. Otherwise don't plan on this. The store in the Tram Building has snacks and microwave food mostly.

Alta Food: Most hotels in Alta include breakfast and dinner for their guests. That is part of their planning. Due to this, many can't accommodate you for dinner. Many will serve you lunch--which is usually good and a decent value. Are you skiing at Alta at all?

 

[dovski]

Nothing new here: Snowbird (and Alta) has no real town/village like some resorts do--see Telluride, Jackson, Whitefish, etc. So the resort has essentially created a few dining themes for your taste and wallet comfort. I use those terms loosely, as most of the food is expensive and mediocre.

Yelp: Some people just had a great day on the slopes and spirits are high and everything is good. Others are used to real restaurants with regular servers, etc. Do not compare Snowbird options to real restaurants that don't survive on a captive audience. LCC is one of the best ski locations anywhere. But assume your food will be crappy. I often avoid the "fancy" resort options since they are rarely as good as they hope to be. (However, have you been to Telluride? Great on-mountain and town-food options)

Groceries: if you have a private shuttle, they will plan a 15 minute stop for you. Otherwise don't plan on this. The store in the Tram Building has snacks and microwave food mostly.

Alta Food: Most hotels in Alta include breakfast and dinner for their guests. That is part of their planning. Due to this, many can't accommodate you for dinner. Many will serve you lunch--which is usually good and a decent value. Are you skiing at Alta at all?

Oh and most Alta Hotels offer a shuttle to Snowbird, though you can also ski there and back as well ... so maybe the shuttle is for snow boarders lol

 

[blackke17]

also. there are great breakfast sandwiches and breakfast burritos at General grits (if you want to avoid the high dollar offerings elsewhere)

 

[zeak]

Thanks for all the info! We're very excited. We will try out both Alta and Snowbird the first part of the week and see which we like better. But i'm surprised that the food is supposedly so mediocre. All of the places I've skied the past 30 yrs have had plenty of good options. I've always wanted to experience Snowbird/Alta's famous powder and just assumed a world class ski area would have good food, especially with the other amenities it has like the spa and expensive hotels. It seems like a poor decision by the resort owners in terms of competing with others, but i guess they're still doing ok. But I'll see it for myself and report back.

 

[BC.]

Thanks for all the info! We're very excited. We will try out both Alta and Snowbird the first part of the week and see which we like better. But i'm surprised that the food is supposedly so mediocre. All of the places I've skied the past 30 yrs have had plenty of good options. I've always wanted to experience Snowbird/Alta's famous powder and just assumed a world class ski area would have good food, especially with the other amenities it has like the spa and expensive hotels. It seems like a poor decision by the resort owners in terms of competing with others, but i guess they're still doing ok. But I'll see it for myself and report back.

You’ll see for yourself when you get there…..LCC and BCC areas are not ski ”resorts”…..they are ski areas located in the snowiest dead end canyons in North America.

It’s not about the food/restaurants and night life. You’ll have a great trip staying at the Cliff/ the food will be fine……the skiing will be incredible!!

if you want restaurants and nightlife in UT ….go to Park City. (which would be a great trip too)

 

[DebbieSue]

Food at The Rustler is excellent. Two steps up from Gold Miners Daughter IMO. And atmosphere is nicer. Bar at the Rustler is beautiful. Rustler more expensive but if you’re going to try to get a table at an Alta lodge you aren’t staying at, I’d say Rustler is better choice than GMD.

 

[JoeSchmoe]

Expecting good pizza other than the NJ/Philly/NYC area is a pipe dream.

I miss going to Frank's Pizza during lunch at work, back when I lived in North Jersey

I'll take Buffalo style pizza everytime over NYC. Seems the rest of the world has gotten on the cup and char bandwagon over the last couple of years... Buffalonians have been enjoying it forever.

Ever since I was a kid, we'd hop across the border for pizza and wings. The Buffalo wings got the glory, but the pizza was every bit as good... If not better.
https://www.visitbuffaloniagara.com/crawl/pizza/

 

[zeak]

Wanted to report back now that we've returned. Our trip was perfectly timed. A foot of fresh snow everyday for 5 days and we left right before the massive weekend dumping that shut everything down. I've never experienced skiing in this type of powder. It was incredible. I told my 22 yr old son who was with me that not every ski trip is like this and that he'd be talking about (and chasing) these conditions for the next 30 yrs.

Some folks seemed to discourage us from going to Alta/SB because it would be too challenging a mountain for the nebulous term "intermediate skier". I'm telling all intermediates not to be dissuaded. The mountains have more than enough terrain for everyone. We had so much fun skiing trees and powder. If you can ski parallel, make turns and control your speed, you'll be fine. Of course deep powder is a whole different animal. Take a lesson or watch videos, be patient and you will have a great time.

As for the food. It was perfectly fine. We ate at the Tram Club bar the night of the Michigan-Wash football game and it was our only meh meal. Below average bar food. I wouldn't eat there again. Otherwise, Steak Pit, Forklift, Aerie lounge and Seventy One were solid to very good meals and I'd eat at all of them again. I'm a food snub and usually go with friends to Aspen partly because of the food scene. The Rendezvous for lunch was average, as was Alf's at Alta. I didn't get what was supposed to be so great about Alf's. Both it and Rendezvous were generic ski mountain cafeterias. Forklift was a nicer sit down place with a firepit in the middle of the restaurant.

It was striking to us how there was nothing else on the road to these ski areas. No restaurants, hotels or retail. You really come here to ski your butt off, work up an appetite, eat and pass out around 9 pm. Aside from the Cliff Lodge hot tub and football game at Tram Club, we did nothing else. There really is no village to walk around or shop, and you're not going to go off site to dinner. Driving to Park City is a long way to go unless you're not going to be skiing the whole time.

We loved it, but clearly got lucky with the conditions. I'm not sure i'd go again, since I like places with a town vibe. But the ski experience was once in a lifetime that everyone should try once (and hope you get the same powder).

 

[Jim Kenney]

@zeak you got exactly what Little Cottonwood Canyon is world famous for!

 

[SKI-3PO]

Great to hear that you had a good time with good snow!

It was striking to us how there was nothing else on the road to these ski areas. No restaurants, hotels or retail. You really come here to ski your butt off, work up an appetite, eat and pass out around 9 pm. Aside from the Cliff Lodge hot tub and football game at Tram Club, we did nothing else. There really is no village to walk around or shop, and you're not going to go off site to dinner.

This is what several of us were trying to describe above.