Despite the name, I didn't think this hotel restaurant would be an actual cafeteria style…read moreestablishment! I haven't visited a cafeteria in maybe ten years, it's certainly a rare occurrence and a fun diversion for some food! In this case, we went for breakfast since we were staying at the Lodge and opted to share a stack of pancakes.
The cafeteria is a bit unique in that there's both a traditional line to pick up prepared food, but there's also a menu that can be ordered from for freshly cooked food.
Blue Corn Pancakes, 3 ($10) - These are plate sized pancakes, really fluffy, cooked perfectly moist on the griddle. There's only a really slight blue color and a tiny bit of grittiness from blue corn flour. There's a bit of corn flavor, but it's otherwise resembles a regular pancake more than anything. I'd guess the mix is more wheat flour than blue corn flour. Still, even for regular pancakes, this is pretty good. It comes with three tubes of maple flavored corn syrup and some salted butter on top.
We decided to revisit for dinner, mostly for convenience since we were staying at the Lodge.
Homemade Mutton Stew w/ Frybread ($15) - This is a pretty simple stew, filled with vegetables, including hand chopped canned tomatoes, carrots, celery, and potatoes. There's some, not a ton, of cubed mutton, which quite tender and is surprisingly not as gamey as the smell would indicate. It's all in a broth that's heavily vegetable forward, followed by a tomato umami, and then finishing with a slight mutton gaminess. It's very simple, hearty fare and similar to most other food in the Navajo Nation, isn't seasoned much, so it could be considered bland.
The stew comes with a choice of frybread or tortilla. We went with both, paying an extra $2.85 for the tortilla ala carte. The frybread is fried pretty well, giving a nice crisp edge. It's puffy and chewy on the sides, flatter in the center - there's nothing wrong with the base mix, but unfortunately the amount of fry oil contained in the frybread is terrible. I mean, there was basically an entire puddle of soot-speckled dark-colored old fryer oil right soaking right in the center of the frybread in a pool. Bleh.
Tortilla ($2.85) - I believe this is the same base used as the frybread, but then baked instead of fried. It's like a thicker/handmade Mexican flour tortilla. It's thick and chewy, a bit bready, and has a dry char taste.
Thunderbird Lodge Cafeteria is a decent spot for food in the area. There honestly aren't many restaurants in general in Chinle; this place serves food that isn't special by any means, but also isn't unpalatable. Just be aware that they follow the more traditional method of Navajo seasoning - basically no salt or spices.
Bathrooms - Two larger ones with multiple stalls
