We only ate here because we were staying at the Best Western, and the hotel offers a free breakfast buffet here. How nice! The restaurant is pretty old and could use some updating, but the folks that were working here are super-friendly! The breakfast-buffet had a fair selection (sausage, biscuits/gravy, cereal, eggs, pancakes, orange juice, etc...). The food was so-so. Overall it was nice that the hotel/restaurant offered this free breakfast buffet. We'd come back for that, and maybe lunch, but not much more. read more

Yellowstone Mine - Small section of dining room - American Near Me - Gardiner, Montana

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Me and my fiance ordered a ribeye,medium rare, and it came out extremely overcooked. Broccoli was great, mashed potatoes were good, but the steak was WAY over cooked. We spoke to management about our disappointment and Cedar said "ok" and walked away from us. We are locals that visit this establishment 4 to 5 days a week, drink,eat, and gamble and were trying to be professional with the upper management. "Cedar" to be exact, it was as if he didn't care at all. I would suggest ordering your steak at least 2 temps lower than you want it prepared. read more

How can a breakfast buffet have all cold food first thing in AM? Seems they took leftover breakfast meats, eggs and potatoes out of fridge and tried to reheat just using the butane burners. Sign says open at 630am but everyone waited until 645am before someone decided to come unlock the door and then proceeded to make everyone feel like we were a burden. Luckily only one in our party bought the buffet. Rest of us went to convenience store for microwaved breakfast sandwiches. After speaking with others in town, we now know this as one of worst breakfast spots in town. read more

Well, as you may have seen, the wait is interminable. So go to the bar. They have plenty of room, and you don't need to put up with the wait. I had a burger - 2 patties, and it was messy but good. Service was very quick, so I can only conclude that the dining room is a waste of time read more

Rude and obnoxious wait help. JOSEPH. Has no idea how to communicate to customers. We couldn't get passed our orders before he became surly with each and every one at our table. read more

Service was good, but the menu was limited. My cheesesteak sandwich was good, but my wife's meatloaf was not. The meatloaf had a thick dried out layer on the edges, that was almost impossible to cut through. read more

It was decent. It's understaffed, so not the best service ever, but still decent. I had a bacon Mac and cheese and it was actually pretty good. Pastas were cooked adequately (not overcooked and mushy like often) read more

Yellowstone Mine - Menu as of October 2019 - American Near Me - Gardiner, Montana

Great food, huge portions! Kids menu was generous. Staff was terrific! Lantern light at the table was cool.

Cold soup, kraft mac and cheese and overcooked steak. Terrible disappointment. Server was helpful and very overworked.

I am afraid COVID has gotten the best of this place. Very reduced menu and they were out of some things. Service was very slow. I think we waited 30 min for water. Food was mediocre at best. Wife and I had burgers and they were over cooked and no flavor. read more

We arrived in the evening just within the last hour of business. After I noticed the hours of operation I asked the hostess if we'd be too late or in the way due to the shorter time available. "Oh, you're fine. No problem" was what she said. Great, let's eat. The two of us ordered fairly light. I got the Buffalo Burger and a cup of French Onion soup. My companion got the French Onion soup and just a side order of veggies. Not too much or crazy foods were ordered. The soup took a while to come (baking time I assume?) and the burger and veggies came out about ten minutes later while both of us were still in to the soup. The soup was messy and getting through the cheese took a while so we were watching time go by. Not wasting time, just being thorough. Suddenly WHAM!! as a metal gate is closed at the back of the dining room. We were sitting in the rear of the dining room so this was pretty close to us. Them all these ultra bright fluorescent lights come on when we had been fine with the dim dinner lighting. We are clearly being rushed. Not the waitress and bus boy are making stops every minute or so. Yes, we read you loud and clear. They should have mentioned when we walked in that when we close that you must leave. That wouldn't be a normal policy you see at restaurants but if that is how you run it then be up front about it. The soup was pretty good. Slightly salty but within French Onion range. My burger was cooked perfectly and the pink center allowed some good buffalo flavor to shine through. This could have been a much better review but customer service was lacking here. I'd like to try it again in the future for a Prime Rib dinner to see how that works. read more

Yellowstone Mine - Baked French Onion soup. - American Near Me - Gardiner, Montana

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Everything about this place is great. Huge portions, reasonable prices, and fantastic servers, especially Nicki. Don't miss it.

Tried to go here for dinner last night. Arrived about 6:15 pm. All available tables full. We understand due to Covid. However asked hostess/waitress if we could put our name in for a table, then sit at bar and have a cocktail until a table became available. She then repeated she had no tables available right now. We again asked if we could put our names on a wait list. She didn't answer us, just turned and walked away. Needless to say, we walked out! Went down the road and around the corner to a place called Wonderland. Although it was an hour wait, it was well worth it. Food was outstanding and service was excellent. I would highly recommend. Obviously with the non-existent service and rude hostess/waitress I would not recommend the Yellowstone Mine! read more

So I left a positive review after coming here a couple weeks ago right after leaving the establishment. I'm back to correct that. The food was great. Our server was great. What was not great was that a few hours after we left our server found us on Facebook (found the person who paid so I can only assume they did so by looking at the credit card information) and informed us that I needed to send my service dog's paperwork or ID tag via picture on Facebook to him because his manager told him to. Not only is it wildly inappropriate to ask your employee to use their personal Facebook account to contact a customer on their personal Facebook account, you also may not ask for that kind of documentation. I have no problem showing my service animals identification while we are out. Even though under the ADA this is absolutely not allowed, I understand and usually show it anyways. But I have a huge problem with how it was handled. How this was handled was discriminatory and inappropriate. At no point was my service dog acting out of hand. He laid down by my feet and the only thing he did was sit up and then lay back down. I will not be coming back. Review what you are and are not allowed to do when a service animal enters in to your business. read more

Jay was excellent! Very personable, hard working, great personality. If you go into the Yellowstone Mine for dinner, make sure to see Jay!! Best service in Gardiner! read more

We eat here the first time by recommendation... It was so good we ate here our last night in town. Although not in season it was extremely busy. Highly recommend the prime beef and walleye. Great Service! read more

So, I've been coming here 2-3 times a year for about 20 years during winter visits to Yellowstone. Is it too much to ask that a restaurant change at least one item on its menu in two decades? If everything was exceptional, keeping the menu would be OK. Over the years this establishment has moved from exceptional to mediocrity. On occasion it falls below mediocrity. It's prices are 5 star, but food quality is 2-3 stars on a good day. I know this is an out of the way community. There are multiple dozens of these small towns scattered throughout Montana and Wyoming. Almost all will have a better restaurant than this one, at least for dinner anyway. Over dozens of visits, service is very uneven. Great, good, and dismal are all possibilities here. The same can be said for quality of its food. read more

December in Gardiner is cold and wintry so most of the town is shutdown. We walked over to the Mine navigating the little groups of deer in the parking lots. It was really different than we are used to. The Mine got us a table quickly but then it seemed like the host was the only one there. Our waitress eventually did take our orders. I had the regular burger with cheese. It was well prepared and tasty. The rest of the menu was way above our price range. For a tourist town I'd expected a better variety of lower end priced food. We'll try Gardiner again in the summer. Overall we we had a good time though. read more

Sum up: Bartender/server super nice/attentive. Very strange locals. Pros:This is the only place in Gardiner that does food after 9:00. Though it is only fried food like cheese sticks and country friend steak. I don't really like fried food in general but the steak was good. The guy who is the bartender was very very nice and friendly, so was the server. She kept checking if we need anything/more water. The locals at the bar though have to be the strangest group of people I've ever seen. A group of men in their 20's/30's were shouting loudly and trying to draw our attention the whole time we were there. It was like a group of 12 year olds trying to look "cool" to someone who is 20. They kept shouting I'm a real Montana boy born in Gardiner, nothing is better than a real Montana boy (okay yeah, take 2 steps and you are in Wyoming, you are super Montanain). They kept shouting who wants to fight me over and over again. Then at one point 2 of the guys started bragging they'd F****d their sister. I'm assuming they made that up? Who knows but it was super inappropriate and seemed really rapey. Another tourist looking person was sitting alone in the corner and a woman who looked like she had substance abuse issues sat by him. She started going on about how "she don't have no car, she don't have no tv, she don't have no money. She just drinks her self until she blacks out every night and that her boyfriend moved a 2nd girlfriend into their house and she can't do anything about it." The man looked annoyed and got up and left the restaurant. I feel bad that the staff have to deal with people like that. read more

Quit complaining people the food in here is good!!! Full rack of rib is superb! Clam chowder is to die for, i would even put it up against Splash@pismobeach clam chowder. For those who do complain, why dont you drive to the nearest town instead which is 40 miles away read more

Food was delicious! Servers were extremely sweet and the menu was reasonably priced. No wait time and parking is available . However, the interior design of the place is old and very basic. But after a long day of hiking, you just want some good food and a relaxing time. read more

Yellowstone Mine - Roast Chicken - American Near Me - Gardiner, Montana

I just ate the best Cobb salad I've ever eaten! It was loaded with tomatoes, bacon, eggs, chicken, and blue cheese. Soooo delicious and Julius was an exceptional waiter. So glad we ended up here for dinner! read more

We stayed at the Best Western and they give a complimentary breakfast as part of the stay. We'd eaten there the night before and the food was ok (not outstanding but ok) and figured they would have a decent breakfast. When we entered the dining room, a young man named "Thunder" with a long pony tail greeted and seated us. Yes ladies and gentlemen, that's his real name. Mr. Thunder asked if we'd like anything to drink and my wife said "coffee and water please." Unfortunately I made the mistake of asking if we could get the drinks ourselves. Mr. Thunder then looked at me with a nasty grin, rolled his eyes and with a most shitty tone in his voice said, "No! That's why I just got done asking IF YOU WANTED SOMETHING TO DRINK." I looked at my wife and said, "wow, that was cute." Mr. Thunder realized that he just insulted a guest with his arrogant and smart ass reply and began a rather lame attempt at an apology. He explained that he'd had a bad week. We left before finishing breakfast and I figured it was best to leave since I didn't feel much like getting arrested 800 miles from home for breaking a punk into multiple pieces. Oh and if your wondering if we ever got the drinks well we sure did. Two coffees and one water. He made sure to use a little passive aggressive to piss me off even more and then split from the room so I couldn't ask for a second water. Would I advise anyone go to this establishment for the free breakfast? Yeah it's included in the price of your room stay so why not. Just don't expect too much and for god sakes do not ask if you can get your own drinks! read more

$34 dollar ribeye so tough I gave up on eating all of it. Supposed to have been a 12 oz, but I'm guessing the ounces in MT are smaller than everywhere else? And the waitress, I did leave her a tip but she never once asked to refill my drink. I'll never go back. read more

I don't think I need to get too deeply into this. The service is poor, the fish was not fresh, the beef arrived too cold, and sat very strangely in my stomach. Shrimp cocktail arrived unpeeled. Food is expensive (~$20 a plate). To cap off the night, the cashier criticized my choice of tip (10%), to my face. Profoundly bad. read more

Excellent $9.00 breakfast buffet. Great mine decor! Really glad we went here. Plus, we had a 10% discount because we stayed at the adjacent Best Western motel. read more

Best place in Gardiner for a nice dinner. For you city folks...this isn't a Ruth's Chris but a place where you can order a good steak and decent seafood. They do have a full bar (not one that you would want to hang at unless you feel like playing some Keno) and we found their martinis were great! This restaurant is onsite at The Best Western. read more

Yellowstone Mine - American Near Me - Gardiner, Montana

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Forgive the pun, but this place is truly a gem. Hidden just outside the remote northern entrance to Yellowstone National Park, Gardiner MT is a tiny tourist trap town full of gas, food, and lodging. For some reason, this place features Walleye on its menu. That alone made me try it. Astoundingly good - almost perfect! for $16.95, I got a plate-covering fillet of Walleye with herb rice and steamed vegetables. Nowhere else have I seen Walleye on the menu. It was delectable - perfectly cooked so that the meat flaked effortlessly with the fork - it melted in my mouth. The fish was truly remarkable, but the place is better known as a Montana steakhouse, with choice cuts and the prices to prove it. The restaurant is paired with a gift shop and is attached to the Best Western hotel in Gardiner, right on the main drag (Hwy 89). It lives up to its mining heritage with the mining motif apparent through out - including a replica, shored-up, mine shaft, complete with luminous rocks behind the shoring material, leading to the restrooms. Watch out for the implements on the walls - they could be used as weapons. The service was outstanding and the immigrant proprietress (not sure of the nationality, possibly Russian or Eastern European) was very good as our server. We were a little freaked out by the water server, as she seemed to be stalking the tables for opportunities to refill waters. As is common in these Park-centric tourist towns, many restaurants, including this one open only for breakfast and dinner, to serve the out-going tourists in the mornings and the in-coming tourists in the evenings. Lunch is often not available, as these places close in the middle of the day for a few hours. read more

IF I had written this review seven years ago, I would have given twice as many stars for the breakfast buffet at The Yellowstone Mine. We have eaten a dozen or more breakfast buffets at this location over the course of several years and it was always very good. But when we visited this year (2011) on our 2nd day in Gardiner, MT, we were very sorely disappointed. We had been "bragging" on this great breakfast place to our traveling companions, but the whole experience was Very Underwhelming. The scrambled eggs were much too dry and tasteless, the potatoes just did not look appealing and looked as though they had been in the warmer for too long. And they had run out of french toast when we went through the line and did not replenish it during the time we were there. The fresh fruit consisted of honeydew melon chunks and a bowl of blue berries. I will compliment their bacon and the sausage links which I found very tasty and the biscuits and gravy were pretty good. So I ended up with plenty to eat but others at my table were very much less satisfied with their selections and did not feel that they were given value for their money. Also, at $9 for the buffet it would be nice if the restaurant offered an a la cart menu for people with smaller appetites and/or smaller wallets. Our sis is not much of a big eater for breakfast and really did not see any bargain for small spoonfuls of scrambled eggs, country fried potatoes and a small bowl of fruit. And I would have to agree. I am hoping that we just hit them on an off day and perhaps that is so. However, we decided to go to other venues for breakfast after that first visit and did not give them another try. read more

Stood at the wait to be seated sign for 10-15 minutes and was never acknowledged by the staff. When I asked if they were seating people the bartender said "there are only 2 of us, were doing our best". This same bartender / waitress walked past us several times running beers out to customers and picking up empties. The lounge was full but the dining room was near empty. Seams they only care about their bar business. read more

Sorry, Dave, I think we made it there on a bad night. The only thing less than $17 on the menu were the burgers. This place is not a menu-friendly location for the kids. And, unless you're planning a night out for something special, you might want to try one of the other places in town - although, when we were there mid-May, many of the places were not open for the season yet - or so it seemed. The Buffalo Burger ($9) was actually good. If you have never eaten buffalo, it's a tasty meat, but not nearly as fatty and therefore not as juicy as a typical burger. The side fries are standard slabs of potato, not too much to talk about there. The regular burger was pretty standard. Nothing too much to say about it, although $8 seems to be the going rate for a burger at a restaurant these days. Service was so-so. After we got our order, we were pretty much on our own. When we walked in there, it was quite empty. However, by the time we left virtually every table was full. Not whether it was locals or tourists, they must have a few dollars to spend as the food was pricey. I think the next time I'm in town, I'll try something else, unless I'm really hankerin' for an expensive meal. (No, didn't particularly go there for a burger dinner, but really didn't want to go scouting for someplace else having spent the day in Yellowstone and was getting cranky and hungry.) read more

After a day driving and exploring Montana and Wyoming, we thought we'd check out The Yellowstone Mine for dinner. We took it as a good sign that all cars in the parking lot had local license plates. We also sat next to a table full of guys working the electric lines in Yellowstone and they seemed to quite enjoy their meals. We started the meal with beer - I ordered the Big Sky Moose Drool draft and it was delicious and cold. After having beef for the last few meals, I went with the grilled chicken, rice pilaf and soup of the day - potato. The soup was a bit undersalted, but that's easy enough to remedy. The chicken was delicious - it tasted just as if we had grilled it. Juicy and flavorful and seasoned just right. But, the big winner for me was the rice pilaf. I'm not a fan of wild rice, but the mix of wild rice with regular rice in this rice pilaf was excellent and hit the spot after being windblown in the park. The dish also came with sugared carrots, which reminded me of the carrots I ate growing up. My husband ordered the prime rib and it was cooked exactly how he ordered it and it was fork tender. I'll let him write his own review, but we both left pleased with our meal choice. The bill with a generous tip was under $40, which to me was quite reasonable considering Gardiner is outside of Yellowstone and everyone should have higher prices because tourists frequent the town. If you don't expect to pay higher prices in and around the park, you should pack your own meals. read more

Check before you go. Very scaled back menu from those noted by previous reviewers. One type of soup, no onion soup offered. Half the place is a bar, looks like a locals hangout. Opted for a burger and fries for $14, everything else was $20 and up. Only 5 entrees offered. Burger was good but check menu. Bigger selection would have been good. Convenient to motels. read more

We came in with a big group and they were happy to accommodate us, wait staff was friendly and helpful. Menu was limited, and one order they ran out of after we ordered, hence the four star. But they few items they did, they did well! Everyone got something different and it was delicious. read more

(mid July 2012) I realize that we got there late- about an hour before they closed- but that is no excuse for poor food and poor service. My husband didn't get his salad before hand and the waitress wouldn't have brought it to him later if he had not reminded her. It is WAY too expensive of a menu with a salad being $17 (omg) and a burger being $9. My husband ordered the Buffalo Lasagna which was on special that night and i kid you not, the lasagna was 4x4 (if that) and $15! The waitress looked like she would rather us leave so she could just go home, even though, we left before closing time. Not a pleasant experience read more

I can't even remember when my family and I have ever left a restaurant before ordering but this one we did. We stopped in for dinner while visiting Yellowstone as it was in front of our hotel. When we walked in we noticed that the people who worked there were only willing to eat salad, nothing that was actually prepared. There was no friendly, professional greeting as the waitress stayed in her seat and told us someone should be out in a minute. The macaroni and cheese for the kids menu was not made in house but was an inexpensive box of Kraft that was priced at $7. They were also unwilling to substitute vegetables instead of fries on the kids menu. The service was lacking. The menu was lacking and very overpriced. So very happy we chose instead to have dinner down the street at Cowboy's Lodge & Grille! It was wonderful! read more

We love this place for dinner! I'm really surprised by the bad reviews. There is a bit of a wait so it is best to get there before 6. We love the pretzel bites, salad, fettuccine Alfredo, steak, and the chicken. Seriously the most delicious steak my husband has ever had! The waitress was extremely nice and attentive. read more

My husband and I came to Gardiner for a little weekend getaway. After reading the reviews for The Yellowstone Mine, we were hesitant to go....but because it had the broadest selection of food, we decided to go and hope for the best. Wow...I'm sooo happy we did! Our service was fast, and amazing! Staff was sooo friendly! Mel waited on us, and she was super sweet and very attentive! Food was wonderful...and prices weren't too bad at all! The wild game chili was to-die-for!! We then headed into the casino and had a bit of luck there! Finished our night at the bar with a gal named Dodge! What a hoot! She was the icing on the cake Thanks Yellowstone Mine for a memorable evening! We will be returning in the future for sure! read more

The menu is very limited and very costly. The server was good. If you are going to stay in the area, you are better off having your own food. read more

This was the worst meal I have had for the amount of money I paid. They said they had recently changed their menu, and there was maybe a total of 10 entries to choose from and the salmon and ribeye both were super dry and tasteless. Definitely just frozen food. read more