Glacier National Park Chat

How long has the restaurant at Swiftcurrent been named Nell's? I was not familiar with that name until recently. Maybe that has been the name for years and I just didn't know it. (And we have never eaten there anyway).

And of course reviews would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Lyman

They changed it the second year Xanterra had the contract,so I believe this is year 2 of Nell's. I think it is better than the Italian gardens was, but that's not saying all that much. The breakfasts are solid. everything else hit or miss. It's not cheap, either. The map tables are very cool.

http://flatheadbeacon.com/2016/06/21/ne ... ble-ethos/

Thanks for that information. I kept hearing about this "Nell's" and had no idea what or where it was until recently.

Lyman

You're welcome, Lyman! I appreciate all the great news articles you post about the park.

rayeraye wrote:You're welcome, Lyman! I appreciate all the great news articles you post about the park.

Thanks very much for your comments. Although I try to read and sometimes post a lot of articles about the park you obviously found one that I missed.

Lyman

I ate at 'Nell's for the first time this year, and enjoyed my meals there. Service was better than it had been in the past (no wrong orders this year!). We were there during "off" hours (6:30/7 am and 4:00 pm) which was pleasant - there were long waits in the evenings.

I actually really liked the Italian Garden menu they had 2 years ago. But I found a few things I liked on the new menu, and appreciated the variety of sides they offered.

al_in_al wrote:I ate at 'Nell's for the first time this year, and enjoyed my meals there. Service was better than it had been in the past (no wrong orders this year!). We were there during "off" hours (6:30/7 am and 4:00 pm) which was pleasant - there were long waits in the evenings.

Myself, ND(Ken), Ken's cousin Larry, and their lifelong buddy Bill, ate at Nell's Sunday morning before hiking to Grinnell glacier.
Like al_in_al, we too ate early at 0630 and were served promptly.
Good deal as it allows you to begin a hike reasonably early.

I had 2 scrambled eggs, 3 link sausage, hash browns, wheat toast and coffee. The eggs I gave a 9 too
Rare for me, since(in my experience) most cooks don't know how, or don't make the effort, to make good scrambled eggs.
Good value for the price too given that all places are expensive in or out of the park.

And yup, Sunday evening it was packed and I'm sure a long wait.

pete

Do they still do takeout there? In the past that was an easy way to beat the evening crowd. Just order to go from the front there and then go stock up for the next day at the campstore. Come back, grab dinner and go find a spot outside to chill and enjoy it.

I still remember a few years back sitting in there and eating. I was looking out the window and a bear came out of the corner of the parking lot by the campground and was rolling on the sidewalk. Some totally oblivious lady walked right up on it without seeing it until it jumped back out. I'm pretty sure she just about had a heart attack!

Nobody else in the restaurant even noticed.....

We got Pizza takeout one night, so I presume you can get whatever to go as well.

We ate very late one of our nights there (maybe 9pm) and had no wait, but the next night we ate a a reasonable "dinner time" and it was an hour wait -- thus the ordering of the (so-so) Pizza. Everyone on the porch thought we were brilliant when they came out with the Pizza in a box and we went off to our cabin. It still took awhile, but we had food in our hands before our names would ever have been called for a table.

We were there on August 12 around 6pm and did not have to wait. My food was not disappointing but I suppose it would be hard to disappoint a hiker with an empty belly and sore feet.

Was there for breakfast yesterday at 8:00 am. The restaurant was empty and we got our food shockingly fast. Even our waiter was surprised. We all went with the classic 2 egg breakfast and there were no complaints.

We had the classic breakfast with Pete before hiking to Grinnell. No complaints on the food. However I was most impressed with how attentive our server was with our group. That's something that is hit and miss among dining places in the park.

We ate 2 breakfasts and 2 dinners there. Hit and miss is probably correct. Eggs ordered identically each morning were different. As I mentioned, the Pizza was so-so, and that was after a long day of hiking where you'd expect anything to be "good".

I liked the staff we spoke with but not surprisingly they work very hard. We ate very late one night and saw the same servers the next morning for early breakfast...who seemed very tired.

ND wrote:We had the classic breakfast with Pete before hiking to Grinnell. No complaints on the food. However I was most impressed with how attentive our server was with our group. That's something that is hit and miss among dining places in the park.

Yeah, my eggs were cooked pretty close to perfect[for me]
I told our waiter about how I liked my eggs and he assured me they would be ok.
And he was right!
As ND said, we had good service. In and out in good time.
Opening at 0630 is good since the places outside the park in Babb or St Mary don't open until 0700 or later...So far as I know.

pete