Are the restaurants in the parks good for dining, or would you rather venture outside? Traveling with no children. Any advice or recommendations?

Change your word "dining" to "eating", and then yes I'd say you're fine. Just don't expect a great dining experience. But on the other hand, I doubt you'd do much better anywhere nearby but outside the parks. Actually the food we had at Bryce was pretty good, except for a not so good fish entree, very overcooked. Zion was OK too, but extremely poor and slow service. On the other hand, what else are you going to do for the evening? Just enjoy it.

Oooh boy, Patrick hit the nail on the head. You aren't there for the food and meals become just that...something that fulfills a bodily requirement.

We ate at Ruby's in Bryce. They almost have a monopoly on the "dining" and it "ain't pretty". The pasta and pizza place outside Zion was decent. It could be worse...you could be "dining" at Gouldings in Monument Valley!!

We had breakfast on two mornings last month at Zion Lodge. Tasty, great service, and the scenery was spectacular. We saw the sunlight catch the tallest peak, as daylight started, from our breakfast table. Check the first picture in the Zion album at http://community.webshots.com/user/bookhall .

My standard take on this subject is "the scenery is the star." Both lodges provide good, basic fare, but haute cuisine it ain't. Nearby Springdale, for Zion, provides some choices- we like Zion Pasta and Noodle for the beer/pizza. At Bryce, you're much more limited since no towns are nearby. Ruby's Inn has a big restaurant, but it can get really busy, especially when the tour buses pull in. While the restaurant attached to the Bryce Pines Motel is not a fancy place, it does serve good family fare in a smaller and more quiet atmosphere. We hike a lot at both spots, so we're just looking for hot food and plenty of it! The scenery at both spots is what we're out there for-there's plenty of dining opportunities (combined with gawd-awful traffic, strip malls, crowds, and other human miseries) at our home in ATL.

I think Bryce only has 2 dining options: Ruby's or the lodge. I had the greasiest, most awful breakfast of my life at Ruby's. The lodge is better, though mediocre.

I thought the Zion Lodge food was so-so. The pizza/pasta restaurant outside the park was decent, and I seem to remember a southwestern restaurant that was pretty good. Sorry-can't remember the name.