We are going to be staying at the park lodges at both Zion and Bryce. What are the lodge restaurants like? If they are just "ok", where would you suggest eating - and how long a drive is it from the lodge? Thanks!

Thye're both pretty good.

For Bryce your choice outside would be one of the restaurants at Ruby's just outside the park.

For Zion there are quite a few in Springdale just a few minutes outside the park.

Zion Lodge and Bryce Lodge restaurants we really enjoyed. We had 3 or 4 meals at each. VERY GOOD! I remember having a good Navajo Eggplant at Zion. We also enjoyed The Whiptail Grill in Springdale, just outside Zion.
We had Ruby's fast food version and it was just ok. Ruby's has 3 or 4 restaurants offerings, plus a western dinner show.

We usually just pack a picnic for lunch. Sometimes simple just cheese and crackers, sometimes pretty elaborate. We picnic nearly every day as it easier than going back to eat somewhere and sometime hiking or driving you never really know how long it is going to take you or when exactly you are going to be hungry(a lot of times we are 2 hour different time zone). Springdale has several places to get picnic supplies. Bryce lodge will pack you a box lunch. Ruby's has a good store for pinic supplies.

I ate two dinners at Bryce Canyon Lodge, and thought they were just OK - not bad, but not memorable experiences either. This is perfectly understandable giving the setting, and there aren't many alternatives in the area. Spirobulldog's suggestion about picnics is a good one.

It takes about 15 minutes to drive the six or seven miles from Zion Lodge to a restaurant in Springdale. I'm not aware of any great restaurants in town, but there are certainly some pretty good ones. Spiro's choice is often mentioned; I'll add Bit and Spur ( http://www.bitandspur.com/ ). It's an upscale Mexican place. I can vouch for the sweet potato tamales, the plain but freshly prepared guacamole, and the house made lemonade. For a good hamburger, Oscar's Cafe fits the bill.

A second for Ruby's, just outside the Bryce NP entrance. They serve fresh food in large portions at reasonable prices.

On a recent trip to Zion we had dinner at Thai Sapa, just outside the west entrance to the park--on the right side as you drive into Springdale. The food is artfully prepared and delicious. The servings aren't large, so you may have to order more dishes than you otherwise might. As a result, your bill may be a little higher than at the usual Thai restaurant (but still much less than a typical steak and seafood house).

The menu, for an unknown reason, proclaims cash only, but they accept Visa and Mastercard

We are spoiled with excellent restaurants where we live, but we thought the Zion Lodge Restaurant was pretty good and very convenient. Sometimes we've asked them to prepare some food to go (like sandwiches and salads, etc) so we can enjoy a meal on our patio or deck. In town, Bit and Spur has some tasty tamales, but Oscar's is our favorite for a casual meal - which we sometimes take back to the lodge for picnic-style dining.

Bryce was more in the "just OK" range - but the great hoo-doos will distract you ,

For a pizza fix, Zion Pizza and Noodle in Springdale was really good.

We're going to be doing a lot of driving on this trip, so as long as the food is pretty good I think we will eat at the lodges. Good suggestion about picnicing - thanks! We can stop on our way into Zion - maybe even pick up some take-out for the first night. or, if's late afternoon, have an early dinner. Where might we buy picnic-y things between Zion and the North Rim? Ditto for leaving the NR and going to Bryce?

Duh - just saw that Ruby's is outside of Bryce and has a store for picnic-y things.

I don't place a high priority on food when I'm visiting places like Bryce and Zion. But Springdale really does have a surprising variety of restaurants that look like they're worth trying. I found Whiptail Grill to be good enough to warrant a trip into town, and it's close -- if I recall correctly, it's pretty much the first thing you hit on your way from Zion into Springdale. I also liked Oscar's. Both will make food to go if you don't feel like hanging around to eat. Those are the only two Springdale restaurants that I tried, and I didn't eat at the Zion Lodge. There's a high-end supermarket/restaurant in Springdale, called Sol Foods, in case you want to buy some supplies.

Your options around Bryce are much, much more limited. I didn't eat at Ruby's, but I did go to Clarke's, in Tropic. Not only is it kind of far from the park, but the food was mediocre, to be charitable. Definitely skip Clarke's. I did have a nice brunch in the Bryce Lodge. If and when I return to Bryce, I will definitely plan to stay in the Lodge, and eat all of my meals right there.

Thanks. I think we will probably stay in the parks. I agree - we're there for the parks, not for the food.

The Flying Monkey in Springdale has good pizza and salads.

This is where we ate this past April.

While in Zion we ate at:
Driftwood Lodge in Springdale for breakfast which was good.
Zion Lodge cafe/take out which was ok but not much selection.
Wildcat Willies in Springdale for dinner which was good.

On the way to Bryce we stopped at the Thunderbird Resturant in Mt. Carmel for lunch. I had the best chicken salad sandwhich ever.

While in Bryce we ate at:
Ruby's Inn for breakfast which was terrible. We ordered off the menu figuring how bad can you mess up breakfast, but they did.
Bryce Canyon Lodge for a late lunch/early dinner which was good.

We just missed the opening of most of the dining options right outside Bryce so didn't have much to choose from.