8 Best Restaurants in The Southern Black Hills, South Dakota

Co-located with Moccasin Springs Natural Mineral Spa, this restaurant is run by a local chef who trained in New York and is now attempting to bring high cuisine to the High Plains. The evolving menu promises food prepared "with love and deep intention," including dishes incorporating duck, salmon, grass-fed beef, and locally grown farm vegetables.

The restaurant at Legion Lake Lodge is an affordable, faster-food option. You can sit down by the floor-to-ceiling windows inside and enjoy an appetizer, salad, sandwich, or burger, or you can order from the picnic menu and take your food to go. There are numerous places to sit outside at the lodge and alongside Legion Lake.

For a convenient place to eat while you're checking out the local museum or the Mickelson Trail in Edgemont, try the Hat Creek Grill, which is right next door to both. This is a bar and grill, serving a basic selection of pub-style food at affordable prices for lunch and dinner.

Coffee, tea, smoothies, and quick choices for breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served in a small, historical, and architecturally interesting structure with exposed-stone interior walls. This friendly, locally owned establishment is a great place to stop on your way through Hot Springs, before or after your adventures in the area.

Located in the historic Game Lodge where President Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge lived for nearly three months on a 1927 vacation, the Game Lodge restaurant has the biggest dining capacity of any restaurant in the park. There are multiple seating areas ranging from basic to elegant to outdoors (be sure to inquire about the options). Breakfast and lunch buffets are available, and the menu includes a wide range of salads, burgers, and entrees, with a focus on local ingredients, including bison meat.

There's no better setting for dining in Custer State Park than the Sylvan Lake Lodge, which is perched on a hillside above beautiful Sylvan Lake. The dining area has vaulted ceilings, hardwood floors, large windows, and a stone veranda. Like other restaurants in the park, the menu includes a selection of salads, sandwiches, burgers, and locally inspired entrees featuring bison meat and other specialties.

This bar and grill is in a renovated brick building with wood floors and a long, wooden bar, where the food is elevated a bit beyond standard pub fare. It's a great spot for a casual, affordable meal during a day of exploring the southern Black Hills.