Yosemite’s Most Famous Restaurant Just Got a Lot More Expensive
Dinner at the Ahwahnee just got a lot more formal, and a lot more expensive.
The iconic dining room inside Yosemite National Park’s 99-year-old Ahwahnee Hotel is dropping its à la carte dinner service entirely, shifting to a prix fixe-only format starting April 23. Guests will choose between a five-course menu at $95 or a seven-course option at $125. Add wine pairings and the bill climbs to $135 or $165 respectively.
Reservations will now be required, and seating is limited, meaning the kind of spontaneous post-hike dinner the room was once known for is largely a thing of the past. A vegan menu will be available, and children can still order separately, but for most adults the full multi-course experience is now the only option.
The shift comes under concessionaire Aramark following a roughly $35 million renovation that included kitchen upgrades and seismic improvements. The dining room has drawn criticism in recent years over whether the quality of its food matched its prices, and the hotel lost its AAA four-star rating back in 2019.
The Ahwahnee’s grand dining room has hosted some of the most recognizable names in modern history, including John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, and Queen Elizabeth II. For nearly a century it has been one of the most celebrated restaurant settings in the American West.
Whether the new format lives up to that legacy remains to be seen. But for guests used to the flexibility of ordering off a menu after a long day on the trail, the Ahwahnee dining experience is now a different proposition entirely.
