Hiking around Mount Rainier can cause you to work up an appetite. This might get you wondering where in the park can you find your next meal?
Mount Rainier’s most popular dining option is the historic Paradise Inn Dining Hall, but the surrounding areas in Mount Rainier have excellent and surprisingly diverse dining options that are great alternatives.
My name is Lukas Gott and I worked at Paradise Inn Dining Hall in the summer of 2024. Over the summer, I came to enjoy many fantastic dining options around the park to share with you today!
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The layout of Mount Rainier has three different entry points and two gateway towns, to enter the park.
The two gateway towns, Ashford from the west and Packwood from the east, are full of food and accommodation options. Many of the food options are classic American cuisine, a popular choice around National Parks, while Ashford features a few more unusual options in Nepalese and Ukrainian dining locations.
From the northeast, there isn’t much to be had in terms of dining, but the best and maybe only option is the restaurant at Crystal Mountain Ski Resort. If you can push it, head to Packwood near the southeast corner.
With Packwood’s easy access to both the Paradise and Sunrise Corridors of the park, a variety of dining/accommodation options, and being the only area that resembles an actual town close to the park, Packwood is the best all-around home base for visiting Mount Rainier for the weekend. Even if visiting from the west, I highly recommend using Packwood as a home base if you’re planning on visiting the Sunrise Corridor.
CHECK OUT: Which Entrance Should I Use to Visit Mount Rainier?
Best Budget Dining: BaseCamp Bar and Grill
Your Morning Coffee: Rise and Grind in Ashford or The Mountain Goat in Packwood
Fine Dining: Paradise Inn Dining Room; the highest quality food is
Ukrainian cuisine at Paradise Village Restaurant (Ashford).
The Mount Rainier Exclusive: When driving through Ashford, stop for a bag of
Rainier Cherries, they’re scrumptious and yellow.
Also, Paradise Inn’s Dining Room 100-Year-Old Meatloaf recipe.
It is delicious, but it is also nearly $50 for meatloaf.
Best Family Option: Nachos Mexican Restaurant
| Cost Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| $ | Inexpensive (under $10) |
| $$ | Moderate ($11-$24) |
| $$$ | Expensive ($25-$40) |
| $$$$ | Very Expensive (over $40) |
Route 7 connects Tacoma to Mount Rainier on the western side of the park, where several small towns have shot up as roadside pit stops along the way. The main featured towns are Elbe and Ashford.
Important!: Through the towns of Elbe and Ashford, you should see several cherry stands en route to the park. These stands normally sit at the gas station near Rise and Grind Coffee and just past Ashford. The cherries they sell are Rainier Cherries! These yellow cherries are specific to the area and are a great snack for the road. The best part is they’re normally about $5 for a medium bag and they’ll take all that change sitting in your car!
Maybe my favorite pit stop before entering the park, this small local bar serves top-tier sandwiches and burgers along with fresh-cut fries. If you’re feeling adventurous, get The Billy Bob Burger (featuring BBQ sauce and pineapple) or my personal favorite, The Boinker (A bacon burger with peanut butter).
This local bar and grill may not be pretty like other dining options in the area, but it does have a pool table and event nights at times.
Experience a meal on a train! This train is no longer moving, but this American food joint serves up burgers and sandwiches inside a retired locomotive. It’s great for the experience, and the food is worth staying for as well.
If the food isn’t for you, consider their accommodation option Hobo Inn. I bet you never could have guessed, but this accommodation features a night in a train car. I sadly never got to experience this train car experience, so just know I’m jealous if you end up staying here.
Home of the famous mountaineering brothers, the Whitakkers! Twins Jim and Lou are renowned for their worldwide mountaineering feats. Jim was the first American to summit Mount Everest. Their BaseCamp property features a bar and grill, the Bunkhouse (a hostel-style accommodation option), a cafe with ice cream, and a mountaineering store.
At BaseCamp Bar and Grill, enjoy great-tasting (and surprisingly affordable) food, or sit back and have a craft beer while checking out the mountaineering history of Mount Rainier.
A mix of food from the Himalayan Sherpas of Nepal, all the way to classic chicken strips. The Wildberry Restaurant is truly a unique place, and opening the front door immediately introduces you to the culture of Nepal. Personally, I loved to visit when slammed with a craving for warm curry.
Need breakfast? This Ukrainian cuisine restaurant serves up sweet and savory crepes every morning in their charming wooden cabin. For dinner, they feature a more upscale menu with highlights of Ukrainian Cuisine and high-quality mains such as lamb and steak.
This may not be a restaurant, but it may be a lifesaver. Stop by the drive-through Rise and Grind coffee for a morning energy burst. If coffee isn’t the go-to, try Washington’s favorite morning sugar rush, flavored energy drink lattes!
From my experience, restaurants inside National Parks are rarely known for good quality food and affordable prices, and let me tell you, Mount Rainier is not the exception!
Paradise Inn Dining Room features a beautiful dining room with a fine dining menu, only without the fine dining. The dining room is loud, the food is outrageously overpriced and service can be a bit weary at times due to high volume. Trust me, I worked here. Order a dessert or appetizer from the lobby server and enjoy the lobby’s piano music.
If the experience is still for you, make sure to try the meatloaf or ask if you can order a kid’s burger (it’s the same as a regular burger, just ~$20 less).
National Park Inn is much less popular than Paradise Inn. The dining experience at National Park Inn is also smaller and although the food will be similar, it may taste a little better with less rush on the cooks.
Located just across the hall from the Paradise Inn Dining Room, this small cafe has good coffee and views, overlooking the Tatoosh Mountain Range. There are also alcoholic beverages, small snacks, and ice cream available here. I think I may have had a million coffees here, but keep in mind they serve Root Beer Floats in the evening, which I may have consumed more than the coffee.
This small cafeteria is the staple of National Parks; it serves pizza, soup, and pre-packaged meals for those in need of a quick snack. The same snacks can probably be had for half the price in Ashford or Packwood; pack a lunch, folks.
Sunrise’s Visitor cafeteria is a copy and paste of the one in Paradise. The only difference is that it’s the only dining option in Sunrise.
When entering from the eastern side of Mount Rainier, or when headed to the Sunrise Corridor in general, Packwood is the center for food and accommodation outside the park. Unlike the highway pitstop-oriented western side of the park, Packwood is a contained town with food and accommodation within walking distance of each other. Make Packwood your home base at Mount Rainier.
As mentioned before, this is my choice for an easy family restaurant near the park. Nacho’s provides a wide menu of Mexican cuisine at reasonable prices. The setting is comfortable and the prices are solid for some of the only Mexican food in the area.
A great option after a long day of hiking. Packwood Brewing Company has delicious beers and tasty little appetizers. I always went for a pint of coffee porter (the best) and street tacos after a long day in the park.
Similar to Elbe Bar and Grill, Cliff Droppers was one of my go-tos when headed back into the park. With excellent large burgers at reasonable prices, I was all in. Always been a Bacon Blue Burger guy myself, but it’s probably a bit rich for some.
The go-to coffee and sweet treat shop in the area. Great coffee and pastries on a cold Mount Rainier morning can save lives.
A simple American cuisine restaurant with good pizza. I’ve personally never visited Cruisers, but from what friends tell me, it’s fairly basic, but the pizza is definitely worth a try. To be fair, a large pizza for ~$18 is a great deal, maybe I should have been going to Cruisers?
Blue Spruce Saloon is another great 3-meal dining spot in Packwood that features high-quality meat entrees for dinner. But the real headliner is The Bigfoot, which for only ~$25.99, is quite the deal considering it’s a 1-pound beef burger topped with ham and bacon. If you give it a go, I wish your stomach luck.
As mentioned, options are limited. And by limited, I mean, it’s all the restaurants at Crystal Mountain Ski Resort. The two are Summit House and Alpine Inn, which, while not exactly on route to the park, are available when desperate measures need to be taken.
Classic warm and cozy skiing food. I’ve never been here, but the menu looks focused on burgers, chili, and soup, which may be just what you need on a chilly night.
An actually interesting menu with fine meat dishes and interesting mains alongside. I’ve never visited Crystal Mountain, but if I did, I would definitely give this place a shot.
Most travelers want to visit the most popular sites and still avoid the crowds. We have a detailed itinerary that gives you a step-by-step game plan so you can get to the best places at the right times.
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