Yosemite National Park Family Restaurants

Feast on Wild Caught White Shrimp Flatbread, Beef Carpaccio in Oxtail Broth, or Seared Liberty Duck Confit under a 35-food high beamed ceiling with floor-to-ceiling windows and grand chandeliers. The Ahwahnee offers more casual dining as well, but its main dining room is the place in the park to eat in style. Dinner is a relatively formal event here and the restaurant imposes a "resort casual" dress code on all guests including children over four. But breakfast and lunch, which are also served daily, as well as Sunday brunch, are more casual affairs. This is a large dining room, where drop-ins have a decent chance of being accommodated. Still, to be on the safe side, reservations are recommended.

A short walk from the lodging of Curry Village is a collection of restaurants offering the kind of basic but hearty fare you’ll crave after a day of hiking. Families may choose from things like pizza, burgers and Mexican takeout and the restaurants are situated close enough together in an arrangement not unlike a mall food court, where family members can divide up to order food, before gathering back together around a common table. The Curry Village dining area features indoor and outdoor seating and some outdoor fire pits where you can linger into the evening.

Also centrally located in Yosemite Valley adjacent to the Yosemite Lodge, this is a good choice if you want something a bit more upscale than burgers and pizza in a setting a notch up from cafeteria-style. Some recent menu selections include Mountain Trout Almandine and Flourless Almond Pound Cake, as well as a kids menu that dresses up basics like peanut butter and jelly with "fruit skewers" so your children will feel special. Seating here is on a first come basis and fills up quickly during peak seasons, so call for reservations.

In keeping with the park's accommodating design that invites you to participate in grand adventures with minimal preparation, Yosemite offers several snack bars, basic grocery stores and simple grills in central spots in the valley and by trailheads. There's the Curry Village coffee and ice cream corner, the Wawona Pioneer Market and the Tuolumne Meadows Grill in the eastern region of the park, which all invite you to stock up before a hike, or replenish after one.

While the Ahwanee offers an almost over-the-top experience of exotic cuisine in a dining room that is truly larger than life, the Wawona offers an equally pleasant dining experience that is a bit more cozy and kid-friendly, focusing more on comfort food like pot roast and white turkey chili, but also provides a touch of white tablecloth elegance. Blending traditional Victorian design with some rustic touches, the Wawona Dining Room also offers great park views that you can enjoy over breakfast, lunch or a candlelit dinner.