Where to Eat in Yellowstone: Old Faithful Inn, Huckleberry Ice Cream, Bison & Trail Picnics

Here is the most important practical dining tip for visiting Yellowstone: pack a small insulated cooler with ice, sandwich supplies, fruit and drinks in the boot of your car before entering the park. Because distances along the 230-kilometre Grand Loop Road are vast and midday lunch queues at the main lodge cafeterias can take 30 to 45 minutes, having a picnic cooler lets you pull over at one of Yellowstone's 52 scenic riverside and lakeside picnic areas whenever you are hungry, saving you an hour of sightseeing time every day.

1. Five Landmark Yellowstone Foods & Treats to Try

1. Wild Mountain Huckleberry Everything (Especially Huckleberry Ice Cream): small, tart-sweet purple berries that grow wild at high elevation across Montana, Wyoming and Idaho (a favourite food of grizzly bears; they have never been domesticated on farms, so every berry is picked by hand in the mountains). Order a waffle cone of Wild Huckleberry Ice Cream at the Old Faithful Basin Store, the Canyon Fountain & Grill or in West Yellowstone.
2. The 1904 Old Faithful Inn Dining Room (Log-Cathedral Dinner & Breakfast Buffet): dine beneath massive log trusses next to a rhyolite stone fireplace on Grilled Bison Tenderloin, Red Trout, Wild Game and signature Old Faithful Inn Bread Pudding. (Tip: dinner requires an advance reservation at yellowstonenationalparklodges.com, whereas the morning Breakfast Buffet and midday Lunch operate on a first-come, first-served walk-in basis.)
3. Canyon Lodge M66 Grill & Eatery (Central Hub of the Park): features customisable slow-cooked farm-to-table bowls, wok stations and local Montana and Wyoming craft beers near the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
4. The Old West Dinner Cookout (At Tower-Roosevelt, June to Aug): ride a covered horse-drawn wagon or horseback out to a sagebrush valley in Pleasant Valley for chargrilled steaks, campfire baked beans, cornbread and cowboy acoustic songs.
5. Gateway Town Dining (West Yellowstone & Gardiner): in West Yellowstone, try wood-fired pizza in a 1909 Union Pacific train dining car at Bullwinkles / Firehole, smoked meats at Firehole Bar-B-Que, or huckleberry shakes; in Gardiner, grab an elk burger overlooking the Yellowstone River at Wonderland Cafe.