A Foodie’s Guide To Park City: Where To Eat & Drink

October 28, 2023

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Park City’s known for many things…film festivals, skiing, Olympics, insanely wealthy people. One thing that flies under the radar a bit is the food scene. But there are a bunch of great restaurants in Park City, and they’re surprisingly not the expensive, pretentious fare you’d imagine from such a high-end place.

I spent over a week here, and used it as an excuse to try as many Park City coffee shops, lunch spots, and nice dinner restaurants as I could. So here’s my foodie’s guide to this lovely mountain town!

Your experience in Park City will vary pretty significantly depending on what time of year you visit. Obviously, if you’re coming during the winter, skiing dominates the town except when the stars descend in January for the annual film festival. Temps are lovely and cool in the summer, and it’s not quite as crowded.

And then fall is absolutely glorious with all the vivid leaves and beautiful weather. That’s when we were there, and it was still pretty busy but not insane. It meant we had a prayer of getting a good reservation wherever we wanted.

Where to stay in Park City: I can’t speak to skiing, because that’s a whole different kettle of fish. But if you’re visiting just to enjoy the area, there are a number of great options (though they won’t come cheap). The Park City area is awesome for renting condos, so check out VRBO (Booking.com also has a decent selection of apartments and condos).

For more traditional hotels and resorts, I’d looked at Washington School House Hotel, which looks absolutely charming! They didn’t have availability for the one night I needed before moving into my bigger condo for the week. For more of a splurge I considered the Montage (but for less than 24 hours it didn’t feel worth it). I’d look at the Pendry, which balances beauty and amenities with a more affordable price.

Before we get started, a few tips about Park City restaurants…

The weekend was crazy for brunch/lunch/dinner, I’d definitely recommend a reservation for most dinner spots year-round and many places will have a wait for brunch or lunch (I found Kimball Junction to have a bit more availability). Note, I was visiting in mid-fall (early October), so not peak season.
There are no alcohol sales on Sundays or holidays in Utah, so liquor stores are closed. You can, however, purchase at restaurants and take home closed containers.
When I was making reservations on Open Table or Resy, they all required require a credit card and had a fee if you cancel within 24 hours—which is insane. A per person fee of like $25-50! I don’t know if that was normal, but just be aware.
Do note that some restaurants (nicer dinner ones) close down from mid-October to mid-November, the “between seasons” period.

19 of the best places to eat (& drink) in Park City

I’ll start with the Park City coffee shops I loved as well as breakfast options, then somewhat-subjectively move on to lunch and dinner (knowing there’s overlaps between all of those).

Silver King Coffee: A tiny drive-thru that was pretty good (and, conveniently, right across the street from where we had church every day).

Hugo Coffee: I didn’t get a chance to try it, but a friend said it was great!

Five5eeds – The only downside to this adorable, healthy breakfast and lunch spot is how crowded it can get at times. I stopped in a few times, including grabbing take-out. I enjoyed their golden latte and smashed avocado toast with poached egg and a slightly spicy red sauce. Their smoothies are also great. The superfood salad I got to-go was the only thing that was kind of meh.

Atticus Coffee & Teahouse – You know I love me a bookstore AND a coffee shop, and this checks both boxes. They have an interesting selection of books and gifts, plus a little counter that serves bagels, coffee, baked goods, and smoothies.

Ritual Chocolate – I stopped here for coffee one morning and snagged a couple of their lovely-sounding chocolate bars as well as a (quite good) latte. Most of the pastries didn’t really float my boat except their hazelnut cinnamon roll type thing (which was unfortunately too messy to take with me at the time).

Harvest – This nice little coffee and lunch spot was a brief stop for me during some shopping on the main drag and I was still stuffed from an earlier lunch, so I got a smoothie instead.

Tina’s Bakery – This Argentinean bakery is a bit further out of the way (like, 10 minutes), but really charming and worth the extra drive! They have traditional empanadas (fresh, or frozen to take home), alfajores, a few other pastries, plus coffee. (And yes, I took some empanadas and alfajores home!)

Bartolo’s – Now on to more “real” restaurants. My pre-trip research had suggested that their breakfast and lunch were maybe a bit stronger than their dinner, so I stopped in for a slightly-later lunch on a Sunday and was able to snag a table for one.

I have trouble resisting sweet brunch dishes, and so I got their famous blueberry “pan” cake (Dutch baby), a side of biscuits & jam, and a side of eggs. The waitress looked at me with such confusion for the double carbs 🙂 The Dutch baby was awesome, filled with some kind of custard and drizzled with syrup.

Saltbox – This is a great healthy take-out option, I had a delicious salmon grain salad bowl to-go.

Park City Brewing – I wouldn’t put this at the top of the list of best Park City restaurants. One of the the low spots for me. I stopped here on my first day in town, for a quick lunch with my sister, bro-in-law, and the kiddos. It has a nice (if loud and industrial) vibe. I was a bit surprised how limited the beer selection and menu were, and my food was pretty meh (fries cold, salad eh; chicken on the salad was pretty good).

Bangkok Thai on Main – I loooovve Thai food! I got this as delivery the first time (delicious khao soi), then went back for lunch with my parents. It took forever to get our food, but it was delicious and the chicken curry puffs were great.

Nosh – This place was a winner! I came here for lunch two different times and loved their braised lamb bowl, gyro, and crispy Brussels sprouts (amazing). This is a good, fast, healthy option.

High West Saloon – This is the downtown bar location of the locally-famous High West Distillery. I wished I could have visited the actual distillery, which I’ve heard is gorgeous (and was booked up for the times I was available), but this was the next-best thing. They have a patio for when it’s nice outside, and a surprising amount of space/seating.

I bellied up to the bar and started with the Old Black Kettle cocktail (kind of like an espresso martini). I nibbled on the pretzel with beer cheese appetizer, then enjoyed the burger and rosemary fries. I finished off with their Blue Blood cocktail, which was nice and balanced.

Chimayo – I had dinner here with my parents one night and it was pretty good overall (though less to my personal taste). I chose the duck enchiladas, my mom had the salmon special (with mango glaze and a white wine mustard sauce), and my dad dad had the elk London broil.

We couldn’t say no to the churros to finish our meal…so delish!

Hearth & Hill – I caught them on a pretty quiet night and enjoyed my whole meal. I started with the cheddar biscuits with honey butter (delicious, even better than Tupelo’s) and the corn fritters (also YUM), along with their “Good Call” bourbon cocktail.

I went semi-healthy with their fall salad with salmon, solid if not mind-blowing. I found their wine list super interesting…I’d just returned from Greece and they had a delicious Greek white wine that I thoroughly enjoyed (and it gave me a way around the Sunday alcohol sales issue, as I could take the rest of the bottle home with me).

Twisted Fern – My sisters and mom and I came here for a lovely girls’ night, and Twisted Fern totally delivered. The service was great and it had a nice ambiance and interesting menu.

The starters were really good, we got both the ricotta and beet salad and the shiitake pakoras to share. My entree (the short rib patty melt) was a bit lackluster in both flavor and texture, though not terrible. And both the cocktails and wines were great.

Tupelo – I arrived in Park Citiy pretty late at night, so bellied up to the bar at Tupelo before even checking into my hotel. I was trying to be semi-healthy after a long day of travel, so got the field greens salad with the trout (you can only add protein that’s on the menu). The salad and trout were kind of meh.

But I balanced that out with the cheese fritters, carrots with goat cheese & pistachios, and biscuits and honey butter. All were great, though I think the biscuits had been sitting for a while (I was close to closing time). I also had a delightful gin cocktail (something about Thyme). I definitely recommend Tupelo for a lovely dinner!

Handle – This is one of the best Park City restaurants, and I made a rookie mistake and was already kind of full when I arrived. I tried to power through though…how I suffer for my craft 🙂 Handle shows up on pretty much every list of best Park City restaurants, and it was my solo “fancy night out” pick (partly based on them having plenty on the menu that I could actually eat).

I started with the burrata salad toast (a bit flavorless) and their chili-glazed cauliflower (good!) rather than having a big entree as well. But I couldn’t resist dessert…the banana tres leches was DELISH! I definitely am going to try and recreate it. My cocktails were also awesome, highly recommend!

Riverhorse on Main – Haha, we went BIG here! This was my girls’ night out with one of my BFFs, who I never get to see. And we decided to live our best lives at one of the most well-known Park City restaurants.

We started wtih the cheese plate and French onion pierogis, as well as their pear and burrata salad. All great, and would recommend. We also both had really fun cocktails with our appetizers.

We decided to split two entrees, both of which are staples on the menu. We got the Alaskan halibut with macadamia nut crust and herb-whipped potatoes, as well as the “Trio of Wild Game” (buffalo, venison, and elk with a port reduction). The halibut was fine, if a little bland, and the game trio was amazing (the bison especially). We’d switched to a great Zinfandel at this point well.

And even though we were stuffed beyond belief, we had to share a couple desserts. I highly recommed the peanut butter brownie (BOMB), and the peach cobbler was good as well.

It’s no wonder I gained like 10 pounds in my eight days in Park City…I really put a dent in my list of best Park City restaurants that I wanted to try out. Hopefully my detailed notes on the experiences are helpful for you when planning your own trip!

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