Zion Vacation Dining: Fine Food at Zion Ponderosa

by Jamie Moesser on December 8th, 2013 | No Comments »

It's safe to say that one of the defining characteristics of any great family vacation is the quality of the food. If you're vacationing in southern Utah, you may not think you have a lot of good options available. Nothing could be further from the truth if you're staying at the Zion Ponderosa Ranch and Resort, just outside of Zion National Park. This is the place to find excellent Zion vacation dining options.

Indeed, they have a list of dining options that is almost as long as the list of activities they provide, and that complements it in many ways. Here are some possible menu options:

Catering/home chef options for guest staying in their vacation homes
Chuckwagon dinner options
Poolside grill
Restaurant serving traditional fare like burgers and pasta
Snack bar with pastries and other delectables

You will find these options on-site and reasonably priced makes for the perfect rounding-out of any southern Utah family vacation. The perfect accompaniment to an afternoon spent paint balling or horseback riding is a massive bacon cheeseburger. They've got that. Their Cajun Chicken and Andouille Pasta is a spicy follow-up to an afternoon of zip lining.

In-home catering options, such as their three-cheese pizza or even private ones similar to McKoy's Smokehouse and Saloon, make for wonderful options if your inclination is just to relax in one of their many available vacation homes and enjoy the scenery. They'll even grocery shop for you!! On a recent visit to Zion Ponderosa, we were able to sample many of these dining options. The pizzas were ready and waiting for us in the fridge when we arrived after a long drive from up north, and they were delicious and satisfying. The Blue Belly restaurant also provided entrees that were delicious and varied, such as this hummus and cucumber relish dish:

The restaurant and snack bar are open mid-March to the end of November. They even provide an amazing Thanksgiving Feast, with dishes like Roasted Pumpkin Bisque and Baked Squash with Cranberry Confit. The poolside grill, which provides various lunch and snow cone options, is open June through August. The catering services are provided during their main season outdoors or in their conference room or large event tent. The home chef is available for smaller groups. The chuckwagon dinner is part of a whole wagon ride/dutch oven excursion offered during the summer months.

When one is enjoying the great outdoors with family, one hopes that the quality, taste, and variety of the food will at least not detract from the wonderful experiences and memories that are being made, and at best be one of those memories, the kind that brings them back to that site year after year. Zion Ponderosa provides that kind of food.

You can learn more about Zion vacation dining by going to ZionPonderosa.com, or by checking them out on Facebook and Twitter.

Check out our other travel posts about Zion Ponderosa:

Sightseeing in Southern Utah: National Parks and Lodging
Zion Ponderosa: Lodging Options for a Vacation in Southern Utah
Family Vacation in Southern Utah: Zion Ponderosa

What is your favorite Dutch oven meal?

A frequent contributor to Mom It Forward, Jamie Moesser holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in public administration. Before becoming a full-time mom she spent 10 years writing grants and fundraising for non-profit organizations. She now enjoys blogging at HobbyMamas.com, volunteering at her sons’ school, reading, writing fiction, scrapbooking, waterskiing, r/c car racing, and dirt biking.