Embers

We dined here when we stayed at the Yosemite lodging at Big Creek B&B. It’s the nearest place to have proper dinner in the area. The foods were very good and service also good. A bit pricey but it’s worth it.

Booked a reservation and once we arrived they told me that we couldn’t come in because one of my daughters was under the age of 12. Really? Well, so long…

Went to eat here during my first nights stay at tenaya lodge. We were greeted at the door and shown our seats by a snobbish waiter. After we were seated, we sat and waited for a good 30 minutes for someone to take our order. We could not even get the attention of any waiters or servers. We left! This restaurant is absolutely horrendous! Do not visit this restaurant under any circumstances. It will the best decision you made in your life. Utter waste of time!

Went here while staying at Tenaya Lodge and visiting Yosemite. We were the first ones to be seated and they placed us at a table near their double sided fireplace, very lovely. For appetizers I got the grilled quail and hubby got the arugula salad. Both had the wonderful candied bacon. That stuff is so good I could have just eaten a bowl of candied bacon! I had the lamb shank as a main and it was a very generous portion and the lamb was cooked perfectly. Hubby got the venison chop. I found the venison too gamey for my taste but hubby thought the flavor was just right, if not a little over-​cooked. He also loved the polenta that came on the plate. For dessert hubby got the crème brûlée and thought it was good. As the hubby said, «it’s hard to really f@ck up a crème brûlée.» All in all, a lovely dinner.

We went to Embers, your «fine dining» restaurant on Saturday night and by far it was one of the worst dining experiences of my life.
After a couple of drinks at your bar, we arrived on time for our 9pm reservation to find that Embers was a freezing cold, overly air conditioned room with the ambiance of a normal hotel conference room.
We were promptly seated, but received zero attention for over fifteen minutes — no one asking us if we wanted beverages, no water, nothing — while we saw the sole waiter setup and perform the kitchy tableside flambé dessert performance. Why, if there was only one waiter, he didn’t at least come take and put in our drink order before launching into «Bananas Diablo» is absolutely beyond me. He spent the full ten minutes making the dessert alternating between his weak stand-​up and turning around to apologize for not serving us.
We thought about leaving at this point. Thought it was a sign of things to come. I really wish we had listened to our guts.
When Christopher finally made it over to us, he apologize again (which was now getting annoying), took our drink orders and told us about what on the menu were his favorite dishes. My fiancée made the regretable decision of listening to him and ordering the roasted lamb, while I got the chicken. We also got a salad and a lobster bisque, because by the time all this happened, we were already extremely hungry.
The salad and bisque came out twenty-​minutes after that. Unimpressive, but whatever. Hardly something to complain about… it was a salad. The bisque was served in an enomous bowl, but ultimately, fine. Nothing exciting or special about our appetizers, but definitely not worth the time it took for it to arrive.
But our entrees didn’t come out for an additional FIFTY minutes. We were there for an hour and a half before our entrees hit the table. And guess what? They were disgusting.
At Jackaloupe’s, someone ordered a chicken dish that was absolutely incredible smelling. My chicken tasted and smelled like nothing. Seasoning had never touched any part of the breast or skin. It was overcooked and very tough to eat. In fact, I didn’t. I took two bites and decided that was enough. It was served with quinoa and califlower. Quinoa is quinoa. It too was fine. But the califlower was just boiled and plopped onto my plate, completely devoid of any flavor or character. I ate about half my quinoa, one piece of califlower and I was absolutely done.
My fiancée was optimistic about her dish when it arrived. While cooked to a nice medium-​rare, the lamb was soaked in a bland brown sauce, like something you’d find in an elementary school cafeteria, with whole uncooked cloves of garlic in it, rendering the meat inedible. The potato side dish was gray and soggy. And the same plain jane califlower polluted her plate, as well. Christopher’s recommendation was way off. That was it. Dinner was done.
We asked for the check right away. It took over fifteen minutes for the check to arrive, at which point, Christopher asked if we liked our meals and wanted them boxed. My fiancée told him plainly, her meal was awful and the kitchen needed to rethink the dish entirely. And when he turned to me, I just told him, «I ate the quinoa.»
To Christopher’s credit, he did apologize profusely, offered to give us more drinks or a dessert on the house (we declined) and took the entrées off the bill, which we appreciated. He wasn’t a bad server, just woefully understaffed.
We’re never coming back, but we were honestly very disappointed. We were looking forward to that meal and our stay at Tenaya. This whole experience left a very sour taste in our mouths and a very empty feeling in our bellies.

We recently went to Embers with friends. The atmosphere was decent. We were first served with bread, olive oil and some other things, no utensils, when asked for it, we were told no utensils would be provided until appetizers arrive. OK, that’s pretty audacious. When your customers ask for utensils, you give them utensils, just that simple! Appetizers came, they all had weird taste, the pork belly dish was the worst offender, was full of fat, uneatable, it seemed like the chef was trying too hard to impress people but had the opposite effect. One of our friends’ Brussels sprouts salad was so dry, she had to pour the olive oil we got for bread into the salad to make her own dressing. Entries were ok, nothing special. Overall, Embers is a wanna be high end restaurant with overpriced mediocre food.

This is by far one of the coolest dining experiences we have had.
Great food, great ambiance, and very friendly staff!
Our waiter, Gordon, was wonderful. Very knowledgeable and we got the pleasure of having him make us a salad table side as well as a fire show with our dessert.
Matt the manager was wonderful. Stopped by our table multiple times.
The food was to die for and by far the best filet I’ve ever had.
Reservations are required. Keep in mind they are seasonal.

We decided to give this restaurant a try when we heard it was the last night of the season and that no children were allowed. This was our weekend away from our kiddos!!!
Embers was quiet, romantic and the least busy restaurant of the 3 at Tenaya Lodge. It is a fine dining experience verses the other 2. I’m glad we read some reviews here on Unilocal before ordering. I found other people’s recommendations to be very helpful. We did like the crab cake appetizer, you get 2 crab cakes per order. They were very simple but very fresh tasting. We also had to try the table side Cesar Salad, it was very good. It was fun to see how the waitress prepared it and it has a unique spicy flavor to it. I ordered the Filet Oscar picture posted below. It was perfect exactly how I ordered my Filet (medium rare). My hubby ordered the Lamb Shank again picture posted below. It fell right off the bone it was so tender. We also shared the Lobster Bisque soup that was good too but nothing special. Unfortunately, we were to full to try dessert. The table side Bananas Diablo looked great, maybe next time!
The only reason I did not give it a five star was because we waited so long in between courses and for the final check. Otherwise, it was a great dining experience!!! The staff was super friendly…

Embers is the most expensive and fanciest restaurant at Tenaya Lodge in Fish Camp, CA. They require reservations and apparently do not take walk ins. We managed to get an 8:30PM reservation on New Years Eve. Apparently they are busy this time of year, whatever.
The actual seating area is much smaller than Sierra, next door. They also have several similar items but when asked, the waitress informed us that Embers has «higher grade» food. Okay. But they do in fact share a kitchen.
Décor is fine, very simple with a wilderness touch. The big red chairs are very comfy although they’re very unwieldy so you could very easily knock into another customer’s chair.
Between us both, we spent $ 100. It was very pricey and we don’t feel it was worth it.
When we were seated, we were provided with water and a small plate with crispy bread, olives, and red pepper hummus. The crispy bread had olive oil, salt and pepper on it. It was extremely hard, oily, and salty. The hummus was nice, not too much heat and the proper consistency. The olives were fine as well, although the entire dish was so salty I downed my water very quickly.
We aren’t alcohol drinkers so we ordered two diet cokes.
Fiancé wasn’t very hungry, so he ordered the quail as an appetizer, then we shared the table side Caesar salad and I ordered the Buffalo short ribs. The quail is actually only HALF of a quail (and they’re small buggers). It was very tasty but there was not much to it. Two people who weren’t very hungry couldn’t share it, for sure.
The Caesar salad was prepared at the table very meticulously. It was very interesting and nice to chat to the hostess who was prepping it. I think it had a bit too much lemon but overall very nice. They used real sardines, no bottle sauce at all. I was confused why she made so much and we had left overs, but we weren’t allowed to have second plates. She wheeled the cart away with the spare salad. I can only imagine it went in the trash since other customers are paying to have it made fresh in front of them so no one else got it. Very odd.
The buffalo short ribs were falling off the bone and came with a mole sauce which was very flavorful and hearty. The dish also came with root vegetables and polenta. I got only three veggie pieces, unfortunately. The polenta was tasty but a very thick consistency. Fiancé suggests they used a lot of butter. It was thick and fluffy and stuck to my fork. It tasted great but was confused about the consistency.
We ordered the popular bananas diabalo, where they cook the banana sauce in front of you and light it on fire, etc etc. Interesting to watch, again, like the Caesar salad. It comes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (we ordered another scoop) and some sweet wafers to provide texture. The bananas were very good in my opinion. Fiancé wanted more flavor. The ice cream was still frozen and had ice crystals in it, it was hard and unpleasant to eat. I like the texture the wafers provided but it was too sweet. The sauce the bananas were tossed in was just the right amount of sweet but the wafers put it over.
The waitstaff were all wonderful and accommodating. They were personable and easy going. I would have loved to give more stars for them but the food just doesn’t make this a four star review.

When I came here, average rating was 3 stars only.
The food they prepared was very good and 3 stars is definitely under rated. The Lobster bisque soup and Fillet mignon was very delicious and I absolutely recommend to my friends.

Would highly recommend the Filet Oscar. We were happy with our meals. The crab cakes were really good and we also enjoyed the table side Caesar salad!

Was at a small conference at Tenaya Lodge so my husband and I decided to eat here. We ordered the lobster bisque, filet oscar (8oz filet + crab and grilled artichoke heart), and the lamb rack. Lobster bisque was quite delicious, with a puff pastry on top of it. The filet oscar had a very good bearnaise sauce that accompaied it, and lamb rack was alright. What I’ll have to say, though, is that the service was wonderful. Our waiters knew the menu (including wine list), and they were very friendly and attentive. Good dining experience.

Service and food was excellent. Had dinner two nights previous at The Awanhnee and this was much better and less expensive. Enjoyed the Lobster Bisque and Filet Oscar. Salmon dish was also very good.

Your experience here will highly depend on your waiter. The waiter attending the table near ours seemed to make the food come alive off the menu meanwhile our waiter was just meh… not that interested.
The highlight of the dinner was definitely dessert! We had the bananas diablo which they prepare tableside and it was about the only excitement we got from our waiter all night. Menu options were a little limited so they were kind enough to allow me to order from a different menu (belonging to Sierra Restaurant) as well as my husband who sticks to a vegan diet.
For the price, they can definitely do better. My cousin and her husband enjoyed their meal, but again not worth the high price tag.

One family. Five entrees.
They couldn’t get any of it right. All of the meat and even the couscous (!) was overcooked. Did we all get re-​heated plates? At $ 15 per person, we expect better. At $ 40 per person, it is incompetence. $ 250. Yuck.
The Embers restaurant left us feeling ripped off and that was even before the 10pm call to our room from the waiter who said that our European counterparts added their tip wrong and asked if we would return downstairs to resolve it. (Um, can this wait until tomorrow?) At $ 30-​$ 40 per entrée, we expect good, if not excellent. To a person, the food was poor. The next day, resolving the bill took the work five of their staff over nearly twenty (!) minutes. That is how little empowerment the staff is given to resolve issues… and we still felt like we got attitude. At any self-​respecting 5-​star hotel, the dinner would just be comped and be done with it.

The service was excellent, the food was good, the prices were overdone.

It must be special occasion visiting Yosemite to everybody. To celebrate a night at Tanaya Lodge, it’s best to choose Embers. Their foods are excellent and the atmosphere is good. Finishing a dinner with «Banana Diablo» prepared by a entertaining server made my dinner very romantic.

Husband and I came here to celebrate our Anniversary and we were not impressed for an «upscale» dining experience.
We tried to change our reservation with the manager of the restaurant to change our reservation from 6:45 to 6:00PM so we could enjoy the jacuzzi before it closed. He said he couldn’t do it but after really pushing, he was willing to seat us at 6:15. When we arrived, the restaurant was empty! There was maybe 4 tables total, including us! My husband and I were sitting here thinking is something wrong?
The food was sub-​par. The filet was quite bland and really needed more flavor. For the price of the dishes, true disappointment.
6 oz. Filet Mignon | 36
Smoked Mac and Cheese Red Wine Bordelaise
10 oz. Filet Mignon | 42
Yukon Mashed, Bleu Cheese Gratin
The service was great however, but the food just wasn’t worth the price tag. I’d recommend saving your hard earned money and maybe just eat at the other restaurants they have available.

The best option for dining here at Tenaya. This is slightly pricier than the Sierra restaurant, but it’s 10x the atmosphere and food… so I would say the value is here over Sierra’s madhouse of poor food and atmosphere. We actually REALLY enjoyed it… our server was a fantastic gent who took his time caring to discuss the food, prep, ingredients, etc, as well as being a joy to talk to about the ins and outs of Yosemite. A romantic, but traditional, steakhouse atmosphere, we got dressed up… although families were there with casually dressed kids, etc. It’s dimly lit enough that the table experience is intimate, and other tables won’t bother you. Ask for a seat near the fireplace. =)
Tableside service really added the experience. The apps, salad, steaks were all great… but the table side caeser is ALWAYS welcome, and the after dinner drinks set on fire and mixed at the table were such an enhancement. I know it takes a lot of time, but we love that additional service option. It’s just classic and brings a lot to the «table».
It’s definitely the best choice, certainly for couples. Enjoy.

This restaurant is supposedly the ‘high end’ option for the Tenaya Lodge dining experience. Staff recommends that you make reservations– however the place was dead when we had our 6:30 reservation. Unlike our other dining nights, we decided to dress up a little for fun, and you can feel free to do this, as Embers does call themselves ‘fine dining’. The food menu is small, and full focuses on steak & seafood. I enjoyed the lobster bisque and crab cakes (no filler). Both were rich in taste, and provided medium sized portions. The staff will immediately refill water and/​or cocktails, which was nice. The food was good… however I am giving 3 stars just because it wasn’t something that I will remember or need to try again. Was I happy to try it once? Yes… and if you are celebrating an occasion at the resort/​Yosemite NP– give Embers a try for a change of pace. The atmosphere is somewhat inviting (dark, two sided fireplace, large velveteen chairs) but for 2 ppl expect to spent $ 100.