Top Of The Notch Restaurant

My boyfriend and I were pretty shocked at how delicious the food was! We used the Groupon deal ($ 35 for 2 people to enjoy $ 10 vouchers each and roundtrip lift rides), and I’d have to say this was one of my favorite dates.
We ordered chili cheese fries and the pulled pork sandwich with potato salad. The fries were fried to perfect – way better than The Hat, Tommy’s or any other chili cheese fries we ever had. The sandwich was hearty and fresh, and the potato salad was so cheesy and buttery (blue cheese potato salad). Even the pickle was crisp and delicious.
This really isn’t your normal sad mountain lodge cafeteria food. The restaurant doesn’t look all that exciting, but the food really nailed the experience for us.
Right when we got to the top of the mountain, it was very clear and beautiful. As we were eating, the clouds came rolling in and we lost our view for the remainder of our time at the mountain. SAD: (
If the lift ride up wasn’t so scary, I’d be back in a heart beat.

My wife and I had a blast! Could not have planned a better day! Groupon deal with lift and lunch. Beautiful after a light snow.

Dirty, crowded and overpriced.
If you go later, there is no price to sit down. Be prepared to pay 6 dollars for a bag of chocolate chip cookies. I saw people bringing their own food to eat in here. Don’t expect some fancy place at all; it’s more like a cafeteria. Long lines as well. The staff members are so busy they don’t have time for the customers.
Basically this is the only food place in Mount Baldy, so they take advantage of that. Never returning again.

I put pictures on my blog…
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Girlfriend got a Groupon deal… Was it worth the money? You’d have to ask her. But I had a great day out of the city, in nature, a tasty lunch, and really great quality time in nature with a gorgeous gal I enjoy appreciating and sharing life with.
Find a pine tree and breathe in and out. REPEAT.
The sky was amazing in the earlier hours of our day, and the light flattened out as the day went on, and a haze rolled in. Bring your camera, and shoes to walk around in mud or snow.
Next time we go up we’ll skip the chair, and hike up, but we wanted the experience and day.
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Got a deal in Groupon, a ski lift ride up and a 10 $ voucher for food. The ride up was amazing imo. I liked the view from the top. It was amazing to eat with a great view of the mountains, you’ll feel really in touch with nature! The food was good too, if you like american food like burgers, steak, fries and all that stuff. The food ranges from 12 $-16 $ they also have a bar inside where you can purchase beers and stuff.
My advice, wear something that’ll keep you warm. We went during spring time but it still gets very cold up there. A few snow, yes!

Not exactly gourmet, but they have a captive audience given the spectacular views and the fact there is no other choices nearby … hahahaha!
Perfect get-​a-​away spot for a day trip whether you want to hike our fabulous mountains, or just take advantage of any snow.

Wonderful place to grab a bite to eat. Of course the food they serve is a bit over priced but think about how hard it must be to get the food actually up there? Well that is the first thing that came to my mind.
We ordered the chili cheese fries and they were DELICIOUS!!! The chili itself is probably the best I have had, not that I am a chili connoisseur… but after that chili i might turn into one.
My Chipotle chicken wrap wasn’t the best… the lettuce seemed a bit dated but the chicken itself was really good. My hubs ordered a burger and it was onpoint. Beautiful winter wonderland just outside the doors. If we go back we’ll just order the chili cheese fries.

Over priced fries and food, but they’re pretty decent. When you’re freezing and you just want something hot to eat and drink this is the place.
On my first trip here it was the first time I had hot spiced wine and it was so amazing. The pricing on their alcohol is pretty standard, it is as if you were in any regular bar but 7,000 feet elevation. Normally for beer it’s around $ 8 per drink whether it’s draft or bottled.
This place uses a central fire chimney to heat up the place so if you sit near it (which is in between the middle of the restaurant) you’d feel the intensity of the heat. Also this goes without saying, don’t try and touch it unless you don’t value layers of your epidermal.

I have to admit, I was surprised by the selection of food they offered. Usually when you go somewhere like here you expect the same greasy food that has been sitting out for hours but that wasn’t the case. Most of the items were made to order and were large portions.
That being said, it’s a cafeteria style line and is definitely nothing fancy. The food is not cheap but could be worse and don’t expect to get a friendly greeting.

Great place to come and eat some chicken Alfredo! It’s worth the trip up to the mountains. Also the notch burger is fantastic. I would highly recommend wearing something warm during the winter seasons because it can be a cold ride going up. They are currently constructing a zip line attraction which will be done around spring of 2016 so make sure to head on back when it’s done!

My fries were cold, the bread to my burger was cold and the meat patty was cold too! They couldn’t get anything right. This place needs a good chef to come and set them straight. The service was super slow and there wasn’t many people in the restaurant. Management needs to step up their game and check their food and customer service quality.

We got a deal from groupon for about $ 30 for 2 (ski lift roundtrip and $ 20 voucher that can be use as cash). I love the skilift but kinda scary, the food was ok nothing special but the VIEEWWWW it was amazing. I wanna go back their during the winter time and hike!
*try eating outside the restau, enjoy the mountains. This is not ideal if u want an intimate date its loud and full pack of hikers but overall… The deal was worth it. Will definitely visit soon!

As of August 16, there is a promotion on GroupOn where a round trip ski ticket and $ 10 food voucher per person (used as cash) is only $ 30 for 2 people, $ 43 for 3 people, or $ 55 for 4 people! My friends and I wanted to hike up Mt Baldy to Mt Antonio, so this was a great deal since we bypassed the 1,500 feet elevation gain and couple of miles. It was our first time, so we didn’t want to quite kill ourselves just yet. Anyways, after we hiked to the top, we were very excited to try the food at Top of the Notch!
Service: It was pretty cruddy in the beginning, but it was super packed at 11:35pm. The crowd was pretty varied from families who came up to eat lunch to hikers who just came back from the hike or were eating before they started. Since we were waiting for our two friends to come back down, we weren’t in a rush. But it would have been nice to at least be given a menu. After ten minutes, the male server we had flagged down twice finally asked a girl (Kersten) if she could help us. She was amazing! She came to our table three times before we even got our food to check up on us. Kersten got us a pitcher of ice cold water and was very attentive. We only ordered an appetizer in the beginning while waiting for our friends, so she asked if we wanted her to get water cups for our friends. We told her it’d be a while, and she didn’t once wince. She gladly went to get our food without a question.
Food: We had the food vouchers so we ordered a LOT of food! We had an enormous chili cheese fries (that we didn’t finish), grilled chicken sandwich, veggie wrap with fries, and a cheeseburger with fries. Our friend loved his burger and fries while the veggie wrap was okay according to our friend. The grilled chicken sandwich was pretty amazing considering it was a ski resort restaurant. I loved the chili cheese fries! But if they had just added less sauce, more beef, and less beans, it would have been the BEST CHILI CHEESE FRIES EVER.
Ambiance: Definitely very loud with all the hikers and families that come to the top to relax after a hike or hang out. I liked how clean their restrooms were and it was perfect for me to clean my dirty legs after hiking. They had paper towels and the coldest water from the sink faucets. It felt very good after the hike.
Overall: We had such a great deal, fun hike, and all around service and food from Notch that I wouldn’t mind coming back! Thanks Kersten for your wonderful and chippy personality!

Customer service was very poor. We had to wait 1.5 hours for our food to arrive at the table. We placed our order before there were many people in the place. People who arrived AFTER we did got their food before ours arrived. The waiter told us our orders were MIA due to a computer problem. Our orders did not all arrive at the table at the same time. They did comp us 2 baskets of onion rings while we were waiting which is why I give them 2 stars rather than 1.
My food was not very good. I ordered the tri tip sandiwch. The meat was very dry and overdone.

My girlfriend and I went this past Saturday for one of their «Moonlight Hikes» event and we stood the night right there in one of their «Tent Cabins.»
The lift was definitely worth getting a round trip. It left us with more energy to hike around the top of the mountain with way better views.
All of the food was good. We ate it all up. They even had a live band playing «Shamrockabilly.» Rockabilly meets the Irish… Clever haha! If this restaurant was in the city, and had to compete with others, I would’ve given it four stars. But, considering how it was way up the top of the mountain, and they had a band playing for our entertainment, yeah this place gets all five stars.
Staying the night there in one of their «Tent Cabins» was well worth it. Everything we needed was just a short walk away and we never had to worry about staying sober enough for the drive down the mountain. I will say this though, the tent cabins are not really sound proof so if my girl and I decide to stay there again, I will definitely ask for a more secluded tent cabin with more privacy for us.

Am not sure what some people expect when they go to eat at a restaurant off the beaten path, or in this case way down the beaten path. It’s expensive to staff and to get food deliveries in.
The lunch we had was fantastic, the view we had was beyond that. The ride up on the chair lift was smooth but if heights are not your thing the long hike would be my recommendation. I’m not great on heights but it was worth the ride.
We had burgers, very good burgers. Nothing I could say bad about.
Would recommend their new staff get a bit more training. Refills of ice tea should have ice… Other than that glitch the staff was good, friendly and informed.
Will go again.

I came here for a night hike + bbq and it was so much fun! I would definitely recommend making a trek out to Mount Baldy for one of those nights throughout the summer, totally worth it.
The hike is pretty easy. You drive up to the bottom of the ski lifts and start there. It’s easy to figure out. You can choose to ski lift up and down, but I would recommend at least hiking one way. What we chose to do was hike up, grub/​drink and take the ski lift down.
The hike up was great, we took off right at 7pm and got to catch the last of the sunset and nightfall. The first quarter mile is a brutal incline, but it levels off around the bend and the rest of the hike up is gradual fire road. In total probably took us about a hour and fifteen minutes to go up.
Once you’re up there, you get to enjoy a BBQ dinner. The food was alright, nothing spectacular. Tri tip was on the dry side, chicken was pretty tasty. They ran out of corn by the time I got up there, and the potato was a bit on the uncooked side. Ok, so I wouldn’t say the food was the strong point, but the entire night was great. Plus. most of my night included consumption of beer :)
Only beer and wine, since we’re on that note. They have a band at the Notch for these nights. I also heard that they are completing rentable tents, which will be equipped with a queen sized bed, but no bathroom. So if you want to spend a couple days hiking the mountain, that’s a good thing to look into.
I can’t attest for the food on the menu, because we ate the bbq. But I can imagine that if you’re famished on the way down the mountain, anything would be delicious.
So take my tip, try to make it out for one of the night hikes. It’s a real fun time if you like the outdoors and good views!

Firstly there is no phone signal up here. The lift is slow during non winter seasons for scenic rides. The restaurant has a variety of beers and sells gloves and sweaters.
We had the notch burger an blue bacon burger. Burgers were good. A little too much mayo. The bartender is very kind and provided great service.
If you get cold on the ski lift, you can ask to borrow a blanket or jacket if they have it available.

Given how we had two $ 10 meal vouchers for the Top of the Notch, we decided to have lunch here first before taking on the hike. Too bad that those vouchers could only go so far…
I ordered their Tri-​Tip Sandwich with a side of bleu cheese and bacon potato salad ($ 12.95). This sandwich was huge — the ciabatta bread it was served on was very big but soft and toasty, and the steak itself was tender and juicy. The potato salad itself was surprising — the bacon and bleu cheese work well with the potatoes — and hey, you get a pickle spear with your orders!
Kathy went with the California Burger (avocado, bacon, and Swiss also on ciabatta bread, plus the potato salad and pickle spear — also $ 12.95). She finished off her order rather quickly; according to her, the bacon was the best part.
Despite how pleased we were overall with our orders, there were a few problems. First of all, the drinks are overpriced (and as they come in bottles or cans, no refills). Secondly, the service was just bleh. There were a couple of staffers that were pretty nice (especially the masseuse who gave us a few pointers about which trail to take, once he found out we were newbies), but the server assigned to our table was rather gruff and unfriendly. She didn’t even come back with a water glass when I requested some water, leading me to use my water bottle to pour into my empty glass that held my root beer. (Lucky there’s a water fountain near the restrooms to refill your water bottles. Just sayin’.)
Still, the view from the lodge while eating your meal is worth looking at, and you can’t go wrong with classic rock playing inside (guess there’s a wi-​fi connection so they can get Pandora?). Consider this a 3.5 star review — work on the service, and maybe it’ll go up to a 4-​star if/​when we come back to Mt. Baldy.

Taking into account that the restaurant is on top of a mountain and all that…3 stars. This place is awesome during the winter when it’s freezing outside and you want to warm your numb feet by a fire and drink some hot chocolate. It’s also great after a hike up the Devil’s Backbone trail when you feel like you could figuratively eat a horse. However, I would not eat here if I had to pay full price (we got a groupon, so I had a $ 10 voucher for food).
They say they’ll take your order if you stay seated, but I would just order from the bar, because the service on the floor is rather slow and disorganized. I ordered the Crispy Chipotle Chicken Sandwich ($ 9.95), and chose the potato salad as the side. I probably should have gone with the Grilled Chicken instead, because the sandwich I got was so salty and dry. The best part was the ciabatta bread, so good call on that. Everything was on par with cafeteria food, and it was way more expensive. I understand why it has to be expensive, but at least try a little with the taste.
The best part of this restaurant is the view. Other than that, this place is not very top notch. Since they are the only option to eat up on the mountain, they don’t have to make much of an effort in food quality and people will still come to eat there. It’s kind of a cop out if you ask me. Buy your hot/​alcoholic beverages here, but bring your own food.
Food: 2, Service: 2, Environment: 4, Price; 2