Madison Crossing Lounge

The place was packed. So we sat at the bar and ordered our food. We had the bison nachos. The plate was loaded. It was very good. For entrees, we ordered trout and chicken prosciutto pasta. Both were delicious.

Outstanding food! Flavors were so rich and deep. French fries were smokey and so flavorful! The place was clean and busy. The waitstaff was friendly and prompt. Salad was fresh and dressing was house made. Yum! Great dinner, after driving and not eating, since breakfast.

Had a great meal. We each had burgers. Very good. Great service. We would come again.

Celebrated Father’s Day here while we were visiting Yellowstone. My dad loves steak and raved about his ribeye here being one of the best he has had in terms of taste, quality of cut and how it was prepared.
We also tried the trout and pasta. Both were quite good.
Dessert was delish! We tried the blueberry bread pudding and some huckleberry ice cream. Both were outstanding!

I came to West Yellowstone to run the Yellowstone Half Marathon. And for the national park, obviously. But while in town, might as well try out some good food, right? Madison Crossing Lounge was one of the better reviewed restaurants here; and since I trust my fellow Unilocal reviewers, I recommended this restaurant to my friends and we all agreed to dine here.
The restaurant is not a stand alone restaurant. It’s located inside of a small shopping center that also houses a gym, a travel agency, and a home store.
There was a pretty long wait when we got here. The hostess told us that it would be at least 50 minutes before we would be seated (a party of five) and we decided to wait. They don’t give you a buzzer to notify you, but instead they will look for you in the shopping center and call for you. Me and my friends were waiting inside the home store when the hostess found us. The actual total wait for the food was actually a little over an hour.
The restaurant’s setting is semi-​casual. It’s the kind of restaurant that you could dine in in shorts and flip flops. Although looking at the menu, you wouldn’t think it since pretty much everything on the menu was priced moderate to high.
Our party wanted to try the bison nachos since that’s what everybody was raving about. It was a pretty good sized to share between all five of us. However, being $ 15, I thought it needed a lot more meat on it. I would give it a solid 3.
As for my entrée, I ordered the Bison Burger. I mean, this is West Yellowstone after all, right? This is the place where you can actually go into the park and see a herd of wild bisons! Obviously the bison meat came from a farm, but I was expecting some delicious bison burger.
The bison burger was definitely good. Not mind-​blowing good, but good. It wasn’t too dry like most bison burgers that I’ve tried, but it wasn’t as juicy as the bison burger that I would get from a local Houston restaurant — Bubba’s Burger Shack. And if you compare the price for the two, then Bubba’s wins hands down in price, value, and flavor. I would rate the bison burger a 3.5.
The fries that came with the burger were delicious. However, I wasn’t able to finish it since I wasn’t too hungry when I was dining here. The fries are a solid 4. Unfortunately, I didn’t come here to try the fries.
Service wise, our server was excellent. One of my friends wanted a drink that’s not on the menu: French 75. My friend told him the ingredient, our server relayed that info to the bartenders and they somehow were able to mix it. I had a taste and although it wasn’t really French 75, it was good enough. In addition, our server was on top of his game when it comes to checking in on us and filling up our water glasses. I’d rate the service a 4.5.
Overall, my experience is more like a 3.5. However, considering the high price point and the long wait time, I couldn’t justify rounding up my rating. Would I come back here? If I ever visited West Yellowstone again, I definitely wouldn’t mind coming back. But then again, you don’t really have a lot of choices when it comes to good restaurants here in West Yellowstone.

I was originally looking for Chinese or Mexican but decided to stop at this «cutesy, very trendy out of place in rough and rugged West Yellowstone» restaurant. Ok, once you look at the menu, then you say, «oh, yeah, right…»
THE PRICES! OH MY GOD! Even if you just get an appetizer, you can’t get out for less than $ 20.
Their menu (which brought me back to, «oh yeah, right… rough and rugged West Yellowstone») consisted mostly of bison or elk dishes. Um… although I grew up on cows and chickens, I just can’t bring myself to eat those majestic animals. So, the only other options were Chicken Prosciutto Pasta or Idaho Trout.
I ordered the Chicken Prosciutto Pasta. Did not disappoint! Although for $ 21 it «appeared» to be a generous amount of food, it was brought out in one of those.,… I call them… «plate bowls» as you aren’t sure if it’s a plate or a large soup bowl. But the «plate bowl» was HUGE!!! About a three inch rim on it. My initial thought was… «Is it served in this kind of dinnerware to make it look like a bigger amount than what it actually is???» But it was delicious. If you are like me and can’t bring yourself to eat such magnificent animals as elk or bison, try the Chicken Prosciutto Pasta.
Ok, since everyone raved about the drinks, I decided to be adventurous. I ordered a Huckleberry Smash. Boubon, something «huckleberry» and some other type of liquor I couldn’t identify. Didn’t taste like Huckleberry to me, more like hucklberry/​cherry mix… It came in a highball glass, with, instead of a bunch of ice cubes, one HUGE sphere shaped ice, well, can’t call it a cube… It took up about 20% of the glass! It did keep the drink cold and didn’t melt much… Drink was great, but it was $ 9!
They do charge the 3% Tourism Sales Tax allowed in resort areas of Montana, but it’s only charged on the food, not the drink. (Yes, I do the math to figure this out… I’m a geek…)
No place to park an RV, as this is inside a big building with lots of different shops. I walked here from a nearby RV park.

Food was delicious. Everything else was awful. Told the wait was 50 minutes but took an hour and ten minutes. After being seated we did not get our food for another hour and 45 minutes. We asked the manager what was going on and she was very rude to us. She was annoyed that we even asked to speak to her and just blamed her very nice waitress instead of owning up to the problem and apologizing. Was an awful experience and I would never recommend this place unless they allow take out.

High priced bland food. We went here for dinner one night while on vacation. There were 5 in our group. We were all disappointed with our food. I expected higher quality food but was so disappointed!

Not as good as I was expecting especially for the prices. We like different style foods but if your going to be different then you should be good at it. They do not even offer most the food that you saw on the reviews. Not sure if it recently changed or what. Our server was decent she didn’t have much a personality though. My boyfriend and dad both enjoyed the elk burger I wouldn’t not recommend the chicken picatta, which I love and get anywhere that has it but this place ruined it.

Days after we ate here while on our flight back to Los Angeles, I asked my girlfriend what she thought of Madison Crossing. Not remembering the name of the restaurant I was referring to because we had been to so many on our trip, I added, «The bison nacho restaurant.» She frowned.
A week after we ate here, I asked her again about Madison Crossing. Again, she didn’t recall the name, so I added, «The whiskey place.» She smiled.
I agree with her reactions. The food was okay, but the whiskey was the highlight.
Aside from using ground bison, the nachos were a common recipe that didn’t have enough of the one unique ingredient — bison. It was hard to believe that the tortilla chips were fried in the kitchen and weren’t pre-​cooked from a bag. I liked that a thin layer of chips were spread on a large pizza pan which helped mitigate the chronic problem of chips with no goodies.
The huckleberry burger had very good meat, but too much bacon, a tough pretzel bun, and a lack of huckleberry flavor. The habanero jack cheese and chipotle spread should have brought chili heat. I’m sensitive to chili heat and I couldn’t detect any heat. The steak fries were starchy and chilly like they were supposed to be double-​cooked but we accidentally received the single-​cooked fries.
The best thing about the stuffed pork chop wasn’t the chop but the fantastic grilled asparagus on the side. The filling was gorgonzola cheese with chorizo — a daring combination because bleu cheese tends to pair with sweet instead of spicy, but it somehow worked. Unfortunately, not enough care was taken to ensure the flavor and texture of the pork was correct.
I wouldn’t return for the food, but would for the bar and the main reason for the 4-​star rating instead of an «A-​OK» 3-​stars. Not only does the bar mix a variety of affordably-​priced whiskey cocktails like the herbal Manhattan called «El Abuelo», they carry a small list of top-​notch bourbons. The selection changes because they used to have a supply of Van Winkles, but ran out. That wasn’t a problem because they had two types of Orphan Barrel. I also tried a local Montana whiskey which was okay, but unfair to compare to any Orphan Barrel bourbon. Even better, the price was half of what is being charged at bars in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Getting the check was a happy surprise due to the small amount of sales tax. Even though there is no sales tax in Montana, there is a small one in West Yellowstone but it was so small I didn’t care.

The lobster bisque was excellent. And the bread was moist and tasty. The chicken Parmesan penne was heavier on the roasted red peppers and too light on the parmesean compared to what was expected from the menu description. 4stars only because food is overpriced just like every other restaurant in town except for las palmitas.

This place is a gem. Decided to try it because of the great Unilocal reviews. The flat iron steak did not disappoint. Mash potatoes and asparagus went so well with it. They had excellent wine also. Bar keep was very friendly and fellow yellowstone visitors were fun to socialize with. I’ll stay in west yellowstone again just to eat there.

Excellent service! Wait was no time. Friendly atmosphere and drinks were reasonable too. One of the biggest, thickest burgers I’ve ever had. Huckleberry topping everywhere! Buffalo steak was super juicy. Highly recommended!

This restaurant is a one star, the only reason im giving 2 is because of the 3 pros below. Come here for the drinks and nachos, you want good food try elsewere.
Pros:
1. The hostess got us a table ASAP.
2. The drinks from the bar are amazing! Top quality and amazing flavors.
3. The buffalo nachos were really good amd big enough for a full meal or to entertain 4 people.
Cons:
1. Wait staff was terrible. We were told that one of our entrée items was «sold out» after our appetizer arrived. So our food when it did arrive was late and half the order was cold.
2. The wrong food was brought to our table and it took me asking for them to correct it.
3. The rib eye steak was tough and flavorless. After all the undercooked fat was trimmed off I was left with about 6 ounces of edible but cold meat.
4. We were charged for the «sold out» item and we had to ask to have it removed from the bill. A $ 40 mistake didn’t feel like a mistake at all.

In a tourist town, I understand that food won’t be great, and when I saw this restaurant, I was surprised by the photos and ratings. When we arrived, despite there were plenty empty tables, we were told to wait… ok… 30min later, we (party of 3) were seated by the window in a tiny table where they had to grab another chair… fine… then we ordered a lot, as we were starving… after long time waiting, we were thrilled to get our food which looked great but tasted terrible… literally terrible: the trout wasn’t fresh and didn’t even look like trout. As I called our waitress, she tried to convince me that it was trout, having a look that I was amateur. This is not the end yet… That night I got food poisoning and spent my whole night sitting in the toilet.
Please for your own being, in this shitty town, Do NOT choose this restaurant.

What a gem of a place this is! The building is the former West Yellowstone schoolhouse and has a great vibe. All of the menu items are locally sourced. We ordered an appetizer of pork wings, and they were DELICIOUS. The root beer bbq sauce was so good, and the little slaw that it came with was great. My entrée was a bison burger, and it was cooked to a perfect medium rare and was succulent and juice and full of flavor. One of the better bison burgers that I’ve had. My mother ordered the 8oz angus steak, and it was again perfectly cooked.
Our server was sweet and always kept our water and iced tea glasses full. Really a great place to eat!!!

This place is amazing!
I recommend making a reservation for dinner before you head out to Yellowstone because it gets very busy and you’ll probably have to wait about an hour for a seat during high dinner hours.
We are here a two nights and each night we had amazing food. I thought the food was even better than food I get in Los Angeles which is very high praise. We had an unbelievable mushroom risotto that was just memorable. Their trout, skirt steak, buffalo lasagna… Everything was great! I don’t think you can go wrong with any dish.
Craft beer is $ 4 which I love that it’s the norm in Montana.
Service is great and super attentive. I couldn’t recommend this restaurant more.

My husband and I came here on our last evening in town, and the food and cocktails were exceptional. Although the wait was long — about 45 minutes — it was absolutely worth it. The food served here was all local, and on the menu, they even share the farms from which the food came. We had the charcuterie platter as an appetizer, which was delicious and provided a great variety of cheese and meat. I had the pasta primavera for the main course and an old fashioned to drink. The dish was a perfect serving and made with homemade pasta. My husband had the ribeye, cooked to perfection, and an old fashioned as well. Overall, our dinner was delightful. The staff was friendly and attentive. The price was certainly reasonable for what we ordered. We would recommend this restaurant to any visitor in the area.

We made the mistake of not making a reservation for a group of 7 on a Saturday during Labor Day Weekend so we only had ourselves to blame for the long 1.5 hour wait.
Service was attentive and the hostess was very patient with us when we asked for updates while we waited outside.
I had pretty low expectations since West Yellowstone is tourist central, but the food here was actually decent. Nothing amazing, but it was satisfying after a long day of sight seeing and hiking. Also, despite it’s modest appearances, it was actually quite nice and cozy inside.
Flat Iron Steak — The meat was a bit tough and chewy but for the price and cut, it was pretty good. It was also cooked a perfect medium rare. I enjoyed the mash on the side, especially with the chimichurri sauce.
Huckleberry Burger — I ordered it medium rare, which was a HUGE mistake. The burger patty was mushy inside. I usually love Gruyère but combined with the mushy meat, it just tasted soggy and dank.

Maritza is the best waitress, very personable, friendly and attentive. Great, great service!
Good bourbon selection, nice wine list, good selection on their menu with great daily specials.
Try the Huckleberry Lemonade and Blue Buffalo Manhattan. Both are to die for.
The trout was the best I have every had, try the vegetarian lasagna.
Coming back tomorrow