Ruby’s Inn Cowboy’s Buffet & Steak Room

The food was awful and expensive. I immediately had stomach trouble after having the soup and salad buffet for lunch. I think they used preservatives on the veggies. The veggie soup was full of flour and cold. My husband had the burger and slaw. He said it was edible. I think they are taking advantage of tourist with the prices and quality. I noticed locals received a discount and your guides are paid for bring tourists into the place.

Rounding up again since I can’t give 3.5 stars. My husband and I have traveled to Bryce Canyon for the first time and was surprised at the limited dining options. To our surprise, we had a pleasant meal at Ruby’s, reluctantly since Subway closed at 7:30pm on a Friday night. Ironically, my husband had just complained the night before that we haven’t been able to find decent French Fries during our travels, Ruby’s fries were GREAT! Light, crispy, and not oily at all. Same for my patty melt, which I normally avoid due to the grease. It was also light and not oily at all. My compliments to the cook! The restaurant is a little «kitchey» but so is the whole place. Not a fan of the old west interior but heck, the kitchen was open and the food was alright! We’ll be visiting here often during this trip.

I was getting pretty scared by all the ratings. But, out here you don’t have much choice and when the lady is getting crabby from low blood sugar — sometimes you just gotta take one for the team.
So — I took a look at the buffet and immediately decided to go nowhere near it. I don’t normally do buffets unless its a brazillian steakhouse anyways. Definite ‘stay away’ rating there.
I took a look at the menu. Pretty limited. They weren’t serving the prime rib sandwich — so I went for a chicken & swiss sandwich with coleslaw side. It was a solid choice, they also gave me some really good bbq sauce to go with it. Coleslaw was good too. The lady got the patty melt with the slaw — she was happy with it. Service was decent, but I can see how this place would turn into a shitshow of tourists — our visit was in off season.
Coffee was fine. Iced tea was fine.
When choices are super limited, you can make it work if you don’t have high expectations.

Ruby’s Inn
A really nice «All You Can Ear Buffet». It has many options (Chicken, Pork, Meatloaf, Southern Fried) for main courses and many build your own salads from a salad bar that many options. There is also a desert bar and an Ice Cream Bar (Carvel/​soft type) and lots of toppings.
The food is decent and you can walk away feeling satisfied, without breaking either the bank, or violating your taste buds.
Nice for kids/​families as well as leading to an easily relaxed dinner.
Plan on attending it EARLY as it fills up VERRRRRY quickly. Plus there are lots of busses that stay in the area. So you don’t want to be caught trying to get onto the wait line behind them. Thus, check out the timing and plan accordingly.

We were staying at the Best Western so eating at the restaurant seemed to make sense. The key word is «seemed». I have never written a poor restaurant review but the food here demands recognition. I ordered the pork chop and my daughters had the spaghetti Alfredo.
If you are the nostalgic type the pork chop would remind you of your high school cafeteria. Warm grey meat from a pig that must have been poorly treated. The steamed vegetables looked like they had visited several other plates before landing on mine. The previous owners must have made the same decision I did «not worth the risk».
The service was fine but could never make up for the food. Truly awful. If I could turn back time I would much rather have purchased a refrigerated burrito from the general store and eaten it cold.
I highly doubt they ever get to know the name of their patrons as repeat business must be nonexistent. Wow. Just bad.

We are here during the off season and sadly this is the only restaurant that is open. We had the chicken wings, portobello mushrooms and salad with soup. There’s only 2 flavors here, sweet or salty. Beware that the hot chocolate can cause diabetes and the rest food can make your kidneys work overtime. If you must eat here, order the salad and the wings with the sauce on the side. Or get yourself some hot pockets, nuked food actually taste better.

My family went here for dinner while staying at the hotel, and I ordered the soup and salad buffet (11.99) while everyone else ordered the overall buffet (22.50). It was pretty chill, a lot like other buffets. They had loads of variety, a LOT of meat, and some nice deserts and cakes. For my soup and salad portiom, I had available a general salad bar, two types of soups, cornbread, and some macaroni/​potato salad. You basically get what you pay for, except I don’t eat much so I always feel guilty about eating at a buffet.
Where Ruby’s Diner stands out, though, is its ambience and service. How many places can you eat while looking out at a sunset over mountains? The interior of the restaurant was gorgeous too, with strung up lights and a homey western feel. I’ve been to a lot of national parks, and the local businesses often over price their food and services. However, Ruby’s Inn has fair pricing, and left me feeling satisfied. Definitely should go here if you’re staying in the area and want a nice, American dining experience.

Good food is hard to come by in Bryce. Our room at Ruby’s Best Western was not ready yet so we headed over to the connected restaurant. A super grouchy lady was hostess. I gave her a huge fake smile just to see what kind of reaction I could get. Nothing… They had a buffet set up for lunch and was about the same price as a regular lunch so I gave it a try. Our waitress was Russian, or similar, and most of the employees were foreign. I noticed Philippines, India, and a few others. Kind of metropolitan. Decent baked chicken. Everything else was unremarkable. You can creat a decent if not gourmet meal and you leave with a full belly and a little indigestion. It’s edible. Came back for breakfast and it was just horrible.

Good location, just before Bryce Canyon entry gate!
Insider tipp: take a salad from the buffet. It is very good, and only 3.99 USD.
Food is good, not exceptional, but fine.
I recommend the tenderloin fillet.

A culinary disaster. The buffet was horrible and everything was salty as hell. Go to the general store and grab a candy bar, you will be better off.
What is it about the food out here? They can’t do anything correctly.
I’m convinced that the ribs were from the mules that were not healthy enough to get down the canyon
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

When we go to Bryce Canyon National Park, we usually stop here because it is one of the only restaurants near the entrance. Our last trip to this restaurant was less than stellar with slow and underwhelming service and a menu that was a choice of a cowboy buffet (you should always say no to buffets when traveling), overpriced steak dinners, or the usually decent ruby red trout dinner, which we’ve had here before and had again. The trout dish came with a delicious fileted trout with a steamed veggies and we had rice as the other side dish. For some reason, they give a tartar sauce packet, which I don’t think matches the taste of trout (it goes with a flaky white fish).
We also ordered a «twisted» chicken wings for an appetizer which was supposed to be spicy and sweet, but to us was hardly spicy and a little too sweet. I think I would rather have a medium spiced buffalo wing for my taste. Overall, the experience was ok, but just because of the trout.

We chose to eat here, because upon checking in we were informed that it was the only place in town and it closes at 9pm. The hotel was right. There were no other options that evening.
We were sat relatively quickly because we went straight there. Those that waited for normal dinner time were punished by a very long line to be sat. The staff was very friendly but appeared to be understaffed as service was slow.
The décor is in line for what you would expect for the area. It is a large dining room. They have a limited dinner menu and a buffet option. Given the slow service we chose the buffet so we could eat and get out.
The salad bar was ok. They had a decent assortment of toppings along with potato salad, cottage cheese and other sides. There were a decent number of hot food options. They were all hearty and filling but bland. None of it tasted bad, but overall it lacked flavor. That is to be expected with buffets for the most part which is why I normally avoid them. The ribs were fatty. The sauce on them was good, but there was almost no edible meet. The meatloaf was extremely dry. A little gravy made it edible.
There was even a dessert bar. They had several options. There was ice cream and toppings. You also had a few cake options. The cake I tried was tasty. It was an angels food cake. It was spongy and had a tasty frosting. The rice krispy treat was also good.
Overall it is an ok value and will fill you up. The staff was very friendly but clearly needed help. If you are lucky one of the few other options will be open, but doubtful in the winter.

Type.. .. .. .. .. .Restaurant
Location.. .. .…Bryce Canyon
Prices.. .. .. .…Higher
Beer Selection.. …Unknown
Food Level.. .. …Below Average
Staff.. .. .. .. .. .Friendly
Noise Level.. .. …Medium
Décor.. .. .. .…Chain Sit Down Ambiance
Good for Kids.. …Yes
Parking.. .. .. . …Small Private Lot
Cash Only.. .…No
Recommended. .Welp
Comments: It is the only restaurant in the area during the off-​season. So you don’t have much choice other than perhaps find a sandwich from the gas station. To be fair, if you order a chicken sandwich and fries, you’ll get out just fine. But do anything other than that and you could be in for some disappointment such as overcooked, thin ribeye; steamed unseasoned vegetables; questionable salad bar. To be fair, it isn’t that bad, similar to a Chili’s or Bennigan’s.

When you go to Bryce Canyon in mid-​March, you don’t have very many restaurants to choose from because they are all closed until high season starts in May. This might have been our only choice. It’s cafeteria quality food, at best. However after hiking all day, it’s great to have somewhere to eat as much as you want for one set price.
I had the COWBOY BUFFET (I think it was $ 20) which included:
SALAD BAR… This is definitely a great option if you are trying to stay healthy. In addition to the cold salad bar, I went to town at the hot food bar, which included the following:
2 soups — clam chowder, cheddar vegetable
Hot steamed veggies
Meatloaf
BBQ ribs
Chicken
Salmon
The buffet comes with unlimited trips to the self serve Ice cream bar. Uh huh.
Not included with the buffet are the items on the menu and the «STEAK ROOM»…we ordered a Ribeye steak… but I think the buffet is probably the best bang for your buck. The ribeye was just okay.
From the very reasonable kids menu we ordered the standard stuff (quesadilla, chicken nuggets) and then my daughter ordered this thing off the adult menu called the BRONCO BROWNIE
which is humongous– 2 brownies, 3 scoops of ice cream, and half a can of whip cream
BOOM.