The Viking Yurt

The best way to describe it is «Magical». My wife and I had the most amazing time. Peggy the Sleigh master was so friendly and wonderful. She loaded us up in the giant sleigh, tucked us in under warm blankets and send us on our journey of 8000 feet. At the top, it felt like we could touch the clouds. We were greeted warmly with Scandinavian drinks followed by an amazing 5 course meal. It was lovely to listen to live piano as we enjoyed our dinner and got to know other guests at our table. We recommend it very highly to everyone. A high light of our trip to Park city.

I’ve done this twice and both times enjoyed it greatly. Once was with my mom and dad, and once as a work Christmas party. The ride starts with a great trip up the mountain and the sleigh, it is so toasty and a beautiful ride. Relax and enjoy the light snowfall and winding path.
Once you arrive you are seated by friendly hostesses and the meal begins. Because we had so many the 2^nd time, we took up the entire communal table. That has pros and cons as it is fun to meet others as well.
An exceptional treat!

What an awesome experience!
My wife and I dined here for dinner during our kids «ski week».
We certainly recommend the Viking Yurt if you enjoy unique and memorable dining experiences. Make sure you take the sleigh ride up the mountain and dress warm!
The service was friendly and wonderful, the food was terrific, the owner/​hostess was very friendly and offered plenty of explanation and conversation.
Just a wonderful experience! A must go!

Food is excellent as is the atmosphere. Service was slow but we were there at the very busiest time of the day; we were also in no hurry so we didn’t mind. Best vegetarian sandwich I’ve ever had– and I’m NOT even a vegetarian!

I hope everybody doesn’t find out about it! This is a very special place with great food and service to match. They have the best grilled cheese sandwiches made with a local cheese. Equally as good is the brie and prosciutto on a baguette — yum! Try their hot red wine or whiskey cider to warm before you get back on those lovely powdery slopes! Charming setting in a yurt — only minor drawback the lavatory is a spruced up outhouse but hey — your on the side of a ski slope!

Great lunch spot on the mountain. We had the grilled cheese, the sausage, the pulled chicken and the prosciutto. All tasted great. Great interior ambience.

Was the best lunch we had so far on the mountain! The pulled chicken was awesome and my wife loved the mushroom sandwich! Plus the views are great too!

My husband is a Viking-​nut, so we reserved a spot for this 6-​course Norwegian dinner for our tenth anniversary last Valentine’s Day. We chose to BYOB, a 17 year old bottle of Cabernet.
You meet in the lobby of the Legacy Lodge at Park City Mountain Resort and head up the mountain on a giant sleigh pulled by a snow cat. Going up takes about twenty minutes and you get to watch all the pretty lights from the resort get smaller, while the snow-​capped pines become denser. It is surprisingly cozy on the sleigh under warm woolen blankets.
Once you arrive, 1,000 feet higher than you started, the Yurt is toasty and inviting, heated by a wood stove. Maybe a little too toasty after a while, so make sure you have a light base layer on under your coat. There is a live piano player who manages not to drown out any conversation in the small space. And conversation is the fun part. You sit at long, communal wooden tables and essentially get to know the people you rode up with. We were paired with a French businessman and his lovely wife, they were a riot and we ended up having a great time.
We had a first course of winter vegetable soup, followed by a salad topped with cured salmon, then a palate cleansing sorbet served on a Norwegian rock. For the main course, we dined on braised short ribs, mashed potatoes and winter vegetables. An incredible cheese course followed, with both local and Norwegian cheeses, blood oranges and little peppers. For desert, we had a little chocolate hazelnut cake topped with cardamom ice cream. All of it was quite tasty and the portions were generous.
Once the meal is over, back into the sleigh you go. The ride down seems shorter than the ride up, but it could be the breathtaking stillness of the deserted mountainside at night mesmerizing you. Or the buzz from the bottle of wine at 9,000 feet. Either way, it’s beautiful.
I think if you like a little adventure and the idea of having dinner with new people, it’s up your alley. The price, for what it is, isn’t bad at all — especially considering you’re in Park City.

The food is pretty good but a hell of a lot better than I would do cooking in a Viking yurt that’s a 15-​minute snow cat ride up a mountain. We’ll worth it for the cool factor.

This place rules! My wife and I are always looking for great food in an unusual environment. This place fits the bill perfectly. A little expensive but worth it. If you can afford it do it. Get the curry soup and the whiskey apple cider drink.

Strap on your Thor underoos, it’s time to visit the Valhalla of delightfully cheesy winter venues.
There are two categories of human who are likely to love the Viking Yurt:
1) Impossibly earnest romantics who send actual roses with baby’s breath on Valentine’s Day. (There was a genuine marriage proposal during our visit.)
2) Appropriately snarky kitsch aficionados who enjoy just about anything if it falls in the wacky good fun department.
If, however, you ever refer to yourself as a «foodie» or spend $ 100 on jeans, you may want to skip this sleigh ride of the Norse gods. (Also, if you’re horrified by a pit toilet on a mountain by a yurt, well, you’re pretty much hopeless. The commodes are perfectly acceptable.)
The people running the show are super nice from top to bottom, and they even make a point of covering you from head to toe in the sleigh.
When they tell you in advance to dress warmly they mean it. Hats, gloves, aforementioned underoos.
Also, free tip: your best seat in the sleigh is probably in the middle of the bench closest to the cab.
The ride is swell, the yurt is nicely outfitted, and the pageantry is Lokirrific.
The food … well, it’s fine. More precisely, it fits the whole idiom perfectly, especially the Glögg. Second free tip: go with the aquavit depth charge.
We started with perhaps the worst soup ever. Pear and squash. The squash was undercooked, the soup was separating, and the only flavor was chicken stock. Actually, at that moment I thought we were going down harder than a leaky ship at Ragnarok.
Fortunately, things got better with a passable salad, a good and plenty short rib with delicious mash, a cheese plate with two really interesting offerings (tete de moine and gjetost, as well as the totally forgettable Beehive barely buzzed), a tasty dessert, and an outstanding lemon tarragon sorbet (served in drilled out rocks from Norway with Roman numerals etched into their bottoms that matched up with menu map trivia!!! Do you get it now?).
There were some celebratory fireworks, not too much forced stranger mingling, a piano player channeling the Norse Billy Joel, and a lovely ride down the mountain.
So there you have it, Odin lovers. Go with the right folks and the right attitude, and your Viking Yurt saga will be epic.
One more tip: bring wine.

I’m glad that we gave this a try, so many things would have made this experience better.
We began by calling and making the reservation, the owner answered was very nice and very HAPPY to make our reservation for our group of six.
We followed the instructions, dressed warm and really enjoyed our sleigh ride up to the Yurt. When we arrived, you had to be extremely careful as the stairs and walk ways were just cut into the ice and snow (there is no way that a wheel chair would be able to make this trip).
Our table was fortunate enough to be able to sit next to the owners group (the Yurt seats 34 people at 5 tables. The chef came out, introduced our meal and the courses began. The servers were very slow and had to be asked to refill our waters frequently. The meal was okay, nothing that I would write home about, the one thing that I would like to write about is how RUDE it was for the owners table to receive a different dessert then the rest of her guests. It made the paying patrons feel substandard. The servers brought ALL the other tables a three chocolate mousse and the owners table was brought a delicious looking fruit strudel-​several of the guests discussed this on our sleigh ride down, we also discussed that the dinner was way too long & slow!!!
The concept is fantastic, but I would encourage her to do two different breakfasts, quick and easy mimosas and gourmet breakfast, sleigh in and ski out.
I would also encourage her to (as previous review says) paint your port a potties black, they were disgusting to look at!!!

I am a part time resident of Park City and this was the first year we did the Viking Yurt Experience. We normally do the Snowed Inn Sleigh Ride, but this year we were looking for something different. This was definitely different.
You start out by checking in at a hotel lobby in Park City Mountain Resort. The website tells you that it is 20 minute ride to the Yurt. I just assumed this was a worst case scenario overestimate, but it really was a very long ride. Our party was in the snow cat cab, so we were warm. I’m not sure I would have wanted to sit in the back of the sleigh freezing for that long. You literally go to the highest mountain in Park City.
When we arrived we were all very impressed by the décor and the live music. It is very romantic. We also had a party of 8 so we got a table to ourselves, but I guess some other groups were combined at other tables. This may or may not be your cup of tea, to be warned. If you’ve never been to a yurt, also keep in mind that is is nothing like you’d imagine. You would never guess you were basically in a tent, because it looks like a normal room with carpet and wall décor. It’s not quite as rustic as you’d imagine.
The toilets on the other had were very rustic. I intentionally did not go the bathroom, because it is a glorified port-​o-​potty. Actually I would say it was worse than a port or potty because it was a white bowl with a spotlight on it. You could see directly down the «hole.» I couldn’t bring myself to use the toilet once I went in there. It was pretty bad. I might recommend they change it to a black toilet so at least you weren’t seeing everything. Yuck.
All in all the food was okay. The glögg was fun and different, and nothing was particularly bad, but the braised short ribs were very tough. I don’t think they had been cooked enough to be tender. The sauce saved it from total disaster though. Our party’s biggest issue was the time between courses. Maybe it was purposeful and supposed to be an all-​night dining experience, but in total the night lasted 5 hours. I understand the kitchen is probably tiny and the first three courses were slow but that was fine. The cheese course and dessert were painful though. At that point we were so ready to be finished. And the weird part was that both of the courses could have been already plated and ready to go out in advance. But it felt like forever between the courses. Then on top of that paying took another 20 minutes because the servers had to tally up the extra alcohol.
Overall there were good things and bad things so, I would say this was a one time experience and knowing what I know now I would probably not repeat.

Wow… what a cool concept and date night.
This is one of the most romantic dinners you can do in Park City. Take a sleigh ride from the base of The Canyons to mid-​mountain, walk thru the snow to a hut and be welcomed with awesome food and drink in a small area with no electricity.
The only negative is the outdoor toilets… very cold!

We were a little concerned the yurt was a little too touristy, but it wasn’t at all. In fact, half the couples we met lived locally (Park City or SLC). We met in a lobby right outside the PayDay lift (not a locker room like another poster mentioned).
The sleigh ride experience depends on the weather. Fortunately we lucked out with low 20’s with little wind, but if it was single digits with a lot of wind I think I would have been wishing we opted for the cabin ride instead. They did give us blankets on the sleigh but I didn’t think they did all that much so I would suggest dressing in layers, bring hand warmers, etc. The ride was social as it’s four rows of 8 facing each other. There were some pretty great views; however, probably would have enjoyed them before if I sat facing downhill instead of facing forward.
Don’t get me wrong I think the sleigh ride and the ambiance with the piano player were romantic, but also keep in mind the yurt has 4 long tables that sit 10 so expect to socialize! We figured with the price tag that the crowd would be much older, but we had a good range of age groups and enjoyed the company of the other 4 couples. We didn’t make any special requests in terms of food and we thought the meal was absolutely outstanding. The service was excellent as well. We bought a shot of aquavit for our glögg and had brought a magnum of wine with us (fyi magnum is an extra corkage fee $ 25 instead of $ 15) so ended up spending around $ 40 extra.
Really amazing night and definitely recommend to others!

There are so many aspects of this experience to rate that it is hard to fit it all into ONE single rating. I’ll do my best to explain:
1) Experience
PROS: The Viking Yurt is a once-​in-​a-​lifetime experience! You start out at the foot of a mountain in the Canyon’s Resort, hop into a giant winter sled that is towed up the mountain over 1000 vertical feet, and then you hop out in front of a charming Viking yurt with candle light, a warm fire, and a fantastic rustic setting. The ambiance is second to none!
CONS: you start out in a smelly locker room. Literally. There is no sense of structure to the location — it feels like a hack operation in some regards. There are a few pictures on the wall that seem to suggest that they use this locker room on a regular basis, but there wasn’t really a presentation of any kind. If it were my business, I’d give a short chat about the history of the yurt, how everything came to be, and what makes it so special. I do realize that you can read most of the information on the website… but it would be nice to hear it as well.
The only other word of caution I would give is that you should be prepared to experience a «group dining» atmosphere. This is very much a group experience, and you will absolutely have to chat with the folks at your table. I ended up having a great time, but these types of situations can go either way.
If you are booking this & hoping for a romantic dinner over candlelight with a glass of wine — you better look somewhere else. This is a GROUP dinner. You will spent the entire meal talking with strangers. Not my idea of a romantic setting.
Additionally, you are crammed into this sled like sardines. They seem to sell EVERY seat, so you will be crowded. We also had a very frustrating experience because one of the couple’s had apparently called ahead to inform the staff that they would be arriving late. The Yurt’s website goes ON & ON about how you absolutely cannot be late, the sled leaves promptly at 6pm, you will forfeit your entire reservation if you are late, there are no refunds, and on, and on.
And so to follow up all of that hot air about not being late… what do they do? They hold the entire group for almost 20 minutes while we wait on the late party to arrive. Unreal.
Also — there are some «suggestions» that you should dress with dinner attire under your winter gear. Joke was on us. I’d say that every other person in the restaurant was wearing jeans & a ski top. Not exactly dinner attire so DON’T BOTHER dressing up. Dress to be warm on the sled & hot in the restaurant.
2) Food & Service
PROS: the food is excellent. They serve you a 5-​course meal that starts off with a traditional Norwegian beverage called glögg. The cups are all cast pewter, which really adds to the experience. There is a bread course, a soup course, a salad course, your main course, a cheese course, and dessert. It is a TON of food! The highlight of the evening was the kobe beef served during the main course. It was perfectly prepared & just an amazing cut of meat.
Another pro is the presentation. My wife & I left with some really neat ideas on food presentation. Our favorite was the cheese board. It was a slab of petrified wood for each person at the table. Very original & thoughtful work in the presentation department. There wasn’t a lot of food styling, but they really utilized some original methods for serving the food. A+ in this area.
CONS: for some reason, my seat was cursed. The staff seems to use this unbelievably strange system of serving the ladies at each table first, and then coming back around to serve the men. However, this only seemed to work in principle as they would serve the three ladies at our table, then serve one guy, and then forget the other two people at our table.
I didn’t receive my plate three different times! The servers wouldn’t even notice until they had disappeared into the kitchen for a solid 4 – 5 minutes, and then come back out to survey the room. We would have to wave them over & request an additional plate or two for the rest of the folks at our table. It was quite ridiculous.
The staff seemed… average. The chef gave a somewhat scattered presentation on the evening’s meal, forgot the name of one of the waiters when making the introductions, and had to embarrass the poor guy by asking his name in front of the entire room.
The staff spilled coffee & water on me, and overfilled my wife’s water glass so full that it ran all over the table. Whoops. I dunno… the staff was just average on all counts.
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So all in all, I would say for the amount of money we spent, it was good experience… but not a great experience. I had a good time, but I think I would have had a better time at a traditional restaurant without the ride in the sleigh, and the lousy service.
PS – the echo some of the concerns of the other posters… my wife wanted to add that our sled driver spent the entire mountain trek TEXTING while driving! Yikes!!!

This is an incredible experience, but I guess it’s weather dependent. My boyfriend booked this for his mom for her birthday and I got to tag along. Lucky me! The weather was cooperative for us. Had it been a day earlier or a day later, I could see how we would have been miserable during the «sleigh ride» portion of the adventure and it truly is an adventure. It begins with a meeting point at the Canyons Resort, where we are asked to sign a waiver, releasing them of liability during the ride up and back down. We then walk over to the «sleigh» which seats about 20 and is pulled by a SnoCat. Everyone buckles up and we’re handed blankets to share. The ride up was so beautiful! It was incredible to see the city all lit up when we looked back down the mountain. I could understand why other reviewers could have such awful experiences if this portion went wrong. it does get really cold and windy up there, so definitely layer up to keep yourself warm.
On the evening of our dinner, we had an option to snowshoe as well. The sleigh gets to one of the resorts up there and stops. For those interested in snowshoeing, we get off and get equipped with shoeshoes and headlamps. It was also a proper restroom break! The hot water felt so good on my freezing, numb fingers. Getting the equipment was kind of a disaster. Where they normally have two staffers helping everyone, they only had one so it took forever to get everyone geared up. And they were one headlamp short, which really sucked for the last person without one, (although they really didn’t need it), it showed a lack of professionalism and preparedness of the company organizing it. Considering how much money they charge, everything should be perfect! The snowshoe trek was fun, albeit a bit short. It took longer to get everyone fitted with snowshoes than the actual walk.
When we got to the yurt, we were greeted with warm mugs of Glott, this delicious berry drink with yummy spices. You have the option to add alcohol to make this an adult beverage. I added ½ a shot of vodka and it really warmed me up. The meal was excellent, consisting of the following menu:
–carrot & ginger soup: warm and tasty with bacon bits
–red beet & fennel salad: i loved the toasted pumpkin seeds mixed in
–intermettzo of sorbet: mmm… yummy! and served in special rocks that the owners brought back from Norway
–main course of kobe beef
–pear tart dessert
Unfortunately, service was on the slow side. Our group of 3 was seated with another group of 2. It was the third time dining at the yurt for one of the other women. She mentioned that service was faster before.
Would I go back? Probably not at that price, unless someone else was treating. It is a very unique experience though!

Let me just start by saying, I had booked this 6 months in advance, it was to be our last dinner before leaving back to our homes. It started off in a small room to which we were led to a large snow tracking machine that towed the large sled up to the Yurt, suppose to be 25 minute ride. About 20 minutes into the ride, at about 15 degrees F, the snow track was over heated and could not tow us any further. One of the patrons who was pretty obviously drunk, was yelling, that we could walk and it would be an adventure. He was pretty unruly and the staff was trying to keep him and his group, who were drinking vodka straight out of the bottle, from hurting themselves. One of the staff (who turned out to be the piano player) then advised us that we would walk to a nearby building, to keep warm. Five minutes into that hike, we were turned around by another staff member, who said that another machine was coming to tow us. So, back to the sleigh we went. A grooming machine came and repeatedly tried to hook up, after many try’s, finally did, but, shook the sleigh and the patrons were starting to get a little scared. (with exception of the vodka group, who were creating their own havoc). Finally we were towed to the Yurt, 90 minutes. We were greeted cheerfully by the staff, who escorted us in to the Yurt for our meal. The food was amazing and the staff very efficient. The vodka group, continued to cause havoc all night and were unfortunately, seated near us. As for the sleigh ride problem, they offered us 25.00 each off our bar bill! That didn’t help the vodka group AT ALL! The Yurt staff tryed to contain the vodka group, but, it was a huge distraction and ultimately, between the vodka group and the sleigh ride, ruined our final evening in Park City.

for reasons that shall remain unnamed… i am a lover of yurts. i am a lover of yurts because i like how the word sounds, yurts are often found in beautiful places, and they remind me of bearskin rugs, spicy red wine, and fireplaces… which also remind me of… something else.
but that is neither here nor there. lets talk about the kick ass time i had last week at The Viking Yurt! The Yurt is located at about 8000 feet on the slopes of The Canyons Resort (which i learned is utahs biggest resort… woo hoo). You arrive at six and are taken with the other 20 or so people on a cool sleigh ride (i had never been on one like this) up the slopes that you may have skied down that day! Once we got to say, 7,873 feet we got out of the sleigh and got to have a fun little snow shoe tour! It was super fun and even though I am a midwestern gal, I had never been snowshoeing! It was great, really beautiful and a fun little excursion before dinner. Our guide was this nice young guy named Eli and he led us around as we snowshoed our way right up to the yurt.
I LOVE THE YURT! i cant say it enough! we arrived at the cozy, warm and delightfully kitschy little yurt and i must say i was a little apprehensive because it hit me that i would have to eat dinner with strangers. lucky for my friend and i, we were seated (yes, they give you assigned seats) with a cool couple who were living in Hong Kong. We were also greeted with a mug (straight out of viking town… like, pounded metal goblets) of Glögg… a syrupy, fruity, spicy glass of goodness that could only have been made better with a little whisky. The meal was pretty good and the menu changes frequently. We made an EXCELLENT choice ordering one course of kobe beef steak (offered as an alternative to the set menu) because it was delicious! Super moist and tender, really flavorful.
The soup, chicken, salad, cheese and dessert were all fabulous and I had to roll myself out of there! I absolutely loved the yurt and wouldnt hesitate to bring friends, family, etc there if I return to park city.
my only regret? not ordering the flaming sugar cube absinthe for after dinner.