The Ahwahnee

My breakfast table at the Ahwahnee

With all of the spectacular scenery in Yosemite, I feel a bit ridiculous making my first real post about Yosemite’s Ahwahnee Hotel. There is a reason that a room here will set you back $500 a night. The grandeur of each room is beyond impressive and on a scale that mirrors the scenery of the park itself.

It was difficult to go back to my $20 a night campsite after visiting the Ahwahnee. However, although I couldn’t afford a room, I decided I would try to go back for dinner. Unfortunately, awful park traffic and bad timing prevented me from doing this but I did manage to go back for breakfast on Sunday morning. I was seated at a table I photographed two days earlier (see above–a premonition of sorts, I guess).

I was asked by the waiter if I wanted a menu or planned to partake in the breakfast buffet. I decided on the breakfast buffet, site unseen. When I walked the football-field length of the room to get to the serving area, I was immediately flabbergasted by the amount, presentation and quality of the food. If I was a person that isn’t easily embarrassed, I would have taken out my camera and started taking photos of the food–it was simply beautiful. However, the surroundings dictated a modest amount of decorum so I will have to burn the experience into my fragile memory banks.

Of course I had no idea what all of this would cost–I didn’t see a menu and I didn’t ask. If a room at the hotel is $500 a night minimum, what would the breakfast buffet cost? I am not talking about a breakfast buffet at Denny’s or the Golden Corral. This buffet had, among many other things, raw oysters on the half shell, smoked mussels, smoked trout and salmon, prime rib and smoked whole ham, a chef that prepared gourmet omelets–and that was just a small sampling of the items. I have never seen anything so decadent and over-the-top in my life. I am not sure if the Ahwahnee does this every morning but if they do, it is a feat comparable to scaling El Cap.

Again, each time I went back to the serving area (I tossed decorum out the window at some point), I tried to determine what this would cost. Well, after I paid the bill and the tip, I spent $50 even. The best $50 breakfast I will ever have, I am sure of that–and, believe it or not, I still felt like I got a bargain.

Great food and even better service.  Much thanks to the chefs and wait staff at the Ahwahnee.