6 Best Restaurants in Red Lodge, Helena, Bozeman, and Southwest Montana

This longtime local favorite for Mexican food, margaritas, specialty pizzas, and burgers is set inside a handsome historic downtown building but has a modern, rustic, real-Montana feel. Good bets from the Mexican side of the menu include pork chile verde burritos and mahi-mahi fish tacos, while the Surfing Pig (with Canadian bacon, grilled shrimp, pineapple, mozzarella, and barbecue sauce) is a favorite among the pizzas.

Saddles, saddle blankets, bridles, and other cowboy and ranch paraphernalia prepare you for the certified Angus beef from the grill, perhaps in the form of a hearty Cowboy Coffee Ribeye, charbroiled with a spiced rum coffee sauce. Seared fresh mussels (from Prince Edward Island) are a local favorite. Dine on the deck in summer.

Multiple TVs, each tuned to a different sport, line the brick walls of this friendly place. The bar claims 20 beers on tap, the better to enjoy what locals call the town's best hamburgers and other hearty pub fare. In winter opt for buffalo chili. The fish tacos, bison burger, and beer-battered fries also get rave reviews.

This small hangout on the banks of Rock Creek has good meat and seafood options, as well as daily pasta specials. Part of the Rock Creek Resort, the restaurant dates to the early 1940s.