Wyoming embodies the spirit of the Wild West and attracts visitors who love adventure. They have no trouble finding it in Cody, a small city about 30 miles from Yellowstone National Park. Outdoors enthusiasts have their pick of hiking trails, and several local companies offer horseback riding and whitewater rafting excursions.
History buffs can see the Wild West Spectacular to learn about Colonel William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, the town’s founder, and visit the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. There’s a rodeo every night during the summer, gunfight reenactments every evening and chuckwagons where you can enjoy a great dinner and watch a cowboy music show.
There are plenty of restaurants in Cody where you can get award-winning burgers, a pizza with all your favorite toppings, steaks right off the grill, and even authentic German food. This is a list of some of our favorite Cody, Wyoming restaurants.
8 Best Restaurants in Cody, Wyoming
Silver Dollar Bar & Grill
1313 Sheridan Avenue, Cody, WY 82414 // 307-527-7666
The Silver Dollar Bar & Grill claims to have the “best burgers in the West” and one of the best restaurants in Cody, Wyoming. Locals agree because the Silver Dollar has won several awards for its hamburgers. We asked how they do it, and our server said it’s their well-seasoned grill. Everyone knows that a good brick oven is a key to making a great pizza. Now we also know that a grill—,seasoned, after years of use—can make a better burger or steak.
The Silver Dollar’s menu also includes salads, sandwiches, wraps and entrees such as pulled pork and chicken tenders. They also have a full bar with a large selection of craft beers, including their Silver Dollar Brew from Snake River Brewing.
My husband enjoyed his Mushroom Swiss Burger, Onions Rings and a Silver Dollar Brew. I tried a bite of his hamburger and agree that Silver Dollar’s burgers live up to the hype. I opted for the Chicken Greek Wrap and a side salad which was also good.
The Silver Dollar offers indoor and outdoor seating. If you sit outdoors, you may be treated to acoustic guitar music from local artists or those “passing through.” A DJ plays your favorite tunes on Thursdays, and there’s a live band every Saturday.
One last thing… All the tables have dollar bills under glass. When you pay your check, give your server a signed dollar bill to add yours to the mix.
The Silver Dollar Bar & Grill is open seven days a week, from 11:00 am until 2:00 am. There’s no parking lot, but you’ll have no trouble finding a space along the street.
Zapata
1362 Sheridan Avenue, Cody, WY 82414 // 307-527-7181
Since Arizona is our (adopted) home state, we love Mexican food and always look for a new restaurant to try wherever we travel. So, dinner at Zapata was a must. It’s one of the best Mexican restaurants in Cody, Wyoming.
Zapata’s menu includes standards you expect in a Mexican restaurant, such as tamales, enchiladas and chimichangas, and everything is made fresh on-site. A real treat was Zapata’s signature salsa, which combines traditional Socorro New Mexico recipes and includes some additional enhancements added by the owner.
We both had the Snow Crab Enchiladas, which are smothered in a creamy white sauce and served with beans and either rice or Mexican corn. We weren’t hungry enough to order dessert, but our server encouraged us to come back and try the homemade churros with deep-fried ice cream.
Zapata is open from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm Monday through Saturday, and 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm on Sunday. Seating is available inside or on a covered patio. Parking is available in a small lot and along the street.
Millstone Pizza Company & Brewery
1057 Sheridan Avenue, Cody, Wyoming 82414 // 307-586-4131
Millstone Pizza Company & Brewery is a spacious tavern-style Italian restaurant with a relaxed atmosphere. You can choose from a variety of pizzas or build your own. They make their dough on-site and use their own sauce recipe. Gluten-free is available with a medium pizza. We ordered a large Deluxe Combo and enjoyed it so much that we asked if they plan to open a restaurant in Phoenix (where we live). It’s definitely one the best pizza restaurants in Cody, Wyoming.
Millstone also features subs on fresh-baked pizza bread and pasta entrees. Red and white wine is available by the glass, along with craft beers from their brewery and others. Zach Flynn, the resident brewer, gave us a tour of his domain and told us about his White Stout and Blonde Pineapple IPA, which have won awards at the Yellowstone Beer Fest for the past two years.
Millstone’s “claim to fame” is the largest video game arcade in the Big Horn Basin. In addition to flat-screen TVs everywhere you look, a large selection of games provides fun for kids of all ages, and winners can redeem tickets at the prize counter.
Millstone Pizza Company & Brewing is open Sunday through Thursday from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 am to 10:00 pm. Parking is available in front of the restaurant and along the street.
Cody Cattle Company
1910 Demaris Drive, Cody, WY 92414 // 307-272-5770
The Cody Cattle Company serves a homemade chuckwagon dinner and features a cowboy music show by Ryan Martin and the Triple C Cowboys in its large western-style venue every night during the summer. One of the most authentic American restaurants in Cody, Wyoming.
You won’t go hungry because dinner includes brisket, BBQ chicken, salad, coleslaw, a baked potato, mac and cheese, cowboy beans, cornbread, and brownies. You can pay extra if you want steak and for ice cream with your brownie. Iced tea, water and lemonade are included, and soft drinks, beer and other alcoholic drinks are available from the bar.
Seating is family style, and the staff accommodates over 100 visitors nightly, including groups. However, you’ll be amazed at how efficiently they get everyone seated and through the serving line.
The food is excellent, but the main attraction is the show. You’ll hear many of your favorite cowboy songs and see some guitar picking that’ll leave you speechless.
Tickets are available online or by phone. You can choose to have dinner and see the show, see the show only, or buy a “trifecta” ticket which includes dinner, the show, and the rodeo, which starts at 8:00 pm each night.
Cody Cattle Company is only open during the summer tourist season. So, check the website to see when their season begins and ends. The doors open at 5:00 pm, dinner is served at 5:30 pm, and the show starts at 6:30 pm. There’s plenty of parking available on-site.
Buffalo Bill’s Irma Hotel
1192 Sheridan Avenue, Cody, WY 82414 // 307-587-4221
No trip to Cody is complete without having lunch or dinner at Buffalo Bill’s Irma Hotel. It’s located in the heart of downtown and has been an icon for the town since Buffalo Bill built it in 1902, and named it after his youngest daughter. It’s an icon amongst the restaurants in Cody, Wyoming.
Buffalo Bill built the Irma to appeal to visitors on their way to Yellowstone National Park, big game hunters, and businessmen investigating ranching and mining opportunities in the area.
The hotel bar in the former hotel dining room is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Cherrywood bar in what is now the main dining room was a gift to Buffalo Bill from Queen Victoria after she saw his Wild West Show on its London tour.
The Irma Hotel offers breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets every day during the summer, and occasionally during the rest of the year. There is also a prime rib buffet each night during the summer, and Friday evening during the rest of the year. You can also order off the menu.
I had the soup and salad buffet, which included the salad bar and two homemade soups, and my husband enjoyed the lunch buffet, which included a variety of meats and side dishes, as well as bread pudding with whiskey sauce.
The Irma Hotel dining room is open daily from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm. There is no parking, and most spaces on the street have a two-hour limit. So, a visit requires some planning, but it’s well worth it.
Wyoming Roadhouse
1651 8th Street, Cody, WY 82414 // 307-586-5355
Wyoming Roadhouse is a new addition to the Cody restaurant scene. Gary Johnston, the founder, wanted to open a restaurant that personified Wyoming’s lifestyle and culture and would appeal to locals and tourists.
He succeeded because there are Western memorabilia everywhere you look. Booths are made of cowhide and there are big game mounts on the wall (all donated for display by local outdoorsmen and women). A cowboy walked through the lobby wearing his Stetson and spurs while we were waiting to be seated. This definitely made me think it’s the most authentic amongst the restaurants in Cody, Wyoming.
The Western vibe doesn’t stop there because the menu includes options such as 16 oz Bison Ribeye Steaks and ½ lb Bison Burgers. Other items include steaks and burgers seasoned with a blended mix of spices, smoked prime rib, BBQ ribs that are slow smoked each day, salads and made-from-scratch desserts. Wyoming Roadhouse smokes all its meats on-site and all items are made in-house with fresh ingredients.
My husband had the Classic Burger with all the fixings, including Wyoming Roadhouse’s “special” spread and a huge pile of onion rings. I had Boneless Chicken Wings made with their homemade BBQ sauce, and our server talked us into splitting a piece of homemade peach pie with ice cream.
Wyoming Roadhouse is open daily from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm daily, and Happy Hour is from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Parking is available on-site.
The Meatery
1001 Sheridan Avenue, Cody, WY 82414 // 307-586-2556
The Meatery is a combination between a sandwich shop and butcher. It features sandwiches and burgers made from locally raised hormone- and antibiotic-free beef, bison, pork and chicken, as well as homemade sausage. If you want to pick up dinner while you eat your lunch, steaks sourced from a local ranch and Wagyu and grass-fed beef burgers can be cut to order. It’s one of the best meat restaurants in Cody, Wyoming.
The Meatery is an excellent choice if you or someone in your party is celiac or has a lot of allergies. They follow a special process and use a dedicated grill to prepare orders for celiac customers, and the staff is trained to ask customers about dietary restrictions. All the cookies and brownies sold at the front counter are gluten-free.
The food is still excellent even if you have no allergy issues. My shredded beef sandwich with a small salad was perfect for a small lunch, and my husband enjoyed his chicken sandwich with a substantial portion of homemade French fries.
The Meatery is open Monday through Friday from 11:00 am to 10:30 pm, and on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 am to 10:30 pm. Seating is available inside and outside, and parking is available on-site and along the street.
Gasthaus Cardi/Bierstube Chuck
1385 Sheridan Avenue, Cody, WY 82414 // 307-578-8202
If Cody isn’t the first place you think of when you want German food, you’ll change your mind after a visit to Gasthaus Cardi and Bierstube Chuck. There are two names because the restaurant and bierstube (bar) are run separately, although the same family owns them. It’s also one of the best German restaurants in Cody, Wyoming.
Cardi (short for Ricarda) was born in Bad Nauheim, Germany and learned to cook from her mother and grandmother. She married an Army Warrant Officer Helicopter pilot and they were stationed in Germany for three tours. This gave her the opportunity to add Bavarian dishes to her repertoire.
Gasthaus Cardi serves authentic German dishes such as schnitzel, spätzle (dumpling style noodles), kartoffelpuffer (potato pancakes with apple sauce) and Brezel (pretzels) with German-style mustard, made using recipes that have been in the family for six generations.
My husband enjoyed the Traditional Schnitzel with warm German potato salad and pommes (French fries), and I loved the bratwurst dinner with warm German potato salad and red cabbage. The pretzel we ordered as an appetizer was so large it was served on a hook.
Bierstube Chuck features 15 German beers on tap, and sampler flights are available if you can’t decide which one to try. Don’t leave without checking out the beer steins, Bavarian felt hats and other décor on display. All the items belonged to the family’s great-grandfather from Illesheim (north of Munich near Nuremberg).
Gasthaus Cardi and Bierstube Chuck are open daily from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Parking is available along the side of the building.
Wrap Up: Restaurants in Cody, Wyoming
Some people use Cody as a “home base” to visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Others get outdoors and see the mountains on horseback riding or go whitewater rafting. Many enjoy visiting ghost towns in the area and Trail Dust Town, the original town site of Cody. Whatever your plans include, you won’t go hungry if you check out these eight restaurants in Cody, Wyoming when you’re ready for a bite to eat or want to relax over drinks.
Visiting other destinations in the region? Check out our other delicious guides:
Marni Patterson is a travel writer, photographer and videographer in Phoenix, AZ. She has lived and traveled extensively in the U.S. and Europe and is gradually making it to all the destinations on her “bucket list” in Asia/Pacific, Africa and South America. After years of writing web content and marketing materials in the high-tech industry, she’s applying her experience writing about software, cloud computing and cybersecurity services to promote destinations and provide travel tips.