13 Best Restaurants in Helena, Bozeman, and Southwest Montana, Montana
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We’ve compiled the best of the best in Helena, Bozeman, and Southwest Montana - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Barclay II
This supper club and lounge is known for its steak and seafood. Folks come especially for the huge set meal of tenderloin typically served with salad, shrimp cocktail, breadsticks, spaghetti, salami and cheese, and ice cream. Dim lighting, white tablecloths, mirrors, and historic photos of Anaconda decorate the restaurant.
Benny's Bistro
The art deco–inspired interior, often filled with live jazz music, is a hallmark of this small but spacious restaurant, which started out serving comfort food but has branched into tapas and more exotic, internationally influenced but locally sourced fare. Favorites include the creamy tomato soup with fresh rosemary and the apple-tizer: black pepper feta and Flathead Lake apples drizzled with Montana honey. Look for menus items like lentil burger bowls, bistro steak frites, and rainbow trout served with saffron gnocchi.
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Blackbird Kitchen
Broken Arrow Steakhouse
By Word of Mouth
At night this restaurant fills with the boisterous merrymaking of the après-ski crowd—particularly Friday night, when a throng gathers for an all-you-can-eat fish fry. The menu includes Asian soba noodles, grilled rainbow trout, and lamb burger blended with mint chimicurri. There are several local beers on tap and happy hour is 3--6 with $4 drafts and $2 off wine by the glass and house cocktails.
Carbon County Steakhouse
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.
Lucca's
You're a guest of honor at this cozy Italian eatery tucked into the north end of the walking mall. With only 54 seats, dinner is intimate and elegant, and this regularly ranks among the best restaurants in Helena. Start with baked fontina or fried calamari, then dine on an array of pasta dishes, New York steak, veal scallopini, or pork chop with apples. Try the Italian Sausage Cavatappi, a Lucca's original: spiral pasta, sun-dried tomatoes, shallots, and garlic in a Marsala and fresh sage cream sauce. Be sure to ask the maître d' about the impressive wine list. Limited hours and a small dining area make reservations a must.
Madison Crossing Lounge
Montana Ale Works
A cavernous brick building, the former Northern Pacific Railroad depot houses a full bar with a huge selection of Montana microbrews, and a restaurant with a choice of quiet or boisterous seating areas. In addition to 40-plus beers on tap, Ale Works serves bison burgers, bison pot stickers, hand-cut steaks, sandwiches, fish tacos, and seasonal salads. Favorites include the pepper Parmesan fries and the Montana meat loaf, as well as nightly specials like Dungeness crab cakes, wild Alaskan salmon sliders, and carrot ginger soup.
Montana's Rib & Chop House
Here, in the middle of cattle country, you can expect the juiciest, tenderest steaks—such as the hand-cut rib eye—all made from certified Angus beef. Jambalaya, salmon, and baby back ribs marinated for 24 hours are also on the menu. It's a small chain, but a local one in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado.
Old Piney Dell
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.
On Broadway
Wooden booths, discreet lighting, and brick walls contribute to the comfortable ambience at this family-owned Italian restaurant, known for its generous portions and long-term staff. Popular menu items include rib-eye steak, pasta puttanesca (sautéed Greek olives, artichoke hearts, red bell peppers, red onions, capers, and pine nuts tossed in linguine), and the breaded Chicken Broadway, topped with mozzarella and served with a side of pesto linguine. When the state legislature is in session, representatives make this a boisterous place.