The Mono Inn

We just finished dinner. We had a gorgeous view looking over mono lake with a storm rolling in. Could not of had a better setting. Beautiful. It’s hard to say which is better the food or the view. A top notch gourmet meal. We had the Brussel sprout special as an appetizer, followed by a light carrot/​broccoli soup. My husband had the Mahi Mahi special and I had the salmon with a nice cab. Very healthy gourmet food. The staff is super friendly and the owner is a descendant of Ansel Adams. What more could you ask for. It’s so worth a visit. You won’t be disappointed.

The Historic Mono Inn is now called The Mono Inn. The couple who owned the business I reviewed in the past have moved on and the restaurant is under new ownership as of 2014. The setting, of course, is amazing. Our meals were not what we had loved in the past– good but not wow. The wine selection was limited and our waitress could not describe them to me. She wasn’t even familiar with the current menu. This is so different than the Historic Mono Inn.
It seems to me that the reviews of the Historic Mono should not be included in the reviews of The Mono Inn.

Great view great food. Even my picky wife loves it so much. Like the sunshine and the food.

Great food, incredible view, friendly service. Best place for dinner in Lee Vining by far!

Excellent service and delicious food. My wife and I had the Bison Short Rib and the Linguine Pasta. Kenny, the Chef, and the excellent service staff have made this restaurant an obligatory stop on 395.

The Mono Inn is the best place to eat for dinner. I had the lamb and it was fantastic. My wife had the fillet and it was perfection. The owners are very personable and tuned into the customers needs. The view is out of the world over Mono Lake. It is relaxing and enjoyable to have a meal here.

Passed Mono Inn countless times doing the 395 run to So Cal and back but never when open or feasible. Last night we decided to stay in Lee Vining and give it a try. Great decision! They were busy which is always good for a small business so we waited a few minutes for our table to clear. By the time we arrived the sun had set so beautiful Mono Lake was dark with a little moonlight.
Dinner was delicious. Selections from the fall menu: we shared the Black Mussels with buttery herb broth and big chunks of bread for dunking; Caesar salad (needed a bit more dressing); and roasted butternut squash soup. All were good but not spectacular.
Entrees however were outstanding! Hubby had the Bison short ribs… meat falling off the bone tender and juicy in a rich gravy with crisp broccoli and a yummy potato gratin. I ordered the rack of lamb — served as three twin riblets cooked perfectly with beautiful presentation over creamy mashed potatoes with smashed sweet peas and a hint of mint. Deeelicious! Enjoyed all with a bottle of Edna Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
Too full for the tempting desserts. Under new management for the past 10 months — two sisters which I especially loved. Service attentive, ambience nice and easy going. Felt a bit like I was at a lodge in the common dining room — friendly, welcoming and homey. Plan to go back when we can catch the sunset. Maybe in spring when they have that menu in place and everything is turning green again. Right now the fall color is spectacular!

Awesome lunch experience while on a tour in Mono County with a bus load of county planning commissioners.
I would recommend that you stop and take in the views while enjoying a great meal.

Our friendly waiter turned out to be the owner. Lonna and her half sister took over this restaurant in April, and they are making a serious effort to build a great business. I think they are well on the way. To start out with, it’s a beautiful building in a beautiful place – wood beams and walls (but clean and bright, not «rustic» in a bad way) and overlooking Mono Lake. And they appear to have hired a really fine chef. Finally, they’re clearly putting their heart and soul into it, paying attention to details. We happened to be there at the end of the first time they opened on a Sunday. Lonna said they planned for a small crowd, but they were swamped. So have some patience if they have a few wrinkles to iron out. It’s worth it.
The butternut squash soup was to die for. Seriously! Manna from heaven. A vegetarian pasta was just lovely. An acquaintance who ate there said the venison meat loaf was delicious and NOT gamey. Dressing on the mixed green salad was just right – subtle and elegant.
Prices for the food are what you would expect at an elegant restaurant. But many such restaurants charge an arm and a leg for drinks. Not so here. I had a seriously good pinot grigio for $ 5 a glass. Also, they are totally gracious about splitting dishes if you want to come for a snack or light dinner – no extra charge and no odd glances for splitting!
On the way home the next night, we went to a nice restaurant down in the foothills. It was fine, yet it just made me realize that at the Mono Inn we had been someplace much more than just fine.

A party of 4, we had such a great dinner. The place is small, on the «side of the road» looking place, so I could not have predicted what we were going to have.
The view of the lake was beautiful, the food was delicious, the desert was delicious. The salmon was one of the best pieces of salmon I’ve ever had.
Two of ladies I was traveling with are on canes and/​or oxygen … the staff was nice, and directed us to an alternate parking space, saving the ladies from the staircase (which initially caused us to decide to go someplace else). By parking downstairs, we continued with our dinner, and we were GLAD WE DID.

Fantastic meal! Coming from a Chef that says it all. Fresh Heirloom Tomato Salad, Roasted Butternut Squash Soup, Bison Short Ribs, Rack of Lamb, Apple Pie and Flourless Chocolate Cake so good we are coming back on 2 days with friends. Chef Kenny has found his niche. Great sunset overlooking Mono Lake. Highly recommend this place, don’t forget to make reservations or you may have a wait. Crazy to say since it’s really in the middle of nowhere, but that’s what happens when you consistently put out great food.

This place is excellent. The food is divine and not the style you would expect in a small town. The view is gorgeous, lovely setting and friendly chatty waitstaff.
After a few days of food with not many vegetables and an abundance of bread (not so good for my vego, not so gluten tolerant travelmate) we felt like we needed some real food. As our accommodation had food at a fairly similar price we felt we had nothing to loose… and boy was it worth every cent.

I’m jaded. I eat at a lot of nice places all over America while traveling for work.
But while on vacation in Mammoth and on our way to see Bodie my family and I saw the place. I actually skipped it the first time I drove by on our way back. My experiences with small restaurants on the side of lesser traveled roads hasn’t been great. This however is an exception. The food is sumptuous prepared by a master chef. Collectively we had the Salmon plate, the Bison ribs, an off menu cheeseburger for my daughter and a bowl of beer base soup with cheese, broccoli, bacon, broccoli, and dear goodness. It was masterfully prepared and cooked to perfection. The wine was nothing short of incredible and at fair prices. The dessert? I would drive up from OC just to have that apple pie again. Simply the best I have ever had. Thank you to the staff for a lovely evening and some of the best food we ever had on vacation in Mammoth. If you are at Mammoth, June lake, or just headed to Bodie, do not make the tragic error of passing it by. It really is that good.

3.5 STARS.
I really wanted to give this 4 STARS, but it fell short in significant ways.
The place is pricey and nice, with a kind of a mountain/​rural cabin/​inn casual upscaleness and a great view of Mono.
However, also with some issues with service and cuisine.
The waitress we had was nice, but kind of distracted and patchy in her service.
It seemed like she was new and just wasn’t on top of it.
Luckily, another older woman, who may have been the manager, since she seemed authoritative, fixed any issues or holes in service very quickly and efficiently.
The meal had mixed reviews.
I liked my pork chop dinner (chop was moist and tasty, the overall meal very good), but the little one didn’t like her bland, salt-​less and over-​cooked burger (and I even asked for medium), and my S.O. didn’t like her chicken dish – thought the sauce, which covered everything, was way too sweet, had a strange spice and took over the taste of the entire dish. The restaurant/​older waitress/​manager did try to correct this and made a very good effort in trying to make us happy, so I have to give them that.
Overall, I feel that they do try, and the place has promise,
but they need some tweaks in order to break into 4 or 5 Star territory, especially since it’s obviously trying to come off as more high-​end.

It’s the 4^th of July in the Eastern Sierra. Mono Lake reposes as a disc of argent blue against a vast plain of muted sage and sand. The sun, catching shimmering bands of rain, dances and sways across the vast basin, enshrouding the mighty Sierra in a dark, smokey veil. In the midst of contemplating this stormy landscape from the edge of the Panum Crater, for some reason we felt it was a good day to go fishing. Which was indeed the case… but for the golf-​ball sized hail. When we finally decided that our baptism by heavenly ice water had run its course, we sought out sustenance. Sunset being late this side of the summer solstice, we neither realized it was 8:00 nor that no place north of Mammoth Lakes is open past eight. Except for one, tiny legend of a dining room.
Like any building with a roof and four walls that remains standing this far north in the Eastern Sierra, the Old Mono Inn has a history. Originally built as a bunkhouse while a local couple sought to build a summer resort on Mono Lake’s Paoha Island (if you’ve ever been out there you’ll agree that this was a pipe dream from the beginning… unless people happen to like seagulls and volcanic detritus), the building has oscillated between remarkable gourmet fare and unremarkable road grub as chefs and leasers alike moved through along an unceasing conga line of proprietors. Today, and I hope for the foreseeable future, times are good at the Mono Inn. This place is magic, the food is superb, the view the size of forever, and the service extraordinary.
As alluded to earlier we arrived very late, rather moist, and hungry, but not entirely unpresentable. Our server seated us at a table by the fireplace, and the cozy, wood-​paneled dining room with its eastern wall of glass filled with an entire cross section of patrons — one well-​groomed couple, two tables of large groups, one backpacker fresh from the trail rewarding himself with a gourmet dinner, and a young family. This is the kind of place that invites dressing up or trail gear alike. A homemade baguette and olive oil with sweetly grape toned basalmic vinegar will stand as your first appetizer as the grand debate of what to order begins.
Arriving late in the day, we were informed that many of the specialty items were running low and warned that the kitchen was a bit understaffed. But that would be no matter, as Chef Kenny Morrison is an artist. As it turned out, the only thing requiring a substitution being the side dishes accompanying my own salmon dish.
The $ 5 caesar is quite large and the dressing is homemade (fresh and bracing, the vinegar and anchovy base is delightfully nasally). The Bison Short Rib (I don’t get much opportunity to eat Bison in this state) with truffle gratin and a red wine demi glacé was saucy and rich — so tender that a quick stab with the fork sent the meat falling right off the bone. Bison is a notoriously hard meat to cook, easily dried out and rendered inedible. This, however, was the single best short rib I’ve tasted. Likewise, the filet, wrapped in bacon and bathed in a horseradish cream red wine reduction, was a perfect medium rare, nearly as tender as the short rib, and MASSIVE. My salmon revealed that Chef Kenny has a knack for the delicate. It had a subtle fruit reduction surrounding its bed of kale and squash, pesto, and the fish itself was (again) perfection. The squash offered body to a dish that is usually light to the point of forcing me to leave the table hungry, and the creamed kale rendering a vegetable I normally detest enjoyable (albeit negating the positive health impacts in the process), this was a perfect dish. Not bad for what was, in essence, a substitution. If we weren’t so stuffed we would have most definitely gone for dessert. The portions are huge.
As we were warned, the meal was a slow one. But this being a busy Independence Day evening, with minimal staff, we could hardly fault them for that. Each server took care of us, and communication amongst the staff was seamless. This place works as a team, and it’s refreshing to see such a thing in a land characterized by zombie-​like service that appears to disdain the tourists who pay the bills to keep their doors open and rent paid.
But even absent this remarkable service, The Mono Inn would still enchant. Throughout dinner we bore witness to a blazing sunset, the tepid grayness of Mono Lake bursting into colors of cobalt and pink and purple as the sun disappeared behind the Sierra Crest, the low rumbles of mountain thunder echoing across Mono Valley. The perfect meal was a mere accompaniment to the true entrée — a majestic vista of unspoiled western scenery and a land untouched by the and of man. This is fine dining on the margin of the American frontier. So much romance of so many different kinds is present here that it is difficult to capture the experience with words. All I can say is go and see for yourself — culinary and natural artistry abide in this magical place.

Food as good as the view! Went to the Mono Inn for brunch after a nice 50 mile bike ride. We had passed by the Inn many times in the past, but random reports by friends of the new inn and great food intrigued us and led us there.
Though OMG is so overused it fits the view from the dining room and patios. No wonder the Ansel Adams foundation owns the place, it’s spectacular. The eastern Sierra version of Big Sur’s Nepenthe.
Brunch was scrumptious. Well made and nicely presented and a good value for the price. Only downside was the wait for service. Long enough to be noticeable, but not enough to color our review.
The owners are well versed in the history of the area and love to share stories of you’re interested. Check out the photos near the restrooms. Make sure to ask to meet ‘Zilla.

We went to dinner last night and this place is great! Not just the views, although over Mono Lake is very nice. We started with the roasted beet and goat cheese salad, all the flavors went together so well. I had the five spice honey glazed chicken — so moist, cooked to perfection. My daughter never had Brussel sprouts before and she almost ate all of mine. My husband had the meatloaf smother in bacon and mushrooms — outstanding!
The new owner and chef are doing an awesome job — definitely worth the trip!

Decided to eat here after reading the reviews and boycotting Nicely’s! The service, staff, view and food are top notch! The reason for the 4 stars is because a lot of items were out of stock, but I understand they close in a week.
I had the rack of lamb that was top notch! My friend had the maple brined pork chop and said it was great. The couscous was the best I’ve ever had. I’ll be back for sure, check out my photos.

Last time we were here in 2010 we were sad to find it closed down. Luckily in October we came just before the new management closed for the winter. It is as good as ever! The rack of lamb and braised pork chops are savory and delicious with just right touch of fruit sauces. A perfect meal.

On our last day of vacation, I consulted Unilocal for a recommendation and The Mono Inn was at the top of the list. The menu on the website looked amazing (but note that it does change).
This is definitely a 5 star restaurant!
5 stars for the food.
5 stars for the service.
5 stars for the view of Mono Lake.
We ordered an appetizer of roasted cauliflower (with a fig purée and balsamic reduction). The best cauliflower ever! I could have eaten this entire dish by myself.
Next we shared a Caesar salad. Very fresh and authentic, homemade dressing.
for the main course, my bf had Bison Short Ribs. They were so tender and juicy with a delicious sauce that did not overpower the meat. Served with savory root vegetables.
I had the Sea Bass (this was reviewed by someone else) and I agree it was probably the best sea bass I’ve had. It was served with an olive relish, lentils and haricot vert.
The waiter recommended a perfect Belgian Beer (I can’t remember the name though).
we finished with the Crème Brulee. We ate a lot, but it was so good!
Next year when we visit June Lake, I plan to eat here again! More than once.
They are open from April — October.