4 Best Restaurants in Billings, Little Big Horn, and the Montana Plains, Montana

Once an ice-cream parlor, today 3 Brother's Bistro, named for chef Greg Smith's three sons, is Hardin's finest dining establishment. That said, it's still a casual place that serves mostly pizza, barbecue, and beer. While it's hard to beat the house smoked pulled-pork sandwich, the salmon melt, paired with the Pigs Ass Porter brewed in Belt, Montana, comes close.

For hand-tossed pizza and homemade pastas in Billings, it doesn't get any more authentic than at Ciao Mambo. This Montana chain, which also has locations in Whitefish and Missoula specializes in "immigrant-style Italian cuisine." For your antipasti course, try their famous tootsie rolls: egg wrappers stuffed with fresh ricotta cheese, mozzarella, and pesto. And considering splitting your main so you have room for their equally famous cannoli di bacche: cannoli dipped in chocolate ganache and drizzled with huckleberry.

While its burgers have been deemed "the best" in Great Falls and even in Montana, this diner's claim to fame came when it won the Food Network's Guy's Grocery Games in 2017. Each burger is made with grass-fed, sprout-finished Montana beef cut and ground on-site, every few hours. Buns are baked fresh by Great Harvest Bread, another Great Falls institution. There are even a few vegetarian options. But the best is the beef burger. If you don't want any pink in it, make sure to order "no pink."