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

A restored flour mill houses this restaurant, which prides itself on serving locally raised and processed proteins. Steaks, chicken, and pasta are mainstays, but the seafood selection is also noteworthy. Like outdoor seating options at most Billings restaurants, the patio here is very popular in summer.

People come to this attractive chalet-style building for European, pan-Asian, and American specialties such as quinoa tajine, veal picatta, coconut prawns in Thai curry sauce, and wood-fired pizzas.

Discerning diners flock to Black Eagle, a small community that borders the northeast edge of Great Falls, for dinner at Borries. Regulars favor the steaks, fried chicken, lobster, and burgers, and the huge portions of spaghetti, ravioli, and rigatoni are legendary. Historic photos of Great Falls line the walls, but they're hard to appreciate in the dim lighting.

The menu at this restaurant, part of a regional chain of steak houses, offers a large array of enticing appetizers, such as the rim-fire shrimp cocktail served with wasabi-infused cocktail sauce, creative salads, signature burgers, more elaborate dishes such as seafood linguini, almond-crusted halibut, and filet à la Jakers, a steak topped with crab, asparagus, and béarnaise sauce. Dress is casual, although the cherrywood interior adds a feeling of sophistication.

Situated downtown near the Alberta Bair Theater, this prime people-watching restaurant has a loyal dinner following, understandable considering its casual yet elegant decor, pleasant, attentive service, and such entrées as buttermilk fried chicken, Alaska king salmon, apple-brined pork shank, and made-from-scratch pastas. Walkers also has an upscale bar scene, attracted, in part, by a tempting selection of craft cocktails served by bartenders so hip they look like they belong in Brooklyn. This is where politicians (such as President Bill Clinton), celebrities and other famous folks dine when they're in town.