7 Best Restaurants in Bozeman, Helena, Bozeman, and Southwest Montana

Some call it funky; all call it good food at a fair price. Named for the shape of Grandma's glasses, this small family-owned restaurant serves up a sense of humor with breakfast and lunch, including a "Purrfect Lunch" special; "Look for the Catastrophe" (scrambled eggs with taters, toast, and veggies); the "Felix" (a breakfast sandwich with prosciutto, roasted red pepper aioli, spinach, gouda cheese, and a fried egg on a torta roll); and the banana bread French toast.

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.

A deer head, often sporting sunglasses, surveys the cowboys and families that pack the counter stools and tables at this down-home breakfast and lunch spot. Peruse the local paper as you work your way through biscuits and gravy, eggs with corned-beef hash, or pork chops. There's nothing fancy outside or in, but for local color, this is it.