We went in the weekend of the 19-20th of May. Â We were late lunch, so the place wasn't very busy. Â We ordered burgers and were assured they were "great."
Unfortunately, they were some of the worst burgers I've ever had. Â They tasted literally like very average school cafeteria hamburgers. Â I'm pretty sure they were in fact no different than pre-made institutional burgers. Â Thin and crappy. Â
It also took about 35 minutes to get them, and we were the only people actually eating at the time.
drinking there on a weekend night is probably fun, but after working in restaurants for a long portion of my life I see the signs of a place that is cutting corners-cheap ingrediants and from what other reviewers have said 20% add-ons with little or no warning. Â
Classic signs of a place barely making it. Â The only reason it is still ipen is becuse it gets a lot of one time visitors who are going hiking or sight-seeing on the mountain, and it's bar sales. Â Food Is terrible.
Dining at the Buckhorn Lodge was truly a delightful experience. My boyfriend and I stopped by after coming back from our hike to the Notch. Hanging outside the restaurant were a group of locals, who welcomed us with smiles and genuine conversation. I always appreciate meeting people who are actually interested in who you are, where you're from and what you have to say. You can always tell a small-towner from a city slicker.
Unfortunately, it was a very slow night, but I bet this place can get the entire mountain rocking when it does throw a party. The decorations were original, rustic and warm. According to Mrs. Unruh, the owner, the building has been kept almost the way it was 100 years ago. Mrs. Unruh was a lovely woman. She came by our table, sat down and had a long conversation with us about the history of the Buckhorn and her passion for entertaining. She also brought us another round of drinks, which was very kind of her. We listened to the Buckhorn Boys play, and they were great!
The food is what you'd expect from a diner in the mountains. Huge, piping hot portions of quality home-cooked food, at reasonable prices. I had the Chicken Piccata, which was melt in your mouth tender and so flavorful. Rick had a giant Rib Eye, which was cooked perfectly.
Our only complaint were the drinks. I feel bad for writing this because we did get a free round, but the salt they used for rimming our margarita and bloody mary glasses was regular table salt, which left a sharp, bitter taste in our mouths. I loved my bloody mary, but Rick's margarita was rather light on the tequila.
I love this place! Â The Buckhorn Restaurant and Lodge at Mt. Baldy is just a short hour away from LA. Â When you get there you feel like you are hours away. Â The place is beautiful, quiet and full of activities. Â I have been here in the summer for the hiking and the winter for the skiing. Â It is a great place to spend the weekend any time of year. Â Mt. Baldy has a few choices for lodging and dining and Buckhorn Restaurant and Lodge is your best choice. Â I always get the awesome peppered steak and a cold beer. Â There is great live music by Mort Marker and the Buckhorn Boys. Â I think my favorite memories are the time spent talking with Mrs. Unruh. Â She is such a cool character. Â I cannot wait to go back this summer and enjoy my guilty pleasure, the nachos!
Review Source:Second time at the Buckhorn Lodge & Restaurant this winter, and two for two on good times. Being only an hour and some change from Los Angeles, you can't beat it for a quick, refreshing mountain escape. The food is great, and the Buckhorn Boys band are a well oiled country & blues making machine. Â I'll be back in the spring, for a hike to the Mt. Baldy summit.
Review Source:According to legend, the Buckhorn has been around for over 100 years. Â Going back about 20 years, I first came here to see a buddy that played in the band. Â A hideaway up the mountain that offered good food, solid drink, and live country music. Â But as life changes old standby's kind of fade, which is what happened here. Â Recently, however, we rediscovered the Buckhorn as a place to go to get away from the city, enjoy mountain air and great views. Â Which is why for New Years Eve we came up for a visit.
The Buckhorn Boys still play some country classics, and are open to requests. Â We asked for some George Thorogood and were treated to a great rendition of Bad to the Bone, complete with Mike playing some great slide guitar! Â Mort and Mike had some great moments exchanging guitar riffs. Â Playing an Alan Jackson song had the girls out on the floor for some line dancing. Â However, no evening is complete without Mrs. Unruh singing and dancing to some great standards. Â Quite a show and her energy is quite infectious. Â She invited all of the ladies in the house to the dance floor for a rousing version of Lady is a Tramp, complete with boa feathers for each of them. Â Rousing... Â Thanks, honey.
Some of the reviews listed here mention the automatic service charge, but for the entertainment provided on Friday and Saturday nights, I am not going to complain about a 20% fee. Â Although the food selection is limited, what they do offer is good and filling. Â Drinks poured at the bar are still solid. Â Best of all, it's still a short trip up the mountain for some quality entertainment.
Added to all of the fun had, the crystal clear sky full of stars at the end of the evening was a perfect touch!
The food may or may not be good but we never found out. Â I think we may have bothered the waitress by standing at the counter for so long while she continued her personal conversation with another employee. Â Then we asked if they were serving the Sunday afternoon BBQ (as advertised on their website). Â She said they were serving their usual menu, handed us menus and that they would come out to the patio to help us. Â None of the tables had been cleared so we cleared our own table and sat down and waited... Â and waited... Â and waited... Â Then we left.
Review Source:I have a 31-year history with Mount Baldy Village, and after the Icehouse burned down in the late 1980s, Baldy wasn't on our list of great places to go for Friday or Saturday night dinner and "hanging out."
I am pleased to report the venerable Buckhorn, under the management of Mrs. Unruh and crew, approaches the "million miles from Los Angeles" feel that The Icehouse once had. Live music with talented musicians (no rap, hip-hop, heavy metal or other crap often mistakenly called "music")...great food, cold beer and fun people.
We'll be back...with friends. If you want to spend an evening feeling like you are in Whitefish, Montana; Atlantic City, Wyoming; Steelville, Missouri or any other feel-good places that are NOT Los Angeles-centric, then we'll see you at The Buckhorn. If you want velvet rope-lines, celebrity sightings and a room full of phonies, head for the Sunset Strip or The Palms in Las Vegas and stay away from Mount Baldy Village, California.
I'm a bit torn on how to review this place, because most people only mention the lodge side of the Buckhorn, and neglect to mention the motel. Â I imagine some of you will experience both, so I want you to know what you're getting into.
The descriptions of the lodge on here seem pretty accurate; it's got a wild-west-in-the-mountains sorta feel, with lots of burnished wood, metal saddle barstools, a small dance floor, lively music on weekends, and the Vegas-style singing and dancing provided by the vivacious Mrs. Unruh. Â Except for one young guitar player, nobody here is up-and-coming; these are people who have followed their bliss in the past, and have decided to continue doing so on the mountain. Â If you let yourself, you will be entertained.
Now, on to the motel.
The motel would be absolutely perfect for someone who wants a quaint, quirky little place to get away from it all. Â
No internet, no phones, no cell phone service (at least with Verizon), no iPod docking station, no TV...it's you, in a little white-painted cinderblock room with a cozy iron frame bed, patchwork quilts, a few hand-painted wooden knick knacks on the walls, a dresser, and a small bathroom wih a shower. Â For cold nights, a built-in wall heater keeps you warm. Â
You will not have room service, toiletries, a built-in hairdryer, or any of the things you may associate with a typical night's hotel stay.
We even had a little bit of trouble with the electrical plugs in the room, but to be fair, we never mentioned that, so they didn't have a chance to address it.
You will, however, have fairly quick access to skiing, snowboarding, or sledding on Mt. Baldy, a lively stream that runs right by the motel, and across-the-street access to good food and entertainment at the lodge. You will have a lovely mountain view just outside your door.
Though you can use a credit card in the lodge, you will pay for your room in cash. Â I imagine that last part may be because some people came expecting a lot of things they weren't going to get, and tried to get their credit charges back. Â If they would have known what they were signing up for, I don't think that would have happened.
If you want to get away from it all in a simple place where the people care more about feeding & entertaining you on the lodge side, and the room is just someplace to rest your head, then this is for you. Â
If you want the awesome room with all the amenities, and the lodge is secondary to you, you will be disappointed, and should look elsewhere.
Yep I found this one on another one of my long and epic motorcycle rides!
If you are an uptight sheltered city person than this place is not for you. No this is not a wayyyy out in the country type of place where you might be chased down by Boss Hog, but it does have that small home town feel. That mountain town appeal is why you would want to go 20 miles up a mountain in the fist place.
While there I heard some obnoxious wannabe Hilton chicks whining how they were 20 minutes from civilization. Hahaha yeah you are wayyyyy out in the sticks girls. Man it started to sound like dialog from an 80s slasher film like "Blood Mountain" "Return To Horror Lodge" hahaa ridiculous. : ) I kept praying for Jason Vorhees to bust in and haul these money driven frivolous glitter girls away!
I like this place and the surroundings due to it being similar to Oregon. It was great to see trees and snow again. As well as some animals. When was the last time you saw a flock of birds in Los Angeles? No not pigeons or flying rats, but real feather covered birds! There also are also bear, deer and mountain sheep. Looks like LA didn't kill all the wildlife yet.
The easiest way to get here was off the 210 east and take Mountain highway exit. This will take you up through a neighborhood, around a dam and then up a mountain road towards Mt Baldy. It is a great ride by motorcycle as well as by car. Towards the top you will have to make several sharp VERY sharp turns so be careful these are small 2 lane roads.
You will end up being about 3 miles to the top of Mt Baldy when you find the Buckhorn Lodge on the left. The lodge has been around since 1910. The parking lot has been upgraded and there is a river very near off of the parking lot. This area is an amazing gem since it is still pristine and only 15 minutes from the city.
Inside it is again a movie set like the other locations I have found. this one reminds me of the lodge from the 80s classic horror film "The Howling". There inside is made of very old timber but has a ski lodge feel to it. Again I found a beautiful young rock n roll raven haired waitress who was a lot of fun! Who knew? That was a nice surprise. Yes yes! : )
There was a band playing that night that were all old Hollywood and great musicians. These guys worked with many greats like Elvis Presley, Smothers Bros, Sonny and Cher and many more. The band was Mort Marker and the Buckhorn Boys featuring Mrs. Unruh.
Mrs. Unruh was an ex Vegas performer and I have to give her credit, she loves to put on a show and is a great fun performer. Gary the drummer for the band amazed me. This cat was 71 years old and could pound on those drums like Tommy Lee's fists on Pamela Anderson! I hope when I am Gary's age I can play like that!
I talked to the whole band for awhile and have been invited to sit in sometime and possibly play drums. Fun stuff! Mort Marker was amazing to watch him play on guitar. Fantastic! I heard he does a full blown Stevie Ray Vaughn tribute but it is a rare treat to see. Mort Marker, Garey, Ed, Mike and Mrs Uruh all were well seasoned professionals and love what they do. Ohhh and the best part of Mrs Uruh's performance....she does her version of a Pink song...hehe fun!
I had drinks and food while I was there. The drinks and staff were excellent. I am not sure what happened before with other people on Yelp but Brian and Jessie were great. They made sure I was well taken care of. The food was great! The prices were right and large portions. The menu is a variety menu and no it is not gourmet but done well. They have dinner specials during the week that also looked very reasonable like: Italian Dinner $5.75; Tuesday Pork Chop Dinner $6.50; Wednesday Soft Taco Dinner $7.00; Thursday Sirloin Steak Dinner $7.75 Wow!
The lodge is the perfect place right now in December. I will spend more time here to have that Christmas in Oregon feeling. I had a lot of fun riding the sidecar through the snow and of course the kid in me pulled over and threw snowballs! Weeeeee! Love it!
This place is great but if you are uptight you need to just let loose and go with it. If you are too city then this probably wont appeal to you. For me it is great fun and a part of America that is slowly disappearing. The decor is old and quirky but that is it's charm.
If you go past the Buckhorn Lodge there is a parking lot you will end up in at the top destination on the mountain. From there you can park and either walk up a zig zag road to the top of the mountain where there is a lodge and skiing OR you can take a cable car to the top. I will review that one later.
W
Cannot understand anyone giving this dump a good review. Â We went on a Sunday to find half the tables still covered with dirty dishes. Â Twenty minutes after our breakfast arrived my husband still had not reiceved the toast he ordered. Â The furniture is ripped to shreds and the 2 waitresses are totally worthless. Â What a pit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review Source:I hate to give this place a bad mark but the service was bad. The staff actually had a full out yelling match over our table. I know its a small town but they should still have a service standard. The food was seriously over priced for the quality and amount. I think I am better off packing a ton of snacks.
Review Source:Pros: Small town atmosphere. Cons: Small town atmosphere.
This started out as a good night but turned into somewhat of a nightmare.
The lodge is rustic with decent food and an entertaining band that plays on the weekends. Nice mountain atmosphere with a few stuffed animal heads, antique skis, mountain paraphernalia, etc. on the walls. Also, the place is kind of it's own advertisement for the entertainment, with lots of pictures of the "lady" with minor celebrities, obscure reviews and newspaper articles. etc about her show biz career. The "lady" of the house is an ex-Vegas style entertainer who sings and dances with feather boas while the local band plays in the background. The cast of characters is unique and entertaining. The drummer played on a Bud Light box for the fist few songs, along with a harmonica player, bass player, and two guitarists. Dancing was fun and band was good.
That being said. Tourism is the only industry keeping the few businesses in this town alive. So BEWARE.
The evening turned sour when we got our bill.
First we suspect our drinks were double charged to both us and another couple whom we were talking to and bought us a drink. Also there was a discrepancy between the well drinks ($5) that we started out drinking and the call drinks($8) that half of our drinks were rung up as. OK - this is not that big of a deal. But the total on our bill seemed about $40 too high when we received it. After requesting our itemized bill (like pulling teeth trying to get this) we realized that a 20% gratuity had been added on to the bill. I had to ask repeatedly to get any kind of answer about this. The answers were as I remember 1.) Ignore 2.) Mostly ignore but mumbles something under breathe 3.) That's what everyone does on the mountain 4.) It's says so right on the menu.
We are fairly sure that the other couple who we were talking to that night probably were subject to the same double billing of drinks, and probably tipping on top of the "automatic" included 20% mountain tip.
I thought that maybe it had said on the menu something about bills over $100 will be charged 20% gratuity. Since we had purchased a sweatshirt on my tab (which we were apparently also tipping 20% for) I thought that may have been a justification since our bill was about $100 all together.
I signed my tab and we went back to our room at the Motel across the street under the same ownership. (About $95 for a cinder block 10' by 10' room - but the heater did work and you don't really have many other options.)
The next morning I checked the menu and it said "20% gratuity would be added to parties of 5 or more." Â We had two people in our party.
The bottom line is, we feel like we were scammed in multiple small ways, the worst being that if we had not repeatedly questioned the bill we would have paid the 20% gratuity (still no excuse why they added that) and having not been informed of that, we would have tipped normally on top of that amount. Also sweat shirt should not have been included. Sorry - I just don't normally tip for sweatshirts.
If the woman was honest at any point during this communication, things may have been different. But after the way things played out I will never set foot in the Buckhorn Lodge again.
Another note - The snack shop right before the Ski Resort. Coffee $1. "Mocha" $3. Total bill $5. We didn't even ask, it's just mountain math I guess.
My boyfriend and I stopped into this small town bar and I was actually pretty satisfied. With the exception of the town drunk hitting on my man, complimenting him on his amazing eyes (though I cant blame her, they are amazing!) and suggesting a threesome with us, I had a great time. The nachos and hot chocolate were great and everyone was VERY friendly.
Overall a great place to visit. Just remember, if you have a hot guy like I do, be prepared for him to get hit on.
It's a Saturday night... what better place to go then... THE BUCKHORN LODGE!
... When we go up here I feel like we are further away then Mt Badly. Not only that, I feel like we have gone back in time.
Last time we were up here on a Saturday night.. the food was standard, nothing super. But the experience itself was worth the visit. Every Saturday a little Mt Badly band plays. I bunch of older men playing the guitar, banjo, drums, bass...
A couple of times throughout the night the power would go out on their instruments. It was like watching a electrical error at Chucky Cheese. The characters were still moving, but no sound was coming out. Â
At one point during the night a lady came out with a feather boa and sang a song.. She would walk around to the tables and sing to us, she even wound her boa around my friend's neck... RRrrRR. It was great.
Oh! And you can dance... but its not shake your booty kind of dancing. More like the two-step and tipsy staggering. This place has never been crowded when we were there.
We have always had a great time at this place. It's nostalgic, rustic, old fashioned and genuine.
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