Big Meadows Wayside is a convenience store, gas station, and cafe located by Shenandoah National Park's Skyline Drive. This is the better place to go to pick up camp items than the camp store at Big Meadows Campground. I bought fire sticks that were very helpful to start a fire. The store also sells National Park souvenirs. I had the hot honey fried chicken, which was decent in taste and price. They also have burgers, sandwiches, and breakfast items. read more

Stopped by for a bite during my drive through Shenandoah National Park. My friend and I ordered dishes to share. We got the flat bread and strawberry chicken salad. Both dishes were absolutely delicious! We could taste the freshness. We cleaned our plates. Someone recommended the blackberry ice cream pie so I wanted to try that, but I saw blackberry cobbler and knew I had to try that too. We ordered both desserts to share. The blackberry ice cream pie was good but that cobbler stole the show. Warm cobbler with vanilla ice cream... to die for! We both loved that much more than the pie. So good. Our waitress, Ashley, was friendly, funny, and attentive. The atmosphere of the dining room was just okay. The patio looked like it had a beautiful view but we ate inside in fear of being bothered by bugs. All in all, I would come back for the delicious food and that blackberry cobbler. read more

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BEST BLACKBERRY COBBLER OF ALL TIME! And great blackberry ice cream with it! Our family did that two days in a row!!! Great service, and great offerings on the menu and in the store. Makes camping easy! Sending love from Florida! We will be back! read more

Big Meadows Wayside - Blackberry cobbler with blackberry ice cream! AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!! - American Near Me - Stanley, Virginia

I see and read all the reviews here. I can understand where they're coming from as the last time I was here, they had the place roped off for construction. They've made a lot of changes and I think the store looks great with a lot of just about everything + gift store + a Cafe of sorts with outside seating. -I came in when I was leaving from my camping trip to finally drink some coffee. First, I looked around the store and was impressed at all the different items they had available + the camping and cooking gear! Then I swung I into the cafe line. Couple in front of me..then I ordered a coffee and a bacon egg and cheese sandwich. I ordered to go and grabbed a seat to wait for it. She served my biscuit then I reminded her about my coffee. She ran and got my cup for self serve coffee. The coffee was good. No complaints. The biscuit itself was a bit too flour-y. ($7.99 for this biscuit alone, mind you) Otherwise, I enjoyed it. I took my coffee into the gift store and looked around. Came out with a t-shirt. (Shirts $27-$30). It appears to me that this Wayside shop, though pricey, has upgraded nicely since the past reviews. I hope more people feel the same. read more

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We ate here for lunch after a morning hike nearby. The store/restaurant is located in a separate building about 100 yards from the Big Meadows Visitors' Center. They two share the same parking lots. They also have a camp / convenience store (for purchasing limited groceries if you're camping nearby) as well as a gift shop. Our focus was to get lunch. It appeared that, in pre-Covid times, they had a moderately-sized dine-in section as well as (probably) an order-at-the-counter set up. Not anymore. Now, the dining area is screened off by plywood temporary walls. There is an empty area where you can queue up for ordering or mill around waiting for your food. There is one small counter/window for orders and a separate one where you pick up your food. The whole set-up had a sort of post-disaster feel to it. To the staff's credit, we ordered and got our food promptly. The menu is limited to sandwiches and hot dogs (I think). It was at least things that the main lodge's dining room did not serve, though. As there is no dine-in, we headed outside to one of the many picnic tables located around the building. We enjoyed our lunch with a view of the meadow across Skyline Drive. It was warm enough that I was not sorry about the dining room's closure. For a quick lunch outside, this was an acceptable choice. It would be better once they fully re-open and have dine-in options also, though. read more

Today we ate at Big Meadows Wayside, because it has been a few years since I've been up here it has definitely changed for the worst. Everything is modern.. personally I liked the family friendly mountain look better. I will say the gift shop is cute and the food was okay until I got a half raw and half fired chicken breast. I felt so sick to my stomach and when I was looking for an employee they were nowhere to be found. Next time we're just going to Skyland's restaurant because as we was going down we decided to stop and that was such better. read more

Big Meadows Wayside - This is half fired and half raw chicken - American Near Me - Stanley, Virginia

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Absolutely beautiful views. Pretty interior and exterior. The food was a bit cold but the staff was very helpful, nice, and accommodating. read more

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We had a great time last year (2019) eating at the outdoor seating area - great ribs, delicious salad and fantastic blackberry ice cream pie. If it was not for the cheese cake dessert, this would be a 1-star. Things went downhill this year - not because of the paper plate and plastic utensils. It was the service and the food - chicken wings were like boiled and added hot sauce; roasted chicken was like boiled chicken added herbs and sauce. Nothing was cooked right. If you are eating here this year during the COVID-19, order sandwiches or burgers. read more

Big Meadows Wayside contains a lot of facilities, including the Harry F. Byrd, Sr. Visitor Center, the Gift Shop at Big Meadows/Camp Store, Big Meadows Lodge, gas, and a small dining room in the Wayside (separate from the dining area at Big Meadows Lodge). Again, as with other park concessions - Aramark operates the Big Meadow Wayside facilities. I had a late lunch here - even so, there was quite a few people here eating. A sign at the entrance requests for you to seat yourself for waitress service. There is also a food window to order at to get food to go. I took a seat. While there were about 10-12 tables of folks eating, it was not that busy. There were quite a few staff folks dressed in the garb of the Aramark staff - about 8-10 - even with all of that bustling about - it was 10 minutes before a waitress came to me with a menu. I ordered a bowl of their "Big Meadows" meat chili and a Blackberry milkshake. My milkshake came out in about 5 minutes - with no Chili. I assumed it would be forthcoming shortly. It took a total of 15 minutes for my bowl of Chili to arrive. It was not really what I would call Chili. It was more like a bowl of meat and beans with a little bit of sauce around the perimeter - very little in the way of a tomato-based sauce to bring the whole thing together. And quite frankly - not much flavor (see the attached pix). It had quite a bit of cheese pile on top - this probably improved the overall flavor. I added quite a bit of Frank's Hot Sauce to the Chili in an attempt to improve it. The milkshake was not bad - just wished it had been served with the Chili. My server asked if I wanted a beverage to go with the Chili. I audibly sighed and asked for a glass of water. Food was not that good, service leads a bit to be desired. If I had been rating Big Meadows Wayside on the gift shop/camp store, and/or gas facilities - it would most likely have easily earned a higher rating - as I noted the folks working in those areas being proactive with customers. read more

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This less than perfect building means a lot to many of us. It is a welcomed 1-mile hike after sleeping in a tent and enough to get the morning cold out of our bones. It was a cheaper and more realistic option than the costly lodge or Skyland. It was an opportunity to commiserate with other stumbling through the doors and visible from the parking lot, whether other tent'ers or backpackers. It was a place to get a good-enough warm meal. But it never lacked charm in an outdated sort of way. But that's all changed now. In an effort enable diners to see the Meadow, the restaurant has been relocated to the road side and redesigned. Instead of cooks, they installed a conveyor belt warming machine to reheat precooked meals. Instead of waitresses sharing life, there is a cashier who wants nothing more than to hussle you through or you can be as impersonal as possible and order from a screen. Instead of family seating, you can now pick between uncomfortable booths with seats entirely too deep or tables - none of which have ports for charging devices so common nowadays. The food is a little more pricy, unattractive to look at, and bland. The environment is like eating in a rest stop on 95 and I'll politely say those that handled the food need more training. Money was clearly spent on the remodel, but in my opinion, they merely needed to update the dining area and kitchen to improve the meals and efficiency. Other than that, regrettably the charm has been lost with an attempt to modernize. And to be clear, a conveyor belt warming machine feels unwelcoming. I'd rather have less-than-perfect toast cooked by a human. The store has pretty much the stuff you'd expect, although it still needs to be stocked. It never ceases to amaze me how many mugs say they are not dishwasher or microwave safe. Whoever does the ordering should visit earth every now and then and realize that a mug designed to sit on the shelf is fairly worthless. Missing the old days... read more

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I've been coming here all my life (a long time) and always enjoyed meals at the Wayside. That all changed several years ago when they decided in their infinite wisdom that people on vacation and camping in the mountains would really like the Wayside to be a bit more modern. You know - more like a New Jersey Turnpike rest area with conveyor belt vegan hummus and automated WAWA style ordering terminals. No more of that unhealthy, waitress served food like fried chicken, BLTs, BBQ Sandwiches, Bacon, Eggs Toast. Noooo - People on vacation want to eat zero calorie tofu burgers slung at them by rude, uninterested college kids glued to their cell phones. Honestly... I would have rather seen the place burnt to the ground than what they've done to it. Oh if I could be king for a day, heads would be on stakes - and the Wayside would be put back just the way it was - original waitresses and all. This summer, I stopped briefly at the Wayside during a road trip and was slightly encouraged by a backpedaling sign proclaiming the old comfort food would soon be back! Unfortunately, the new restaurant is boarded up and they're serving a very limited menu from behind plywood walls. Pitiful! In my book, the place was destroyed over 3 years ago and it'll take far more money and ambition to fix than any of them have. What a debacle, what a waste of money and especially what a slap in the face to loyal customers who have spent a lifetime of summer vacations there. read more

There is another restaurant in the park at Skyland. Go North quickly! Just make sure you go the speed limit. This place didn't look very promising but we didn't know about the other restaurant until we were leaving and since this is right by the official visitor center, we assumed this would be the only real restaurant option thinking the other would be vending machine type food. It is not a restaurant at all, you order at the counter, you pick up your food and go eat outside somewhere. We ordered hot dogs, from a not so friendly worker, because you can't mess that up. Oh, but you can serve the ones that are leftover from yesterday. They looked like they had been on the warmer too long. When I read the menu I was considering the blackberry cobbler but changed my mind when the hot dogs came out. We did purchase prepackaged chips and those were good. Hopefully this is just COVID related and things will improve. read more

Bring your own food. Black bean burger was mushy, under cooked, and tasteless. The mashed potatoes tasted like glue. The french fries were cold and greasy. I couldn't eat them and I never turn down fries. The grocery store was worse than a 7-11. No tortilla chips? Seriously? The only reason for 2 stars was the fried chicken which was OK. Did not have breakfast so can not comment on that. read more

No good stay away from the cafe. Horrible atmosphere waaay overcharge for tiny servings of grade C food. But there is a store you can buy snacks. read more

Horrible. This is not the Wayside restaurant of the past which use to be great! Has been renovated and is absolutely terrible. We got 2 tasteless sandwiches and 2 sodas and the bill was $29! Husband got the meatloaf and the meat didn't even fill the bread. I got the mushroom sandwich and there was maybe 4/5 small pieces of mushroom. see pics. We talked with another couple and they were just as unhappy as we were. This place should be ashamed of itself charging what they do and then serving up terrible food. Never again. There is food out in the front at the camp store. I recommend that if you are that hungry buy a premade salad or sandwich which for 1/3 of the price. Or better yet bring your own. read more

Big Meadows Wayside - Portabello mushroom sandwich with no mushrooms. - American Near Me - Stanley, Virginia

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Tried to get some sort of a sandwich for lunch. Ordered on the I pad type screen. No human interaction. Pictures of sandwiches. Were on screen. Ordered chicken salad, 2 of them. Did not look like the picture I ordered, and the chicken salad was like chicken in a water sauce. Horrible! The employees need to be trained on how to handle food for safe consumption. Employee had gloves but was touching everything but the food. Saw her handling menu's and counters where the public had there hands. Would not recommend eating here. read more

Thankfully Wayside exists because it seems to be the only place to get something to eat in the park that tastes good. I have tried the lodge dining room and was served bad food there on two separate trips. Even though Wayside is operated by the same government contractor company, the quality of the cooking is better than at the nearby lodge. I tried their fried chicken two separate times and both times it was very good served with cole slaw and a biscuit. Service was good here too. The atmosphere is very casual like a snack bar and it is adjacent to a store where you can pick up souvenirs and camping essentials. They also stock beer and hard cider at a reasonable price considering you are up in the mountains. I noticed that the beer and hard cider was at a better price than many other bottle drinks they sell! But boy the candy here is way over priced. read more

Stopped here yesterday while out on our Mother's Day sojourn in the park. This was our first time here and we stopped to fill our bellies a bit to tide us over til dinner. Contrary to some of the reviews, this is a nice little spot. It has a bit of a diner feel to it. We had th chili, a cheeseburger and a Caprese salad. In all it was pretty darn good! Now, was it fine dining like you may find in DC or NYC? Of course not, its not meant to be. So reviewed in that context, this is a great little mountainside stop to get some grub, gas and other goodies before heading back out to the overlooks. Service was just fine. Drinks were filled when needed and meal arrived in short order. In all, this is not a destination restaurant that one may looking forward to during the workday. This is.....well..... a wayside restaurant that does its job well and left us perfectly satisfied. read more

I stop in for breakfast a few times a year. BLT is great and what I normal order but the other meals are good too. Staff is always nice and friendly. Treat them well with a good tip. Remember they drive a long ways to get to work. The ones that use the fire roads to get to the restaurant experience lots of wear and tear on their vehicles due to road conditions. read more

A spot to stop and grab a bite while going through Skyline Drive. It's cafeteria plus - you can sit down and be served, but the overall experience is fairly no frills. Food is meh (though expected when dining options in this neck of the woods is slim pickings), BUT their daily/specialty ice cream (I tried blackberry) was actually incredible - rich, creamy, naturally flavored - luxurious! read more

Cheap delicious wholesome filling MONSTER breakfasts the pancakes were huge and fluffy, the eggs were perfect. While i wont lower the rating for it I was sad there was no option for real maple syrup (luckily i carry my own if needed) but they do provide blackberry syrup ostensibly made from berries grown in the area. All in all if you are going hiking all day, or just simply need to keep the clan filled up for the long drive home from Shenandoah. Its a great place for an awesome breakfast read more

Think about the worse meal of your life and then imagine a meal that's ten times worse than that. Calling this place a dump will be an insult to a dump and here is why. The place offers two options. Pick up fast food style food for carry out or sit down and dine in. We decided to dine in. The prices are pretty outrageous for the quantity and the quality of food they offer. Lets break this down. Cleanliness: What cleanliness? Flies everywhere! The dining room is a mess. No one tending. You go in, find yourself a table, clean up, sit down and then wait for someone to notice you. Service: No concept of service. Food (Price/Quantity/Quality) The only thing that sounded good on the menu was fried chicken. We ordered a bucket of 8 pieces with mashed potatoes and coleslaw. We also ordered a salad for someone in our group and a few drinks. It took less than five minutes for the waitress to show up, take our order and bring out the food. It looked bad. It was cold. It looked old. The biscuits on the top were almost fridge cold. The mashed potatoes looked like a sauce. The salad was stale and yellow. We were appalled by the visual. We told the waitress about our concerns with the food. She said, oh I am sorry and took the chicken back. Two minutes later she came back and this time it was obvious to us that they had simply dipped everything back in the fryer and taken out. We only tasted the chicken and then stopped. We did not try anything on the table and asked her for the check. They charged us almost $50 for all the food! ($22 for the buck of 8 piece chicken!!) We paid and left. If you want to explore Shenandoah, please bring your own food with you. If you have tons of cash, it's probably better to just burn that $50 bill than to sit through this hell and then lose the money. read more

Waited 30 minutes anf had to cancel the food because I am asked to wait another 20 minutes. Giving 1 star as I don't have an option to give 0 stars read more

I miss the old Wayside. I have been coming here for over 20 years. Today, I returned with excitement for the "new" renovated Wayside but I was sorely disappointed. It was astounding what they changed here. There is no longer wait service, so you have to order on a kiosk machine. They had 4 total, but only 2 in service. Not a huge deal but caused more of a delay in ordering. The prices are ridiculous for you get. We ordered two chicken salad sandwiches and a grilled cheese, all of which looked nothing like the picture. None come with sides. They also charge for tap water. Our bill was $27. The chicken salad was subpar and the amount they put on the bread covered maybe half of it. The sides menu was limited and unappealing. No French fries? I was also disappointed because they did away with their milkshakes, which was a staple. They have a milkshake machine in the camp store area but of course, it was out of order. My husband picked up our food at the window and while he was waiting he saw and heard a manager and staff arguing. Totally unprofessional. The bathrooms, which are around the outside of the building were also blocked off. Next time I will be bringing a picnic because this was all just awful. Wayside- please read these recent reviews and make changes. The old Wayside with wait staff, better menu options, better food quality and prices was what kept me coming back all these years. This place has lost all of its charm and dining here now is a rip off and impersonal. I suspect people like me, who have been coming for years, will stop. read more

Family visits here once a year to have the fried chicken and BlackBerry ice cream pie.

Really awful service and food. My four year old can make better hotdog or pizza. Echo to other reviews, waitresses seemed reluctant to take orders and didn't care their behaviors too. read more

We have been going to Big Meadows for 30 years and have eaten at the Wayside many times. But if yesterday had been my first visit, I never would have bothered going back. We arrived around 1 pm and the place was busy, as it should be at lunch time. We seated ourselves at a table that wasn't particularly clean, and we waited. And waited. After ten minutes we flagged down one of the waitresses ( there were four to six women working in the room) and asked for menus. She brought them a bit reluctantly and said " your waitress will be with you." We waited another five minutes and gave up. Waiting fifteen minutes to even speak to a server means the place is not being managed very well. We went to the carry out window, ordered our sandwiches and ate outside at a picnic bench. The food at Wayside has always been good- far better than the meals at nearby Big Meadows Lodge. But I am taking away a star because of the very poor service at a Wayside- my friend and I are both former waiters, and we watched the servers as we were waiting. Not one of the women cracked a smile or made a pleasant comment to any of the diners. All looked like they were dragging their butts around the tables as if serving their tables was a massive inconvenience. I have rarely felt so unwelcome in a restaurant. Since they are heading into their very busy fall season, I hope the manager at the Wayside does a better job organizing and training the wait staff. read more

Good place to get a filling meal when You are travelling on the Skyline drina and the nearby appalachian trail. Staff and management are awlways very friendly, read more

Renovations made it feel like a cheap pantry. Was so excited to come back and we just left going wtf, who designed this and thought it was a good idea. Ask the charm is gone. read more

Shenandoah National Park is a treasure, so it is especially sad that Aramark, which runs the Big Meadows concession, has allowed it to become a run-down threadbare dump of a facility. The national park Service deserves better. We ate at the pub/grill and had nachos, which featured Cheeze Whiz. read more

My friend and I got breakfast. It was a lovely day out and we decided to eat outside because we had a dog with us. They were accommodating in putting our food into to go boxes and were friendly. The food was very standard though. We had breakfast and it was very obvious that a lot of it came out of a bag. Would certainly come back though!! read more

We stopped here before hiking Dark Hallow Falls on an incredibly foggy day. We used the restrooms, browsed the gift shop, contemplated the exhibits, and considered trying the educational trail. It's a great stop for all your needs while enjoying the park. read more

A nice little gift shop/restaurant, particularly helpful if you're camping at Big Meadows, but don't feel like cooking all your own meals on the campfire. read more

Stopped in for lunch. Food was very good and so was the service. The view was fantastic! Lobby was like going back in time. Thanks Sara for wonderful meal service. Will definitely recommend and will stop again. read more

We have eaten here many times during the last 10 years but yesterday's meal was a disappointment. The service was great, but the chicken breast on the bun was so dry I almost choked. My son ordered the BBQ which was better. read more

If you are trapped in Shenandoah Lodge, this is the place to eat. Staff is overworked and the food is cafeteria grade. Good view if you are close to the window but afternoon sun can be brutal. Save the view for breakfast. read more

I usually write a review when I get poor service, but the Wayside at Big Meadows was so great I had to say something. A nice woman greeted us when we walked in and got us menus and drinks. I love the beer they have on tap. I had a BBQ and my girlfriend had a bowl of their soup, I think it was fiesta chicken. Everything was absolutely delicious and our server Ashley was amazing as well. She was very friendly and attentative. A great pit-stop at the park. read more