Around a year ago the Grand Dame of Yosemite “The

Ahwahnee Hotel’s” name was changed to “The Majestic

Yosemite Hotel”.  You may say a rose is still a rose by any

other name, but the food is still not good, IMHO worse.

It’s sad, the beautiful room I’d give 5 stars for ambiance

and service dishes up mediocre food.  The Ahwahnee

grand dinning room is certainly an American icon, another

American icon is a classic Cheese Burger with Fries.  It

stand’s to reason you would expect exceptional food

in such surroundings.  We lunched there in December

of 2014, before the name change.  The Burger and fries,

were “OK” then, but I went back hoping for improvement.

Unfortunately the food was a disappointment.  The hand

pressed 1/2 lb. burger, is not local grass fed beef as before

Coast is $15.50 plus .75 cents for cheese. The ground beef

did not have the “maillard reaction” which makes a nice

outer crust on the meat and juicy inside.  A strange pickle

was speared on top, perhaps house made but so large and

tough it could not be sliced with my butter knife. The few

bits of pickle I was able to hack off, fell out as soon as I

lifted the sandwich.  The fries seemed institutional not the

steak cut as before.

An american classic burger should give an umami mouth

feel and a bit of juice dripping down your chin is perfection.

This comes from meat juices mixed with pickle, fresh

tomato, red onion, crisp lettuce, melted cheese,

condiments and a toasted bun.

How to improve:

1. House made ground beef, blend of chuck & steak.
2.  Hand pressed as it still is, charred and pressed.
3. Grill toast the brioche bun.
4. House made pickles sliced.
5. House made condiments ketchup, mustard and mayo.
6. Fries; In house cut shoestring, sweet potato or steak cut.

Below is my post from before.