One of the great things about Banff is that there are a lot of places to eat, unlike U.S. national parks where you may have one or two places to choose from.  U.S. National Parks tend to have an exclusive contract with a single management company that manages the hotels and restaurants – thus your lodging and dining options are limited within the park.  Canadian National Parks seems very different, at least Banff, where you have a large variety of lodging and dining choices – although growth is restricted for environmental reasons.

We tried the Bison Restaurant on our first night. The food was generally good except for the Alberta rib-eye steak – it seemed like it was under the heat lamp for a few days.  It was lukewarm and tender like chewing gum.