Fine Dining

The cosmopolitan (for Montana) atmosphere at Boodles (215 E. Main St., 406/587-2901, lunch Mon.–Sat., lunch and dinner daily, dinner $18–33) is just right for contemplating a selection of New American dishes featuring duck breast, lamb, porterhouse steak, and game. It also has a good bar with a wide selection of fine wines.

From its basement location, Looie’s Down Under (101 E. Main St., 406/522-8814, lunch Tues.–Fri., Sunday brunch, dinner nightly, $14–32) features high-quality Italian and continental cuisine as well as sushi (from the restaurant upstairs). The tasty grilled sea bass is served with a corn and lobster hash and vanilla rum butter.

John Bozeman’s Bistro (125 W. Main St., 406/587-4100, 11:30 a.m.–2 p.m. and 5–9:30 p.m. Tues.–Sat., $12–34) has risen from its American bistro ex-hippie roots to become one of Bozeman’s [1] fine dining restaurants. The menu is global in its scope; order seafood in a Thai red curry sauce over soba noodles while your companion has a Cajun-spiced steak with prawns.

If you’re hankering for a venison chop served with butternut squash–pear hash, pick up and drive out to the Gallatin Gateway Inn (Hwy. 191 at Gallatin Gateway, 406/763-4672, 5:30–9:30 p.m. nightly, entrées $16–32). The food is very good, and the atmosphere sublime.

Also worth a little drive is the classy yet thoroughly Western Mint Bar & Café in Belgrade (27 E. Main St., 406/388-1100, 4 p.m.–2 a.m. daily, $19–46), which features hand-cut steaks, seafood, and martinis.

Gallatin River Grill, in the Gallatin River Lodge south of Belgrade (9105 Thorpe Rd., 406/388-0148 or 888/387-0148, 5–9 p.m. nightly, entrées $28–32) serves dinner nightly in a dining room with fir floors, oak furnishings, and an early-1900s oak back bar where diners sometimes spot white-tailed deer grazing by the trout pond.