Capitol Reef National Park is an amazing park and the least visited of Utah’s Mighty 5. This makes it an awesome place to get away from the crowds of parks like Arches or Zion. But if you have ever heard us talk about Capitol Reef before then you know that one of our favorite things to do there is eat burgers and other great food found in the gateway community of Torrey, Utah.
I think one of the things that makes Torrey’s food so good is the surprise of it. Torrey is located just a few miles outside of Capitol Reef’s west entrance. There are only around 300 people who live there. It is the closest town to the National Park and so it is pretty much the only food option outside of the Gifford House which sells pies inside the park.
For a town so small Torrey offers a surprising number and range of culinary options. We have only eaten at a few of them, but we have heard good things about others as well. We will tell you about our favorites.
Capitol Burger
Capitol Burger is a food truck, which means that sometimes it isn’t in town, so if you see it you need to eat there! From what we can tell it is often parked by the Chuckwagon general store on Torrey’s main street. We were lucky enough to discover this place on our first visit to Capitol Reef several years ago and have eaten there several times since.
These are deluxe burgers made with high quality beef. If you know me then you know I love lots of things on my food and Capitol Burger doesn’t shy away from loading their burgers with awesome toppings. The pastrami burger and pulled pork burger are absolutely incredible. Meagan loves to eat Mac and Cheese wherever we travel, and it just so happens that Capitol Burger makes a Mac and Cheese burger that is out of this world.
We honestly can’t say enough good stuff about this place. You owe it to yourself to eat here. While Torrey is their home base you can also find them at festivals all around Utah during the summer, so if you see them go and get a burger!
Slacker’s Burger Joint
We are jumping from one burger right to another, but hear me out because this is a completely different burger experience. Where Capitol Burger creates amazing gourmet burgers, Slackers makes some of the best quality burgers I have ever tasted. They have even been rated best burger in Utah before.
Slacker’s is a fast food restaurant with a walk up order window right on Main street before you leave town. They have a full menu aside from burgers, but honestly I love the burgers so much I have never had anything else. All their burgers are good, but I am particularly fond of the bison burger because it is harder to find buffalo burgers other places, so I love to get it when I can.
Of course there are also great sides like fries and onion rings. Also this is THE place to get your dessert in Torrey. We are fond of the fried cheesecake ourselves (Lucy especially is a big fan).
Slacker’s Pizza
If you are tired of burgers, across the street from Slacker’s Burger is Slacker’s Pizza. It was not called this when we ate here, so I am guessing they are now owned by the same people when before they weren’t. I’m guessing it is still really good.
After a hard day of hiking there is nothing like sitting down and relaxing while you eat some wonderful pizza. We really enjoyed the pizza here, they have deluxe super combo and deluxe meat, so you know I am going to be all about that! They also have a full menu of non-pizza items, but once you smell the pizza I’m not sure you can order anything else.
Sum Up
Sorry I always forget to take pictures of food, but to see us eating some of this food check out our Capitol Reef vlog.
These are three places we have eaten in Torrey, but like I said there are several others. I think almost all of them are located along Main street. We will probably try another one if we ever show up in town while the Capitol Burger is not there.
Prices range between 10 and 15 dollars a meal at these places, while I’m sure the nicer sit down places are a bit more. I think that the prices are not unreasonable considering Torrey is the only places you can eat for miles and miles while visiting Capitol Reef.
If you can afford to eat in a gateway community it is always nice to do so as they support the national parks they are near and we need them to keep doing so. On top of that I consider eating in Torrey to be one of the main experiences of visiting Capitol Reef.
