"The Signal Mountain of Nachos" - The Trapper Grill, Signal Mountain Lodge, Grand Teton National Park, WY

When they call these "The Signal Mountain of Nachos" they aren't kidding.

The "world famous" nachos at the bar at Signal Mountain Lodge were huge, more than enough for four people to share as an "appetizer," or even for three or four to share for dinner in my opinion. They're also pretty good. You can either get "plain nachos" - just chips and cheese, or you can go big with the toppings - onions, tomatoes, black olives, and any combination of taco beef, chicken and/or black beans. They come with plenty of sour cream and salsa and homemade guacamole for a little extra charge - love that option.

You can also get a half order in case there are less than four of you and/or you don't want nachos to be your entire dinner. Which would never be the case with us here at Nachos and the City. But, you know, just in case you're not weird like us.

Rating* for "The Signal Mountain of Nachos" at The Trapper Grill at The Signal Mountain Lodge, Grand Teton National Park, WY:

1. Layering

I was pretty impressed by the layering here. With such a mountainous mountain of nachos I might have expected a lot of bare chips piled under the top layer, but that wasn't the case. The tastiness was layered pretty well throughout, but there still could have been more at every layer.

2. Crispiness of Chips

Overall crispiness was satisfactory until the end. We ran across the occasional not-so-crispy chip, but they weren't the majority, and overall the chips stayed pretty crispy.

3. Variety of Toppings

As I mentioned above, there were a wide variety of toppings on these nachos. More than I've seen most places. In fact, I probably should be giving these a rating of 5 smiling nacho chips for variety, but we've never given out a five chip rating here on Nachos and the City and, well, I'm kind of afraid to. What happens if I give a these a 5 out of 5 nacho chip rating, and then next week I find some nachos with WAY MORE VARIETY? And then there'll be nothing to be done but to have a meltdown because there will be no way to express the great variety of the hypothetical future nachos.

4.5 it is.

4. Quality of Toppings

Pretty decent toppings here - not amazing, but certainly not bad, and better than many nachos I have had.

5. OVERALL Nacho Experience

I would definitely recommend this nacho experience.

Plus, with views like this to accompany your nachos, you really cant go wrong.

How about you? Have you ever eaten at the Signal Mountain Lodge? Or had nachos somewhere equally beautiful? Or, since this is a blog about nachos, any stories about other giant "mountains" of nachos? We'd love to hear about it!

* For a reminder about our rating criteria, see this post.

"Irish Nachos" - McGrady's Irish Pub

I recently had the Irish Nachos at McGrady's Irish Pub in Charlottesville, Virginia. Irish, because they use potato chips instead of tortilla chips as the base. Other than that they were pretty much a standard plate of nachos, featuring cheddar cheese, a meat and bean chili-type concoction, and a side of sour cream and hot wing-type sauce. No shredded lettuce, onion, or tomato, which for this veggie-lover is a strike against any plate of nachos.

The nachos were polished off quickly, but I have to say that I think that is due more to the fact that we got up at 5:30am, did a four hour hike, drove an hour, showered, and sat down at about 1:00pm tired and starving, than to the quality and tastiness of the nachos themselves.

Rating* for "Irish Nachos" at McGrady's Irish Pub, Charlottesville, VA:

1. Layering

The cheese and chili-type stuff was just about all layered right on top, and cheese was not dispersed throughout. However, these nachos were saved from a rating of just one nacho chip for layering due to the fact that there was enough cheese and chili to put some on the bare chips once you'd eaten all the nicely covered ones.

2. Crispiness of chips

The chips remained crispy for a bit, but there was so much of the thick heavy chili stuff that they got pretty soggy pretty fast. Which is not awesome.

3. Variety of toppings

Really the only topping besides the cheese on these Irish nachos was the chili stuff, as well as the sour cream and hot wing sauce to dip. Adding chicken was also an option. If that's your style then you may be a fan of these, but I was missing the shredded lettuce, tomato or onion, and guacamole option.

4. Quality of toppings

The quality of these nacho ingredients was ok. They did make the potato chips in-house, and they were thick and crispy (until the chili got to them that is), and they used real cheese rather than "ball park" cheese, which is always a plus in our book. However, I'm not sure how I feel about the use of the hot wing sauce instead of salsa. I mean, these were Irish nachos, so I understand that they already are not traditional nachos, but unless there's something innately Irish about hot wing sauce that I'm missing, I would prefer to have some nice salsa.

5. OVERALL nacho experience

I would love to hear if anyone else has had nachos from McGrady's in Charlottesville, VA! How about, since these weren't our favorite, a suggestion for some other nachos to try next time we're in the Charlottesville area? If you have anything to add please share!

* For a reminder about our rating criteria, see this post.