Carlsbad Caverns Underground Lunch Room

Reviews

• ★★★★½ Ham & Cheese Sandwich Visited Jul 4, 2019

  Not The Greatest Food, But Certainly A Different Dining Environment

  The Carlsbad Caverns Underground Lunch Room is all about the novelty of its location rather than culinary excellence. Located roughly 750 feet below the surface near the base of the elevators, it provides a unique rest stop where you can eat inside an enormous limestone cavern. By the time you reach this area, you've been walking for at least an hour or so, and your choice is to continue walking, ride the elevator back up and eat on the surface, backtrack (which almost no one does), walk back uphill for another hour, or sit down and dine here at the bottom of the cave, which is an experience all its own.
  
  The menu selection is pretty limited. To protect the cave's ecosystem, no cooking is allowed, so the selection is strictly limited to pre-packaged, grab-and-go deli fare. Your options are refrigerated ham or turkey sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly, salads, chips, and cookies.
  
  While the food here isn't amazing at all, it's more about the novelty of eating in a huge room hundreds of feet underground. The lunchroom is only accessible by purchasing a ticket to the caverns. You can ride the elevator straight to the bottom if you don't want to hike the 1.25 miles down, and still explore the bottom of the cave after you have a meal.
  
  On a side note, hot food is available at the surface cafe, but it's your basic snack bar food, pizza, burgers, hot dogs, and the like.

  — Paul