[Photograph: David Kover]

Just down the road from the Sun Valley Ski Resort, The Pioneer Saloon entices apres-ski diners with steakhouse fare and cocktails in a mountain man setting. The hardly-lit, all-wood restaurant features rifles and ammo tacked to the walls, a canoe hanging from the ceiling, and a virtual menagerie of stuffed animal heads. Even the bathroom gets a bit of outdoorsy embellishment, with rainbow trout and fishing lures painted onto the bowl of the sink.

When it comes to the burger at The Pioneer Saloon, "basic" is the operative word. There are no bells and whistles here. It's iceberg lettuce, raw red onion, sliced tomato, cheddar cheese, and a toasted sesame seed bun. The tasteless late-December tomato was a waste of space, but all the other accoutrement were standard issue. In the burger world this can be just fine—if the meat is good.

And in this most important regard, the delivery was a case of minor mistakes that didn't elevate the final product, nor ruin it. The beef at The Pioneer Saloon is sirloin that's ground in-house and formed into a thick patty just under a half-pound. The burger was moist, though not quite juicy—perhaps the result of being cooked a touch past my requested medium-rare, or possibly because sirloin doesn't always have optimum fat content for a burger. The patty would have benefited from a bit more seasoning as well. Nonetheless, it did boast a good beefy taste backgrounded by some nice charring from the grill. Bottom line: Even if the execution was imperfect, what I ate tasted like a burger. Whatever their errors, the folks at The Pioneer Saloon do appear to serve good meat.

(As a side note, I should mention that I also tasted The Pioneer Saloon's buffalo burger. For the life of me, I could not distinguish it from the beef burger. Bland bison, or my own imperfect palate? Maybe they just got the order wrong.)

Fries don't appear on the menu at The Pioneer Saloon, but in Idaho, potatoes are always an option. Baked potatoes are the most prominent side on The Pioneer's menu. Dressed up with some sour cream and scallions, it was a fairly satisfying starch-bomb, but I'd have preferred them dropping mine in the fryer.

In a steakhouse twist, The Pioneer Saloon also offers a side of vegetables with their burgers. During my visit, this meant two spears of asparagus on the plate. Nothing wrong with asparagus, but unless it's breaded and fried, that's not a burger side.

The burger at The Pioneer Saloon is no trophy, but none of its flaws are egregious. I may not mount this burger on the wall of my metaphorical burger hunting lodge, but it's still an animal I'd serve for dinner.

About the author: David Kover is a San Francisco-based freelance writer and food enthusiast. Though he's an equal opportunity eater, there's a special place in his heart for crispy slices of pizza and juicy hamburgers. You can check out his pizza reviews over at Slice.