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When Salt Lake City hosts the XIX Winter Olympics Feb. 8-23 the city will be filled with thousands of athletes and spectators from around the globe—and they won't go home hungry. My husband and I traveled to Salt Lake City recently to preview the Olympic venues and discovered that the city and the surrounding ski resorts boast a wide variety of fine and casual restaurants. Here are some of our favorites finds.

Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City is the city's newest—and grandest—lodging option. The guestrooms and public spaces throughout the 24-story hotel are all lavishly appointed with chandeliers from Murano and Milan, hand-sewn wool carpets from England and marble from Italy. The breakfast buffet served in the Garden Café is lavish as well. Cooked-to-order omelets vie with sinful pastries for your attention. Pancakes, waffles, potatoes, scrambled eggs and breakfast meats also beg for a place on your plate. For the health-conscious, there are plump raspberries, juicy melon slices, exotic dried fruits, creamy plain yogurt and granola.

For an elegant dinner with a French accent try Bistro Toujours, located high in the Wasatch Mountains near Park City. Under the culinary direction of chef Bryan Moscatello, formerly of the Little Nell in Aspen, the upscale eatery boasts tempting appetizers like seared foie gras on a diver scallop, delectable entrees like grilled sea bass and slow-roasted herb chicken and desserts like crème brulee and flourless chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream. You might also choose ending your meal with a selection of cheeses—we sampled a mind-boggling array of some 24 cheeses from France, Italy, Germany and Spain. Be careful not to fill up on the crusty baguettes served with whole roasted garlic before your meal begins—or the breadbasket full of focaccia and fennel and raisin bread that's on the table during the meal.

Tuscany, in a rambling Italian-style country villa near downtown Salt Lake City, serves up delicious pasta, pizza and seafood in one of the prettiest dining spaces in town. Walls are warm yellow, ivy trails from the exposed wooden beams and wide windows and French doors offer garden views from every table. The thin-crust individual pizza appetizers and crispy fried calamari and rock shrimp are divine; as is the 4-cheese ravioli with crabmeat or the pesto-crusted salmon. Homemade sorbets and a towering (over 7 inches tall) slice of chocolate layer cake with vanilla gelato end a meal at Tuscany on a memorable note.

Like all Kimpton Group boutique hotels, the Hotel Monaco in downtown Salt Lake City features a stylish décor that mixes colorful patterns and eclectic furniture styles with fanciful lighting and accessories. It also features a great restaurant - Bambara. We began with a mushroom strudel appetizer and creamy corn chowder before moving on to a BLT (apple-smoked bacon, lettuce and tomato) salad with bleu cheese dressing and thick pork chops served with spoon bread and sautéed greens. For dessert try a refreshing sorbet - or go for the molten chocolate cake filled with warm dark chocolate.

Park City was once a booming silver mining town but today skiers and summer vacationers fill the city's Main Street in search of upscale shopping and dining treats. From homemade chocolates and Starbucks coffee to hearty breakfasts and haute cuisine, you'll find something to suite every craving here. For contemporary cuisine interpreted with an Asian flair, plan to have dinner at 350 Main. Taking its name from its address on Main Street, this upscale restaurant features seafood encrusted with Japanese breadcrumbs and excellent sushi appetizers. For more casual fare try The Eating Establishment, also on Main Street, where we fortified ourselves one morning with an Olympic-sized order of homemade corned beef hash topped with fried eggs, while others in our group enjoyed Belgian waffles and fresh fruit and yogurt.

For more great casual dining, try Keyhole Junction at Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort. You'll find excellent fajitas, chicken mole and other Tex-Mex standards here, plus a mocha ice cream pie with macadamia nut crust served on a cloud of real whipped cream that will send you running for the ski slopes or the resort's spa the next day to work off those calories. We also enjoyed dining outside at McHenry's, a casual lunch spot at Deer Valley Resorts with great views of the ski lift and mountains. Try the excellent individual pizzas (we liked the barbecue chicken with black beans and corn) and save lots of room for dessert: chocolate chip cookie sandwiches served with hot fudge dipping sauce and frozen lemon meringue pie.

For those who enjoy wine and spirits with their meals, it's well worth clearing up a still-common misconception about Utah: Wine and liquor are readily available in restaurants here and can be ordered after 12 noon.

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