8 Best Restaurants in Lake Tahoe, California

There's often a wait for breakfast and lunch at this great little diner with pine paneling, hardwood floors, and an exposed-beam ceiling, but it's worth it. The pastries are made from scratch, the salmon is smoked in-house, the salsa is hand cut, and there's real maple syrup for the many types of pancakes and waffles.

Truckee residents and visitors jam this strip-mall restaurant for diverse breakfast fare like the biscuits-and-gravy burrito and hot lunch sandwiches that include Cubans, cheesesteaks, the Southwest chicken pepper jack on focaccia, and the formidable Dirka Dirka (corned beef, pastrami, Swiss cheese, jalapeño cole slaw). Salads, subs, and wraps are also on the menu, and there's a good beverage selection, from aloe water to Red Bull.

If it's in between normal mealtimes and you're hungry for something healthful, head to this order-at-the-counter café for salads, overstuffed wraps, hot sandwiches, homemade vegan soups, all-day breakfasts, and the best smoothies in town. Dine at wooden tables in the cheery contemporary indoor space or out front on the patio, or just order food to go.

Pastries, breakfast sandwiches, and robust regular and espresso coffees are the morning specialties of this bakery whose lineup expands at lunch to include hefty salads (spinach, tuna, Chinese chicken, and a Caesar among them), chicken potpies, and dense, flavorful sandwiches served on a half dozen breads baked that day. Stand in line to order, then choose seating indoors or on a shaded patio fronting the building.

A floor-to-ceiling mural of Lake Tahoe scenes spans the longest wall of the South Shore's largest brewery's downtown outpost. The influences on homegrown beers, from light lagers to dark ales, come from as near as California and Mexico and as far away as New Zealand, the model as well for Pacific Rim flourishes that find their way into burgers, sliders, sandwiches, and a few apps and salads.

Fantastic flavors and gracious owners have earned this humble roadside restaurant with river-stone columns, pine-paneled walls and ceilings, and Thai statues and ornamentation the loyalty of Tahoe residents and regular visitors. The aromatic dishes include crab pad Thai, basil lamb, sizzling shrimp, and numerous curries.

A vintage-1959 Tahoe diner, all chrome and red plastic, the Red Hut is a tiny place with a wildly popular breakfast menu featuring huge omelets; banana, pecan, and coconut waffles (cornbread, too); and other tasty vittles. A second South Lake branch has a soda fountain and is the only one that serves dinner, and there's a third location in Stateline.

Adherents flock to this downtown spot for breakfast to sample dozens of omelets, several variations on eggs Benedict, banana-walnut pancakes, and French toast oozing with cream cheese. At lunch, they savor homemade soups and sandwiches.