Places I've Eaten in Lake Tahoe

**Places I would go back to eat
*Closed

22 Bistro
Balboa Cafe*
Blue Coyote Grill
Fireside Pizza
Jiffy's Pizza
The Lodge Restaurant
Mamasake
Moody's
Oasis
Pizza Shack
PlumpJack Cafe
Sol y Lago*

**I struggled with how to say this, without sounding like a horrible spoiled yuppie, but eventually came to the conclusion that it is unavoidable. This whole blog is about indulgences anyway. Since I could find little information about dining options in the Lake Tahoe area, I decided to list what I have tried in this post.

Lake Tahoe (and nearby Truckee and Tahoe City) is generally devoid of good food. Obviously, food and wine are not what the area is known for, and the places that try to fake it, like PlumpJack Cafe and The Lodge, present the worst of all worlds-- bad expensive food. Also, sushi in the mountains is the scariest thing in the world, and there is not enough spicy sauce in the world to disguise that fact. So the italics notation in this instance refers to the best of what is available, as opposed to places I would necessarily seek out.

Jiffy's Pizza, purely for takeout (although they also deliver), is a good example of making do with what is available in the area. For a gang of snowboarders and ski instructors, they make decent pizza that is not terrible. If you find yourself lured by the cozy-looking wood cabin bearing the sign Pizza Shack, keep driving-- you will thank me. Having said that, Moody's Bistro does a killer pork belly, as soft as caramel custard and practically as sweet and rich. It also has a wine list that makes the extra driving distance in the weather worth risking.