Stonefly

This was a wonderful experience. Although the food is upscale, the atmosphere is not stuffy. Great place after a day of hot springs and snow. The winter vegetable salad was probably one of the best salads I have ever had. The restaurant is very small and intimate and packed the entire time of our experience.

A real gem.
My father and I were on a 6-​day motorcycling adventure through the forests in this area and decided to stay in Markleeville for the night, and we couldn’t have been more pleased that we did. We arrived at about 7pm and the locals said that we would love Stonefly for dinner. This restaurant is only open for dinner and only 3 days a week. By chance, we were there on one of those nights… And the locals were right, this place was incredible… To the point that it is a little out of place in this sleepy little town about 45 minutes south of Lake Tahoe. But I hope it stays. It is perfect.
Stonefly is one of the very best dining experiences I’ve ever had. I travel a lot for work and have the opportunity to eat at some of the best restaurants across the U.S. and I would put the Ribeye that chef Ali prepared for me up against any of them. It was better than any I’ve had at Morton’s, Maestro’s, St. Elmo Indianapolis, David Burke in Chicago, or any other I can remember.
And it didn’t stop at the main course, everything was delicious and crushed any expectations that we had. And anything was possible! I can’t eat dairy and our server, Amy, provided several options that weren’t even on the menu. Another huge highlight was dessert… There are amazing items on the menu, but all included some form of dairy, so Ali made me a grilled peach for dessert and it was INSANE! It was perfectly grilled and not overdone with a touch of balsamic glaze. Fantastic!

I hate to leave a less than stellar review, because the staff was so nice. But they got the fly part right. A constant swarm of them the night we were there. Flies and smaller flies from which I constantly had to defend my food. Then the bees, two of them that I think I was supposed to pretend didn’t matter. I gulped down my food and got the H-​E double hockey sticks out of there, luckily without stings.
My salad was very good, my main course was just there, and that’s why I ate it. My friend liked his stuff. I’m not going back without a bee mask and a fly swatter.

3 ½ stars, I ate here almost 2 weeks ago and the food was not to my expectation.
Bought a $ 30 medium rare rib eye steak but got a medium instead and was checked up after I ate half of my steak. I cannot stress how important it is to have your $$$ steak at the right temperature. It makes a really big difference.
Cannot lie that Stonefly didn’t help my road trip be a little more exciting thanks to the help of their relaxing atmosphere and welcoming community only.
Maybe next time.