River Ranch Lodge & Restaurant

Thanks to OpenTable we grabbed a same-​day reservation for a Saturday night. Cozy atmosphere with a beautiful view over the river surrounded by snow at night. Waiter was friendly and playful. I would have like more seafood options, but the pasta was great. Hubby thoroughly enjoyed his prime rib. Live music jazzed up the ambiance, but we were sad to see them pack up so early so the restaurant could close at 9 p.m. on a Saturday.

Right outside of Alpine Meadows, this expensive restaurant gets only 3 stars on Unilocal.Food was far better than this
rating indicates. This is an expensive restaurant. We would rather spend this much up here on dinner, it is usually a waste of money. Easy reservation on Opentable during those peak holiday periods. We’d rather eat at Moody’s if we need to spend this much.
Picks:
French Dip ($ 14) — One of the cheap dinner items. It hit the spot, bun was huge.
French onion soup ($ 8) — Small and very cheesy. Their soup of the day ($ 6) was better.
Kale Salad ($ 14) was a fancy modern deconstructed salad. Some really nice cheese. Very litely dressed.
Roasted Elk ($ 33) was fantastic but very tiny. Great if you are on a diet!
Just OK:
Side of Carots ($ 7) 5 tiny ones!
Fruit Tart ($ 8) was not integrated very well.
Would not reorder:
None
Overall — Very Good
Food — Very Good
Décor — Very Good
Service — Good
Value — Fair
Would we come back — Yes

Aweful! Loudest hotel/​motel ever. If you are looking for a restful stay, don’t stay here. The rooms are above a restaurant and the kitchen staff wants the entire lodge to enjoy their music selections. I asked the lodge staff to address it, and they turned up the subwoofer. The mattress is extremely firm and woke up to go skiing with back ache. I have stayed in this lodge about 6 times over the past three years but I don’t plan to stay here again. One star is too much.
The food in the restaurant is nothing to write home about. Tahoe city and Kings beach offers much better restaurant options.

10 of us drove up from Auburn last night and all 10 rated their dinner from «very good» to «excellent».

If the weather is right, be sure to dine out on the patio. The atmosphere that the River Ranch has created for outside dining is absolute perfection — especially in the evening. The soft yellow string lights, tasteful background music, and heaters provide a pleasant ambiance for the patio area. This is an especially nice place for wedding receptions and group celebrations.
The food here never disappoints. Although it is easy to get distracted by the impressive entrees, be sure to check out some of their starters and save room for dessert. A few of my favorites are the Sesame Seared Ahi, Lamb Ribs, and the Seasonal Fruit Tart.
To top it all off, the River Ranch staff are attentive (without being too intrusive) and friendly. All of these elements come together for a enjoyable dining experience.

We ate at the outdoor grill and it was awful. The chicken was rubbery and we got that after we ordered the fish, which was too hard to bite through. In the end, we were all really grateful that none of us got food poisoning. It was a cute outdoor area to sit in — so it could have been really nice.

The worst service we have every had at a restaurant in our lives. It started out with a less than pleasant hostess, followed up by a waiter that clearly hates his job and a manager that is just plain clueless. The food was decent at best and the bus girl that looked to be brand new provided us the best service all night. If you want terrible service and marginal food for mid $ 20s-​30s this is the place for you. What a shame.

Went back again had some of The Chef Mikes recommended steak and potatoes were right on the money. And as a local there is NO better deal than their half off menu on Sundays also the have 3 dollar craft beer and 2 colors light! Definitely my new go too

My husband & I took a ride around the Lake today. Thought we’d stop at River Ranch for lunch. Wish we hadn’t. I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich. Bun must have been sitting out all day it was very dry, ‘grilled chicken was cold and the cheese was so dry the edges were curling. Don’t waster your time or money

While I do love this place, and would give it more stars, I am extremely upset that despite all the people in the bar wanting to hear the warrior /​cavalier game 5, the mgt said no. It’s just not the same with subs.

Putting raw peanuts and pecans on the side of a plate of lettuce is not my definition of «spiced nuts.» It should be a crime to craft a menu as good as River Ranch’s and then serve such low quality food. Everything we ordered tasted subpar and looked to be haphazardly prepared. Definitely a waste of money. This restaurant’s only redeeming quality was its beautiful cocktail waitress. Our meals left us wanting much more.

Well I wasn’t kidding — I was secretly planning a wedding «one day» here, and now that «one day» has come — we are getting married at River Ranch in June, and we can’t wait! Linda, the banquet coordinator, and Shayla, the lodge coordinator, have been absolutely wonderful to work with! We can’t wait!!! :D

Cheese on nachos was harden
When brought out, Worse nachos I ever ate, french fries was soggy, seems like it was a day old fries.
Best thing here was the view of the river.

We went to dinner at River Ranch on Sunday, Feb. 22.
My friend and I ordered the «special», short ribs.
Both of us got sick and had explosive diarrhea!
We will not return there and may contact Placer County health dept.
BE CAREFUL !!!

Lodging, food, service, location, you just can’t beat it. Kids loved it, wife loved it, après ski buddies loved it. The rooms are bigger than I expected and it’s by the far the best deal.

The worst customer experience ever. I’d give zero stars if I could.
We sat down in the bar. It took the waitress 15 minutes to come by our table and take our order. We ordered drinks, starters, and entrees all at once because we were starving. The drinks took 10 minutes. Starters took another 20 (30 mins total for 2 appetizers). Then our entrees (2 burgers and 2 bacon & whiskeys) took another 30 minutes (up to 1 hour now). The server apparently forgot to ring up a burger I ordered, so that took another 20 minutes. Everyone else at the table was done eating before I ever got my food (almost an hour and a half after I ordered it. AN HOUR AND A HALF FOR A HAMBURGER! What?!)
The manager stopped by and apologized and offered us a round a drinks. But when the bill came, he comped 3 of our $ 2 beers from happy hour, and instead charged us $ 20 for the three beers which were supposed to be free after happy hour ended.
The burger says its a half pound on the menu, so two of us had planned on splitting it. When it came out, it was the size of a McDonalds burger, and not the big one. So we left hungrier than when we arrived.
Food tasted ok, but the customer service was the worst I have ever had. Do NOT go here. Unless you like waiting an hour and a half for a crappy burger and «free drinks» that cost you an extra $ 20.

The «medium» steak came out rare (at best)… The fix. Re-​heat the meat. Really? This tastes terrible!
For $ 55 I expect premium. This is a joke!

Great happy hour in winter, $ 6 burger is awesome. Summer is the opposite, bad food on the deck makes it feel like a fast food joint. Would be a 5 star winter venue during happy hour but 1 star in summer, hence the 3 overall.
BTW have probably been there 30 times before writing the review above. Also won’t allow dogs on the patio in summer, so ended up across the road in crest café by accident which is a much better summer place.

We came for dinner this week. While the location is beautiful, the staff is seriously lacking.
I’m afraid the training is nowhere to be found. The hostess was «short» with us as we were coming in for our reservation & the bus girl was just plain rude.
The food was just ok. Menu is limited as well. I don’t think I will be making a return visit. :/​.
It’s a shame because the patio is really lovely.

The fireplace in the lounge makes for one of the best bar hangouts in Tahoe. They make a good hot buttered rum:
The dirty snowman hot chocolate drink is OK, not great:
The one great thing on the happy hour menu is the cheeseburger ($ 6.50):
But the other items on the happy hour menu were terrible:
The Caesar salad was meh:
The dressing didn’t taste right, it had too much bitter red leaf lettuce, and it was whole-​leaf lettuce: not the hearts of the romaine.
The venison & pork tacos use ground meat, but not enough flavor came through:
The chili-​garlic chicken wings are Ok, but very small: