Tahoe City is known for its smaller, locally-run restaurants, and Spoon Takeout and Eat-In is a great addition to this burgeoning food mecca on the West Shore of Lake Tahoe. Spoon offers your typical comfort food like chili, lasagna, fried chicken and enchiladas, but with a colorful and flavorful twist on each dish.
Spoon is located in a charming old house — Photo courtesy of Spoon
The colorfully-painted building and interior is tiny, but the bustling restaurant serves both lunch and dinner all year long. Their hours change with the seasons, but you can sit in the house, in their back courtyard or take your meal to-go down to the beach and eat right by the lake.
For their late lunches (they are open from 3:00-9:00 p.m.) Spoon serves a special for only $9.50. With this deal, you can get a bowl of soup, half a sandwich and half a salad. The sandwich menu includes ham and smoked Gouda on sourdough or multigrain bread or the Italian zucchini grinder, smothered with mozzarella and feta cheese.
Salads include Caesar, Mediterranean and a summertime salad with house-made croutons. The soups include an eclectic mix of potato kale, apple carrot curry, black bean and gorilla, 15-bean and tomato basil vegetable.
The ultimate comfort food — Photo courtesy of Spoon
For dinner, the comfort food moves to the warm side with old favorites like fried chicken, baked chicken parmesan linguini or baked sausage, zucchini, tomato and mozzarella ziti. Some unusual comfort food includes chicken, pecan and wild rice enchiladas and pan-roasted wild Pacific salmon with pineapple salsa and couscous.
Most dinners run between $12 to $15. Desserts change every day and include their nightly dessert special for only $2.50 a slice, or you can enjoy their homemade cookies and soft-serve ice cream.
Spoon is unusual in that they allow you to BYOB. There are several stores in the area where you can pick up your favorite brew or wine. Bring it in to enjoy with your lasagna or fried chicken.
Spoon's decor is colorful and fun — Photo courtesy of Spoon