TJ’s Roadhouse

We live in San Jose and every time we go to Reno or N. Lake Tahoe we always stop at this place. Although it’s a small family run restaurant, their food is out of this world. I encourage anyone passing by to try it out. Once you do, you’ll be hooked just like us forever!
PS, their clam chowder and burgers are next to none!

Best place all around! The homemade onion bun is bomb! The quality of meat used is superb! We won’t go anywhere else for a steak dinner!

Excellent home cooked food. From biscuits and gravy to beef deep sandwiches, everything is wonderful.
Clam chowder on Fridays is a local favorite.
They also have home made desserts if you can possibly fit in more food. The portions are huge.

Stopped by here with a group of friends to escape the long commute from Reno. The food wasn’t horrible but the grease and oil used did not sit well with any of us.
We had the Philly cheese steak sandwich, BLT, and beef dip. All came out relatively quickly, the waitress was nice albeit a bit abrupt and defensive when asked if they still served breakfast. The fries and onion rings were good but felt more at home at a dive bar or high school football game, the garlic fries were good but overly drenched in their oil which was visually and intestinally not good at all.
I had the beef dip and it was really tasty and the dip which I used lavishly was perfectly made, the steak was on the drier side but with the dip it was great. Bread was just slightly crunchy and perfect with the beef dip and Philly cheese steaks.
However, the rating is brought down by how we felt after eating the food with one of us regurgitating and one with severe heartburn and another with horrible horrendous oily burps.
I mean nothing against this place since the food was quite tasty but want to forewarn those with healthier preferences and intestinal sensitivities to stay away. If you like food trucks and oily greasy foods and you just care if it’s delicious without the consequences then this place is great.

Our family of 4 has been to TJ’s Roadhouse twice in the last month for dinner, both times during trips to North Lake Tahoe from San Francisco. All I can say is yum. We haven’t had a bad meal yet! It’s an easy on/​off the 80 freeway in either direction. Service is great and super friendly. Highly recommend the spotted owl which is a terrific grilled chicken sandwich. There was a pasta dish with veggies that was terrific too and I am pretty sure the marinara sauce was homemade. Great place to stop on the way to Tahoe!

Won’t serve egg whites at all. They refuse. Why? It ruined our breakfast and we had to walk out. Right when I walked in I asked the guy if they do egg whites and he said yes. Then the waitress said the owner refuses.

One Of my favorite stops in Colfax. Great burgers, fries, sandwiches and salads. Long day playing in the snow in Truckee and a great rest and meal on the way home.

Best clam chowder ever!!! :)
The philly cheese steak was awesome! Added au jus to make it epic! :)

Fresh food, friendly service, love the décor, casual place, kid friendly, good coffee, great sandwiches. a must try… so glad we did!

Great steaks, I’ve had a member of visits here, al of them have been great, I recommend the country fried steak for breakfast.
Atmosphere is very relaxed and inviting, they also have a decent beer selection as well.

Not great service, not great food. Would rather go around the corner to Café Luna or Dine N Dash.

Absolutely the best fried
Chicken ever! My husbands cheeseburger was yummy too! Very reasonably priced with super friendly and attentive wait staff! We will be back for sure to this cozy little restaurant in Colfax!

On the way to Oakland for a book signing event. My brother said he stopped at this place 25 years years ago. Still good??? So we thought we’d try it anyway. So crowded we couldn’t get in. So grabbed a donut and coffee to go.
Went to event and headed back to Reno at dinner time. So once again we thought… why not! Well apparently after 25 years they are still good. Good thing I shared a NY steak sandwich. It was made medium rare as requested and it was huge. Delicious! Spaghetti & meatballs was more than you could eat… so it’s on the way home for another meal. one of the meals came with crab bisque, loaded with crab
Delicious food, reasonably priced. If you don’t live nearby, good place to stop on your way to the Bay Area (fm Reno).

My family and I came here last Thursday for breakfast, and loved every bite of it. I hadn’t been here since I was a kid (when it was called Rosie’s), but I remember how good the food was back then, and I’m happy to say that the quality, and the portions, haven’t changed much in the past 20 years.
When we walked in, it was probably around 10 am, and it was pretty much dead inside. We managed to slip in between the breakfast and lunch rush, so the service was really quick and attentive. I ordered the ham and eggs with hash browns, a side of bacon, and orange juice, and my wife ordered an omelette (I can’t remember what kind).
Everything got to us quickly, and we knew we were in for a good meal as soon as we looked at and smelled the food. the portions were pretty large, and everything smelled and tasted great. And at $ 11 – 12 a plate, it was a great value for the portions. Considering that everything here is made to order, we were really surprised at how quickly the food came out, and the reasonable prices. I’ve had far worse quality meals for breakfast that were more expensive, took longer to come out, and tasted like Jimmy Dean rejects… so I really appreciate it when the food and service doesn’t insult the customer.
My parents live in Colfax now, so we will definitely be coming back here in the near future. Be warned, however, that this place tends to get PACKED on the weekends. With Reno right up the road, this is a great spot to fill up before losing all your money at the blackjack tables or wallowing in your misery coming back from the Circus Circus. Either way, this joint will soften the blow.

Awesome burgers!!! First time I have been here and it was fantastic! I have been craving this place since I first here! This is a must try!

TJ’s is the kind of place you make every effort to visit again. An excellent experience, great food and good folks… You can tell a decent place when the locals eat there… We did breakfast but when we head back will try the lunch or dinner.

I really enjoyed this place. My burger was big, fresh, cooked to perfection and super tasty. The fresh onion bun was nice. The price was fair and the service was great. The place has a very home-​like feel. Overall, great place.

We love Colfax. We’ve made many memories here. And on this most recent pass through, we experienced the goodness of TJ’s Roadhouse.
My son and I shared a ribeye steak. The medium-​rare ribeye was like heaven in my mouth, if I may have the privilege of using a hackneyed cliché. The dollop of spiced butter on top, when spread and melted, added oily goodness to each bite of the steak that was browned on the outside and red-​almost-​pink on the inside. They really nailed the medium-​rareness on this one, hit it right out of the ballpark. Oops, there goes another cliché.
We opted for the baked potato — and here’s my tip, order a side of sauteed mushrooms and put it in the potato. Works together surprisingly well.
Staff were overall friendly. Made for a nice homey feel.
I would leave 5 stars, except the beef stroganoff soup and the chili were both on the salty side.
Oh, if you’re a dude, visit the bathroom! There’s a chalkboard where you can leave messages for the next urinator. But be wary before you touch that chalk — it’s right next to the urinal, think about what those hands were handling before they picked up the chalk!

On the drive home from a weekend of Lake Tahoe area outdoorsy fun, we were very hungry and looking forward to a good meal. A friend had highly recommended the hamburgers, so that is what I ordered. A ½ lb homemade patty
of ground beef cooked just right (medium), plus a generous serving of homemade potato fries. Grilled onions were available without any extra cost. Since we’d arrived in the middle of the afternoon, there wasn’t a meal hour rush, and we were immediately seating by the friendly server. The décor of the place is country-​ish.
It felt casual and comfortable.
The server brought us the requested beverages and was attentive. Even after our food was served, she checked back with us to see if we any other needs or requests.
The burger was fantastic! It was lean, and had lots of flavor. No extra enhancement needed nor required! The hard part was realizing that this was so big, that I couldn’t comfortably finish the whole thing. I had to request a box to take the uneaten portion home.
I am pleased to have another good place to stop at for food when traveling home from the mountains.

She forgot about us?
When in another town we like to try the local restaurants and this seemed to be a pretty good place to eat so after a spending a full day at Colfax High School for hubby’s youth football referee duties we came here for dinner. Where we parked we had to climb up the stairs to get to the entrance of the restaurant, otherwise, there is a parking place parallel to the opening of the restaurant.
We were greeted and seated immediately. Took some time for a server to tend to us to, at least, offer glasses of water… finally after about 10 – 15 mins we had someone come to our table, she was very friendly as she took our orders. We placed our orders, I had the fried chicken and hubby had the sirloin steak. Our meals came with soup or salad and we both chose clam chowder soup. Waiting… waiting… waiting for at least our soup to come. After about 20 mins our server came to our table apologizing profusely how our meals were ready but she forgot to bring our soup first. We asked her to just serve everything to us as we were already starving and didn’t care what came first. She offered us garlic bread to go with our meals. Not sure if they were complimentary or just given to us to accomodate for the wait. Anyway, I enjoyed my fried chicken, it was tasty and I liked it cooked crispy. Didn’t care for the chili, though, as I don’t like hot and spicy foods. The clam chowder was one of the best I’ve tasted. We saw our server one more time as she gave us our bill.
The restaurant had a country feel with hardwood floors. Plenty of western décor throughout. The place is not that big but is clean. Easy access from the 80 freeway. I would try another local restaurant, though, before we come back here again… maybe, like, Dine N Dash Café, which is not too far away from this place.