Crystal Bay Steak & Lobster House

Dinner with my wife was full of small mistakes. Every dish was unsalted. They mixed up our orders: my wife got a medium well veal and I got medium rare steak while I wanted mine medium+ and vice versa. The bread they served was old (dry).
All in all, while this place tries to be a better restaurant, they’re definitely overpriced for the quality. You’re better off getting your dinner elsewhere.

Fantastic food & service!!!
My fiancé & I stayed in North Lake Tahoe during Valentine’s Day Weekend/President’s Day this year.
We realized we had forgotten to make reservations anywhere for Valentine’s Day, called here the day of & sure enough they were all booked up. We decided to try our luck at getting a seat at the bar that night. The bartender informed us they had some no-​shows & kindly told us she could seat us at a table!
Dinner was amazing! We started with calamari, I had the veal with creamed spinach, my fiancé had a steak with garlic mashed potatoes.
Our server’s name was Brandon & he was great! Very nice, knowledgeable & gave us the perfect amount of time between courses.
I definitely recommend this place if you’re in the area!

This was a nice surprise. Decided to go here based on menu items and Unilocal reviews and was not disappointed. Made a reservation and was seated immediately upon arrival.
Our entire visit (except seating) was tended by Brandon, and he did a stellar job. You can be a good server, but it takes a certain demeanor to be a great one. Honest about menu questions and recommendations, attentive, friendly, etc etc.
The food. I ordered one of the specials a dry aged New York with a Cajun sauce and asparagus and fingerling potatoes. The steak was slightly over cooked, I ordered it medium rare and it was clearly medium. Usually this would be a star off, however… I do not mind a medium and steak and everything else was so good I could not bring myself to ding them for this. My SO ordered the filet and I have to say it was one of the richest, most tender and flavorful filets I have ever tried, right up there with places that charge 2−3x for the same cut. We ordered asparagus and a twice baked truffled potato for sides. Both excellent. We ordered Bernaise for the steaks and it was delicious. Slightly different but in a good way. It was thick and the flavor was complex and rich. For desert I had a lemon crème brûlée and my SO had the profiteroles. Both excellent.
Environment was nice. Classic decoration but without the «dated» feel. A brief history of the location and devote by our server was a nice touch.
Pricing was reasonable. Pretty much 200 bux out the door including tip, ordering steaks, an appetizer, sides, alcohol, and deserts. A deal for this quality of food and service.
If you enjoy the classic higher end steak house experience this is for you. If you don’t there’s a hot dog cart up the street.

Great traditional steakhouse. Extremely Hospitable service. Recommend lobster ravioli, chopped salad, filet mignon, bone in ribeye, and bananas foster for dessert is phenomenal! Ask for Brandon for great service

Unfortunately this was the first time Unilocal failed us but I think most of the issue had to do with how busy they were and the fact that our Unilocal reservation was not in their system. They were clearly understaffed so service were affected. Water, bread, and drinks took an unusually long time to get to our table. Our food tasted good but was cold, an indication that it probably sat for a while. On a positive note the Cesar salad was incredible! We would have given this restaurant a try again but little was done to accommodate our concerns when we expressed them.

Great traditional steak house! We have been going here for 20plus years and they never disappoint! If you want a nice romantic wonderful dinner go here!!! Great service too!

One of my favorites! The waiters pool the tips, so it’s in everyone’s best interest to make sure you have good service, not just the person assigned to you. All of the wait staff seem really knowledgable about the food if I have any questions. Small, intimate setting, great wine selection, LOVE the ahi, always impressed by their soups and salads. Great food, great service. Highly suggest making reservations

This restaurant was absolutely fabulous! The ambiance was so pleasing. We were pleasantly greeted and taken to our seats. The food was to die for! We had a wonderful experience when we received our table side Caesar salads. It was so fun to see it prepared table side with the amazing staff!!! We then had the lobster ravioli and a steak which were both delicious!!! Such a great place I would highly recommend eating here!

We had such a great dinner there the other night. The restaurant itself is just beautiful and so old school. It screams with style and ambience. And our steak was one of the best I’ve ever had. Rib eye medium rare was cooked to perfection. It just melted in my mouth. And we love the red peppercorn sauce. The wine that was recommended was very good. And the chocolate pot de crème was divine. And the service was very good. Thanks for a great time.

As locals we come here annually for our anniversary and Valentines Day and for other special occasions. We always ask to sit at Brandon’s table — first class, friendly, and sincerely caring service. With a Midwesterner for a hubby, we know good steaks and have never been disappointed. Generous portions, nicely presented. Love the food, love the QUIET atmosphere, love the service — love love love it. When there are lake view choices even closer to our home, we still choose to come here.

We had terrible service, the food was mediocre for the price. Our waitress rushed us through our meal. I had the salmon and risotto and it was bland and my fish was undercooked. The New York steak was fatty, with boxed mashed potatoes. We would have had a nicer meal at the diner in the Biltmore. $ 200 meal and the waitress didn’t even offer us another cocktail before dropping our check and rushing us out.

Best traditional «fancy» meal I’ve had in a long long time! Table side Caesar salad prep, perfectly cooked filet mignon and baked potato, table side carved chateaubriand for my husband and dad and table side bananas foster for dessert. The restaurant is inside the casino and felt like a vampire lair with smoke smell at first but once that faded we all continued to be surprised and delighted by how exceptional everything was! Brandon was an excellent waiter and the Caesar dressing prep alone was worth the visit. We shared a fantastic bottle of Zinfandel there as well, a 2006 Martinelli. We dined with our small kids as well and the place did have high chairs, no kids menu but they were able to do a simple pasta and our toddler was mesmerized by the bananas foster show. Would definitely return next time we are at the lake and highly recommend!

Staff was friendly and helpful but pretty slow. They were able to make me a vegetarian dish which was okay, but everyone else seemed to have a great meal (steaks and pork). The décor is very old school and the dining area is very small and dark. It was a fun experience.

What a wonderful surprise! This classic steak house hit every note. An old school dining room, with certain classics prepared table side. Try the Caesar salad and the New Orleans seasoned lobster. Our server Brandon provided attentive and warm, friendly service. If you are in North Lake Tahoe you must give it a try.

Great service. OK food just a bit pricey. The place smells terribly of cigarette smoke. It seeps in from the casino just out the door. They really should improve this problem. My filet was good quality but not seasoned so make sure you get a sauce (for a few dollars more). I will try something different and hopefully more flavorful next time. My wife had the lobster and it was good.

Hats off to Bill, Jeff, Shawn and Chef Evan for a memorable night and for their ability to run a very well oiled machine. My respect of the entire Crystal Bay Casino was certainly solidified tonight every step of the way. The history alone of the restaurant screams cool and Shawn’s (waiter) delivery was perfect. The iPad wine menu is a nice touch and I was impressed by the selection. The cab I chose was a great accompaniment to the meal. The glass of prosecco was served in a decorative hand blown Italian goblet and was rather impressive. The local Truckee baked bread and soft butter were excellent. One of the breads had some nice olives in it.
Started with the bone marrow appetizer and beet salad. Both were great. As described by the waiter, I would agree that the bone marrow is ‘meat butter.’ If bacon is the candy of the meats, then this is the butter of the meats! My dogs are going to love the leftover bones that still have a bit of meat juice on them. Mmmm.
The seabass special sounded too good not to get it. Nice sauce, with a tasty beet purée and interesting blend of quinoa with what seemed to be collard greens. All on the plate was cooked to perfection and tasted great indivually but put together was on another level. Great dish chef!
I couldn’t go without trying a lobster tail and opted to go for it with traditional drawn butter despite the recommendation of the cajun cream sauce (forget the specific name for this style.) Like the rest of the meal, it was cooked to perfection and I was blown away. It was a massive and meaty tail that sent me to lobster heaven and back.
I can’t wait to come back and try some other dishes, maybe go for one of their tableside options. Thanks again to everyone there, you made it a special evening

This is a retro-​style, old Tahoe gem tucked into the back of the Crystal Bay Casino. Small, semi-​intimate and with a menu of old-​school items it brings up a feeling of nostalgia and speakeasy style fine dining (Think Gene and Georgetti’s in Chicago) that would be frequented by politicians and/​or mafioso. Crushed red velvet booths, table side preparations of classic Caesar Salad, Bananas Flambé’, etc. are the norm and there are also some nice modern twists on the menu like Hawaiian Poke’, a vegetarian Bento Box, and Bone Marrow. It is one of the finer dining places on the lake but won’t get a 5^th star from me until they solve some of the environmental issues such as the excessively smoky atmosphere (seems to be coming from the attached casino) that is distracting and really cuts into a nice experience; the tight maneuvering quarters for all of the food carts trying to get to all the tables in a small space (Many tables are ordering a tableside Caesar or Bananas Flambé’ so there is constant jockeying for cart real estate). The service was friendly but somewhat frenetic and misses the mark for a true fine dining spot (water goblets went unfilled for a while, and there was no greeter at the door upon arrival). However, the food was solid and it is a fun spot for a nice meal and, to be fair, while it may lack in perfect fine dining service, I was also comfortable having dinner while wearing a pair of jeans and did not feel like I needed to be wearing a coat/​tie. For what it is, it delivers and that is what counts in my book. While many on this site mention Lou as a landmark server, he made it clear to us last night that he was leaving and we had a very pleasant dinner being served primarily by James. Our thanks to James for taking good care of our table last evening and I don’t think he will have a problem stepping right in to where Lou leaves off. Keep up the nice efforts!

I am so happy we found this restaurant on Unilocal.We booked a room at the Border house last minute for my boyfriend’s birthday weekend. I made the dinner reservation for ¹⁰⁄₁₁ since they are not open on Sundays. SOOOO glad I did. we were lucky enough to have Lou as our waiter. Such amazing service, tons of knowledge and recommendations. Dinner was delicious and we loved the old school feel of the restaurant. (Definite rat packer, vibe… very cool!) As soon as we ordered our drinks the power went out! (the Nevada side lost power) Although they didn’t take any new tables/​customers we were able to order and have a fabulous dinner by candle light. Lou was amazing and helped us pick the perfect entrée’s and side dishes (that also worked with limited power/​resources)
We enjoyed our romantic dinner by candle light. Lou was super sweet and didn’t charge us for our drinks. And comp’d a couple of our side dishes. Honestly we loved the restaurant, ambiance, adventure of dining in the «dark» and now have a great story to tell. We love Tahoe and the area. this is a great find and a «cherry» on top of the perfect weekend.
Thank you for a memorable and amazing birthday dinner! We will be back for sure

What a TREAT! Came in for my bday and had a fantastic dinner. Service was above parr, knowledgeable and friendly. Thank you Lou! Every bite was met with a groan of pure bliss. Yes, you are in the Crystal Bay, yes there is smoke but just in the casino didn’t notice it in the restaurant. The restaurant itself is small with its old English red velvet décor but it is comfortable. Apperently, we were lucky enough to have their new Executive Chef Evan Carsman who came from Farallon, SF prepare our food. What an amazing dinner it was!
For starters we had the bone marrow. I couldn’t get over the size of the bones! I have had marrow before but the cavities of these babies were deep! Salted and grilled to perfection it was topped with a lemon herb bagna cauda. I will admit I had no shame picking up the bone and picking at the tendon that was on the ouside, it was that good!
Next was our Steak and Lobster. Being the petit ladies we are :), we opted for the 6oz filet mignon. Price $ 62. Two perfectly cooked, I mean perfectly, every bite was a med+. Steak knife not needed cause it cut like butta. I was in awe. Then there were the lobsters. Couldn’t get over their size. (See pic) Cooked spot on and complimented their steak partner to no end!
Our sides were a delight as well. Baby carrots grilled to bring out their sweetness, sprinkled with a little salt. The handmade to order gnocchi with mushrooms was well done, maybe with a little sauce would have made it fantastic.
Nice wine selection, we ordered a nice bottle of pinor to pair with our meal.
They offer a menu for table side service, Cesar salad, baked Alaska, banannas foster and carved meat. I will definitely be coming back! Lou promised me his amazing table side cesar salad. I can’t wait!