Sunnyside Restaurant & Lodge — Restaurant in Tahoe City

We are former Bay Area residents, and return often to Tahoe for family vacations. This trip was with another adult couple, family too.||We booked their Most expensive King Suite, and booked through Open Table dinner for my wife ON HER BIRTHDAY at Sunnyside. I requested through the app a nice table since we were celebrating her birthday. I also confirmed with the restaurant staff the day before our dinner (we were here four nights) that we would get a good table. Their exact reply was "we will try but not guarantee..." ||When we showed up for dinner we found out they decided not to open the restaurant and they put us in the bar, under a TV, at a door that was bumping be all night as people came in from the deck (it was opening night on the deck!). There was a Golden State basketball playoff game going on, and lots of yelling in the bar. Normally, that's fun. But we wanted, and paid for, a nice birthday experience. This was not that experience. I was embarrassed over the whole disappointment.||We had dinner the night before at their sister restaurant Jake's, and it was wonderful, service great, and the place was 80% empty. Had we known they were only serving in the bar, they had ample times to advise us. ||Now the room - For the "king suite" I expected a nice view. We had stayed before in other Lakeview rooms that were beautiful. The king suite has a large view of the boat ramp, parking lot, then the lake. The room is large, I'll give them that. We watched all the boats going into the water (as they were "opening up: for the season", we watched a guy building and staining a hut/building that I guess is for seasonal service.|The maintenance in the room is also lacking. One would expect this time of year would be the lull between the busy seasons, and they would be ready. The shower handle came off in my hand one day. The shampoo pump never worked right, in spite of me telling the front dest multiple times about it, a dresser drawer was stuck open when we opened it because the inside was coming apart and a wood screw blocked it operation, the door stopper was sitting on the floor of the closet, one of the Ratan chairs in our room has a big hole in it and we were afraid to sit in it, my lamp shade only stayed on the bedside lamp if I leaned it against the wall, some of our bathroom towels actually had holes in them and the rooms really need a refresh. The TV in the suite area was "smart", but the bedroom tv "dumb" so no streaming possible.||I recognize the pandemic and inflation have put pressures on small businesses, and many struggle to maintain their stature in the face of these factors. However the room rates reflect a resort ready for business, not one with maintenance issues.||And the blunder to take a booking in their beautiful dinning room, with notes for a "special occasion" and then jam us into the bar is without justification; its just sloppy and shows no evidence of putting your...

This Review is for the Restaurant only....it was our first time trying this place out. The Pros, gorgeous view of the lake...The Cons... We arrived early for our reservation so decided to sit at the bar area for a drink and appetizer till our table became available. Sat there for 10 mins., and nobody came by. I went to the bar, asking whether we order at the bar or will someone come to us, the very rude girls, in braids, behind the bar, responded 'someone will come to you', when I tried telling her that we'd been there 10 mins. already, she just repeated herself with a very rude & sarcastic tone. Meanwhile, the 2 other guys behind the bar were just standing there...she then proceeded to go have a good time and take some shots w/ her friends at the end of the bar! Very unprofessional, extremely rude, and uncooperative.

Went back to our seat. a few minutes later, My husband went up to the bar asking one of the bartender guys for a Manager. I followed him...He asked for what, and we told him that we were waiting for someone to take our order. He said what do you want...I told him and he began making the drinks. I asked for the zucchini appetizer and he turned around, and gave me one lukewarm order that had obviously been sitting there from an error order. He didn't charge us for it at least. The drinks were good other than the Old Fashioned that came in a warm glass...probably just washed. We closed the tab.

The hostess came to us a bit later stating that our table had been given away so she would seat us on another table. Apparently, we found out via our waiter John H, this was the 'pick up food' area and he wasn't sure if he would be taking our order. WTH! No wonder there wasn't a heater close by...and NO utensils on the table. We ordered our food, and a bottle of wine. It took hime a while to bring the wine as 'he didn't have the key, and had to wait for the Manager'. The food came, still no utensils, so asked the person who brought the food for some.

The airline chicken was good, the fish tacos cajun style were very salty and just came with chips and salsa, the Ahi tuna was mushy with a strange soy sauce/vinegar dressing on the side.

I can understand if you're short staffed, then DON'T keep taking people in. Also, Train your team to be professional, polite and service oriented. There is also only one item on the dessert menu....so we didn't have any.... another table was waiting for their check for ages....so we asked for ours right away....

Best of Luck! We won't be visiting again.... there are others with similar views, better food, and much more reasonable priced.... I hope the Manager really takes this seriously and talks to the girl behind the bar...are they really allowed to have shots while on the...

Had a chance to stop in and have lunch at The Sunnyside Restaurant and lodge. 1st time back since living in Tahoe many years ago. Such fond memories of it, I wanted to take my fiance to see one of what I felt was Tahoe's great places. Beautiful spring day, sunny with plenty of snow on the mountain peaks to offset the natural beauty of the lake. The view from the deck did not disappoint. I'm afraid I can't say the same of the lunch we had. Menu sounded great, many interesting choices. I had told her how great the deep fried zucchini was so we had an order as an appetiser. Also the Ahi Poke taco appetizers sounded great so we ordered them as well. My fiance ordered the vegetarian chile relleno and I tried the "cajun" style fish taco's ( waitress said they were the best because they were "spicy"). The zuchinni was over cooked or the oil was not hot enough, soggy and greasy, not the light, almost tempura like fried zuchinni I remembered. The poki taco appetizers were definitely the star of the meal. The Chile relleno was served luke warm, I suspect they usually prepare them ahead of time and microwave them and forgot to set the microwave time long enough. The coating was dry and crumbly, the chile was flavorful but cold and the cheese was a slab of white cheese barely warmer than room temperature. There was no sauce or anything to tie it together. My fish taco were dry and flavorless, nothing spicy about them except it looked like paprika might have been added. I realized when I went inside to use the restroom what the problem was. Sunnyside has been bought by a large chain of restaurants, known for their presence in beautiful locations. Food I saw served to other dinners appeared equally as mediocre. Burgers looked good but were overcooked to the point of desiccation. I suspect most of their food is prepared ahead of time and microwaved before serving. While there is no denying the natural beauty of the location, don't go for the food. You will be disappointed. Think of Chile's or TGIF with a nice view. Service was lackadaisical and the servers did not really know what was on the menu and were inattentive. Oh, and then to add to the insult of the meal was the bill. Iced tea and water, two appetizers and two entrees and the bill with tip and tax was close to 80 dollars. Take my advice, go for the view, order a drink, but eat elsewhere. 5 stars for the view, two stars for food...