Lew Mar Nel's

This is a very weird place.

It is linked to the hotel next by, basically the customers get a complementary free breakfast. So the selection on the menu is very limited and not fancy at all.

As we got there, the woman had hard time to understand that we were not customer from the hotel next to it but another one. So multiple time, employees from this place asked us our room number.

The waiter had a weird humor or rather was rude. The breakfast was meh, not bad but not good either. I took omelet with potatoes and toasts: savor-less.

At the end we got the (good) surprise that everything was free for us, but as it was mentioned at the beginning we had to pay the tips. We got a ticket where we should write the tips and I put my card as I did not have cash.

The waiter came and asked "do you have cash" I answered that I was sorry but no. He answered "You really don't have?" as my answer would change... Then he said "that's ok never-mind" took my card and throw it away. Nice!

As I'm not an asshole I went back to my hotel to get cash and came back. This gave us a very bad mood to start the day.

My conclusion, if you are short on money go there, otherwise I'd rather pay to have good food and service.

We love this place and eat here every time we are in S Lake Tahoe.

The concierge at our hotel was having trouble getting us reservations at the popular steakhouses at the casinos, so she recommended Lew Mar Nel's which she said was mainly frequented by locals.  It's off the beaten path...we had to walk through a couple of unlit blocks full of motels and a pile of horse manure to get to the restaurant from our hotel.  

Service was great...the hostess and staff were very friendly and attentive.  Almost all of us got some form of steak ($30-$40), which were ok...definitely not the best ever.  The twice-baked potatoes were small, but yummy.  And the fondue appetizer was the highlight (technically, it comes free with steak dinners, but they served it to us right away before we ordered).  The cheese was really mild and creamy and the bread, hot and toasty.  We ended our meal with a free bday cheesecake and a sinful dark chocolate cake.