Beacon Bar & Grill

Well this place has changed over the last couple of years! The service was exceptional, we had a very large table of 20 people we were more than we had expected and the manager Chris accommodated us without question. The server Matt never missed a beat, being an ex-​server myself I have very high standards, and he had us and another table of 8 or so and he was able to accommodate every condiment and drink request, with no miscues and pre bussed the table, separated checks, can’t say enough, immaculate. The food was good for a tourist place but not as good as it has been in the past, definitely more of a commercial feel. The atmosphere has stayed consistent over the years with the band in the background and the view overlooking the lake but what has happened to the RUMRUNNERS? Very watered down with no flavor! They used to be a smooth slushy consistency with a variety of fruit flavor, now they’re just orange flavored, watery and bland. The Meyers doesn’t even taste good in it anymore, I suggest substituting Bacardi or Malibu. Definitely has the feel of making the shift to quantity and not quality but I will still go here once or twice a summer for the memories.

Okay… heres the break down, come on Wednesdays for Happy hour on rum runners. Otherwise pay full price. Have many, have a good time! However, if you don’t want lackluster food, then eat before you come!!! The food is not good, the price is outrageous, but the atmosphere works!

Rumrunners are good, food is average but overpriced. Service was good but they can’t handle split payments for big parties. I won’t be returning.

We love this place! we visit every time we go to Tahoe and its about time I write a review. our last visit we had a wonderful waiter who was on top of making sure we were happy and enjoying our visit. he was fast and efficient even though the place was absolutely busy. Our Rum runners were perfect as ever and the beer was perfect! i was very happy leaving this place and the view from here is amazing. the clam chowder is amazing and one of the few places I will go for clam chowder. I had the California turkey club and damn it was absolutely amazing!!! I love the area and their food!

This is our go to spot whenever we come to Tahoe. The food is delicious and their banana rum runners are tasty! More often than not the staff is welcoming and helpful. Live bands on the weekend. Easy access to the lake also. This place and the beach gets packed in the summer and parking is limited but overall it is a great place to chill!

Price = food quality as far as I’m concerned. We are locals here and this is one of our favorite places to eat. PS, you only need 1 Rum Runner. View is extraordinary. Fish and chips are great. Clam chowder is great. We were very full and even took some home with us. Expect to pay a little more. I think you get what you pay for.

Price is outrageous for the food you get lets just start there. BUT I guess you are more paying for the view — so sit OUTSIDE on the deck if you can. Get there earlier than you think because it gets pretty busy.
Appetizer — chicken quesadilla it was really tasty and came out fast, had sun dried tomatoes in it which was different but good, small portion for it being an appetizer, cost about $ 14
My lunch was a chicken Cesar salad, nothing special, pretty decent size
My husband had the fish and chips, made with cod I think, I have sworn off fish and claim that I hate it but tried it here and loved it, I highly recommend it, came out hot and fresh
We both came there to try their famous rum runner, the waitress recommend that I try the one with the banana floater and I’m so glad she did, way better than the original, each rum runner was small and about $ 9 but pretty strong and delicious so no complaint with the price
Our waitress, her name was Paula, she was awesome, very friendly, had good recommendations, and she was glad to take a bunch of pictures of us (I’m sure that gets annoying after awhile)

Great service, enjoyed the steak tacos and Rum Runner. Sweet location right by the beach.

Bring your patience when you come here because you will need it. Long wait to sit and parking is crazy, BUT what can you expect when this place sits right on Lake Tahoe. This review is way late since we came here last summer in July. I don’t think it matters what day of the week it is because it is the summer and it will be packed. That being said, we put our names in and was told it would be over an hour wait. Ok we just went into the bar and ordered Rum Runners of course. A bit pricey at $ 9 a pop, but we figured going into the day that with such a prime location for this place it wasn’t going to be a cheap day. Bartenders were friendly enough. My husband always seems to strike up conversations about anything with anyone. Didn’t seem like it was an hour before our table was ready outside. BEAUTIFUL setting! Live music going on as well. Nice mix of 60’s-80’s rock songs. Now it did say somewhere, on the menu I can’t remember that there is a time limit of 90 minutes to sit at the table. I am not sure how this is enforced because we sure didn’t feel rushed. Our server was great. We ordered another round of Rum Runners. Seems like the ones we ordered straight from the bar were a little more heavy on the rum than the ones we got at our table. Still good, but didn’t see the rum floater. We both ordered the mushroom burger and we both really liked it.
Yes this place is filled with tourist and that is to be expected, It is Lake Tahoe after all. We enjoyed coming here and plan to make it a regular trip!

Worst experience! We took a 45 minute über from our hotel to come to this restaurant. We called prior to coming and they said they had our seating and they would seat us outside. As we came in they told us they could not seat us due to low staffing, on a sunny day. I’m so upset with my experience they didn’t suggest or ask for any other options. Customer service here is horrible. Please don’t waste your time or money

Where do I start?
Don’t know what happened in the 29 years I have been coming to Tahoe and eaten at The Beacon, but its not what it was.
The Beacon is now just a place for tourist. Its tourist food; just bland. Nothing special anymore. And damn, when you sit inside, its like a Rolling Stones concert.
They have this thing now (maybe they didnt want my parents and I there) where as soon as you set something down, they rush over to the table, say nothing and start clearing the table. Some young chick took my fork 3 times in less then 20 minutes. The Sandwhich was packed with raw onions. The burger I got was bloody when squeezed.
You feel rushed. At least we did.
$ 52.00 for a sweatshirt? Laughs.
It sucks because this was our place. We will pick something new and better from now on. Nowadays The Beacon is just a place that you pay 4xs the money for something because of a lake view.
Oh and another note. Just put on the $ 26.00 long sleeve shirt and looks like the cuffs are already completely stretched with almost NO elasticity. Time to change. Ill start using this as a work shirt i guess

What I ate: Shrimp and sausage nachos, lemonade
Visit date: May 1, 2016
First time? Yes.
The pictures on Unilocal lured me in and I was sure pleased! The wait on Sunday afternoon is short of you don’t mind dining at the bar. My seat overlooked the beach; the hub’s seat overlooked the Warriors game on TV. Perfect.
But to the food — The nachos were amazing! The chips were crispy and flavor packed with some kind of seasoning salt (think Doritos but more awesome). The lil shrimps tender, the sausage though on the chewy side probably added good flavor to the dish. And the cheese — OMG. They do magic to the cheese. I want to say it had a roux base — like you would make for a mac and cheese. Yum!
I totally ate too much and couldn’t wait to be hungry again so I could eat the leftovers. One order is enough to split with a group or eat as two meals.
Service is great; waiters attentive. Parking is lot.

The view makes this meal better. I got the Cobb salad. The salad was a little small with hardly any blue cheese. The blue cheese dressing tasted like ranch with blue cheese chunks. I hate ranch. My husband did get the salmon sandwich and loved it.

This review is strictly for the rum runners! It was around noon when we arrived and almost everyone was drinking a rum runner. I’ve never had one as a «slushy» but it was more than I expected. By the time I was half way done with the drink, I knew I wasn’t going to be the one driving home. A little pricey but work the experience based on other reviews.

Having lived in Tahoe and visited the Beacon 10+ times in the past, I was really disappointed on my latest visit this past Saturday, ³⁄₂₆.
First of all, I am 30 years old, and my husband is nearly 40. We were sitting outside on the deck and I came inside to order our drinks. I came in, ordered 2 drinks as usual, one for me, one for him, showed the bartender my ID, and *then* he said there is a one drink per person limit. He said I could have one or the other, but that I would have to choose.
Although I HATE rules like this, (because don’t you love to be treated like a mischievous under-​aged teen at restaurants at 2 pm in the afternoon?) I respect business’s rights to enforce these, especially if they’re having issues with such illegal behavior. **Although, I would personally handle it differently and have the staff come outside and check all IDs if they’re so concerned about serving underaged people, that way they don’t end up ostracizing and offending their of-​age customers… but I digress.
Where I take issue is that I watched as that same bartender who just told me I couldn’t bring a drink out to my husband, served multiple other customers multiple drinks right after I had ordered. I sat outside and watched people come outside with numerous drinks in hand to bring them to their entire table. If you have a rule, then follow it, and enforce it on all patrons. Otherwise it makes it look like you’re discriminating against a particular group of people. In this case, I can only say that it was really clear that I was *not* a tourist given my hat and clothing (let’s just say there are certain articles of clothing that identify who is visiting and who is local, and a local can pick these out). And clearly all of the other customers who appeared adult enough or trustworthy enough to handle bringing 2 drinks out to the deck were out-​of-​towners. Surmise of that what you will.
Then, when I went inside to close my check and leave to go to a different establishment, I told the bartender that I had seen what he had done, and he claimed all the other patrons he served had all of the members of their party present upon ordering and picking up their drinks– which they did not, because I was watching him and everyone he served for about a half hour. He also claimed this was the same rule as every other bar in town, which it is most certainly not. Nice try. Now you just look like you’re trying a little too hard. Then the female bartender who was standing by started laughing awkwardly at me so I looked at her but she wouldn’t make eye contact and just said something snide under her breath.
1) All I can say is, first off, please apply your rules fairly to everyone, if it is, in fact, even a «rule.»
2) Secondly, when a customer comes in to complain privately to you (as opposed to, let’s say, Unilocal), please treat their complaint with respect and fairness. Clearly they feel they’ve been mistreated in some way (even if it’s a misunderstanding) and just want to be heard. The respectful thing to do here is to say, «I apologize that you feel… etc. I will work to make sure this rule is applied more fairly. May I get you another drink?»
3) Most importantly, do NOT laugh at your customer. Just don’t. It’s gross.

Great location right on the beach and water at Camp Richardson. In the summer the daytime outdoor seating is wonderful.
We recently went for dinner at night in the winter and had to sit inside. It was Saturday night, pretty late, we had a reservation, and there was an event being hosted that night. I think the promotional event must have contributed, but the service was on the slow side and it was terribly loud in the restaurant. It made it so that my husband and I couldn’t talk to each other, which was a bummer because we were waiting so long for the drinks, food, and check. But it allowed us to listen to everyone else’s conversations because everyone was yelling hehe! But the loudness isn’t typically our experience there.
My husband always enjoys what he orders off the menu however I typically don’t like my choices. But we always come back at least once a year whenever we are in the area. We would recommend it!

Great location and fun place for a drink. Stopped here after a day in the snow sat outside by fire pit and enjoyed the lake view. Bartender great and very helpful for a group who couldn’t make up their minds. Chips, pico and guacamole delicious.

Somewhat of an annoying touristy trap tradition. But, while camping in SLT one must always visit hopping Beacon for their pricey Rum-​Runner.
During the summer months this Richard Resort is frustratingly PACKED :(

Best thing about this place is the view, 2^nd are the Rum runners. This place is always packed in the summer and they usually have a band playing outside. I haven’t tried the food here as I usually don’t have adult beverages and eat at the same time. =)
If you are sitting outside listening to the band be prepared to share a table with strangers which usually turn into nice people to talk with. It might be a little too «trailer park» for me to come on the reg but it’s okay to come with friends and try those Rum Runners one in awhile.
Protip: Yeah, parking is rough here

Love the Beacon!
I come here every time i am hungry and need some lunch. This place is a cozy little restaurant on South Lake Tahoe. It also happens to be a family camp resort area. You can rent cabins, play on the beach, bike ride and have a great time.
They have great food and drinks — the rum runner if you have not had one is to die for. Its a fun slushy style drink with a shot of rum floating on the top. As far as the food goes I have tried the shrimp and sausage Chipotle nachos and they were great! They had a great amount of meat and cheese along with a lovely sauce to complete everything together. Along with that I have always had a cup of their amazing creamy clam chowder. The clams are great and they have big chunks of potato in the soup that really makes for a great taste.
The whole ambiance of the place is really cozy and fun, they have a small seating area inside and a good size deck outside to sit and watch the boats on the lake and beautiful scenery. They also have another side of the deck where you can bring your drinks out and sit by a fire pit or listen to music — last time we were there they had a live band that was playing some amazing music.
This place is really great — I would highly recommend bringing friends, family, anyone here!