No matter where you go, having breakfast in Tahoe is an experience. If you are in Tahoe on vacation and have a large family, it allows everyone to get exactly what they want before starting out on the day’s adventures.
At these sit-down breakfast restaurants, it’s quite possible to saddle up at the bar with the newspaper and a mimosa, stare out at the lake, the mountains, or a flatscreen TV, and end up chatting the morning away with a new friend. There are a lot of decent breakfast options in the Tahoe Basin, but here is a small snapshot of ones highly recommended by locals.
SAGE LEAF, INCLINE VILLAGE
Try the: Tahoe Blue French Toast
When a former Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe chef de cuisine opens his own restaurant in Incline Village, then you know it’s going to be good. And Sage Leaf is excellent. Located on Highway 28 over by Starbucks, Sage Leaf is open 8 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5 p.m.-9 p.m., five days a week. It is a nice place to go for dinner, but its breakfast can’t be overlooked.
The two most popular items on the menu are the Eggs Benedict and Tahoe Blue French Toast. The Eggs Benedict is made with chunks of Niman Ranch ham (or braised bacon and chipotle hollandaise) and comes with a salad that can be substituted for cheesy hash browns or home fries.
While at least one person at every table around me ordered some variation of the Eggs Benedict, I opted for the Tahoe Blue French Toast.
“The French toast here is very different than other places because of the blueberry and raspberry. And we use a sourdough baguette and slice it a little differently,” the server says.
The Tahoe Blue French Toast came out looking like a savory bruschetta, the slices of sourdough covered in warm blueberry compote, raspberry coulis, ricotta, and a hint of Meyer lemon.
The maple syrup that came with it tasted fresh like it was just tapped out the tree in Vermont, and the toasted almonds adorning the plate made a nice touch. It was light for French toast in the sense that I could eat it all and get on with the rest of my day without yearning for a nap right away.
They have a 14-page Drinks menu which is mostly filled with wine, but it also has beer, mocktails, and four different types of mimosas on it. If you don’t have a carafe of mimosas to enjoy with your breakfast, try the Pineapple Sage Martini made with pineapple vodka, lemon, simple syrup, and a burnt sage leaf on top.
FIRE SIGN CAFE, TAHOE CITY
Try the: Chile Rellenos Special
If you mention going out to breakfast in Lake Tahoe, the Fire Sign Café is likely to come up in conversation. This sweet little breakfast spot has been around for more than 40 years and just continues to get better. Open from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. seven days a week, Fire Sign has gained notoriety on a national scale for its brunch items, and rightly so.
The place was still packed at 2 p.m. on a weekday afternoon, and the guy sitting next to me didn’t even need a menu. He knew exactly what he wanted—the Chile Rellenos special with chorizo. Even though the Rubicon Scramble and West Shore Special looked enticing, I followed my bar mate’s lead.
Sipping on a creamy chai latte, the bartender mixed up several hearty and aromatic Bloody Marys as well as a few Mugmosas. Even with the half order, it comes out as a heaping pile of food; I could only eat half of the half order. The light tempura batter of the relleno brought out the true flavors of the chile pepper, it is perfectly cooked and scrumptious.
The relleno came with a huge pile of tantalizing chorizo, black beans with melted cheese, a salad, rice, a cup of salsa, and a burrito-sized flour tortilla. This is a must-visit on a drive around the lake or staying on the West Shore.

OLD POST OFFICE CAFE, CARNELIAN BAY
Try the: Veggie Jo’s Scramble
In the heart of Carnelian Bay, the Old Post Office Café is another popular North Lake Tahoe breakfast joint that has been around for more than 40 years. Its longtime owners Frank and Linda retired and sold the business at the beginning of the pandemic, but fortunately, its new proprietors kept the café as is serving the same menu and buttermilk pancake recipe. They even still have some of the original post office boxes as part of the original building’s architecture.
On a cold Sunday morning, the Old Post Office was understandably busy—there wasn’t even a seat open at the bar. However, what the host said was going to be a 45-minute wait turned out to be a 20-minute one. At that time, a half dozen plates filled with small cannonsized burritos with generous sides of potatoes were being shuffled out to hungry customers, while coffee was being poured by the boatload.
Sitting in the bar in the front room that looks out towards the lake, a longtime North Lake Tahoe local that all of the servers seem to know sits down with all of the recent newspapers and orders a waffle. Within 10 minutes, it comes out and shortly after, my Veggie Jo’s Scramble is served accompanied by buttery home-fried potatoes. Both the scramble and the bellini I ordered were way better than anything I could make at home.
HEIDI’S PANCAKE HOUSE, SOUTH LAKE TAHOE
Try the: Mountaineer Crepes
Full disclosure: I used to work at an IHOP in college, and I can safely say that if you are a crepes fan then the ones at Heidi’s Pancake House are way better. Heidi’s Pancake House is on Highway 50 between Ski Run Boulevard and the Bijou Golf Course. Around since 1964, this Swiss chalet filled with traditional wooden booths with stained glass barriers and sitting nooks that can make it more private but also kind of a maze in there.

Heidi’s is known for its fluffy pancakes, omelets, and crepes, and they make their banana muffins, blueberry muffins, and fruit compotes. They make their own biscuits and everything is made with fresh ingredients.
Since Heidi’s has such an extensive crepes collection, I oscillated between the Mountaineer crepes made with sour cream and raspberry compote or the Mt. Tallac ones made with blueberries. Taking the server’s suggestion, I went with the Mountaineer version. They came out four times bigger than I expected with boysenberry and maple syrup on the side, but I didn’t need either.
Along with the tasty crepes, Heidi’s also provides excellent customer service. My coffee cup was topped off repeatedly, and I was seated and served within a half-hour despite the restaurant being full. I overheard a server ask a nearby table how they liked their mimosas and then she laughed, “You’re welcome, I make a mean one!”
