Carnelian Bay · North Lake Tahoe · Since 1988

Dinner with the whole lake in the window

Floor-to-ceiling windows, a long deck over the water and a 130-foot pier you can arrive at by boat. California cuisine, hand-cut steaks and fresh Pacific seafood — served in a fun-in-the-sun atmosphere.

Find a Table See the Menus

Gar Woods Grill & Pier lit up at dusk above Carnelian Bay, with the pier reaching into Lake Tahoe

Open now | 5000 North Lake Blvd

Lunch 10:30am – 5pm, daily

Dinner From 5pm, daily

Arrive by boat 130-foot deep-water pier

Reservations 530.546.3366

The Restaurant

Upstairs of two, downstairs of a hundred and sixty.

Gar Woods Grill & Pier is an upscale casual restaurant that accommodates groups of 160 just as easily as groups of two. Our chef’s menu highlights California cuisine, hand-cut steaks and fresh Pacific seafood.

The wine list gathers California’s best-known vintners, with more than a dozen wines available by the glass. In summer, the waterfront deck is the best seat on the North Shore. In winter, the river rock fireplace is.

Browse the menus

The dining room at Gar Woods, tables set along floor-to-ceiling windows over Lake Tahoe

The house drink

Four million and counting.

Enjoy Tahoe’s warm summer days on the waterfront deck with a world-famous Wet Woody® in hand. With over four million sold you’ll be in good company — but come early to get a seat. Visiting in ski season? Thaw out by the river rock fireplace with a Warm Woody or a Heavenly Bottom.

4M+Wet Woodys sold

1988On this shore since

130 ftDeep-water pier

400Seats in season

The bar menu

However you arrive

Three good reasons to point the boat this way.

Umbrellas over the water on the Gar Woods waterfront deck

The deck

Market umbrellas, 160 seats and nothing between you and the water. Fun-in-the-sun, all summer long.

The Gar Woods pier reaching out into Lake Tahoe

II.

The pier

A 130-foot deep-water pier, next door to the Sierra Boat Company. Boat valet in the summer months — tie up and walk in.

III.

Upstairs

Two private rooms with a lake-view balcony running the length of both — up to 160 guests, or the whole restaurant for 400.

Menus

Read them here, on the way up the hill.

Lunch

10:30am to 5pm, seven days. Deck favourites, salads, sandwiches from the Gar Wood Grill.

Dinner

From 5pm. Hand-cut steaks, fresh Pacific seafood, pasta and the full appetiser list.

Wet Woodys & Bar

The signature frozen rum drink and everything that grew out of it.

Wine

California’s best-known vintners, with more than a dozen by the glass.

View

A wedding ceremony on the lawn at Gar Woods, above the beach on Carnelian Bay

Parties on the Lake

Weddings, corporate, social.

Our waterfront location offers sweeping vistas of the lake and the surrounding mountains — an unparalleled setting for an event on the water.

Two upstairs rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows, knotty pine open-beam ceilings, hickory chairs and antler chandeliers — up to 160 guests together, or booked separately. Ceremonies on the lawn or the beach cove. And the long pier, for anyone who wants to make an entrance by boat.

Parties on the Lake Banquet Packet

The Name

Named for the fastest man on the water.

Garfield Wood took the British Harmsworth Trophy every year from 1920 to 1933, and in 1930 drove Miss America X to a world record of 102 miles per hour on four supercharged Packard engines.

The mahogany runabouts that grew out of those racing hulls were the finest pleasure boats of their day. Several delivered to Lake Tahoe in the 1920s are still afloat — and can sometimes be seen from our pier. Dispatch, a 1931 Baby Gar owned by the restaurant, is on display at the pier on calm days.

The whole story