Lanza’s Restaurant

Lanzas is one of my all time favorite places to visit when I am up in KB. The food is always good, the wine and cocktails are always good and the dessert is amazing! My favorite thing to get is the create your own pasta and definitely the tiramisu. My girlfriend and I love to celebrate our joint birthday here every year. Thanks Lanzas!

We have gone to Lanzas for twenty years. The food over the past couple of years is awful. Kelly green pesto, yuck. Décor ugly. Wait time ridiculous –ly long. We ate appetizers in the bar, the food there was better then the main dining room. Calamari Steak was like eating rubber.
Lanza’s should evaluate their quality of food, or close!

While this a review based on takeout only, I can tell you that it is 100% food based review. This place has the best gluten free pizza I have ever had. I have experienced many decent GF crusts from a lot of restaurants and markets. None of them can hold a candle to Lanza’s. And the toppings and sauce are also excellent. Please keep on being great with this GF menu and ‘za!

The baked eggplant parmigiana and lasagna are amazing! Service was great, price is right for the portion sizes, yummy! Very crowded but still great service!

The pasta was well cooked the sauce was delicious. The salad was crisp and the dressing was extraordinary. The plate sizes were enormous. The service was expedient and the staff was kind. The pricing was perfect, so happy to find good food, pricing, and service in North Tahoe coming again for happy hour!

Hadn’t been here in years! The pizza was some of the best I’ve ever had, with the homemade meatballs on the pizza. I wish I ordered more meatballs, they were unbelievable. The staff was very friendly and everything was great. Good job Lanzas!

It is very expensive and half the entrees our party had were tasteless: chicken cacciatore, penne pasta, etc. The chicken piccata and chicken Marsala were good. Excellent service.

says open until 10… tried getting dinner at 9:37 and was turned down. Whomp whomp.

As an East Coast transplant, where excellent Italian food is a dime a dozen, one of my major disappointments with the West Coast is that the Italian food is mediocre at best.
Lanza’s is hands down the best Italian I’ve had West of the Mississippi. Portions are huge. Food is delicious. Décor is classic red pleather booths and checkerboard table cloths. It’s the only place I trusted to have my wedding rehearsal dinner at.
This place is on point. A little slice of Boston’s North End up here in Tahoe. My only gripe with it is that they don’t have a SF location.
And Justin is the man. Love this place.

Unilocal is truly in need of the half star because this place is firmly a 2.5 star restaurant. I’ve been here a few times and each time the food is decent but really nothing truly astounding. At the same time I know that Tahoe, especially the north shore, is lacking in great, affordable restaurants, affordable being the operative word. So if I were just reviewing this place as a stand alone it would be firmly rooted as a 2 star restaurant, but because I’m taking into account the options of the entire area, it gets 3 stars. The service this last time, was truly awful, when your server is literally shuffling her feet to get from table to table, you know you’re in for a wait. It doesn’t help that the place was packed, we waited about 30 minutes for a table, so we were starving by the time we were seated. Then I watch our server shuffle to the table next to us, take their drink order and shuffle back to the kitchen to fill it. Then I watch her shuffle back to the table, open their bottle of wine and chat with them for maybe 5 – 10 minutes about that particular wine (it was Layer Cake wine so I really think a discussion was necessary especially when you have hungry people waiting at the next table), the the waitress goes and shuffles off to put that table’s app order in. All the while I’ve been trying to make eye contact with the waitress to let her know that we are hungry and ready to order. I actually attempted to make eye contact with several waitresses that evening to no avail. I guess sometimes it doesn’t pay to be a nice person who doesn’t snap at or call out to your server. We were fortunate to have an attentive to host who brought over a basket of bread and a ball of butter which we proceeded to devour. I should think the shower of crumbs coming from our table were akin to smoke signals, trying to get the attention of any one who would take our order. Our waitress finally shuffles her way over to our table and first thing she says «What will you have, besides clearly more bread!» We don’t want bread, we want food! Food! Food! Food! I order the portobello mushroom raviolis (which I’ve had before) in a cumin alfredo cream sauce, topped with squash and sun-​dried tomatoes. My date had the chicken parm. Most entrees get a choice of either minestrone or a house salad with house Italian dressing. I personally love the minestrone, on a cold night it’s perfect, hot and hearty, just what nippy weather demands. The salad is simple but fresh and the dressing is tasty. It would go a long way to get a couple cranks of a pepper grinder for the salad, but that’s not an option at this place. I should mentioned we also got more bread, this one was actually hot and nice and crisp, in comparison to the first loaf that had been sitting for a bit. I mention this only because by the time I had eaten all that bread and my minestrone soup I was essentially full. I ate, I kid you not, one and only one ravioli and a bite of my date’s chicken parm and I called it. I also ate the overcooked squash that topped my ravioli, not a big fan of over cooked squash but I do love squash none the less. The raviolis suffered from a severe lack of salt. I doused it with parm and salt and it was fabulous after that. I suppose it’s fine to leave it rather bland and allow your patrons to choose their salt content, if indeed that’s what they’re going for. The chicken parm was cooked very well, and my date absolutely devoured it and the accompanying spaghetti. I personally thought there was way too much oregano in their marinara but I think that might just be my preference because my date clearly thought it was great. As far as Italian restaurants go, I’ve definitely had much much better, and at the prices for that food, I just expect a little better in terms of food, and much much better in terms of service. It’s not like I won’t come back, as I mentioned we don’t have a lot of good affordable options on the N. Shore, but I recommend just coming with slightly lowered expectations and then you won’t be disappointed.

We have been going to Lanza’s for many, many years but thought the quality was just not there anymore and haven’t been back for quite some time. Tonight we decided to give it a try and was very pleasantly surprised. The food was delicious and customer service was excellent. The salad has always been good and continues to be. Love the added Gorgonzola cheese. We tried 2 chicken dishes with pasta and vegetables and all were excellent. We will definitely be coming back! This is the Lanza’s we have always loved!

When I am up in Tahoe, I make a point to stop by and get a gluten free pizza. I have yet to find a better GF pizza in Tahoe or Oakland. The menu is traditional: It’s a family style Italian restaurant, and that is exactly what they serve. The wait staff is hard working, friendly, and generous. Whether the restaurant is busy or quiet, the staff makes you feel welcome and bends over backwards to make your meal a perfect one.

The lasagna arrived looking more like a soup dish. The bland pasta had a long hair in it.
Very mediocre food serving large portions and frequented by locals.

Portions are large but the food is sub-​mediocre. Management and service were so poor, though, that I would not recommend this place to anyone. There are plenty of other places in Kings Beach to eat and management should realize they can’t afford to be rude to customers.

During my vacation here in King’s Beach (Lake Tahoe), I’ve now been to this restaurant three times. Last time, last night, our waiter was Melanie, who had been serving clients at the restaurant for eleven years… and, this was her last night. It made the third time the charm.
I recommend, above all, the Lumaconi. Also of note, the minestrone, the chicken piccata, the meat sauce with Italian sausage, the Tiramisu, the Ramole (Sangiovese/​Cabernet blend) from Tuscany, and this restaurant.
The portions are large and cheese intense, the service animated and adequate, and the atmosphere friendly. Plan ahead, ’cause they don’t take reservations or American Express.
Enjoy!

My friends and I came here to carbo-​load on pasta. We had a big group of ten and they asked us to wait about 10 – 15 minutes. The restaurant has got a nice homey feel to it and fun light fixtures, which look like they’re covered in fabric, so they kind of look like lamps. Once we were seated, we all looked at the menu, but it took a while for our server to come to take our order.
In addition to having some special dinner options like lasagna and steak, and pizzas, you could also pick a pasta noodle and a sauce to create your own pasta dish:
1) Pick a pasta: spaghetti, fettuccine, penne, or angel hair. If you want meat or cheese ravioli, it costs extra. If you want half pasta and half meat or cheese ravioli, it costs extra. And if you want half pasta and half portobello mushroom ravioli, it costs a little more extra.
2) Pick your sauce — this part really determines the base price of your pasta dinner. There’s meat sauce, marinara sauce, butter garlic sauce, pesto, alfredo, or clam sauce.
3) Add something extra. For an additional $ 4, you could add on chicken, or italian sausage, or meatballs, or sauteed mushrooms.
I really wanted fettuccine and I also wanted the portobello mushroom ravioli, so I oped to the half and half option, with meat sauce.
A few of my other friends also did the half and half option, another friend ordered the mushroom ravioli from the special dinner section, which came with a cumin cream sauce (which also sounded amazing), another friend order pasta with pesto sauce, and two other friends ordered the mac n cheese which was a special of the evening. Our server took our drink orders first and then came back to take our dinner orders. The food kind of took a long time, but we ate our complimentary bread with butter and olive oil and balsamic vinegar while we waited. Our meals also came with a choice of either salad or minestrone soup, and those came before our pasta. I got the minestrone soup and it was pretty good. It was pretty chunky with lots of stuff inside. My pasta dish was just okay. The mushroom ravioli was good, but it’s definitely not the best mushroom ravioli I’ve ever had. The sauce was disappointing. It tasted more like plain marinara sauce — there wasn’t much meat in it and the sauce itself kind of tasted like it came from a jar. Also, my friend who had ordered the pesto pasta had asked for angel hair pasta, but when it came out, it came with fettuccine pasta instead — fail, on not getting the order correct to begin with. The pesto also looked super oily. It came sprinkled with pine nuts and it did taste all right though.
Overall, the food is just okay — it’s definitely not the best Italian I’ve had. The ambiance is kind of fun. The service, while friendly, was slow. It was a Saturday night and kind of busy, but still it was slow. And not all the orders came out correctly. And we also ended up getting an extra salad, which I think was a mix-​up again in the kitchen. Oh, and it was pricey for a pasta place. I like the mix and match with the pastas and sauces, but the quality of the food wasn’t good enough. Probably wouldn’t come back here again.

We wanted traditional Italian for dinner and boy did we find it here
My wife had the baked cheese stuffed shells, and I went for the spaghetti and meatballs
Both were delicious, huge portions
I can’t wait for leftovers tonight
Great atmosphere, loud and friendly

Oh Lanza’s!!! How I love your garlic bread! And your mixed drinks!!! And your Italian food! I’ve never had a bad meal here! And even better, they offer take out! So I make the hubby pick up some combo plates on the way home… HEAVEN! The service has always been wonderful! Very friendly, and competent! It’s a fun casual date night place!!!

I love this place! Amazing food. Love the red sauce. I am from the East so I know good Italian and this is the spot. I usually get the eggplant parm. I changed it up this visit and got the chicken parm. So yummy! The staff is so friendly. Melanie is the best waitress there so be sure to request her section!

This is old school Italian! Lanza’s serves the type of Italian food that hasn’t changed in decades. We almost always get the Lumaconi (stuffed shells) and it never disappoints. We’ve tried to make this basic dish at home, and while it is always good, there is something special about how they do it at Lanza’s.
The creamy Italian dressing is delicious on the house salad that comes with every entrée is fantastic and we always get a bottle of it to go.
One thing that is special about eating here is that the clientele is 80% locals and that is unique given that the restaurant is in a tourist town. Half the people there look like they’ve put in a long day working construction and are taking their family out for a filling, delicious dinner.
They’ve always got a baseball game playing in the bar. When there’s a long wait for dinner, no one minds because they’re drinking a glass of wine out on the deck or enjoying a cold one in the bar.
If you’re looking for something fancy, with small portions – go someplace else. If you want hot, flaky homemade bread, red table cloths, rich red meat sauce, and to leave full – eat at Lanza’s!