If you're headed to Lake Tahoe over the Labor Day weekend, be sure to enjoy the first-ever Lake Tahoe Restaurant Week while you're there. Thirty participating restaurants are offering three-course prix- fixe menus - all at exceptional values - as part of the seven-day celebration, September 5 through 12. (Lake Tahoe Restaurant Week attendees also save on lodging, up to 35 percent off, simply by booking at participating properties).

No passes, tickets or coupons are necessary -- simply visit one of the many participating eateries, historic bistros or charming resorts, and enjoy a three-course, prix-fixe menu (prices are set at $20, $30 or $40 per person, tax and gratuity not included, and price depends on the restaurant). Reservations are recommended.

Lake Tahoe chefs won't disappoint, with many employing local, seasonal and organic ingredients for the freshest of dishes. In South Lake Tahoe, 19 Kitchen & Bar has lobster corn chowder and beef medallions fromage, with Fresh Ketch providing a stuffed halibut with shrimp, lobster, scallops, Brie, dill and lemon beurre blanc. For authentic Mexican, Latin Soul has lamb steak with goat cheese crust and caramel flan with seasonal berries. And don't miss the maple leaf duck breast at Edgewood Restaurant, which is served with an apple ginger sauce and sweet potato gnocchi.

North Lake Tahoe restaurants are also pulling out all the stops. Cottonwood Restaurant is offering a pine nut crusted Asian Basa with a tomato and dill beurre blanc and roasted autumn vegetables. River Grill has green chard raviolis with Sonoma goat cheese and portabella mushrooms. And Six Peaks Grille is providing a pan seared Bristol Bay salmon (with $2 of every $30
three-course dinner going to the Tahoe Forest Cancer Center). Right on the lake, Lone Eagle Grille has a mesquite grilled New York steak over watercress and red cabbage salad.

To learn more about Lake Tahoe Restaurant Week, or plan where you're going to eat and check out each participating dining establishment's downloadable prix-fixe menu, click here.

by Juliet Farmer