Campground — Restaurant in Arcata

Without a doubt, the best restaurant I've been to in the Eureka/Arcata/McKinleyville greater area. While it's not inexpensive, the experience and food are worth it. Each item on the menu has a presentation that exhibits the great attention and care put into it. Every bite is outstanding. It's one of the restaurants where it will be hard to pick your 'favorite' dish, as you may find that you love everything. If you can ever go while they have the manager's Plate Beef Rib special (not on the menu - and they don't have it every day), I highly recommend that you try it. I can honestly say that it's the best beef ribs I've ever had... by a factor of two -- meaning I believe them to be not just a little, but TWICE as good as my previous "best beef ribs I've ever had." Every meal is à la carte... which I usually don't like, but in this case -- since the sides are all wonderful -- it makes for a perfect "share with the table" experience. We just order a bunch of sides, and everyone at the table gets to try a little of everything. Works out perfectly. The bar is also well stocked, and not only have all the regular bar calls... but have a wonderful list of special drinks you'll only find at Campground. Obviously, no review woube be complete without mention of the Campfire -- a specialty drink that comes to your table with actual smoke rolling out of the glass. It's not for everyone, as it makes the entire drink smell and taste like something burnt after a fire)... but I like it, and it's certainly a spectacle to view at the table. The other specialty drinks are excellent as well, and are likely better for the less adventurous not looking for the taste of a campfire. Let me take a moment to praise the wait staff. While I know not everyone can be perfect all the time, I can say that we have yet to have a bad experience with any of the staff at the Campground. Everyone seems very happy to work there, they know the menu well, and they have always gone above and beyond to make sure our evening was the best it could be. I've seen the wait staff go well above and beyond regular duties to make sure the guests had an optimal experience. And they do everything with a smile. I don't usually like snooty restaurants, so I was a bit cautious when I walked into Campground for the first time, as they have that 'prim and proper' snooty look -- but within moments I was greeting with a warm and friendly staffer who quickly took my drink order and greeted the table. From that point forward, it was always more of a 'home' feel... but with a super clean and modern look. It's a restaurant that serves top notch food, with a artistic/modern clean design... but without the pretentiousness you'd find in a similar restaurant down in southern California. Everyone would feel welcome here. I'm surprised I had never heard of the Campground prior to last year (my cousin introduced it to me), as it's almost hidden away (it's off from the main square, and it doesn't have an obnoxious sign -- so it might be easy to pass by). The lack of visibility and advertising doesn't seem to have hurt them much, as they seem to be pretty busy, so it's certainly wise to call in for reservations. This place is certainly a diamond for the area -- with so few choices in the greater area when it comes to a fine dining experience, without the fine dining snobbery. It's our new...

Was really looking forward to trying this place. Been waiting to come here for months and finally found the time to go with my girlfriend. The restaurant had a nice rustic decor and a welcoming (but loud) atmosphere. They did a good job on the aesthetics of this place and really nailed the theme. We ordered the duck poutine fries for an appetizer and i got the burger for my main meal and her the sides gouda mac and cheese and french onion soup. We ended up getting our main meals before the appetizers and when they brought the appetizer the fries were very soft. Every single item we received was bland. The burger meat not seasoned well or maybe not at all. The meat was dry and overpowered any subtle hits of the toppings which were underwhelming. My girlfriends french onion soup said comes with baguette but they must of meant a bit of bread in the soup. It was also quite bland and quite small portions for the price. Her mac and cheese was also quite bland and nothing fancy other than the cool looking cup they brought it in. If the food had been tasty we would go back even with high prices for small portions but the meals were disappointing. We love some other restaurants in the area with similar price points and flavorful food so expensive food for small portions wasn't the issue it was that the food was not even close to worth the price and was not very tasty. since i complained and asked for them to maybe partially comp our appetizer for coming out late cold and after our meals they instead of this offered us a dessert which was the s'mores pie which was nice. The s'mores pie was actually pretty yummy. By far the best part of the meal. I would have given a 2 star rating if it wasn't for this last part but i decided to up it to 3 stars because of that. waiter was friendly too btw. I don't think we will go back though because the food wasn't even close to what it needed to be. Kitchen staff looked young and inexperienced and i'm sure that is a big factor in why the food was the way it was among other factors. We both really wanted to...

Wife and I came here at 7 pm on a Monday. We did not order cocktails due to having had a very long travel day, and as is sometimes the case, that seemed to set the server's tone in regard to how well we'd be attended. Filet carpaccio appetizer was good. Not fabulous or mind blowing, but ok. Sadly, that was the high point of the affair. We were a bit leery of ordering steaks at this point, and decided on ribs; they come sauced in two iterations... Both were horrid. Ribs were straight up boiled ribs, apparently placed over the fire just long enough to blacken the ends a little, and then plastered with sauce. The meat itself; absolutely flavorless, and still not done to the point it would fall off the bone, which SHOULD be the only redeeming quality about boiled ribs. The mustard based sauce option was just that, but unlike most; was very thick. The other sauce ( they called A5) was just not a suitable concoction for pork. Had a strong Worcestershire type flavor, but not nearly enough sweetness to make it interesting. These external flavor concoctions were both far too strong IMO, in order to disguise the bland meat. These were served with cole slaw, which again we could not stomach. It reeked of vinegar. "Cornbread" was the other included side, it was the best thing on the plate, honestly. That appeared to be something akin to Jiffy Mix combined with vanilla cake mix. VERY sweet, and with a cake's texture. We sat without water to drink for several minutes a couple times during our meal, and our server only visited once himself after dropping off the food. Upon asking what we thought and receiving my wife's polite, yet honest review of rib number one... He disappeared never to be seen again until we eventually asked another server we needed our check. There may be good options on the menu, but we didn't have them. We did however, spend in excess of 100 dollars for a meal we did not remotely enjoy, and that's without alcohol. Had there been cocktails that number would approach 200, maybe 3 if we had enough to...