Humboldt Bay Bistro — Restaurant in Eureka

Charming old house fixed up as a restaurant. Unfortunately, the charm is only with regard to the decor. All surfaces are hard (floor, tables, chairs, benches, etc.), which leads to a high noise level. In many places this is deliberate, so as to create "energy" but all it creates is the necessity of yelling at servers and others at the table - despite the room not being full. I can't imagine the noise level if the room were were in had been full.

Servers/preparers don't communicate: we ordered the table-side Caesar salad for three (delicious!), but no one told the person making the salad that it was for three; she had to go back for the correct plates. The lovely person making our salad tried to tell us about each ingredient, but she was difficult to hear over the room noise.

I finished my salad and placed my knife and fork together on the side of the salad plate. The server asked if I wanted to keep my fork! No, that is why the utensils were placed where they were.

Duck was delicious, but my husband's filet mignon - which he ordered rare - was medium. The server did not check back; we had to call out to a different server to send the meal back. The steak that was returned did not look like a filet mignon - it was not as thick as is usual. His replacement meal arrived after everyone else at the table had finished eating. No apology. No comped glass of wine. Just plate plopped on the table.

My husband ordered two glasses of wine, one for each of us. The server brought one, and when we asked about the other glass, said, "Oh, I must have missed that order." Perhaps because of the noise level?

The meals of the three family members with us were nice, but nothing memorable. My daughter's filet was underdone, but she was hungry and let it go.

At the end of our meal, we were informed that 3 of the 5 desserts on the menu were unavailable. We went elsewhere for ice cream (which was available, but we were finished with the place by then).

At a price tag of over $300 for a party of five (exclusive of gratuity), I expected better food...

Wanted to love it, but there were some issues.

First, we called the restaurant to make a reservation and left a message. We never heard back. We showed up and fortunately had a reservation.

The table side Cesar was good.

I had clam chowder that was bland. Was told it was a $2 up charge, was billed $3.

My wife had some good French onion soup. Was charged $3 for the soup that was not mentioned as an up charge.

I ordered the Halibut special with a crab cake on top, served with rice pilaf. The dish was very bland, and ridiculously expensive. Initially I was charged $46, then after another billing snafu was charged $35.

My wife had a filet mignon burger special. I tried a bite, and was unable to tell it was filet. She was pleased with the burger. After a few bites our server came out with a dish of candied bacon and said that the kitchen forgot to add the bacon to the burger.

Which reminds me that as we walked to the restaurant we saw a member of the kitchen staff exit the building smoking a joint.

While we were eating, the couple closest to us were having problems with the lack of service. We heard them get up and tell the staff nobody had been to their table for 20 minutes. They were told they were going to have their drinks comped. It took an unusually long time to get their drinks afterwards.

Back to us, we then had some billing issues. I forgot to give the server a coupon after the initial bill. I gave them the coupon before they ran my credit card. When they returned the corrected bill I noticed that they ran my card and had not charged me for the $46 meal I had. I alerted the staff to the omission and they refunded the original amount and added my meal to the new total.

Lastly, I ordered a beer that was served with a ridiculous amount of head.

For the price of the meal, we had a...

Looks can be deceiving…

I came for the seafood and left disappointed. After reading reviews for Humboldt Bay Bistro and checking out the menu, I thought this place would be worth the price and I would finally discover a solid seafood spot here in Humboldt…I was wrong. When ordering drinks and appetizers the waitress made us feel rushed like we had a time limit to stay and eat. The Calamari fries were decent and the cocktail sauce and spicy aoili were good. The pomme frites were okay, nothing special. Now to the main attraction. The surf and turf, specifically the lobster which is the reason I came here. When I tell you this was the worst lobster I’ve had in my life. It was unseasoned and tough. Definitely not cooked correctly. And the butter they gave us tasted like movie theater popcorn butter. The bland taste ruined my meal for me along with the Filet Mignon which wasn’t as tender as I would’ve liked. The Yukon mashed potatoes were great though. My girlfriend got the Cajun fettuccine which she said tasted bland along with the fact that she found an eyebrow hair cooked into the pasta. My brother and father got the duck which came out lukewarm. For the 600$ bill you expect the best food in the world but this place was not worth it in the slightest. Humboldt Bay bistro provides you with a nice view but the service and food are not their...