Samoa Cookhouse — Restaurant in Eureka

Called ahead for reservations. Requested a room with film projector our party could use. Was told that wouldn't be a problem. Also inquired about vegan and vegetarian options for 3 people in the party. Was told both could be accommodated without a problem. Called 2 more times to add more people to the reservation. Both times confirmed the reservation included the use of a movie projector, vegan and vegetarian meals would be available.

Arrived a few minutes early with 3 other people. Checked in, was told we didn't have a reservation anymore. We were booked for earlier in the day and never showed up. I said no, the reservation was always for the same time. Cashier talked to someone across the room, they said "oh yeah, we knew they were coming but they can't use the projector." She tried to seat us. Explained without the use of the projector we were promised we wouldn't be staying. Various employees discussed it and said we could use the projector.

We were shown to a private room. It looked like the room had hosted a party at some point and the staff never finished cleaning up. They had done NOTHING to prepare for our reservation. Tables were not set up, cleaned, no place settings. We had to arrange our own tables, get our own chairs. We were given glasses of water and a pitcher of water was left on our table. They brought a basket of bread before everyone had arrived and took our beverage orders. It took a long time to get our drinks and more bread for the rest of the table. We had to get up and get find our own salt, pepper, sugar, napkins, etc... and set our own table. It took at least 30 minutes before we received dishes, silverware and to start receiving soup and salad. Every course was slow. They were clueless and confused when we asked for vegan, vegetarian servings. Of course they couldn't accommodate those guests.

When we first arrived and when we started to order, I requested separate tickets for everyone. I had lemonade that was nothing more than yellow colored water. The bread was good, soup was okay, salad was big chunks of lettuce with a few shredded carrots, potatoes were good but no gravy that was supposed to be served. Corn was warmed up canned corn. The fried chicken was greasy and no legs.

It took almost an hour to be served out entire meal which made us late for starting to watch our presentation. We were only able to view about an hour of a 2 hour presentation. Dessert was a tiny little brownie, no ice cream, drizzled chocolate or whipped cream. Went half way bussed our own table before we started the presentation. A few minutes later I was handed a ticket for the amount of everyone's dinner. We had to figure out the price of each person's meal and drinks on our own. I ate bread, 1 bowl of salad, half a bowl of soup, 2 servings of mashed potatoes, a brownie and a glass of yellow water. My meal cost $32 with tip.

They failed to do anything to prepare for our arrival, we helped ourselves more than we were waited on, it took too long to get severed our full meal, they failed to provide vegan or vegetarian opitions as promised. The entire dining experience for all of us at The Samoa Cookhouse was unprofessional and very disappointing.

The lack of preparation, constant misinformation, dropping the ball, poor service (or lack of), wait time, quality of food and beverage and how little I was able to eat was not worth $32. I left feeling over charged and unfulfilled. I work hard for my money and dining out is an occassional treat. I refuse to waste my time, money or support for any business that can't provide better service and food than I received recently. I won't bother to be a customer of The Samoa Cookhouse again and frankly at that price, I...

What a let down. This place should not be advertised as "all you can eat." and should not charge such high prices if they are going to be out if everything and guilt trip us for asking for more food. We know several people that rave about this place so we were optimistic going in but it quickly went south. We went on Southern Fried Chicken night. We arrived and had over an hour wait despite there were several open tables so we were never seated until close to 8pm. Immediately after seating, we were given the disclosure that there wasn't much bread left available (we each got one piece). It took a VERY long time to receive drinks, salad and soup which was frustrating considering how long we had already been waiting. The server did not come back for a very long time and THEN said she would put in our order for dinner. It seemed like she was intentionally stretching it out hoping we would fill up on soup salad and drinks. Several of our people did not eat soup or salad and were waiting for the dinner meal the entire time, which we had already told the server. Once we finally got dinner, the server never came back. We were served such small portions that we each had only a tiny dollop of potatoes and one piece of chicken. We had to get up and find out server to ask for more. It took 30 minutes or more to get more chicken because They had run out of mashed potatoes and were trying to make macaroni and cheese and had stopped making chicken. Finally, after waiting a VERY long time, we were brought one more piece of chicken each and a bowl of undercooked Mac and powdery cheese - it was absolutely terrible. Then the server brought a huge plate full of chicken to the table next to us and bragged that the cook told her to bring them "all the chicken that was left." The experience overall was terrible and extremely overpriced for what food we actually got and the service we received. We will...

My family has lived in Eureka for 47 years. The Samoa Cookhouse was always the place to go when guests came to town or family would gather for an event. I am sad to say last Sunday was the last time we will go there. We read the poor reviews just before we went last week but decided to take a chance that those were just overly critical people. The menu was for ribs. I love ribs, bone in or boneless and was looking forward to them. I expected something roasted in the oven maybe bbq ribs with a bbq sauce. What we got looked and tasted nothing like ribs. It was chunks of meat that resembled stew with carrots and onions in a gravy sauce, soup consistency. It tasted ok but more like leftover pot roast made into a stew without potatoes We were a group of 7 and we only got enough "stew" to serve 5 of us and no one took a large portion. We tried to alert our waitress but gave up after several minutes of trying and my husband went and asked 3 other people for more food. It was served with pale canned peas, lukewarm seasoned rice that resembled Spanish rice and beans that were maybe pinto, black and garbanzo beans mixed together. The beans and the rice lacked much flavor. The salad and bread were great. For dessert we got a small piece of cake in a cup that tasted ok but a couple of the cakes had blobs of flour in them, I assume was from not mixing the batter long enough. I have never seen a group of people eat so little as we did with the food we were offered. I ate my salad, bread and a chunk of the meat...the rest of the meal was not flavorful nor worth the calories. I rarely write reviews but my hope is the Cookhouse can turn things around and be the wonderful place it use to be. Friends had warned me they had a disappointing breakfast weeks earlier..I should have listened to them and the reviews. I hope someday I hear their food is great again but will not recommend anyone go...