Noyo River Grill — Restaurant in Fort Bragg

I had such high hopes for this place. Wait time was 30 min and we were seated in 15 min. Our view was incredible but after that things didn’t go well. We ordered our food right away since we have young kids and wanted to make it back to our hotel to swim before bedtime. We ordered an appetizer to give our kids before our meals came. After 20-30 min it didn’t come out. Our server was nowhere to be seen and wasn’t proactive on checking to see where our appetizer was. We waved our server to our table and when we asked about the wait and when our appetizer would come she said she would check. Another 10-15 min goes by and she comes back to tell us that our appetizer had been given to another table. 😭 I was so disappointed and upset at this point. My kids were being so good and kept asking us when the food was coming. The worse was seeing other people getting their food who were seated after us. Our food finally came after a long wait. We started eating our food and lo and behold the appetizer came. She said her apologizes from the kitchen and didn’t offer to comp it for us since it came late. We had to ask for it to be removed from our bill. HAD TO ASK!!! It was not an automatic thing and our server was not very apologetic. The two kid meals we ordered (chicken tenders and fish and chips) were amazing but don’t order the Parmesan noodles. It was super soggy and it was $10 for unflavored noddles and no sides. I’m so sad to have to leave a review like this but I don’t want someone else to experience what we did. A lady who sat right next to us was so kind and came up and said how sorry she was that they made us wait so long for our food and how good our kids were being. Our bus boys who brought us forks and our meals were very kind. That’s the only reason we left a tip. I wish our server was more proactive, kind and apologetic with how things happened. Sadly, I can’t tell my friends to come to...

The restaurant was not real busy. The wait staff gave the option of outdoor or indoor seating. We chose indoor. The waitress told us to seat ourselves and disappeared to help another customer. There were 4 or 5 choices. We searched for the cleanest table. They were not especially clean, we should have left. We seated ourselves then the wait began. Eventually, I got up and went to a table near the bar and picked up a couple menus. We chose the menu items we wanted. We continued the wait to meet our waitress/waiter. After 15 minutes I decided to go get some water. As I got up to do that the bartender came and took our order. Orders taken I asked for glasses of water. She was very nice stated she would be right back with water, 15 minutes later no water. I did have the opportunity though to watch this woman take care of patrons at the bar, make drinks for the waitresses patrons and try to act as a waitress also. Yes, btw, there were at least 6 waitresses, and only 1 bartender. During the 45 minutes waiting for dinner, we were brought bread that had close to no flavor. Thank The Good Lord above they brought us one small pad of butter or there would not have been any flavor on this dense flavorless hard bread. I also got to watch the waitress clean off a table. She used her open palm and wiped the crumbs on the floor. Eventually, someone seated themselves at that table. No wonder none of the tables looked clean when we walked in. After 45 minutes we did get our food. I enjoyed the fish and chips, my husband got a burger. The bread to beef ratio was NOT good. He stated that his food was mediocre. This was not a cheap meal! Way over priced for the service and food we received. This was not my worst dining experience, but I sure as heck will never spend another dime in this place, and I would NOT recommend...

Ok. So.... our visit was just that, so-so. To be honest, we had planned on going to our favorite, Django's Rough Bar, only to find out it's closed. Bummer. We found via Google that Noyo River Grill (NRG) had great food and better reviews. Well, we were highly disappointed. On a Wednesday evening they were packed, and had 4+ tables waiting to be seated. No big deal with food reviews do high, right? No. First off, we waited 30+ minutes to be seated; then had a waitress who apologized for being our server when she's normally only inside. Ok. Whatever, no big deal. She gets our appetizer and drinks ordered. We don't see her for 25+ minutes after ordering the app; still haven't ordered our mains. Not her fault, we know she's stretched thin, we get it. Appetizer comes out, the "special", coconut prawns. $13 for 4 lightly coconut battered jumbo shrimp. Ok, they're tasty, sure. Finally we order mains, 3/4 through the first drinks. Mains come out extremely slow, we'd already been seated 45+ minutes. Dishes are served in a 16" blowl-plate, so food looks waaaay larger than it is. I had the scallop special. 5 scallops on a 3/4 cup of mashed potatoes, with maybe as much "grilled" veggies. Yeah, no. He had the $32 "12oz Ribeye" with grilled veggies and mashed potatoes. Yeah, no. Both were served in a bowl-plate, half covering a 1/2 c of boxed mashed potatoes, and steamed/maybe 1 second grilled veggies. The 12 Oz ribeye was less than 1/2" thick, and felt like it was microwaved. The grilled veggies were steamed, not grilled. Unfortunately, we had a not do desirable experience. But, our waitress was great, and attentive as possible. Will we come back? Maybe. But probably not. Django's set a high bar. Our $97+tip meal wasn't worth the time and money. Next time, we'll stop in for...