Eel River Brewing Company — Restaurant in Fortuna

Fool me once… Wow, I disregarded the handful of mediocre reviews and figured that nobody could actually mess up pub food. The double shot of poor quality and a complete absence of service made our stop at Eel River Brewing one for the ages. It was crowded, a credit to the atmosphere and clear popularity of this spot. After getting a huge picnic table to ourselves and waiting a little while for our server, we did get an explanation the she had a big party, ordered two beers and settled in on the patio to relax. The beers arrived quickly enough, and we were nursing our way more than halfway through a pint a full hour after ordering our food when we finally got our dinner, albeit without silverware or napkins. We were also never offered water. Our spread consisted of a spinach salad topped with lukewarm steak, a warm-ish bowl of the tri tip chili and a side of slaw. Both the salad and the chili came with a small piece of cold, rock hard garlic bread. The only conclusion was that our food must have been sitting out for a long time before being brought to the table. The chili, a house specialty, had rubbery chunks of tri tip, some of which could barely be chewed. The slaw, almost as warm as the chili, tasted of nothing of nothing but mayo and had pieces of cabbage big enough to navigate your way down the Eel River. After trying both, there was no way any of my meal could be eaten. A little later we had another waitress clear our plates and offer a general apology for how crazy it was. Rather than wait for our server to appear again for a drawn out payment transaction, we decided to meet her at the pay station. Not one mention of ‘how were things?’ or ‘sorry for the long delays,’ but be forewarned that Eel River doesn’t take Amex… We love supporting local businesses, especially a good brewery, when on the road. This one was one of the more disappointing anywhere I have been in CA or anywhere else in the country. Fortunately I was able to upgrade and piece together a meal from the Safeway shelves on...

Let me start by saying i dine out frequently at all kinds of restaurants and this was the WORST experience out Ive ever had out.

On feb 9th 2021 We had reservations for 5 and were told 15 mins when we arrived. We were seated an hour and a half later. We sat for 15 mins before the waitress took our 1 beer for the night order. 15 mins later the beer was served (good beer) and she took our food order.

The conversation was nice and we thanked her.

A half hour later and still no good the manager approached our table and said if we were to make any more sexist comments to the waitress he was going to kick us out.

We immediately said to him he had the wrong table. I was there with four of my clients who are professional engineers, architects, and construction finance people. We all agreed there were no comments only thank you’s to the waitress The manager could not tell us who said something wrong or what the comments were. He said the waitress was so upset she wouldn’t repeat it. We were shocked.

Three of us ordered the hamburger medium rare. When they finally came (2 hours after we arrived) the fries were cold and soggy and beef patty was over cooked to cooked to a tough thin hokey puck. We didn’t complain.

A 1/2 hour later the other two dishes were served cold but only after I approached them and asked about them as we could see them under the heat lamp. Again the food was cold.

This is the first time ive ever made a review. I normally tip 20-40% and even with this insanely horrible experience i tipped the staff 30%

The next two nights we ate at the double D steakhouse which was phenomenal. If you must have a beer have it at the brew bar but go to DD For ...

I'll first say that the bartenders were excellent. Had we just come in for beer, this would likely be a five star review. I know Covid times are tough on restaurants, however the basics of food quality, timeliness, and service were all left out to dry here. We first had to wait 25 minutes for a seat that had been vacant the entire time we waited outside. Then it took 15 minutes to place an order. After an agonizing 45 minute wait on short order style pub fair, there were more problems. Let me start with the most minor. I was asked by our server if I wanted cocktail sauce or tarter with my fish and chips (which they hype as a great beer batter fresh fried fish made with their award winning beer) I asked for cocktail sauce. I received tarter sauce. No big deal, however, excitedly as I was starving to death at this point I grabbed a fry, burr! My hand nearly froze of from the stale potato product they served. Definitely an out of the bag coated type fry. Ok no big deal, o for two, let me try that house special beer battered fish and chip. Boy or boy it must have been Alaskan Cod because it was cold as an iceberg. Man, did I run over an old lady on the way here? What did I do to deserve this?! I tried my wife's "works" fries. They were a chewy cold mess as well. Her sandwich was actually served hot. So two stars for that. This place used to raise their own beef and had a bomb french dip back in the day, I'm not sure what happened. We didn't come during any type of lunch rush and I could tell other tables were waiting for service. I would strongly recommend not eating here until they get better trained cooks...