Trinidad Bay Eatery & Gallery — Restaurant in Trinidad

You looking for friendly service and quality food for price? Definitely don’t go to Trinidad Eatery. Not only was the only “healthy” thing on the menu more expensive than the steak plate, the salad with a literal “dusting” of crab, costs more than their specials. In other restaurants locally, I’ve paid comparable prices, and gotten double the amount of food.

The kitchen messed up the salad (it’s ok— it happens), not including several of the ingredients that supposedly make it so expensive like the local goat cheese.

When I asked our server politely if we had been served the wrong dish, she responded passive aggressively, “Would you like to read the menu to verify that is as advertised?”

I’m an anxious person. So I shut down, instead of saying what I would say now, which is, “No, thank you, I can read.”

We had to ask her back a second time, and insist that the dish was actually missing several components as we contemplated its exuberant price and the discomfort from her reaction. When she actually took the time to look at it, she acknowledged that it was wrong. We had to ask, she didn’t offer, to have the missing pieces given to us on the side.

We both used to work in kitchens, and I have front of house experience. Most places around here offer that friendly Humboldt service that I love so much. But the snarky, passive aggressive energy we were met with at this place makes me never want to return.

I was hopeful that we would be reimbursed or at least discounted for our messed up order, but we were charged full price, a whopping $46 for what is a $3 salad green mix, pre-packaged shaved carrots, a handful of chopped zucchini and not even a sandwich serving of crab.

Save your money and your time. These folks should be ashamed. Plenty of nicer places in the area actually worth your hard earned money, with folks who seem to actually want you there and appreciate your time.

And yes, we still tipped, cause we’re not assholes. Paying over $100 for this mess, learn from our mistake. Hope they make some changes over there. We personally, will not be...

What an awful end to a wonderful day on our vacation. My fiancé and I have enjoyed the town of Trinidad and the diverse offerings. We expected better from this place. I’m sure the food is fantastic….if they’re kind enough to bring it to you or tend to your table at all that is. Our server was downright rude, unwelcoming, and inattentive. Maybe we missed some sort of social cue because we’re from out of town? I work in service and have for years, and I just CANNOT imagine anyone of my colleagues or myself treating customers the way we were treated. We were able to order drinks, an appetizer, and two cups of soup with the 2 minutes of service she gave us. The calamari was yummy, the drinks were good, the soup was non existent. We were excited to try the duck and steak specials and were ready to order. We waited and waited and waited while our server meandered around chatting with staff, complaining about her day, and tended kindly to the other 3(?) tables in her section. She ignored my fiancés attempts at getting her attention. (Something no customer should have to do. You have a small section in a small restaurant, all you have to do is a visual pass to see how your tables are doing and if they need you.) When we decided we were over the treatment, and she finally decided to come to our table, we asked for a check so we could go support another restaurant in town and get dinner without a cold shoulder. Of course she left the two cups of soup on the check and when asked to take it off, she got frustrated and told us we should have asked her for the soup… Um what? We ordered it, you took the order, you bring the soup to the table when it’s up. What am I missing here? We are at fault because of your lack of caring? We love the town and plan to return next year, but will be steering clear of this spot. I still cannot believe we gave them...

Let me begin by reminding all readers that reviews are one experience, which means mult variables all happened that created our specific encounter, so know every day, every shift, there's never going to be a recreation of our visit. With that said, our three main indicators to hit up any restaurant were met before we finished our meal, those being: Good reviews on here Clean environment Welcoming hosts

What changed our opinion by the night's end were the following:

1.STAFF. Lots of hovering staff (which makes it feel like upper management has set a rule for all workers to always "be busy!" And lends to a stressful, somewhat facade of service? The constant flux of faces at our table just made us feel a tad overwhelmed. COST. Prices were steep. (We get small business support, and love to help them prosper, but some items were just really high.) FOOD. The famous fish & chips, a fave dish of hubs, was a lot of breading, which takes away from the amount of fish one actually gets. He wasn't a fan of the coleslaw, his preference is thinner in texture (I really liked his slaw myself!) I got a burger, it was OK, but we both agreed the fries were really small and hard, we love us some good fries! ATTITUDE. One of the servers was very unhappy, not ours, we had Lottie (?) nice girl 👍🏻. But that other lady didn't smile once, found something to complain in every single dish from the window (and maybe the cooks were missing a lot??) She flew around looking stressed and completely unhappy and that lends to the atmosphere.

All these things added together is what created our unique, maybe never to unfold again experience, but it made it an unenjoyable one for us. One where we felt the high cost for the local food wasn't a good trade off in the end. So sadly, we...