Harbor View Grotto

By far the best kept secret in town! We have been in town for a week and have been going to restaurants that have the high scores. Not only were the bartenders amusing but so was the whole staff! Great food!

Mediocre quality food at good quality food prices. We were looking for a good seafood dinner as we were passing through town and this didn’t quite cut it. Oyster appetizer was good. Onion rings were really good. Clam chowder was terrible. Rest of our meals were ok, just not great. And for the prices they charge, one should be able to expect great food. Service was good, though a bit slow. Would opt for another dining option if in this area again.

Bland traditional seafood. Nice view, decent service but food isn’t worth money or calories.

Food here was very tasty. especially the Calamari Strips and the French Fries! I don’t recommend the rice with dinner as it was overlooked and had little flavor.
Aaron is an exceptional server with a pleasant personality — thank you for your awesome service and friendly attitude
Since we are vacationing here for a few weeks, we plan to return. However, it can’t be as often as we’d like due to the somewhat high prices.

Eight of us stayed one night in Crescent City and ended up at this restaurant. It didn’t look like it would be much, but we were so pleasantly surprised. Every single one of the eight people in my group loved our food. My sister said the onion rings were excellent. The fries were really good. My other sister said the hamburger was delicious. My fish tacos were excellent. One of my nieces said the chicken teriyaki was the best she ever had. They have decent and reasonably priced wine, a view of the water, and our waiter Aaron was REALLY good, super friendly and helpful. I would definitely come back here. I hope to do so at some point and try their crab and cheese grilled sandwich. YUM! Highly recommended.

Being a native of Humboldt Co, I’ve eaten there quite a few times. I think their food is every bit as good as the Chart room. Sometimes service isn’t all that great, but that can be had in any restaurant. depending on staff and management. I think it’s had a bad rap. Portions we’ve had was good and I didn’t think the price was any more than any other restaurant in the area.
People tend to put out bad reviews, but fail to put out good ones.

Happened upon this place while looking for another. Saw a lot of cars in the lot so figured it had to be a good place! It is! While we had to wait to be seated and then to order, after that the food came quickly and well prepared. My husband and I both had the clam chowder — thick, creamy, lots of clams and delicious. I ordered the garlic prawns with onion rings and my husband had the breaded fish and chips. The shrimp was tasty, maybe a touch over-​cooked, but still good. The onion rings were lightly breaded, thick onion slices, lightly crunchy and perfectly done. The fish (Cod) was in large chunks, but nice and flaky, lightly breaded and nicely crunchy. Fries were good as well. Both dinners came with sliced, cooked carrots they were very good. Also a nice bread basket came with the meals, but the butter was too hard! But that’s common with so many places. The waiter was prompt and very congenial. He took great care of us. We’d go again in a heartbeat!

Came back the following night-​like a different place. Waitress not helpful, and not a good manager of time; three tables with customers, do you really think you should take ALL three orders at the same time, and overwhelm the cook? The «family recipe clam chowder» was different from the night before, and just not that good. Cocktails were not the same quality as the night before, and glasses were smaller!
Here is a question – If you advertise as a «Lounge, Steakhouse and Seafood,» How do you run out of Maker’s Mark after making 1 ½ cocktails?
I can see perfectly why the ratings of this establishment are all over the ratings chart. It would appear that consistence is not in the operations plan here. That is too bad, it can be good.

Waited about 45 mins. For a salad and a burger and never got them.
I really can’t recommend this place. Rather pricey and you just don’t get what they are charging all that money for.
Ended up walking out before we ever got our food as did another couple that walked in right behind us.
Waitress was nice but never even tried to come back to our table and let us know what was going on and why we were waiting so long.
DONT GO!

To write a completely honest review might come across as rude so I’m just going to give a few complaints…
–When we walked in, instead of being seated, we were told to wait because «the waitresses needed to catch up» … but the place was less than half full and there was a hostess standing there who could have seated us then… Really should have just walked out at that moment
–SMALL portions for the price… for example the shrimp cocktail I ordered came in a tiny dessert bowl and the shrimp were the smallest kind, like less than an inch served with a splash of ketchup… that was $ 7 or $ 8… Would have expected 5 or 6 large shrimp
–3 or 4 waitresses kept coming to our table, the place was less than half full, you’d think just one would be assigned to our side of the restaurant but they seemed very disorganized
Just disappointing food and service in general.

The food was AWESOME. The service was GREAT. The view harbour thoughts of Breaking Bad.

This was the worst. Everything was over fried and dry. I’m only giving it one star because I have to give it something. Our cups were consistently empty, the food was terrible, our service was horrible; and our bill was rediculous. The food wasn’t good enough to pay ¹⁄₃ of the $ 75 our bill for two adults and two children came out to be. Our cups were empty when I food was delivered and our server never came to check back until long after we finished eating. So we had no drinks the whole of our meal. My food was so bad I sent it back; but was charged for it anyways. Don’t waste your time or money; find somwhere else

Great service, warm atmosphere, yummy drinks!!! Try the scooby snacks cocktail, it’s delicious! Great bar and excellent location :)

Excellent, old-​fashioned meal: fish filets with vegetable and starch. Sufficient friendly service, slightly slow at times. Somewhat costly for location and décor.
My party of 5 all really enjoyed their seafood. Fish was great pan-​fried or sautéed in wine sauce… snapper or sole for $ 18, halibut for $ 27. Baked potato was plain but good, exactly what i wanted. Others liked fries. Starter salad could be larger and add something besides lettuce, 1 slice of cucumber, and 1 slice of tomato, but it was decent. Clam chowder was adequate. Soup or salad came with fish filet meal. Free bread was a soft, sliced loaf and delicious.
Waitress was friendly and knew the menu well. She always seemed to be in a hurry though. There was a minor wait for our table, which was weird as we had a reservation. Another group got put at a table in a corner shielded by a wall, and they moved themselves to one of the available central tables with better views (hostess should offer choices and fill views first). Overall adequate service, though.
$ 150 for 5 entrees, 2 beers, and an extra soup (including tax and 20% tip)…a little pricy. Old carpet, but clean, sufficient atmosphere and decorum. Nothing upscale. Casual clothes. As every other review says, view is mostly of a warehouse and trailer park/​boat storage. But harbor water is visible, and you can see the views from the parking lot and go somewhere else if you can’t take it.
I am unclear why their overall rating is so liw, but I’d be happy to return.

Comida normal pero el servicio pésimo desde que nos tomaron la orden hasta que llego la comida 1 horas yo trabajo en restaurant y entiendo que si esta ocupado esperes pero si no lo está no entiendo nos tomaron la orden de tragos pedí un cerveza 20 minutos al pedir la segunda nunca llegó mejor cancele la orden

If the location was better it would of gotten a 5 star rating. Might of gotten 5 stars on our waitress alone!
Showed up late after walking out of 2 other nearby restaurants before even sitting down, due to cleanliness or sketchiness of the other places. Lucky to find this as it is tucked off the main Hwy and tucked between a trailer park and a wherehouse.
Move this place closer to the water and you have a home run!
Even though we were about 45 minutes before closing, we were greeted with a smile, told not to rush, and our server was friendly, outgoing and energetic even towards the end of her day like that.
The food was very good, and the family was happy.
When everyone agrees, it’s a great place to go to!

I don’t know that I’ve ever had better service. Ever. We had a party of 12; two of them were toddlers. Our waitress was friendly, courteous, and on the ball! We never had to wait for refills or hunt her down to ask a question; but, she wasn’t looking over us either.
The food was fantastic. Half the party had American food and they said it was one of the best burgers they’ve ever had. The rest of us had seafood. It was fresh, cooked beautifully, and tasted delicious!!!
Sure, the view of the trailer park wasn’t optimal, but, if you want to eat with a great view of the ocean and don’t care about the company you are with, go sit at the beach. The atmosphere inside is just wonderful!
We come to Crescent City every year; wish we would have eaten here in years past.
We will be back again and again!

Had a late night dinner after a long day of driving. Aaron the bartender is wonderful. We arrived 15 minutes before they closed but he served us with a smile. Great fish. Laid back atmosphere.

Fish and chips were fresh and delicious, but the place was just two expensive in my opinion. The kids meals were decent, but every thing else was overpriced. The wait staff were quick and friendly. The décor just felt old. The place feels like they are trying to be a fancy seafood high end restaurant, but the only part they seem to succeeded at was the price. I probably wouldn’t come back here. It wasn’t romantic enough for date night, and it was too expensive for family night.

I ate here a week ago, and I’m still annoyed by the disgusting meal.
After a long drive down the coast, my traveling companion and I were famished, and our motel recommended the Grotto. The menu looked fine, so off we went.
While on the coast, I usually eat only seafood, but for some reason, I had a craving for prime rib, which is a truly rare occurrence for me. The Grotto is apparently famous for their prime rib, so I ordered it «as rare as you can make it.» The server soon came back, saying, «I checked with the kitchen, and they said that the rarest they can do your prime rib is medium rare.» I agreed to that.
Now for a review of the meal:
1. Shared cup of chowder: plenty of clams, but way too much celery, and IT TASTED OF RAW FLOUR! Major fail for the kitchen. Companion disliked it, too.
2. Green salad: completely average with mostly iceberg lettuce. Meh.
3. Traveling companion had the fish tacos; she liked them, so can write her own review if she desires.
4. Prime rib came, and it looked gray. I cut across the center of the meat, and it was gray. It was medium WELL to WELL! Not MEDIUM RARE as promised. I kept trying different parts of the meat, and it was all overcooked and DRY as death. Complete fail for the kitchen.
The server returned, and I pointed out the horror of my prime rib. He apologized and offered to get me something else, but it was already approaching 9pm, and we were too exhausted after a day of driving down the coast to wait. He removed the «meat» portion of the bill (I think that was $ 7.90).
Bottom line: The kitchen is incompetent. They didn’t cook the chowder properly. They can’t create a decent salad. And they misinformed/​lied to our server about their ability to cook the prime rib. I am sure they had pre-​cooked the prime rib, and since we arrived about 8pm, they only had some overcooked ends remaining, which should have never been served to someone ordering rare meat. If the kitchen had just given our server correct information, I would have ordered seafood (like the petrale sole special they had that night), and would have probably been much happier. I left hungry and tired.

Traveling south on Hwy 101, stopped by for a bowl of their famous clam chowder for lunch. Got fast service from Ryan, chowder was light, creamy and full of flavorful clams. Easy RV parking is a bonus.
Great quick lunch and harbor view, sat in the Northwest corner for best views.