Marlon T.
Yelp
Humboldt Bay Provisions is a very cool spot in downtown Eureka where you can grab some great appetizers and a drink, or two! We planned a trip up North, and recently stayed in Eureka to take in some new California vibes.
We bookmarked some places in Eureka, and were excited about getting some oysters here. First off, I'll say that the restaurant is beautiful! The old building has very high ceilings, nice old hardwood floors, and a very good vibes!
Let me breakdown the rating into three categories, and provide some observations to give context.
The decor is a 5/5, the service was a 4.5/5, but the food was a 3/5 IMO, but the overall 3 star rating really is because of our liking of the oysters.
The menu is limited, definitely geared towards you ordering some oysters in both cold and hot presentation. They offer cheese plates, sausage and cheese, and other small things as well. We however came for the oysters.
We ordered a dozen oysters that were broiled with different toppings like pesto, curry, and spiced butter. The warm offerings were overall good, the curry flavor was delicious! I think the fragments are one of the things that we didn't like. We understand that shell fragments do appear while shucking, but this place was not busy enough for them to not take the time to clean them up better.
The cold oysters were worse mainly because they had more fragments than the warm ones, but they were actually not cold at all. They were lukewarm, and not chilled or offered with any cold mignonette like most places. We recently visited Seattle, and the oyster presentation and chilled oysters were like night and day.
The people were nice, the vibes are great, but I suggest they take the extra minute to clean the oysters up especially when they are not packed compared to places that give you a better product with more customers!