Thanks for the report! It would be useful to also know the names of the restaurants you didn’t like, as a short summary.
Luckily, we didn’t have any bad meals in this area! Two that were just fine were:
Big Chief in Laytonville would be worth a stop for their good beer selection, outdoor seating, and growlers of kombucha. Food wise, I didn’t think much of the po-boys.
Tandoori Bites in Eureka was as good as neighborhood Indian places in the Bay Area. Dishes ordered as “spicy” we’re lacking both heat and fragrance. I requested mango pickle, which helped.
Bump. Anything new notable between Ukiah and Trinidad?
Two years later I followed your advice to go to Moonstone Grill in TrInidad 
We lucked out in going there the one non-foggy night of the trip!
We went early enough that they let us walk in. Our seats were pretty good and I snuck to the best seat in the house to capture the above photo.
Food and service was good all around. They have lots of wines, two types of Navarro grape juice, and beer in bottles but not on tap.
The smoked steelhead salad with shaved fennel and apples, scallions, and a tarragon vinaigrette. This was the most lightly dressed salad we’ve had in our trips north of Eureka, and it perfectly coated the super fresh spring mix.
Halibut with a muhammara-like sauce.
Vegan entree, sundried tomato chickpea cakes on a chopped salad with a red pepper purée, tahini dressing, and crispy quinoa which texturally tied the dish together.
Flaky crust on the blackberry galette with thick vanilla cream. Next time we drive north, I’d be very happy to sit at the bar, eat this galette, and appreciate the views.
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Walking along the Trinidad coastline, we had lunch at Seascape Restaurant. It’s, um, next to a very nice pier
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I didn’t fit into our itinerary, but Katy’s Smokehouse in Trinidad was recommended to me and their selections look great when I walked in. Lots of smoked local fish, better suited toward camping or a picnic lunch than we were after. They also had some marinated seafood ideal for grilling at a campsite.
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Larrupin Cafe in Trinidad was the fanciest and most romantic of our other stops, and the outside patio had live musicians. Generous portions.
Entrees came with an appetizer plate: aged jack cheese, house smoked steelhead on cucumbers, a light whipped liver mousse, whipped goat cheese, mustard sauce, peaches and apples. Piping bags seem popular in Trinidad.
The half and half had ribs and smoked brisket. Sauce overpowered any smoke in the meats.
Grilled steelhead was fantastic. Best savory bite of the trip.
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Jyun Kang Vegetarian Restaurant is located in Ukiah’s City of 10,000 Buddhas, a 700 acre monastic community site whose highlights include the beautiful, and accurately named, Jewelled Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas. This is a destination restaurant if there ever was one.
Jyun Kang adheres to Chinese Buddhist vegetarian principles, think vegan plus no alliums (garlic, onions) and no MSG.
Should you have leftovers (yes!), they request that you bring your own containers. We didn’t because another group ordered the last of the stir-fried seasonal vegetables, and we finished everything else.
Seaweed Roll, Cucumber, and Carrot with Thai Style Tom Yam Sauce 四六吉祥. One of the best dish I’ve had at a vegan Asian restaurant, the complex and sour Tom Yam sauce redeemed what I grew to loathe as tourist food, along with banana pancakes, in Malaysia. The protein here is vegan fish, a seasoned soy protein patty surrounded by seaweed, giving an oceany taste (Hayward’s Veggie Lee gets theirs from SoCol, perhaps from this company).
Snow Lily 雪蒟. Another excellent dish, texturally a cross between mushrooms and squid, with a basil sauce.
Napa Cabbage with Bean Curd Rolls 琉璃卷.
Rolls of Crispy bean curd skin with a light sauce and cilantro. The cabbage is an accompaniment rather than part of the rolls as far as we could tell.
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Great find. I don’t head out there any more, but when I do, its glad to know that options like this exist!
I learned about this on Chowhound years ago! Next time, I plan to get a soup and noodles – – veggie Lee Kind of phones in their noodle dishes.
Are there a lot of Buddhist temples over there?
We were limited in time, and the air was smoky from the fires not so close by, so the only temple we saw/visited was the Jeweled Hall. The subject headings near the bottom of their background page mention a few “halls” that we didn’t get to.
I’m long overdue for a meal there. Thanks for the report!
There is a dress code there (“dress modestly”) is what a sign reads. I usually wear a long skirt and a top that covers my shoulders. My husband wears pants - hard to do in the summer.
Whoops, I should have said that. Thanks for mentioning! (I’d hate to encourage disrespectful behavior, but I’ll mention they didn’t appear to turn away two women with exposed shoulders).
What do you like to order there?
It’s also cash only. There have been a few close calls when I forgot about that!
My favorite dish is the seaweed roll, followed closely by the deep fried tofu puffs. The golden tofu seaweed rolls are also very good, as is the curry noodle soup.
Other than that noodle soup, I avoid their noodle dishes because they’re not anything special. The same goes for the fried rice.
The ambiance of City of 10,000 Buddhas has always reminded me of a David Lynch film, especially when the albino peacocks and monks are out against the backdrop of those industrial buildings. The grounds used to be a rather notorious mental institution that was shut down in the early 1970s.
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Oh, City of 10,000 Buddhas is a temple. I thought its the nickname for a town around Ukiah.
Have to try that if I ever head up that way.
City of 10,000 Buddhas is name of the whole 700 acre shebang, and the Jeweled Hall is the temple with 10,000 physical Buddha’s (with Buddha’s elsewhere in the complex, I guess that means there’s probably more then 10k buddhas, but who’s counting?
Heading up this weekend. Any new stuff near Eureka? Probably heading to Samoa Cookhouse at some point.
Very sleepy this time of year, especially at dinner. There’s an abundance of breakfast/brunch options.
- Samoa Cookhouse (Samoa): historic place with all-you-can-eat, multi-course meals at shared long tables. Food-wise, well, it’s all you can eat Breakfast is probably the way to go rather than dinner. Dead at Friday dinner time, so we missed out on the expected entertainment— gaggles of gorging young people. What i missed in personal nostalgia, I gained in history from old logging photos in the dining area, and in a cool mini-museum room filled with everything from saws to accounting machines.
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A Taste of Bim (Eureka): There’s no shortage of Caribbean inspired hot sauces and Jamaica things in Humboldt county, so we were pleased to see an actual Caribbean restaurant, owned by a woman and her mother from Barbados ( A.k.a. “Bim”). Fish stew, goat stew, and ox tail stew are only available Friday through Sunday. Fish stew paired with slow cooked cabbage and carrots, which married flavors yet still had some bite. Goat stew had a light acidity, from lemon juice, that brought all the seasonings into balance. Jamaican beef patty, made to order, had a thin delicate crust, And the smoothly ground beef filling had a more pronounced meat than spiced flavor. I’m not well-versed in Caribbean cuisine, but I’m happy to report that we found a place to prioritize when we return through Eureka.
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Arcata has a Farmer’s market on Saturday mornings, and people seemed to bounce between there and popular Cafe Brio for pastries. A Nicaraguan stand had pupsusas and good curtido. Produce, especially for this time of year, was varied and pristine.
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Is Samoa Cookhouse related to the island Samoa?
Interesting we have Caribbean food in Humboldt county. I wonder how folks from the islands moved there.
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There’s a samoan and tongan community in east palo alto which is vanishing with gentrification. There was a market around the corner from my house - on Willow - which had Samoan stuff, they got replaced by a Subway a few years ago. Not much info on the web about why they came to be there.
Of course Samoans are known for their size - probably very effective folks for logging big trees Or maybe just marketing large portion sizes???
Mentioned in the wikipedia page as being 13,000 people! I don’t believe that.
Don’t know any EPA places focused on pacific island food. Guam at least is represented in Fremont? https://www.yelp.com/biz/booniepepper-islander-grill-newark-2
There used to be a Samoan food truck The Umu which parked outside Kelly Park to serve the local community. I made it there once but didn’t see the truck. Yelp said they are no longer around, however…
