We stayed at the Victorian Inn for the night and were excited to have a nice restaurant to unwind after a long day of driving. The dining room is beautiful and spacious and feels like you are stepping back in time 100 years. The food was great as well, as was the wine. The service, however, nearly ruined the night for us. Other tables seemed to have fantastic servers but we waited over 10 minutes (i was hungrily staring at my watch) for our waiter to bring us menus and take our drink order. It didn't get better from there. Some of the slowest service I've ever experienced in my life, and it nearly ruined the $100 meal we were so looking forward to. I would have complained to management, but after spending 2 hours on a single course and a glass of wine, I just wanted to go to bed. read more

Came for an event and stayed at the Victorian Inn. Lovely hotel and Ferndale is a charming town where time seems to have stopped. Very charming (also very small area) We stayed just one night and I found that just enough. Food here was ok, not great, but not bad. 1. House Salad was really dull - 2 * please improve this - fresh ingredients but boring. 2. Filet - 3* decently cooked medium rare - but sauce was a bit heavy handed. Perhaps that's what the folks up here prefer but I wish they had taken a more restrained hand to the sauce 3. Crumble - 2* - this tasted just like they took that morning's granola breakfast, baked it and tossed in ice cream. Would not recommend Service is ok but not especially warm or inviting. I was expecting friendlier servers since this is such a small town but that was not the case. I would return if I find myself in Ferndale again but that's only because the food choices are so limited. read more

My wife and two kids had a wonderful Thanksgiving at the VI Restaurant. We always eat out for Thanksgiving and the Victorian Inn was a beautiful setting to celebrate this holiday dinner. The restaurant was well decorated throughout and they had their tree up and a beautiful fireplace inside, too. My wife and I had dinner here once before and thought this would be a nice place to have dinner for Thanksgiving while we were staying in town. The tables were well spaced and the service from beginning to end was excellent. We had a reservation and seating was prompt when we arrived. There were several choices from the menu and my wife and daughter went with the prime rib which I tried and it was juicy and very tasty. I went traditional with turkey, and it was well prepared and the gravy graced it well. I enjoyed the soup and everyone else had salads which were nicely done as well.. The dishes for adults and kids were same size, but the price for children much less at $19 which made it reasonable to take the family. My son who is five just had a side dish of mashed potatoes for $3. A full service bar and my double Jack on the rocks was abundant with the right spirits to enjoy this holiday dinner. A great place and dinner setting and well prepared holiday dinner accompanied with the right ambience to celebrate Thanksgiving. They had plenty of crayons for the kids and coloring paper of turkeys to color while we waited for dinner. read more

VI Restaurant - Thanksgiving dinner at VI Restaurant - New American Near Me - Ferndale, California

For the second time we tried to eat here tonight & the host is so rude! We were dressed nicely & he treated us like a couple of dirt bags. Similar treatment last time, too. Boo!! read more

There's really nothing on the menu. Gone are the bar munchies. No salmon cakes. Only very pricey "fancy" choices. It's become so sit-up-straight and fussy. Bar was completely empty on a Saturday. read more

Service was slow, drinks were of poor quality, staff was obviously overworked even though it was not busy, and I suspect that the liquor poured did not reflect the quality of the bottle in the least. I would ask for a refund if I could. read more

After hearing great reviews, I was extremely disappointed with the restaurant and will not being going there again. The night was just a total disaster. I went on Monday for pizza night with a few others. It took a while for a waiter to come around, but that was somewhat understandable considering they were busy. We ordered a couple pizzas only to find out from the waitress 40 minutes later that they had sold out of what we had ordered. The owner (I believe) came around and apologized for the error, but was extremely disingenuous and came off very rude. For some reason, they couldn't understand why we were upset that we had to pay more money for something on the menu that wasn't our first choice and that we didn't want to begin with. We ended up ordering burgers from the menu and each told the waitress that we all wanted ours cooked medium. After waiting another 30 minutes for the burgers to come out, 2 of the 3 burgers we ordered were raw and completely inedible. The waitress came around and apologized yet again, but considering we were already at the restaurant for well over an hour and 15 minutes, I opted for them not to re-fire the burger and left disappointed. The service was completely unacceptable. Just about the only good thing about the restaurant was the beer I ordered. Perhaps they should discontinue serving food and become a bar instead. The slogan at the bottom of the menu for this restaurant states "Your table is waiting"....no kidding! read more

We had dinner here last night; it was our 35th wedding anniversary, so wanted something special. Unfortunately, the choices for dinner in Ferndale on a Monday night are limited. Having looked at the reviews, we toned down our expectations. The server brought me the wine list, rather than place it in between my wife and I; i did not worry about that. However, since Rebecca ordered the wine, it should have been brought to her for tasting. Not in the case of this server. The salad came on one plate, even though we clearly told the server we planned to split it. He said he would bring a second plate, but never did. Although Rebecca was the one who ordered the salad, it was placed in front of me. We ordered the green apple vinaigrette; there may have been some on the salad. However, our server also brought over the vinegar and oil; why? Rebecca had the braised short ribs. They were as good as it gets. It came with carrots, tiny onions and small potatoes. Not sure this dish could have been better. I order Paella; it was awful. In a good paella, all of the meat and seafood should be cooked in the paella pan with the saffron rice. Other than the linquica sausage, none of the meat or the seafood was cooked with the rice. The chicken was breast meat, dry and cut up in tiny pieces; usually, it it either leg or thigh meat, since the dark meat is more flavorful. The clams and scallops were clearly not cooked in the rice, since they did not take on any of the color of saffron. Thus, only the rice had the saffron flavor. A real Spaniard would have died to see this abomination. Rebecca ordered a creme brule, which was ordinary at best. My butter scotch pudding with salted caramel was fabulous. In short one of us got a wonderful entree and the other got a wonderful dessert; the rest was very ordinary to poor. I must say we did stop in here in the middle of the afternoon for a beer. The server in the tavern was first rate, the beer was served in a chilled glass and was wonderfully cold. After a hot drive, it was perfect. If you come to dinner, be careful. read more

A terrible dining experience. My companion had the ribeye. The meat was lousy. Served with a twice baked potato that was literally black on the outside from being burnt. I had a seafood pasta, big, big mistake. There was no sauce on the pasta, it was so dry it was clumped together. The scallops were so slimey that I could barely swallow the first bite. I ate the four prawns. When out server asked "just mediocre?" My reply was no, it was way worse than that. He offered me dessert on the house, which I accepted. After waiting over half an hour. We paid another server and on our way out our server asked if we wanted our dessert to go. A little late. No, this place was not busy, our waiter had only a couple of tables so there were no excuses for the slow, at times non-existent service. $108 .00 - 1.5 hours wasted read more

Racist. My coworker and I (both from out of town on a business trip) were denied service. The host took one look at us and turned us away.

I ordered a garden salad with chicken. There was one other table (of two) there, other than that the place was empty. It took 25 minutes for my salad to get to me. And once it did, she forgot to bring the oil and vinegar. I waited another 2 minutes for her to bring that back. The bowl that the salad was served in had some crusty stuff on the outside. But I'm hungry and will ignore... The salad was decent. The chicken was tasty. I had my credit card out and ready to pay when she came over to ask if I wanted anything more. "Just the check, please." That was 6 minutes ago!! I can hear her in the other room chatting!! I went in there and she was putting away liquor bottles at the bar! No check in sight! I asked if I could pay there. She printed out my check and handed it to me while not missing a beat in her convo with her two coworkers, who were hovered over a phone watching a video! I'm a good tipper. It pains me to not tip well! I gave her less than a 10% tip...just for the kitchen. read more

We stayed one night at the Victorian Inn and had dinner at VI. Dinner was dreadful and woefully overpriced - more expensive than food in San Francisco and Los Angeles. We could not understand how they had the nerve to charge the prices they did for their horrible food and almost non-existent service (two wait staff on a Saturday evening). The food was under cooked and poorly presented and the restaurant itself looked like it was in need of a total refurbishment. The furnishings are very cheap and dingy, as well - it's a joke and an insult. Skip this place. There are other options in town that won't charge an arm and a leg for bad food, bad decor and bad service. read more

Our friends took us here for New Year's Eve dinner. What a disappointment. First, they were out of the ingredients to make the on-bar advertised Gingerbread Martini. Then, out of an ingredient for the Garden Martini. Okay, it is 7:30 on New Year's Eve, I'm ready to celebrate, and I'm already at the alternate choice. So much for VI making money on the high-margin items. I ordered the filet and lobster, $42, the highest-priced item on the menu. My medium-rare steak arrived medium. The lobster was over cooked. And the potatoes tasted like they had been under the heat lamps too long. I wasn't willing to order dessert after that. Although the service was slow, our server was nice enough. read more

First time visitor for dinner. To begin our server was Brandy ans she was so personable and welcoming. We started with drinks, reasonably priced, and bread (very delicious). Ordered the riasted vegetable skewers, and babyback bbq ribs. Everything was delicious! Ribs were fall odd the bone tender, i reallly liked the bbq sauce. The vegetables and dipping sauce were fabulous. Portion size was good die peice. Would definitely recommend and will come back! read more

This restaurant is the best. The service and the food was excellent. I had ribs and they were fall off the bone delicious.. their cole slaw has a cream base dressing, which is the best and a twice baked potato...all excellent.. My husband had fish and chips and it was also excellent..large portions.. Ryan our server was great. He was there when to check on us several times without hovering.. Great sense of humor also. Very quiet dinner where my poor deaf husband could actually hear and we could talk during our dinner.. Just and excellent choice and believe me we have tried a lot of restaurants in Humboldt Co.. We used to go for special occasions to the Ivanhoe, whose service is a tad sketchy, not poor but they tend to take way to long.. the VI is our new place for special occasions.. read more

As a hotel guest, your stay comes with a hot breakfast served at the restaurant! This was such a nice treat. And they don't cut corners just because it's free. I was pleasantly surprised at the choices and looked forward to my meal each morning. I also had dinner here twice and enjoyed those as well. There's really no other choices on Ferndale during the week, since most of the businesses close by 6pm. But it was still a great place. You can also eat and have a drink at the tavern, while local musicians play. Great place! read more

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Another amazing meal at the VI. Jason conjured up a delightful quinoa vegan dish and for my meat loving hubby, duck ravioli. Fabulous. With 48 hours notice, the chef can do just about anything, and his last minute vegan concoctions are consistently wonderful too. Amy and Mishka are charming servers! read more

VI Restaurant - Quinoa vegan delight! - New American Near Me - Ferndale, California

Awesome food and excellent service in a beautiful ambience. Definitely not the typical American cuisine, which we were surprised and very happy to find. The prices are a bit higher but justified by the amount and quality of food. Seeing the menu and the setting of the restaurant you might expect a "fancy, luxury restaurant' experience, which refreshingly was countered by our very friendly, casual waitress, who made us feel like we stepped into a friend's dining room. A beautiful experience and a nice end to a day of driving. read more

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I've come in quite a few times hoping it will improve and it doesn't! Whenever I go, I receive very poor service - they take forever to wait on my table. I understand if they're busy, but I've been in there where there's just my table and maybe 2-3 others and they take just as long (I even had someone claim they were swamped as an excuse for being slow, when they clearly weren't). I have to say, their clam chowder is amazing and I've ordered a sandwich there that has some pretty good aioli on it - but the food tends to be on the greasier side. The first time I went there, I had a BLT and it was so greasy, I couldn't even eat it so I sent it back. There was so much grease I started to feel sick after a few bites. This is the only restaurant I have this issue at with the service and excess grease...the atmosphere is nice and every now and then there's something really good on the menu...but the service is so terrible. Over it! read more

If you like top Ramen this place is perfect for you the paella is top Ramen topped with over cooked shrimp over cooked chicken and no muscles but they Give you a mini spoon.Your medium rare ribeye will be more than well done. read more

My husband and I are camping for 3 weeks and we wanted to eat out. We stopped in the cute little town of Ferndale and this was the only restaurant open. So we thought we would give it a try. It did not disappoint. It was more expensive than we had planned to spend, but the food was FANTASTIC! The pork chops were moist, the chicken was tender. The ambiance of this old Victorian hotel/rest was Devine. read more

Lunch in the Pub at VI, Husband had a large bowl of Butternut soup, it was the soup of the day for 3 days straight! Not very hot so flavor was boring...My cheeseburger and fries was cold and meat raw in the middle.....At the time the pub was not crowded at all either....It was during the Christmas Holidays, maybe not enough staff? read more

The apple coleslaw and clam chowder were excellent however my husband's fish and chips left MUCH to be desired. The fish was dry and rubbery and tasted fishy. The ambiance was lovely and the gentleman playing the guitar did a great job. I would return for a drink but not for dinner. read more

Been here many times and greatly enjoyed the diverse menu. Yet last time we imbibed we sat in the barroom for dinner it took over a half hour to be asked if we wanted something. Needless to say, we left. We did notice the staff had changed some, but this lack of service is unacceptable! read more

Very relaxing and friendly atmosphere. We sat next to the fireplace and enjoyed pasta primavera, gourmet chicken pot pie and a bottle of wine. A bit pricy, but good food and an enjoyable evening. Very friendly staff. We will go back there again. read more

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Got food poisoning after eating a chicken pot pie and mom did too after fish and chips. Love the atmosphere but the food isn't great. They'd be a lot better off hiring a classically trained chef who could take their menu to a new level and improve the quality of each dish. I expected a lot more from such a fancy and elegant place. read more

Housed in a beautiful old Victorian Hotel sits the Vi restaurant. The location is warm and cozy, with a charm that takes you back to a bygone era. We had lunch here while visiting Ferndale for the day. Mother had the Fish & Chips. Although it looked appetizing and came out fresh and hot, the fish lacked flavor. Even though it was deep fried. The French fries were run of the mill, nothing special. The coleslaw was the only decent item! I had the Chicken Caprese sandwich. It also looked good, but was disappointing flavor wise. Not bad just bland beyond words. Green salad with ranch dressing was just so so. I would suggest they step up the flavor by adding condiments, herbs, and spice to wake up the taste buds. Service was pleasant, and dining room was nice. read more

I was on a road trip along Highway 101, and a friend from Sacramento told of this cute little town she heard about that I "just had to stop and check out" on my way back north. So I stopped into the Victorian Inn Bed & Breakfast and decided it would be a good place for lunch. I believe it was Monday, so everything was pretty quiet. I entered the bar area of the restaurnt, very pretty, but a little dark. I wanted to enjoy some daylight, so I chose to sit in the dining room, I had the place to myself. My waitress was very friendly, and I ordered the brie with apple chutney and crackers, along with a glass of chardonnay. When the brie came out she also brought some breadsticks that she thought was good with the brie as well. Good thing since the wedge of cheese only came with four crackers! The chardonnay was excellent, and the brie with chutney was even more excellent, I devoured the entire thing, and the majority of the bread. The price was maybe a little steep, but I was on vacation and enjoying myself, so I didn't mind a bit! Great atmosphere, great food, great service! read more

VI Restaurant - New American Near Me - Ferndale, California

Horrible service by the owner! Server was ok but new and definitely under trained. Food was ok at best. They serve high end liquor with no price list and scoff when you ask the price. Then you get the bill & get charged $40 for a McAllen single malt. Worst pricing, food & service I've had in Humboldt. Definitely recommend to anyone that reads this to look elsewhere for dinner options. read more

Why only 3 stars? This is a remarkable establishment. My husband and I shared the beef bourguignon which was a delectable dish, perfectly executed. It paired well with their smooth yet robust Zinfandel. The brownie dessert was a great way to end the meal. And how great is their bread?! They make it themselves. read more

VI Restaurant - Bourguignon! Best I've had! Pairs nicely with red Zinfandel. - New American Near Me - Ferndale, California

Been back twice now since the 2015 V-Day let down. Seems if you sit at the bar you get food & obviously drinks much much quicker than when seated at a table. Had the salmon cakes both times & while good, they were cooked inconsistent. The second time around they seemed a bit undercooked along with the potato croquettes I had. I'm more of a leisurely diner so I don't mind hanging around a while but my companion is not. So if you're pressed for time I'd suggest going elsewhere or try ordering from the bar. Seems to have worked for me. The bar & restaurant is absolutely beautiful & well stocked. I just wish they served brunch until at least 2pm on weekends. read more

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Great location, great food, great building. Cool, short menu that covers enough ground for most folks. Best salad and coffee I've had at a restaurant in years. Insane quality halibut fish and chips special. I can really get into the Victorian California aspect of the place. It'd be 5 stars, if it weren't as expensive as it was. I'd definitely eat there again. read more

Super disappointed... we went to Ferndale to eat at Ivanhoe and they were closed... so we thought we'd try something new. 15+ mins for a drink or even acknowledgement and 45 mins later for a cold coippino dinner. Terrible service and not great food. Would not recommend, and we typically give anything a second try.. not this place :( read more

called and made reservation for my moms birthday showed up only 5 other tables had customers and they made us wait 30 plus minutes then sat us at a table that wasn't a window table as requested but sat others who came in ofter us at the window unacceptable the food was not very good and the prices were different that were on there online site again unacceptable prices were 6 dollars more for seafood paella which I ve had at Basque restraunts in reno it didn't even compare not very good at all service was only ok didn't even do anything for my mom on her birthday wont be going back word of mouth is everything I let everyone I know not to bother c read more

All you can eat wings on Tuesdays and the Mac N Cheese used the most decadent home-produced cheese I have ever tasted. Almost too rich for me. A must try if you are ever near this quiet town. read more

Im not sure if i have ever had better service than what i received at this little gem. First, the ambiance was steller, live music, beautiful setting. My waitress was fantastic, she went above and beyond to make my wife and i feel very comfortable, while enjoying our food. Food was great, but the service is what really stuck out to me. I will be back. read more

Great food and even more excellent service. Alexandra took great care of us and kept the drinks coming and food perfect.

Amazing dinner on August 3. The Petrale Sole Fish and Chips were among the best I've had. Service was great and the guitarist playing the room was very good, and added atmosphere to an already lovely restaurant. read more

Our first night in Ferndale, we ate at The Vi. We had a couple of chardonnays from a local winery, Dogwood. Pretty good. Dinner was more than satisfying -- salmon, ahi, perfectly done and interesting vegetables, duck spring rolls, and a cheerful waitress named Nicole who recently moved here from San Diego. We sat in the bad children's space - an intimate table for 2 in what was the area of a bay window. An area that is enclosed; as Nicole explained she needs to announce her arrival or she startles the guest with his back to the doorway. Nice and quiet. Thought I would've liked a parade of people walking by on the sidewalk that was our view. But then we'd look like window displays; at least the 2 older women having dinner the next day in that spot looked like that. Dinner in the tavern at The Vi a couple of nights later. My partner had the crab cakes: a disappointment and he was bothered by pomegranate seeds in this salad. We each had a glass of local wine, mine from Ferndale (frog wildcat red). I ate what I wanted -half a roast chicken (lemon slices under the skin; will need to remember that) and the good veggies (Chinese peas, bok choy, tiny broccoli) that I'd had the first night in town. Partner got the crab cakes comped since he'd asked the waitress to let the chef know that they were too salty, didn't taste crabby enough. The rating -- 4 stars for the first night; 2 the second because of the crab cakes, so an average of 3. We did find out that the regular chef was off our second night, so perhaps that was the problem? Shouldn't happen, though, since repeat customers except the quality to remain the same. read more

Service was very friendly but slow. I had the pan roasted chicken with vegetables which was delicious. The chicken was moist and seasoned perfectly. Vegetables was brocollini and peas and also came with finger potatoes. Nice view to see all the way down the downtown road. All in all was good and Im satisfied. read more