Samoa Cookhouse

North Coast & Redwoods


On the Samoa Peninsula, the popular Samoa Cookhouse is the dining hall of an 1893 lumber camp. Hikers, hippies and lumberjacks get stuffed while sharing long red-checked oilcloth-covered tables. There is no menu but you can guarantee that anything you order will be freshly made that day. Think fried chicken, pork ribs and bumper breakfasts. Vegetarians should call ahead.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby North Coast & Redwoods attractions

1. Romano Gabriel Wooden Sculpture Garden

1.21 MILES

The coolest thing to gawk at downtown is this collection of whimsical outsider art that’s enclosed by aging glass. For 30 years, wooden characters in…

2. Clarke Historical Museum

1.27 MILES

The best community historical museum on this stretch of the coast houses a set of typically musty relics – needlework hankies and paintings of the area’s…

3. Kinetic Museum Eureka

1.36 MILES

Come see the fanciful, astounding, human-powered contraptions used in the annual Kinetic Grand Championship race from Arcata to Ferndale. Shaped like…

5. Carson Mansion

1.51 MILES

Of Eureka’s fine Victorian buildings, the most famous is the ornate 1880s home of lumber baron William Carson. It took 100 men two years to build. Today…

6. Morris Graves Museum of Art

1.51 MILES

Across Hwy 101, this hit-or-miss museum shows rotating Californian artists and hosts performances inside the 1904 Carnegie library, the state’s first…

7. Sequoia Park

3.41 MILES

A 67-acre old-growth redwood grove is a surprising green gem in the middle of a residential neighborhood. It has biking and hiking trails, a children’s…

8. Samoa Dunes Recreation Area

4.49 MILES

Grassy dunes and windswept beaches extend along the mile-wide, 10-mile long Samoa Peninsula, Humboldt Bay’s western boundary. At the peninsula’s south end…