Nor’ Wester Steak & Seafood

Not sure why this place has such a low score on Unilocal.It was fantastic! The owner was the bartender and helped out in the restaurant making sure everyone’s dinner was great. The chef nailed the Cioppino and my date had the local rockfish — blakened. Everything was amazing. The view from the dining room of the ocean and harbor was worth the visit just for that. We were rewarded with a breath taking sunset too. I will go here again.

We were apprehensive about going to the restaurant due to low Unilocal rating. We found, however, the food to be very good, great views and friendly family run establishment for 37 years. Do NOT let the Unilocal review sway you! On our way to the Benbow Inn at Garberville.

This place use to be good years ago and had the best clam chowder anywhere. Now it’s horrible, over priced and their «fresh’ food stinks. Our dinner came right out of a bag from Costco I swear! The «fresh» salmon was hard and dried out and the vegetables were limp and over cooked. What use to be a fantastic place is now a place we will never go to again! Oh yeah, and they ran out of pasta on a 3 day weekend, who doesn’t plan for that?

Excellant food, beautiful presentation, and friendly staff. Coastal views are beautiful. The clam chowder is something I order every visit. The cheese cake is the perfect dessert. I highly recommend dining here.

Norwester is wonderful the New York Blue is to die for a awesome meal, my wife likes The Savannah chicken, nice people and awesome food. We have been going there for 28 years. Love that place

It was Valentines night, we were traveling through from Portland to San Jose. It was a date night for my girl and I. Our Waitress was friendly, the steak gristly for $ 35.00 I would suggest some where else if I had known one. I was not impressed with much else other than the view as the sun set.

All I have to say is ignore all the negative reviews here. This is absolutely the best restaurant in Gold Beach. The problem is, they do not give discount coupons to the motels to come here. Sure, this place is not cheap but really, good seafood is not cheap and if it is, I would question the quality. I come to Gold Beach twice annually and will not eat anywhere else. Yes, I have tried Spinners, the place everyone comments on that supposedly beats this place but no, not even in the same class. The razor clams or shrimp rival any place in Portland. You may ask, «what does this person know», good question. I travel 5 states with my job, CA, OR, WA, ID, and NV. I would hope you would agree that there are pretty good places to eat in those states. This place rivals them all. Bottom line, if you are cheap, don’t come! If you want excellent food, come. Also, I don’t need people dotting over mean when I eat, show up periodically and all is good. Also, to the lady that played the «race» card on her review, really? This is just food!

We ate dinner here the new York steak absolutely mouth watering, a little pricy, but worth it!, definitely will go back next time I’m in gold beach!

Service was good and people nice. But the food not so much. Not worth the prices at all. Sadly disappointed.

We like to stop at places with water views. Nor’Wester is located at the harbor next to the Cannery. Had a delightful dinner and service was excellent. My entrée was a large filet of fresh salmon with the Asian seasoning. Dessert was an apple cake with whiskey sauce. Asked the waitress to warm the cake and add some whipped cream– delicious! The house wine was reasonable and a good value at $ 6 glass. Very enjoyable dinner.

*update* Back again and I am blown away. I see bad reviews on here but I can’t figure out why. Tonight I am having the calamari strips (most tender calamari I have ever had hands down, Fork tender almost like tofu, it’s that soft!)
Next is the Dungeness crab blu and brie. Lots of crab, lots of cheese. This reminds me of something I would have back home in Sonoma County. For dinner its clam linguini, top notch flavor, nice white wine, garlic, parsley, and lots of clams and noodles. I gotta say something about this bread, very nice! Great way to sop up the sauce. We will be back again!

Someone from my husbands work recommended this place, seeing that he couldn’t remember the exact name and only the location I am convinced we must have gone the wrong place. Leaving the house I said «oh no, I didn’t check the Unilocal reviews» LIVE AND LEARN. My first red flag was being ignored when we got there and waiting 10 min to be seated, there were plenty of open tables as it was nearly 8pm. We were finally seated by the slowest moving waitress I have ever witnessed, more of a shuffle than a walk. We placed our dinner and drink order at the same time. Our bread and ONE cup of chowder were brought with an «Sorry, we only had one cup left» WHAT.!? Still no drinks, when the people that arrived 15min after us were brought their drinks I nearly snapped, my husband called the waitress over asked for our drinks at which time she looked very confused and we had to tell her it was a hefeweizen and house red wine. Those came to the table, still no Shirley Temple for my son. I ordered the prawn Louie for $ 23, should have been priced $ 12-​$ 15 being that they used previously frozen farm raised prawns. I only eat wild and have a very keen taste of the chemical used on farm raised, much like bleach. Wait, I am at the beach right? I expect fresh seafood. The house red wine was horrible, maybe opened too long but I would have preferred a glass of Two Buck Chuck and actually should have sent it back since I couldn’t drink it. The view was nice but you can sit on the dock for free and have the same view. The atmosphere was odd, strange floor plan. The bill came to $ 75! I can eat at my favorite seafood restaurant in Portland twice with $ 75. We will definitely be reading Unilocal reviews before we go out again!

Food was pretty good but for over
$ 30 a plate it should of been a bit better! Waitress was friendly n informative of the area… and thats a big plus!
Just an idea to the owners n managers!
You really need at bottom stairs. Your entrance… a glassed in menu n prices. Watched a young couple n child have to get up n leave as their budget wouldnt allow the prices! Also two men get up n leave after seeing the menu prices.
Was our 35^th anniv. dinner and really was prepared for the cost but do wish a little bit better food .
Also the older woman watching the waitresses n waiter and making faces needs to lighten up! They were doing great.
Would of given another star but for having to watch people leave, as I feel for them. and the older woman made us a bit uncomfortable.

We were looking for a place to have dinner in Gold Beach so we drove around looking for restaurants on a Sunday night. It was Dairy Queen, a pizza place or this place. We picked this place, wrong move. Dairy Queen would have been better. The prices were 10 dollars overpriced on all items, everyone in the group of eight noticed that immediately but we decided to stay. The service was ok but not for 28 dollars meals. Salads were Dennys style and fish and chips were from Walmart. Go to a fast food place and get it to go and then go to the dock and eat while enjoying the sunset.

The restaurant, view, atmosphere & staff were very nice – but the food was GREAT! We went there for my dad’s birthday dinner and it was perfect. Highly recommend it when you’re in this tiny town.

If you want an amazing view of the water and a romantic Sunset, this place is fantastic for that. You can easily land one of the 5 tables with this fantastic view.
Food was a miss for me, very mediocre at best. Oysters served without shells felt like ‘strange and slimly’ on a plate. If the food was 30% less on price, I would give another star! My fish dish at $ 30+ definitely wasn’t at that price level.

At the behest of a local friend, we tried the Norwester for our evening meal. My friend had given me the ‘backstory’ on Norwester, stating that the previous cook had had serious personal health issues, with a resultant falling off of the dining experience quality (uninspired cuisine, not properly prepared, etc.). However, a new cook has taken over (so I was told) who does an excellent job and judging by my experience and that of my local friends, Norwester is back on top once again, in terms of providing a quality dining experience in Gold Beach.
Certainly, the setting is spectacular, nice views, interior well-​appointed, et al., but the food we had (fish & steak dinners) was well prepared, served hot and cooked to absolute perfection. The wine selection is rather modest, but the individual glasses at $ 6 per were good (and after the first glass, who cares anyway?!). The prices are a bit on the high side, all things considered, but we were not particularly looking for cheap eats. Further, the wait service was excellent and it was about as elegant as any dining in a small South Coast Oregon community can possibly be, just before prime tourist season begins.
Keep in mind that in a small community like Gold Beach, the quality of dining in ANY particular restaurant may be variable, consequent to a number of considerations, time of year and staffing concerns. Let’s just say that when we had our dinner there in early May of 2015, it was excellent. Our local friends agreed completely.
By the way, if you are an old fish & chips fan (as I am, stretching back to H. Salt Esquire days, when they served your North Sea Plaice & chips in newspapers), you WILL like Norwester’s version of this old classic repast.

I highly recommend steering away from the obvious here and ordering from the salad and Tapas menu. The Red Curry Prawns, while spicy, were very very good with enough sauce to dip your warm sourdough to your hearts content. The clam chowder was fresh and homemade. The Thai Cod Salad with a Lilikoi Wasabi mustard dressing is huge and amazingly tasty! The only reason for the four stars instead of five is the prices. The entrees are pretty expensive so be prepared to throw down a good chunk of change for them. All things considered though it was a very good meal. I would return for the above mentioned items any time!

Let me state first — we did not eat here (we left before we were seated) and I’m not sure how to assign a star rating.
We walked in, no host or hostess. The carpet had an off-​putting odor. Looked at the menu, which seemed really overpriced. Waited to be seated, but no one arrived. As there were few customers in the restaurant, I can’t imagine why the hostess station was deserted. We left.

Hit or miss food. Nice views … But not worth the price. We thought we would try it even though it had no Unilocal reviews … Ran into a woman on the beach who had been here for a week and she had the same opinion. I wish she had Unilocaled it… I would have gone elsewhere.