While we stayed in a different B&B in town of elk (LOVE this place -- beautiful, peaceful), Harbor House Chef Adam Ables (executive chef and new GM who will be supervising an amazing remodel of this lovely historic inn with simply the best beach front in town and stunning cliffs) took excellent care of us, and another couple on a sunday evening when the town can be slow and hard to find fine dining. BRAVO to chef adam for great fire in the great room to welcome us, perfect musical ambiance and accommodating a slight menu shift (leaving out an ingredient and modifying a course) to help all enjoy the amazing, warm, simple and very well composed meal. Bonus points for the surprise of fresh hot mini southern biscuits between courses to have a little fun and celebrate his roots from Mississippi and complement his 5 star experiences in Healdsburg and other wine country notable places before Harbor House. We will miss them while they remodel soon and will be delighted to either "get in under the wire" for another great meal soon, or be on the "grand reopening" list of big fans. Special thanks for the team at The Elk Cove Inn & Spa for the exceptionally well-informed referral -- it was the second night they told us where to dine and simply blew all the rest in town away.

We just left Harbor House--a two night stay. Excellent food by Adam. Outstanding views.
Main building seems in good repair. The four villas need major modernization, but they are still nice-- not luxurious. We did not expect luxurious.

We returned to Harbor House after spending a night there about 25 years ago. Not much has changed physically, the views are still spectacular, and the grounds are more lush than we remember. The facilities are scheduled for a renovation, in the next twelve months, with the cabins scheduled to be torn down and replaced and additional changes to be made to the dining room and kitchen. They are also evidently planning to add wireless Internet, because there is little if any cell service in Elk.

The two things we remember from our first trip and which Harbor House still excels at are food and service. Both of our breakfasts and dinners were excellent, each featuring locally grown or raised ingredients. We had brought a bottle of sparkling wine with us up from the wine country, and had taken an ice bucket back to the room to chill it. When Benita, the innkeeper, realized that we had not had the bottle the previous night, she refilled the ice bucket and left us two champagne flutes, so we could enjoy some chilled wine after returning from a day of touring the North Coast. The next morning we had to leave early, before the regular breakfast time to catch a plane back home. After giving the staff advance notice, the morning cook had a full breakfast ready for us, when we arrived at 7:45 and we made our 2pm flight out of SFO with time to spare.

It is not clear exactly when the renovations will take place, but I am sure that they will only enhance an already fantastic Inn experience.

We read all the reviews before we booked, but let me describe our experience - by far the worst of our entire vacation and the only part we totally regretted!
We are used to getting the service you pay for, but not here. Our hotel in Crescent City for $90/night FAR exceeded our experience at Harbor House Inn. Our stays in San Francisco and Portland also FAR exceeded our experience here.
We arrived at 4:30 to find a note telling us when to show up for dinner - nothing else. We found a binder in our room with some local brochures and a letter telling us how important the tip pool is for the Inn and a fancy envelope asking for more tips. (Duh. We travel a lot - we know how to tip when service earns it!)
We went to our cabin - Oceansong, per Adam's suggestion - and found that it tilted about 10% TOWARDS the water. Yikes. (The bathroom was really, really nice and oddly not slanted.) There was a really nice deck that was 'private' if and only if you pretended that the flimsy lattice wall really separated you from the next cabin. The couple in that cabin closed their door as soon as we arrived - because it wasn't private! On the plus side, the view from the deck and enormous windows was absolutely fantastic!
We arrived at dinner and were not greeted in any way. Several courses were GREAT (really, really great). One was just OK. Dessert was tasteless - neither of us finished it. (Honestly, that has NEVER happened before.) Dinner was 'valued at' $65pp - by them, not us. So we then were in a loop on how much to tip - we didn't think it was fair to be expected to tip 20% on $130 - when we had received maybe 12% service on a dinner that seemed more like a $40pp experience. But there were only 5 tables and bad training/supervision and mediocre food was not exactly her fault....but it was too intimate (we thought then)... so we opted for the 'high end'. By breakfast, we were too irritated by the entire experience to care any more!
We then noticed that there was no real common area indoors - no place to sit and have a cup of tea and talk or play a game of cards... everyone just sort of shuffled off to their charming, but small (and slanted?) sleeping quarters.
Note: the tilt was enough that we felt like we were rolling off the bed, but the bed and linens were otherwise really quite nice. This is important, because the highway is about 50 feet out the front door, so when loud cars went by you can shift 'uphill' on the bed and snuggle in to go back to sleep until the next one goes by.
We checked out the next morning after a barely adequate breakfast (runny eggs in one omelet - ingredients wrong in other) and weren't asked anything - just shown where to sign.
As we were checking out, we noticed a path down to the ocean and a cute deck.
Gosh. It would have been nice if someone had told us about them.

To sum it up: NO service, LOTS of requests for tips, FUNHOUSE construction, ACCEPTABLE food, GREAT views, LOUD road. Ick!