Mo's Original, Newport
103 SE Bay Blvd
Newport, OR
A plain little chowder house on a working dock in Newport, where an Oregon legend named Mo turned clam chowder into a road-trip ritual.
Some Oregon landmarks are waterfalls and mountains. This one is a bowl of soup. Mo's is a small, unpretentious chowder house on the Newport Bayfront that has been feeding coast travelers since 1946, and for a couple of generations of Oregonians, stopping for a bowl of Mo's clam chowder is simply part of what you do when you reach the ocean.
The building is nothing to look at, a modest place on a working dock, and that is exactly the point. What draws people is the chowder, the harbor right outside the window, and the story of the woman behind the name, a larger-than-life character who ran her restaurant like a second living room for the whole Oregon Coast.
What Guests Love
- A steaming bowl of the clam chowder that made the place famous
- Sitting on the working Bayfront, watching fishing boats and sea lions while you eat
- The unfussy, friendly, decades-deep sense of an Oregon institution that never got fancy
- Local Yaquina Bay oysters and a genuine taste of the coast, not a tourist-trap version of it
Worth Knowing
- This is the original, plain and small; expect a wait and a line out the door on a summer day or a stormy weekend
- It sits right on the harbor, so parking on the Bayfront is tight; you may do better parking up the hill and walking down
- The Bayfront is a real working waterfront, which means fish smells, sea lion noise, and all the character that comes with it
- There are Mo's spots up and down the coast now, but this is the one where it all started
Details
Newport, OR
Learn about Mo's Original, Newport
Who Mo was
Mo's is named for Mohava Marie Niemi, known to everyone simply as Mo. In 1946 she and a partner opened a small round-the-clock restaurant on the Newport waterfront, first called Freddie and Mo's, feeding the loggers and fishermen who worked the coast with plain, filling food like spaghetti and steaks.
When her partner fell ill a few years on, Mo bought him out and put her own name over the door. Over the years the menu leaned more and more toward seafood, and the clam chowder, refined batch after batch as the cooks tried to outdo one another, became the thing people drove out of their way for. Mo herself became a beloved coast figure, famous for treating regulars and celebrities alike as if they had wandered into her kitchen.
The chowder and the table
The draw is New England style clam chowder, thick and creamy, served in a plain bowl with a slab of bread, the kind of simple food that tastes better because of where you are eating it. Alongside it you will often find Yaquina Bay oysters, raised right in the water outside, and the rest of the honest, unfussy coast menu Mo built her name on.
Part of the magic is the setting. You are eating on a working harbor, not a themed one, with fishing boats tied up outside and the smell of salt and diesel in the air. It is loud, casual, and friendly, a place where a road-trip family, a crab-boat crew, and a carload of retirees all end up at neighboring tables.
The Bayfront around it
Mo's anchors Newport's Historic Bayfront, one of the last genuinely working waterfronts on the Oregon Coast. Step outside and you can walk the docks past fish houses and canneries, watch the fleet come and go on Yaquina Bay, and listen to the ever-present chorus of California sea lions hauled out on the piers.
The town grew up around this harbor in the late 1800s as a fishing and oystering port, and it still lands crab, shrimp, tuna, and groundfish. The Bayfront's mix of old fish companies, galleries, taffy shops, and chowder houses gives Newport a salt-cured character that the newer beach towns cannot fake.
Making a day of it
Mo's pairs naturally with the rest of Newport. Across the bay, under the graceful arch of the Yaquina Bay Bridge, the Oregon Coast Aquarium and the Hatfield Marine Science Center make an easy afternoon, especially with kids or on a gray day. On the north side, the historic Yaquina Bay Lighthouse looks out over the bar.
Come hungry, come casual, and come ready for weather. The coast here is often foggy and blustery, which is half the appeal, and a hot bowl of chowder on a Bayfront bench while the wind pushes whitecaps across the harbor is about as Oregon Coast as it gets.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Newport
Oregon Coast Aquarium
About 1 mile south
A top-tier aquarium across Yaquina Bay, with a walk-through underwater tunnel, sea otters, and a seabird aviary.
Yaquina Bay Lighthouse
About 1 mile north
A wood-frame 1871 lighthouse-and-keeper's-house on the bluff above the bay entrance, one of the oldest on the coast.
Hatfield Marine Science Center
About 1 mile south
Oregon State University's public marine lab with hands-on tide pools and exhibits on the ocean off Newport.
Nye Beach
About 1.5 miles northwest
Newport's walkable old beach neighborhood of bookshops, cafes, and cottages above a wide sandy shore.