Santa Barbara Food Worth Seeking

Boats Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara has one of Southern California's most active harbors, mainly used for fishing and recreation.

Santa Barbara is an idyllic coastal city just 90 miles north of Los Angeles known as the “American Riviera.” The city has roots with local Native people called the Chumash. Spanish Missionaries arrived in the 1780s and established Old Mission Santa Barbara in 1786. Mexicans grabbed the reins in 1826. 20 years later, Colonel John Fremont colonized the city. California joined the United States in 1850. Since then, the region has earned a reputation for growing some of the best wine and produce. Discover Santa Barbara food worth seeking at 30 businesses in this growing culinary destination.

Updates since December 31, 2019
Additions: ALESSIA Patisserie, AMA Sushi, Chocolate Maya, La Paloma, Maiz Picante, Rare Society, Third Window Brewing
Subtractions: The Blue Owl (it’s been too long), Cafe Ana (closed)

Bonus: Santa Barbara Drinks Worth Seeking

Restaurants, bakeries and markets appear in alphabetical order instead of order of preference.

ALESSIA Patisserie


Pastries Santa Barbara

Seasoned chef Alessia Guehr brought pastry panache to her hometown in 2021. She fills two tantalizing cases with flaky croissants, buttery Danishes, and gallery worthy tarts, inbuing each item with compelling flavors and flair. Sunday mornings call for warm, supple, buttery brioche donuts that sport coats like cinnamon cardamom sugar. Alessia also offers satisfying breakfast and lunch service, featuring dishes like duck confit hash, blue crab crepes, and quiche with crusts befitting a bakery this special.

MUST ORDER: Almond Croissant, Ham Gruyere Mustard Danish, Peach Apricot Honey Croissant, Monkey Bread Rum Glaze, Savory Kouign Amann, Guava Cream Cheese Danish, Brioche Donuts (Sundays Only), Duck Confit Hash

AMA Sushi

Sushi Santa Barbara

Affable chef Scott Yonamine presides over AMA Sushi at Rosewood Miramar in Montecito. Nigiri highlights from his $145 omakase experience included butterflied kumamoto oyster, silky Canadian botan ebi (spot prawns) and toro with caviar and edible gold leaf.

MUST ORDER: Omakase

Barbareño

Steak Santa Barbara

Barbareño, a rustic gem from Bay Area-seasoned chef Julian Martinez and GM/partner Jesse Gaddy specializes in wood-grilled cuisine. A small covered patio gives way to a dining room and bar with wood-dominant decor beneath a Spanish tile roof. My meal started with house-made sourdough and green garlic butter. Share-friendly plates include Eggamuffins, an homage to Egg McMuffin’s 1971 invention at a McDonald’s on State Street, but featuring corncakes, cured egg, seascape and speck. Starters change with the seasons. During my dinner, highlights included carrot flan with roasted carrots, shaved carrots, vadouvan, buttermilk emulsion, caraway crackers; and oak tagliatelle with acorn flour, tossed with oak-smoked vegetables like Brussels sprouts and wild herbs. The house specialty is a deluxe take on Santa Maria BBQ, tri-tip that’s cold smoked, pressure cooked, finished on a red oak grill, and plated with pureed pico de gallo, cherry tomatoes, and pinquito beans. Pan-seared, skin-on ling cod, listed as “market fish” on the menu, was also strong, plated with coconut oolong rice, Meyer lemon and blood orange juice, and avocado quenelles. Finish with cookie butter-filled beignets served with strawberry nectar, 24 Blackbirds chocolate sauce and cocoa nibs.

MUST ORDER: Eggamuffins, Carrots & Ranch, Oak Tagliatelle, Santa Maria BBQ, Market Fish, Beignets

Bettina Pizzeria

Pizza Santa Barbara

Brendan Smith and Rachel Greenspan opened Bettina in Montecito Country Mart to end 2018, filling their airy space with white and green color scheme, exposed rafters, round bar, and bird-in-tree wallpaper. The couple features naturally leavened dough and a wood-fired cooking, with red oak impacting their oven and grill. Pizza is the main attraction, featuring supple discs with crispy pockmarks and inspired toppings. I enjoyed the version with crumbled sausage, Provolone picante, crushed tomato, winter greens, and pitted olives. A return visit yielded seasonal white pizzas topped with silky prosciutto, mozzarella, ricotta, shaved fennel, nutty pea tendrils, and lemon; and a spring pesto pie co-starring spinach, punchy kumquats and Calabrian chiles, and three cheeses: mozzarella, raclette, and feta. It’s also hard to argue with tomato pies topped with maitake mushrooms or pepperoni with local Hollister Ranch honey. Bettina also displays flair with produce. Their baby gem lettuce salad arrives tossed with ranch dressing, pickled onions, and nutty Piave cheese shavings. They plate colorful roasted heirloom carrots with crushed pistachios and a tangy one-two punch from lebneh and sumac. Enthusiasm extends to share plates like savory cacio e pepe arancini served with Calabrian chile sauce; and wild shrimp tossed with earthy heirloom beans, butter and even more Calabrian chiles. Every meal should conclude with decadent chocolate hazelnut layer cake crafted with Nutella buttercream and hazelnut praline.

MUST ORDER: Baby Gems, Cacio e Pepe Arancini, Pepperoni Pizza, Roasted Carrots, Sausage Pizza, Spring Pesto Pizza, Wild Shrimp, Chocolate Hazelnut Layer Cake

The Black Sheep

Spanish Restaurant Santa Barbara

The Perez family made an immediate impact on the Santa Barbara dining scene after relocating from Sacramento in 2010. Chef Robert Perez and wife Marianna took over seafood-focused Seagrass, with son Richard handling wine service. In May, 2014, son Ruben Perez opened The Black Sheep next door, featuring a glass front, rotating art enlivening olive and red walls, and Zero 7 on the sound system. The beyond seasonal, highly shareable menu draws ingredients from one of California’s produce epicenters and keeps things interesting with a wide array of proteins from the land, sea and air.

MUST ORDER: Spicy Roasted Marcona Almonds, Roasted Chartreuse Carrots, Spicy Sautéed Snap Peas, Sautéed Free-Range Chicken Livers, Wild Boar Spare Ribs

Bossie’s Kitchen

Meatballs Santa Barbara

Chef Lauren Herman and pastry chef Christina Olufson met while working for The Lucques Group in Los Angeles. The partners originally decamped to Santa Barbara to open Somerset downtown before refocusing efforts on more casual Bossie’s Kitchen. A corner building with an iconic cow statue on the roof features a big planter-lined patio, two-tone white and aqua walls, and an enticing pastry counter. Seemingly straightforward Cal-Med plates shine at Bossie’s, whether that involves chicken pot pie with minimal filler and flaky crust or rosy grilled salmon plated with Beluga lentils, herbaceous pesto, and roasted seasonal vegetables. Blackboard specials are also satisfying, particularly coarse, pleasantly chewy lamb meatballs joined by bouncy couscous beads, vivid beet hummus, tangy yogurt and puffy pita. For dessert, I enjoyed two different square donuts, both raised and pliable – cardamom pistachio kumquat and blueberry lemon thyme – plus a slice of decadent chocolate cake.

MUST ORDER: Blueberry Lemon Thyme Donut, Cardamom Pistachio Kumquat Donut, Chicken Pot Pie, Grilled Salmon, Lamb Meatballs

Bree’osh

Bakery Santa Barbara

Nelly Mousseau and Pierre-Yves Henry are France natives who debuted charming Bree’osh bakery in ritzy Montecito Village in 2015 and expanded to Santa Barbara in 2020. People flock to Bree’osh for brioche pastries and sandwiches. Praline brioche is an almond studded specialty. Favor savory? Consider Kalamata olive & basil buns, or a silky smoked salmon sandwich with pesto and baby spinach. They also introduced brioche croissants, pain de chocolat, and limited-edition brioche cinnamon rolls: flaky, caramelized spirals with supple, buttery cores.

MUST ORDER: Smoked Salmon, Kalamata Olive & Basil Brioche, Brioche Cinnamon Roll, Brioche Chocolate Croissant

Chocolate Maya

Chocolate Santa Barbara

Maya Schoop-Rutten honors the Mayans, people indigenous to what is now southern Mexico and northern Central America, who cherished drinking chocolate. She crafts dark chocolate bars with Mayan designs and playful bonbons shaped like ladybugs, mice and hedgehogs. I savored a dark chocolate drink called The Sacrifice spiced with habanero, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.

MUST ORDER: Dark Chocolate Bar, The Sacrifice, Hedgehog Bonbon, Ladybug Bonbon

Cold Spring Tavern

Barbecue Santa Barbara

For an old stagecoach stop that’s been serving food since 1865, this tavern in the mountains off Route 154 remains relevant. The restaurant has become famous for wild game preparations. Weekends call for tri-tip, which draws grizzled bikers and wine country acolytes. Order your sandwich from a vintage cash register in the restaurant, or from the bar, and hand a white ticket to an attendant manning the tented table fronting a pair of grills. Retreat to a picnic table, surrounded by wagon wheels and horseshoes, to enjoy the oak-grilled spoils, which sports a peppery crust and rosy center and fills buttery grilled bread. Salsa, BBQ sauce and/or apple horseradish mustard sauce all provide welcome punch to meaty proceedings.

MUST ORDER: Famous Cold Spring Chili, Tri-Tip Sandwich

Corazon Cocina

Mexican Food Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara Public Market has entered stage two of its development. New vendors include Corazon Cocina chef/owner Ramón Velazquez, who makes “fresh ceviches, mouthwatering tacos and homemade agua frescas” in an open kitchen behind a seriously stylish tile counter and heart logo. I found their tacos hit or miss (yes on beer-battered lingcod, no on al pastor), but really enjoyed their seasonal ceviche. Sal de Mar paired firm cubes of Baja California yellowtail with sweet watermelon, crunchy watermelon radish slices, creamy avocado, cucumber, and mild Fresno chiles, all dressed with tangy pomegranate and hibiscus aguachile and served on a crispy tostada. I’d also recommend quesadilla de mercado, an open-faced beast sporting seared panela cheese, farmers market seasonal vegetables, tomato confit, salsa cruda and almond arbol salsa on a thicker house-made corn tortilla.

MUST ORDER: Sal de Mar, Ensenado Taco, Qeusadilla de Mercado

GUIDE CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE

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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

Blog Comments

This is a list Im going to follow to try these amazing eateries!

Love the new look! These spots look amazing. Love the photos and descriptions. Great information.

Thanks! This redesign has been in the works since April. I’m proud of the results. Much larger images and better functionality.

Love how you guys presented these amazing finds. Between the map, the pictures, and the descriptions we feel like we have a mini foodie road trip all laid out for us. Thanks for sharing! Can’t wait to hit up these spots.

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