Seagrass Restaurant, Santa Barbara

Finding Christmas dinner in Santa Barbara is harder than is seems. Most restaurants were closed except for a few hotels. We usually find the hotels streamlined menus boring and come tardy off. I don’t know why restaurants insist on a “special” menu for “special” holidaze? Streamlined menu and staff, because everyone wants off for Christmas perhaps??? But do you sacrifice what you know and what you are good at for the sake of a few dollars more? Just to make it easy? We scoured the net to find the Seagrass restaurant open with a very nice menu. However the menu on the net was nothing like what they gave us. The Kobe beef ribeye was a flat iron steak. The menu stated Kobe beef but didn’t state what cut of beef. We asked our waiter and of course he had to ask the chef. Now how does a waiter get hired for this position at one of the finest restaurants in Santa Barbara and not know exactly what’s on the menu, how it’s prepared and served? I blame it on lack of communication of the chef. Most waiters do not know how many bones are in a full rack of lamb. Anyway I had better service at Denny’s. Basic stuff…Clear the table of bread plates before you bring dessert. Make sure the there is silver on the table before you bring the entrée. Perhaps crumb the table at least it makes a good show. The food was perfectly cooked. We started with Foie Gras which was wonderful. We were charged an extra 10.00 for the foie gras even though the dinners were 65.00 per person???? The sauces and garnish were so small we couldn’t taste what the chef was trying to do. We wanted the lobster with sea urchin which we saw on the internet menu. It was not on the menu we were given. So it was the flat iron….What no filet? You could tell this menus food cost was low. All prepared very well. I give the food a 7+ and the service a 4+. I was expecting high marks for this establishment. I didn’t even mind the screaming kid that sat next to us. We heard great things about this restaurant but not tonight. Estero Bay Gourmet

Great fine dining cuisine