Dining in Santa Barbara

Last week I visited one of my favorite towns - Santa Barbara. It’s the second time I experienced the beauty of this city and I know I am going to visit it a lot more. I am simply in love with the town. The combination of the sea and the mountains remind me of home and specifically a town in Cyprus – Kyrenia. I know that Santa Barbara doesn’t have the beautiful medieval castle we have in Kyrenia that it’s right on it’s picturesque harbor but both towns have the combination of mountain ~ sea scenery which is so alluring to me.

On Thanksgiving I had lunch at the famous Holdren’s steakhouse in town – the sandwiches that my friend and myself ordered were delicious and so were the homemade fries!

For dinner we went to the quintessential restaurant of Santa Barbaras, Louies, which is located in the beautiful historic Upham hotel. It’s worth eating there at least once. We had the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, stuffing, lots of mashed potatoes, nice green salad and for dessert pumpkin cheesecake. Overall the food was very good and the portions were very generous. I thought that the dessert was really delicious!

After dinner we made a stop at Chase bistro for a drink. It’s a small bistro right on State street. It’s the second year in a row that I visit the place with no regrets.

This time I also had the opportunity to explore beautiful Montecito which is right next to Santa Barbara. The coastline and the beaches are so beautiful! I could walk or sit by the beach for hours! We had lunch at a small Mexican restaurant in downtown Montecito, called Cava. I highly recommend this small quaint restaurant! The food was fresh, not greasy, very tasty and the service was equally good. I especially liked the décor of this place which is so nicely done that makes the place very inviting.

I live an hour away from Napa Valley which I consider the most beautiful wine country in the United States but I was pleasantly surprised to find the Santa Ynez mountains quite beautiful. There are many wineries in the area which are widespread, each one holding it’s unique identity. After doing some wine tasting and visiting the town of Solvang we had dinner in down town Santa Barbara. We chose a restaurant on State street that I highly recommend. We had mouthwatering pasta dishes and great red wine at Pascucci’s. The delicious food, the casual atmosphere, the friendly people and the excellent service make me give it a 10 out of 10! During dinner we also enjoyed the wonderful live music that was playing by the band called Luna Gitana – a trio of musicians playing Latin music. I simply want to go back there for dinner or lunch. I had their pasta dish called Milano – Tomato-basil linguini with shrimp and roasted garlic-cream sauce – simply delicious!

If you have any information on wine and dining in Santa Barbara area please share with me.

Litsa