Best Restaurants in Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara's restaurant scene divides cleanly by geography. The Funk Zone holds the city's most ambitious seasonal cooking in a cluster of converted industrial buildings between downtown and the beach. The Lark runs a farm-and-ocean sharing menu out of a historic fish market; Loquita pours Spanish vermouths and fires seasonal paella next door. A mile east on Milpas Street, La Super-Rica and Los Agaves offer a different kind of essential: family restaurants open since 1980 that Julia Child and the Michelin Guide found worth the trip for opposite reasons.

State Street anchors the middle ground, where Olio e Limone has served Italian cooking with a Sicilian-influenced menu and 230 labels of Italian wine since 1999, and Bouchon has paired Wine Country cuisine with the deep Santa Barbara County wine list the room deserves since 1998. The harbour adds waterfront Italian at Toma and the Southeast Asian Michelin Bib at Sama Sama Kitchen a few blocks inland.

The key to eating well in Santa Barbara is ignoring the tourist-facing mediocrity on the lower blocks of State Street and heading to the specific addresses that have earned their following.

The Lark and the Funk Zone table

The Lark opened in 2013 in the historic fish market building at 131 Anacapa, naming itself after the Southern Pacific overnight train that once connected Santa Barbara to San Francisco. The menu runs across farm, ocean, and ranch categories with plates designed for the table to share; the seasonal approach means the kitchen cooks what the Central Coast actually produces rather than a fixed menu. Saturday and Sunday brunch adds a daytime dimension. Sister venue Lucky Penny operates from the same building complex, serving wood-fired pizza and frozen rose from a counter tiled with 150,000 copper pennies.

Milpas Street: the other essential address

No restaurant in Santa Barbara has earned more national press than La Super-Rica Taqueria at 622 N Milpas, a cash-only counter-service stand that Julia Child declared her favourite Mexican restaurant in the United States after her 1985 television appearance. The blackboard menu changes daily; hand-pressed corn tortillas, roasted pasilla chiles, and grilled meats are constants. A block north, Los Agaves holds a Michelin Guide listing for traditional moles, handmade tortillas, and ceviche prepared from family recipes. Both are open for lunch and dinner; neither takes reservations.

Italian and Spanish on State Street

Olio e Limone at 11 W Victoria Street has served Italian cooking with a Sicilian-influenced menu since 1999 under the Morello family, with a wine cellar holding over 230 labels and a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence held since 2002. Loquita at 202 State Street serves Spanish tapas, wood-fired meats, and seasonal paella with a beverage program split between Spanish producers and Santa Barbara County wines. Bouchon at 9 W Victoria Street has paired Wine Country cuisine with the regional wine list it helped define since 1998.

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