Pea Soup Andersen's — Restaurant in Buellton

Lots of things done very well and some things done very poorly. With a few changes, this place could be excellent.

The salad was served with croutons and dressing in single use little plastic cups. The baked potato was served with single-use plastic cups for chives and sour cream. Why not just put them on the baked potato like most restaurants do?

The blue cheese dressing tasted like ranch dressing and had little or no blue cheese in it. The cheese bread that came with the soup and salad had no cheese flavor. So easy to fix.

We found it funny. The soup of the day was split pea soup. So you could have soup of the day or you could have split pea soup.

My Alaskan cod fish was delicious and the serving was plentiful.

Our waiter, Brandon did a phenomenal job. Unfortunately, there was a busboy who could not make enough noise banging every single edition the restaurant and eventually also vacuuming a spill. Not something I want to hear while I'm at dinner. When he was done banging the dishes in the dining room, he moved to the kitchen where we could hear him banging more dishes.

We would absolutely return to this restaurant because the quality of food and the value...

This restaurant is a beloved old institution. People used to pack into this place like sardines and there would be lines out the door every day of the week. Now they're only open during the latter part of the week during the off season and you can walk right in with no wait. The service is still good and the pea soup is wonderful. They still have a gift shop full of the oddest assortment of souvenirs around, although the size of the shop has been reduced. Every time I go here there will be someone in the next booth who traveled many miles to relive a cherished childhood memory of eating there on a family road trip taken decades ago. It's the kind of place that sticks in a young person's mind and is never forgotten because so many families stopped here for an affordable family meal on vacation over the years. A truly American institution. Don't miss this place if you travel between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. Stop and relive old memories or make some new ones. And there's an ostrich farm right up the street where you can feed the birds and Solvang is only a few miles away if you're in tourist mode and looking...

Food was terrible. My husband ordered the hot roast beef sandwich which was cold. Had the waiter take it back to be heated and not much better. I had the fried chicken which was pretty good but my mashed potatoes and gravy were also cold. The vegetables were like mush. Could not eat them. Asked the waiter for something to replace them. He brought me some rice pilaf that was so salty I could not it that either! I love salt but when I say salty I am not kidding. I basically had fried chicken and some bread. The chicken was good because it was made from scratch and cooked to order. We had the split pea soup also and it was cold as well. We have eaten at other Pea Andersen’s which were great. This food was big disappointment! The bright side is that the waiter was great! I know he was embarrassed by the the food, but we assured him that it was not his fault. He was very apologetic. I am sure that he thought that he was not getting a tip so I hope he was pleasantly surprised when he cleared his table and saw that we had left him a 35% tip for his good service. I would not recommend this Pea Anderson...