Cuyama Buckhorn — Restaurant in Montecito

My husband and I spent the weekend at the Buckhorn and had the BEST experience. The hotel itself is beautiful. It’s mid century meets western and they somehow created an atmosphere that felt really upscale and like a special/fancy getaway yet it’s completely unpretentious. One thing we love is how they have paid homage to the hotel’s history by keeping and incorporating elements of the original hotel’s decor. The staff was attentive and so friendly. Our room was really cute, comfortable, and clean. I was so pleasantly surprised by how comfortable the bed was as I tend to be really picky about hotel beds! Great shower. The mini bar situation was very impressive with lots of unique, local snacks and spirits. This may sound like a minor detail to some but I am legitimately obsessed with the bath products. They are made by a company called Further and smell incredible.

The rest of the grounds are beautiful. It’s this oasis in a tiny town and it’s so unexpected but also makes a ton of sense because the scenery is STUNNING. You are surrounded by mountains in every direction that really show off the high desert sunsets. We spent a bunch of time in the pool area on our trip. There’s a great sauna and a huge pool and hot tub. We attended a happy hour by the pool and drinks were fantastic. I think one of our cocktails involved gin, honey and a house made limoncello and we also had a classic Negroni and a Manhattan. Having a cocktail in the hot tub while the sun set was heaven. All of the food we ate at the Buckhorn was really great as well. I can’t wait until indoor dining can happen again because the cafe looks like a classic roadside cafe but with a mid century touch and elevated cuisine. We also took a quick peak at the bar and WOW, it’s amazing. We were told that the bartender is the one who is designing and building out the bar himself. There are a couple different outdoor spots in communal areas where you can eat your food on property and the rooms also have a little table and chairs by the entrance. I think my favorite meal I ate there was the smokehouse platter which included a couple of different house smoked meats (pork and tri tip), vegetables, beans, and house made bread and house made bbq sauce. They also have delicious freshly baked pastries (the donuts were too good) and Verve coffee. It was recommended to us to go wine tasting at Condor’s Hope, which was about a 30 minute drive from the hotel full of breathtaking views. This ended up being one of my favorite experiences of the trip. The owners of the vineyard are just lovely people who gave us a wonderful time. We began with a tour of the vineyard, which is 5 acres of dry-farmed grapes and olives. Then we enjoyed a tasting of their wines with some Hors d'oeuvres. We couldn’t resist taking home a few bottles and I am eager to return. I think a trip to Cuyama at the Buckhorn offers something for everyone. It’s kid-friendly, dog-friendly, and romantic all at the same time. We saw a couple of kids and dogs there during our stay but the size of the hotel is perfect so it stayed a comfortable level of quiet but still alive with guests. We even met a couple who were spending their honeymoon there. Overall, we are now in love with Cuyama and cannot wait to go back. We will be planning our next little...

Gorgeous place in the middle of nowhere. Absolutely immaculate, well curated, detail-oriented design everywhere you look. Felt funky yet lux. They do have a few small operational kinks to work out. I assume this is just a result of adjustments to a post pandemic world. Check in was less than smooth (more on that below), the dining hours and food/drink service are reeeeeal weird so be sure you ask them exactly how and when you need to get orders in otherwise you'll be SOL because there are no other restaurants around. Also be sure to bring absolutely everything you will need for your trip because if you forget something (like I did with contact lens solution) you're totally on your own. Only store in "town" is basically a convenience store. Would be super helpful if Buckhorn had a little general store - especially considering they are truly in the middle of nowhere. Though Major points to the host for trying to help me out by providing distilled water for my contacts lol. Very friendly staff overall.

I assume things were much tougher because we visited on weekdays, but The bar and kitchen close at 6:30 which is a shame bc nothing is available to you after then. We were told the diner opened at 9 and assumed we could get a full breakfast there, but it was only coffee and pastries. BUT, their food is absolutely incredible all around so major points there.

Re checkin: when we arrived in the afternoon after a 4 hour drive we followed the signs to check in and were met with an empty lobby. Waited a few minutes, still no one. Went to the coffee shop, no one. Felt like we'd arrived into a ghost town. The bartender finally spotted us and took us on a hunt around the property for the host to check us in. Finally got sorted and were super pleasantly surprised by our room. Small but very, very well designed.

Another note to the owners: some kind of fly traps would be amazing. The flies were our biggest nemesis during the time there (we live full time in the desert so we totally get how the bugs attack in force during summer). Pretty rough when they sneak into your room. So yeah, wasn't the biggest of deals but fly traps would be a godsend.

Other than that, gorgeous pool, cute sauna, cozy hot tub, fun bocce ball court. The bar is super stylish with a very friendly and talented bartender.

Overall a very relaxing, uber-stylish, remote getaway. Can't wait to come back when more is opened up and for...

Beware of the hype, it has lost its luster.

My wife and I had been waiting to find the right time for us to get away from SLO and visit this highly reviewed boutique Hotel. FirsHere’s a list of my experience and thoughts on the hotel. My wife and I have also run a small boutique hotel in SLO, so we know a thing or two about taking care of a hotel. The staff was amazing - super friendly and helpful. But the property itself could use some serious TLC. If I could give it stars, I’d be giving it a big fat zero.

When we booked our room for November 15th to 16th for our anniversary, we asked about the pool and hot tub. They said the pool wasn’t heated, but they had a hot tub. When we got there, we found out the hot tub was out of order and had been for a while. That would’ve been nice to know when we made our reservation. We thought maybe we could just jump in the sauna and then the pool, but unfortunately, the sauna was also broken and the water in the pool was pretty cold.

On our first night, the room was freezing cold, even though we set the thermostat to 80 degrees. The heater is a mini split, which is the same style we have in our hotel, and I could hear it cycling into defrost mode all night. In the morning, I went outside and looked at the unit on the roof, which I could see from the ground and could tell it was covered in dust and probably wasn’t getting any airflow to work. On our second night we thought we might just watch some TV since we could not enjoy a drink in the hot tub, but the TV is like a 27" tv all the way across the room and the brightness on it was really dim even though I went into the TV settings and turned the brightness all the way up. So we decided to just watch a movie from our laptop, but the wifi speed was awful so then had to use our phones as a hotspot to watch Netflix.

The food in the restaurant was okay, I had the BBQ platter but it would’ve been better with a side of garlic bread. The breakfast was also okay, but not as good as they say it is to get a Michelin Mention.

Overall, I think the owners who do not live in Cuyama made this a “fun” little project to build and show off, but now they’re just milking it for all it’s worth and riding on the initial 5-star reviews they got. There’s really nothing else to do in New Cuyama except this place, and when the property is in this kind of disrepair, you don’t have...