Flor De Maiz — Restaurant in Santa Barbara

We were so excited to try Flor de Maiz. We were seated and then for 30 minutes, no one came to the table. No water, no drink order. It was busy so we gave them the benefit of the doubt, chatted, and waited patiently, never trying to catch our server's attention. Honestly, we would have been fine with a "So sorry, I'll be with you in a minute" but that never happened. The server finally came and asked brusquely asked for our drink order without a greeting, and then left for another 30 minutes. The guys next to us, who were locals, asked us if we had been served yet and couldn't believe we were there for an hour before we got our drinks, when they got their second drink orders filled immediately. We had to ask for water 3 times, our food was finally delivered but without plates (we asked 2x for something to eat on) but they didn't come while our food got cold. We were forced to send one in our party inside to ask for the plates. The server who had taken our order was now behind the bar and when asked, "Do you happen to have any plates at the bar?" she was gruffly told "No" with no attempt to help us get them. We really wanted to like this restaurant but after all that (and this was a Monday night and tables were emptying out by the time we got our food) we were disappointed. It took us 2 hours to get our drinks and food and then plates to eat the food (they brought bowls (?) eventually) but other than the çeviche, which was really delicious, the rest of the food was rather bland and unremarkable. The drinks were really good and we would have loved to have ordered more but we could never get a server. Maybe we hit them on an off night but we were really surprised at how sullen the server was from the get go. He was eventually replaced by a nicer guy at the end but it was a pretty dismal service experience over all. We were friendly, we were never rude, some of us have worked in restaurants and know how hard the job is, we were patient, we didn't screw them on the tip, and we would have been fine with just one moment of friendliness or kindness from this server, but he was determined to be difficult. I hope others had a better service experience and meal then we...

What a disaster! I came for my first visit with a group of 8 people celebrating 3 birthdays. One of our group was elderly so I asked to be seated outside for a quieter meal, and was assured we would get it (spoiler alert: we did not). Leading up to the host stand was packed but we were on time for our reservation. The hosts told us to wait out front, where we were for a while, and so I went back to check on the table. The hosts looked confused and disorganized, and told us our table wasn't ready yet -- but the table was directly in front of the front door and I could see it was ready despite missing some silverware, and we were freezing outside. They finally sat us, though the reservation was at 7 and we finally got seated maybe 7:20 and were served water. We waited a long time for someone to take our drink order and were finally served drinks around 7:55. The drinks were very good but because they took so long to arrive we never got a chance to order a 2nd one, and also we would've ordered at least one bottle of wine. The decibel level inside the restaurant was off the charts, and with a table of 8 we could only speak to the person next to us. The scallop ceviche had an unpleasant, unidentifiable tang (were the scallops turned?) and went unfinished. I ordered a beet salad with salmon, and while the salmon was cooked well and the beets were good, they were on a bed of overly dressed greens, resulting in a wilted and slimy experience. Another at our table ordered chicken mole enchiladas, and the chicken was dry and unseasoned inside a tasteless tortilla covered in a dry black flavorless paste that could not be decently called mole. No one finished their meals and no one opted to take home leftovers. Though we had 3 birthdays, we were so eager to be out of there that no desserts were ordered. I am embarrassed I suggested this place for such an important occasion given how disappointed...

I have a hard time giving this such a low star because the food and drinks were delicious and beautiful. My friend and I had this place at the top of our list to try since starting to venture out during these strange times. The seating on the sidewalk is inviting. We asked for a seat in the shade and got it! Sadly we wanted happy hour which is only in the bar. No problem. They moved us to another nice seat. Chris from the bar came and took our drinks and food order. He was lovely! Later, a man we thought was another nice man came to see how we were enjoying everything. We thought he was a manager. We said everything was wonderful!...then it all fell apart!!!! He never returned. We sat for a long time. No more food, no more drinks. Finally I flagged down another staff member to order more drinks. Then this person we thought at first was a manager (Marcos) came to see how we were once our new drinks we had ordered from someone else had arrived. We tried to order the empanada. Then while pleasantly enjoying our beautiful cocktails and waiting for our empanada I tried to get our waiters attention to ask for water. Marcos said okay and then came out with a pitcher of water and filled up the entire section completely ignoring us. I actually really needed water as I had a dry tickle in my throat and coughing is the worst sin these days. So I finally got up and went to the bar for water. Then we waited some more. No empanada and he never came to give me water. I then went in and asked. Did you order that empanada? Nope, he didn’t. We closed. So disappointed. What started as beautiful ended with a terrible taste in our mouth for this place. We...