Kanaloa Seafood — Restaurant in Santa Barbara

Extremely rude servers, who can't seem to handle stress or more than 5+ people in the venue. Paid $40 & 15% tip for 1 item I actually requested (the rest was incorrect or forgotten). Learn from my lesson. Or try your luck & hopefully on the day you go in, it is empty. More background on my story below if you want a good read. :)

The only reason this company received 1 star is because the fish is phenomenal & fresh & the owner(s) seemed to be nice. To be fair, the first experience here was pleasant. I was really excited about what I had ordered, that I decided 2 days later to come back (as a loyal customer should when encountering something they love). My second experience was hell. It was obviously more busy than they had ever encountered or prepped for, so they were understaffed. Fine. Not a problem, as the food is excellent. You wait patiently for things you enjoy. Except that when our order came, the server was rude & seemed like he was not handling his stress very well at the busy scene. I paid $40 (including a 15% tip for a server from hell) only to receive...1 correct item ( $12 tuna melt). Fine. I'm open to trying new things..so we took the incorrect order (taco sampler). We ate & waited patiently for our 3'rd item. It never came. Totally fine, I get it, you're busy, mistakes happen, it's a learning curve for a new business. Stopped on our way out the door to get a refund for our 3'rd item that never came & the server gave me extreme attitude, said he couldn't find our food ticket, would give us the item instead and then huffed and frustratedly said it's super busy, like I shouldn't be asking him to DO HIS JOB. I told him forget about it, because we had way too much food to begin with (the 2'nd item ordered was a large serving & we only ate 1 taco), who would want that much food to take home?!? I just wanted a refund, but at that point he just kept going with his poor service and attitude and I just left. Moral of the story....Establishment and food is a great cover, but if you don't have the service to back it up, this business won't be here long. It's easy to gain new customers, but to retain them and have them come back...that's much harder & you have completely lost me as a...

The Crispy Fish tacos here are super delicious of perfect crispness and fresh flavors of the sea and land …pico de gallo salsa with pineapple for me the aioli sauce could of been just a tad spicier but the lady added a 6 premium order of oysters to enjoy and guess what…I added horseradish from the oysters on to my last fish taco and boy was that a tremendous explosion of spicy flavors…perfectly I’d say!! Oysters were delivered quickly and deliciously enjoyed paired with a Maui Pineapple Mana wheat beer…Because of the nice hot climate I asked for a cup of ice to poor my beer in and seriously….Happy combination I’d say!! So if you’re in the Santa Barbara area looking for great fresh seafood…Kanaloa Seafood is where you’d like to go…they do have parking lot., but if there isn’t any there not to worry there’s plenty of parking around corner or down street to local parking lots…prices very reasonable. Staff here very polite and place is super clean…there’s seating indoors and outdoor patio dining oh and a super from me to having clean bathrooms…that’s a plus 🙌being my first time eating here and enjoy their food…I’ll definitely come again and enjoy their fish burgers which looked amazing too…well...

This store has the worst possible service and is fairly overpriced.

Kanaloa was the first seafood store I shopped at after moving here from NYC about 3 years ago. So trust me, I know pricey, and they are very much overpriced. That would be ok, were it not for the absolutely horrible attitude of the people selling the fish. I have tried them a few more times over the years, and every time I walk out of that store, I regret having gone back.

Today's visit was prompted by a Groupon. I asked for Tuna to grill for 2 people. They said about 1 pound. I said make it a bit more, it's for 2 people. So the kid comes back with ONE 2" thick slice of tuna that weighs in at 1.05 pounds. It's really too thick to grill well, too thin to slice in half. Now any other place I buy fish from, would have cut me 2 new slice about 1.5" thick...NOT HERE. It was, you buy THIS piece of Tuna or nothing. I am not making this up. The Groupon was about to expire, so I eventually took it, but this was my last visit for sure, and I really can't recommend it to anyone.

Is the fish good? Yes, usually it is...but the attitude of the people behind the counter combined with the premium prices make this place not worth...