Ospi Montecito — Restaurant in Santa Barbara

In a nutshell, terrible service and OK food. We had a 6 PM reservation for 4 for the patio and they tried to seat us outside, but off the patio near the kids area. Plenty of open tables on the patio but they refused to let us have any of them. They even had the nerve to offer an indoor table but we had to leave by 7 PM, and it was already 6:10. When I asked about all the open tables on the patio they said those were reserved for 6:30 reservations and some had "pre paid". What the heck does that mean? Did they think I was not going to pay for my dinner? Finally at 6:25 we were seated on the patio at one of the tables that had been open and set since we arrived at 6 PM. No apologies, no offer of free drinks or appetizers, and our waitress rushed the heck out of us. This was our 3rd time visiting this Ospi and sadly our last. I'm guessing growing pains, but I'll wait until they learn to treat customers with more care and respect. Maybe tourists will tolerate this, but as a local, we have a lot of other options...

Been 3 times since its opened, the best time was my first visit. The food is good but my most recent visit it seemed like someone carrying chili oil tripped and fell into everything in the kitchen… dishes that weren’t supposed to be spicy were. The true bummer is there’s an undisclosed 90 minute maximum for all reservations regardless of the size of the group. My first visit it wasn’t enforced but they had just opened. Second visit we thought maybe it was an off night when we noticed the fast pace of the meal… Our most recent visit was a party of 6 and I’ve never been so rushed at any restaurant - let alone an upscale Italian restaurant. As someone who has traveled to Italy multiple times, don’t expect Italian style hospitality. If you order appetizers, they will be brought out with your entrees within 5 minutes of ordering. Don’t waste your money on a celebratory meal here, the experience just isn’t worth it. Especially with so many better...

My wife and I sat at the bar for dinner and had a lovely experience. We started off with a sparkling rose and the beef tartare. Both were on point. The Kale Salad, which we weren't expecting much from... was perfectly balanced, tender, and full of subtle flavors that left you wanting more. The Ricotta Gnudi and Cavatelli pastas were unexpectedly the best pastas we've ever had... not only in SB but having bopped around italy for 2 weeks as well. We don't say that lightly.

We finished off with the tiramisu (more cake-like, which I appreciated) and a glass of their pinot and called it an evening. To be perfectly honest, I would prefer going here over comparable bar/restaurants in the area. It's casual, approachable, the menu takes zero effort to order from and every dish and bite we had was a win. We'll be going back. Keep up the good work... it's difficult to produce quality at scale but they seem to do it effortlessly...