Santa Barbara Shellfish Company — Restaurant in Santa Barbara

We came here for a nice day out, the restaurant is nicely located along the pier, the crew were very stoic and as a first timer in the area you wouldnt know what to do weather to just sit in any free area or wait to be sitted. If you don't see the paper hanging in fromt of the door you'll probably miss it and if you dont place your name you basically wouldnt be sitted, but thats the new norm i guess. The clam chowder was great, I got a scallop and shrimp liguine and thankfully i got to taste it before the disaster happen. As previously mentioned this restaurant is along the pier, piers tends to be cold and windy, as i was enjoying my meal it all of a sudden started gusting strong winds and I noticed one of the wait staff is folding a sun shade umbrella already. But after i was about to take another bite of my meal when I just felt a sudden force to my face, it was the umbrella itself and within seconds the pole of the umbrella hit my face. At first it felt like someone hit me with a baseball bat in the face but it was the umbrella itself together with the pole that was attached to it. It flung to my plate and spilled all over the table and my phone that was on the table. I stood up in shock and the girl wait staff approached and asked if I was okay but I dont know how to react so i kept quiet and she just told me to get inside so i can calm down. As we went inside no one followed me to go in or to check on me within the team of people that works there. A few minutes passed and our waiter brought in our food and assume I still have the appetite. I asked if they can remake the food as the umbrella touched the whole plate basically spearing the top of the food. He then told me he can just remove it or they can just remake it to go, in my head they still would want to charge me for food thats been spilled and tampered with by their umbrellas, i just ask him to remove it and asked for an ice pack, I then went in to the restroom and cleaned up my phone wiped it down and then i head back out. I am shaken by what happen and literally was shaking. The waiter offered to call for an ambulance but i declined, but thats about it, no show of sincere concern for a customer that just got injured by their umbrellas, and I understand its not their fault but I noteced after the fact that the umbrellas dont have wieghts inder them. This is an establishment that deals with strong winds for most of the business but there is nothing holding down the umbrella touched secure it in to place such as a counter weight for these exact scenarios. So for that I know for a fact that this is a neglect on the owner of the restaurant. This is just another injury waiting to happen not just for the customers but their workers too. All in all we still paid for my friend's meal and the clam chowders and they removed the pasta dish from the receipt. But working in food if i was taking care of the customer i would have given the customer inconvenience discount or just comp the whole meal for ruining the experience. But thats just my experience as a food...

On the 21st of July, my partner and I had lunch in Santa Barbara at the Santa Barbara Shellfish Company located on Stearns Wharf. All was fine until it came time to pay our bill. Our check came with the total for the food as well as three suggested tip totals at the bottom. Our bill came to $88.45. The highest suggested tip total from the list was 22% which would bring the grand total to $106.35 should we have chose to leave the tip on the card. We had planned to leave a cash tip. Our server brought a square point of sale machine to the table to finish out the transaction. My partner chose no tip on the machine and when the transaction was complete, we noticed that her card had been charged $106.35 when our bill was only $88.45. At first we thought they had added the tip themselves, but the employee I pointed that out to said that was impossible for them to do.We became highly suspicious then, that they had added the highest tip amount to the original total assuming that we wouldn't notice the amount. They tried to tell us that the server had charged us for the wrong bill, but we feel that it's too coincidental that what they overcharged us was the exact amount of our bill and the highest percentage of tip suggested. We really got the impression that they were trying to pull something over on us. Had We not been paying closer attention, we would have paid too much for our bill, as well as a cash tip, which we believe they were trying to attempt to accomplish. Our concern is not only for us, but that this could possibly be a common practice for them as this is a busy tourist locationwhere the opportunity to take advantage of distracted clients could be quite easy. We were also troubled by their dismissive demeanor while we were trying to reslove this. Crappy attitudes....shady...

I'm still feeling incredibly sick as I write this. I’ve had two very different experiences at Santa Barbara Shellfish Company- one great, the other deeply disappointing.

The first time, we arrived around 5 PM. The service was quick, the staff was polite, and the food was fresh and delicious. No complaints.

Last night was a completely different story. We came around 7 PM and waited in line before being seated. Our waitress seemed either under the influence or extremely out of it. We had to repeat our order multiple times, and she still forgot items. We kept having to remind her what we ordered.

While waiting, we used the restroom located inside the restaurant. The smell inside was unbearable, we literally had to cover our noses.

When the food finally arrived, it was a major letdown. The shrimp tasted old, we left more than half untouched. The mussels were so bad we had to send them back. The only thing that tasted fresh were the oysters we had at the start.

An hour after we got home, I got violently ill and threw up. I was sick again a few hours later. Now I’m lying in bed, still nauseous, shaking, with my heart racing and the taste of spoiled seafood still in my mouth.

I really wanted to love this place again, but after last night, I can’t recommend it. If you do go, try to go earlier in the day when the food might be fresher. And if anything feels off, trust your gut and send it back. Also, take care of your restroom needs before arriving. You really don’t want to experience the smell inside.

I'm being generous...