Santo Mezcal — Restaurant in Santa Barbara

I was excited to visit this restaurant on a recent trip to Santa Barbara! It looks beautiful online and I had high hopes to try good Mezcal and experience what I saw online.

We came in during the happy hour window, service was slow at first but when we finally ordered our drinks we chose the margarita flight and the Mezcal flight, each were listed on the physical, happy hour menu and online. After quite a while, nothing was being delivered, and we didn’t know where our server was - what happened next was bizarre.

We were sitting outside and from inside the restaurant, a man with an apron on yelled over one or two tables at us that they were not serving the flights and that that was a “typo” on the menu.

Our server never came back to take an alternate order, a young lady, eventually revisited our table and reiterated that the bar manager said that the flights were a typo so we ordered something different, a single mezcal margarita instead, and a beer. The drink was not good, I sent it back and noticed the bartender and the server conversing about it at the bar - I walked up to the bar to cancel our order because at this point, we were just wasting time being there.

We never got the chance to order food because no one was really servicing our table. We did not care about the price, the flights were $19 each so not much of a discount, but that was OK because we wanted to try a variety.

A person that works at this establishment yelling at us across tables instead of walking over and engaging us directly was offensive; but the fact that they called it a typo when clearly there are flights listed on the website and printed on all of their happy hour menus was absolutely bizarre and unacceptable.

Once we decided to leave a man named Omar came to talk to us and was very nice - but unfortunately that could not make up for the rest of the experience - they clearly didn’t want our business. I do not recommend and will not...

We called ahead to see if the restaurant takes reservations, they do not.

We came at 7:44pm, the hostess said it would be 10 min, took our phone number and said we’ll receive a text.

We did not receive a text but walked up to the hostess at 7:54pm to double check if it was our turn.

She said that there was another party ahead of us and that it should be no more than another 10 minutes.

We stayed close by in her vicinity, just in case.

At 8:20pm - half an hour later - I walked up to her again to see if it was our turn yet. She said: “well, we texted you two times and you haven’t responded”. I was a bit taken back by this and mentioned to her that we literally stood two feet away from her all this time. As it turned out, she added the wrong area code, so we never received the text.

I’m a little frustrated by the quality of the customer service , especially when hostesses and waitresses usually have a good face memory. All she had to do is literally call the name or take one step over to us. I’m including a photo to show how close we were standing.

After we were finally seated at 8:40pm (an hour later, not 10 min later, and this was on a Monday night!) we inhaled our food, that was actually pretty good. I wish I wasn’t this hungry, so I could actually savor the food.

The drink I ordered was overly sweet to the point of being unbearable. The ratio of alcohol and mix was off, in my opinion.

Out of everything: ambiance, food, drinks, service…the only thing we liked...

HOW HORRIBLY OVERRATED THE WAITRESS FOR 1: a Latina racist? Shocked! 1. She treated all the white people with a great friendly personable attitude however treated us and the Asian family next to us very transactional, what did u think we didn't have money? It was 3pm and we wanted a drink and appetizer. Your restaurant was dead!! U even said it out loud several times to yiur coworkers. Maybe cause your attitude. She brought us guacamole we didn't order and charged us for it. Our drinks were made wrong when I called it out she disappeared never came back I had to ask another waiter correct it She came back after I saw bartender say sorry the bottles look the same (admitting behind the scenes she made the mistake) when the terrible waitress came back to give it to me she said here more alcohol I didn't ask for more I asked for the right 1. I should have made a scene but I was so upset my bf just said let's go paid the bill and we went. When she asked if we wanted anything else my bf said no I think we r gonna go she waved us off and huffed. R U FLIPPING SERIOUS?? ONLY REASON I didn't make a scene was my bf asked me not to.

Dead on a Friday afternoon should tell u this place doesn't have local or repeat customers. What a joke. U should really take a look at her as a rep to your environment.

I should haven't to ask 3 times for water.

And if the waitress sees this. Take a look at the...