The Anchor Rose — Restaurant in Santa Barbara

The Bad: Cocktails: $15 each and seemingly contained no alcohol. Bartender looked inexperienced and we highly doubt she put in more than a splash of spirits in each drink. Ordered 4 different signature cocktails, which all should have been spirit-forward options, but came out tasting like mocktails/virgin-drinks. (e.g. Salty Anchor was just Gin+Grapefruit Juice+ Simple Syrup....just tasted like sweetened juice with a salt rim. Gross.)

Service: Our waitress brought the bill after clearing the single appetizer and initial round of drinks, but before entrees and secondary drinks (that we had already ordered). We shrugged it off as a mixup and did get our entrees a few min later, but the drinks weren't brought out until our last bites of dinner (~25 min after ordering, without any apology).

There were also a few mix ups we witnessed with neighboring tables: 1) servers delivered cocktail sauce while we ate an appetizer of brussel sprouts (huh?) which we didn't order and determined was for the adjacent table, 2) servers delivered duplicate orders of artichokes to another adjacent table (which they took back after the mixup). There were only 4 occupied tables in our section at any point in time during this ~75 min dining experience.

The Good: Food: The brussel sprouts appetizer was tasty, Seabass was well seasoned/cooked and Fish and Chips were great. Overall the food was pretty good but not amazing (the pilaf side for the fish was pretty much just Uncle Ben's with a slight tang).

Setting: Located in the harbor and has mountain views. Great if dining around sunset and sitting by the railing/window.

SUMMARY: If you're going for the view, beer or wine, and simple dinner...it's a great backup option to Brophy's when the waitlist...

SIGH this place leaves a lot to be desired. The host stand outside is confusing so wasn’t sure if we waited there for someone, but after a minute we realized we needed to walk upstairs to be seated. I asked the person that seated us if normally someone was down there, they said it’s just meant for people to look at the menu (but there’s no signage indicating to head inside/go upstairs until you walk in the maritime museum and see the logo on the wall). I said that it was confusing and the person seating us replied “a lot of things here are confusing”. The restaurant isn’t well kept and the kitchen, which you pass when you go to the left rooftop dining area, is filthy. Our server was nice, fine all around. Ordered drinks. My drink I believed it was incorrect when it arrived to the table (ordered cucumber/gin cocktail, pretty sure I got a mojito based on appearance/taste). Brought this to the attention of our server and they took it away to have another made. When I got the new drink my husband was pretty certain it was the same cocktail but now a splash of cucumber and cucumber garnish but same flavor. I didn’t feel like fighting this further. Food was food in its basic definition. I am convinced that most if not all is frozen. My husband had the swordfish and I had the scallops, both tasted like they were frozen and not fresh. The veggies looked like they came from a frozen bag and bland, rice looked like ricearoni, potatoes might have been made fresh but bland. For the price scallops $42 and swordfish $27 OOF not justified. With the location they have, the access to fresh ingredients both from the harbor and farmers markets, etc. it’s sad that this is the product/experience delivered. Won’t...

I find it funny how you removed my review just because I mentioned that the host was racist in my previous one. I came to this dump on june 15th to celebrate my graduation since all the better resultants were booked up. When I arrive some racist old man refused to pay attention to me when I was trying to tell him I had a reservation for 1:15. Instead he sat white customers down when they had no reservation and I was finally let in by another waitress at 1:45. Came with a party of 6 and was only brought one menu. All the dishes and cups were not washed and dirty. My mom just wanted a simple hot cup of water and it came in a cup with stains all over. When I told the waiter to switch it out he came back with the same exact cup. What kind of service is this. Anyways we ordered the patella (which had no price on the menu), the steamed mussels, and the shrimp pasta. This was the worst food we have ever eaten. The patella which cost $50 came with 2 scallops and 3 pieces of shrimp. That's not even the worst part. It's like they cooked their food in sea water. The food was so salty it was inedible and made me want to throw up. The mussels met the same demise. Way too salty, like they were trying to give us high blood pressure. The pasta my brother ordered was drenched in oil it was more like a soup. If I could give this place a negative review I would. They need to give this place a health inspection and shut it down. STAY AWAY IF YOU WANT TO EAT EDIBLE FOOD. Also if your asian you are guaranteed to get discriminate against. This place is absolutely terrible and no one should come here. I actually have zero good things to say about this place. DISGUSTING FOOD AND...