The Harbor Restaurant — Restaurant in Santa Barbara

If I could give zero stars on any of this I would -

DO NOT COME HERE. Review is long - but worth a read if you're considering paying high dollar for a night out.

We had my sisters wedding rehearsal dinner here, were reassured multiple times beforehand that we would have top notch service due to paying thousands to rent out the "private dining area".

Upon arrival, we were sat at the table with no menus, no water, and no utensils. The server finally came around about 45 minutes after being seated (by the way no one walked us to the table they just opened the room for us). The server started to request drink orders, but wasn't familiar with the drink menu (mind you, we didn't have menus so we were all trying to order drinks completely blind here), and he left the room, didn't come back for another 15 minutes or so. By that time we now had menus (yay). Half the drinks never showed up, we had to ask numerous times for them, some guests ordered lemonade, we found out from one of the owners that they "made it wrong" which is why it tasted like extremely sour lemon juice.

Now - we are waiting for server to come back to take our order.... Amidst refilling our own water glasses, refilling our glasses of wine that they were supplying due to the "inconvenience"....Two hours later, he finally comes, takes 4 people's orders, disappears. Comes back about 15 minutes later, finishes but then looses the first 4 orders, causing someone else to have to come back and try to figure out what was ordered.

FINALLY about 9pm our food starts to arrive (I had already gone to the manager at this time TWICE being that we had been there already 3 hours). Half our food order was missing, sides not there, food not cooked to order, etc.

All in all, beautiful view but go somewhere else. So many choice restaurants in Santa Barbara with gorgeous views where you can get good service and food that you ordered. Very disappointing experience overall, on such a...

My family & I went to The Harbor Restaurant to celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary. This restaurant was rated 4 1/2 Stars but there were a lot of poor reviews. I should have known better. We got seated in a nice corner of the restaurant with a great view. Before long there flies in the area. Why I don't know. We took our own wine, cake and decorations. Our waiter, Ricardo, was very sweet but we didn't see him after our orders were taken. In fact, we never had anyone offer to serve our wine, refill our water glasses or offer plates for our dessert. We got our entrees at different times and no one checked on us. One person in our party ordered shrimp scampi. The rice was dry and hard and the shrimp was awful. No care was taken to make it properly. She sent back her entire meal and no one tried to rectify the situation. All the other food was ok. We had to ask for plates to serve the cake. Again, we were left to fend for ourselves. We found out that Longboard's, the restaurant above The Harbor House, was rented out for a private party and on our level there was another party of 30 people. Those parties got the service and we got neglected. Yet we still got charged a 20% gratuity. I am so angry with this restaurant, you basically ruined our Anniversary dinner.

I called to complain to Juan, a manager, and all I got was excuses. I knew they were busy but that wasn't our problem. You didn't hesitate charging us a 20% gratuity. Juan, I was disappointed in how you handled the situation. You weren't compassionate and didn't come across as sincere. Your staff treated us second rate. You didn't try to reconcile the situation. You have lost us as customers and I hope people will go elsewhere when planning a special event. Very disappointing because I always thought this was an upscale type...

We visited for Sunday brunch for the first time today and, unfortunately, left disappointed. While the ambiance was bright, clean, and inviting, with lovely remodeled decor and gorgeous views, the experience overall fell short.

The food was underwhelming, with a smaller selection than expected. Nothing was labeled, which made it challenging to navigate, especially for anyone with dietary restrictions. We also weren’t informed that we could order made-to-order eggs from our server, which would have enhanced the meal.

The seafood station was a highlight—fresh, tasty, and replenished regularly. However, the rest of the offerings were more of a guessing game.

Service was the area that needed the most improvement. It felt disorganized, with no clear assignments for servers to specific tables or sections. As a result, we had to flag down whoever happened to pass by, which isn’t ideal. For example, when it came time to request the check, we had to ask three different servers before it was finally brought to us.

I understand this is only their second weekend offering brunch, so some hiccups are expected. However, we would have appreciated a dedicated server who could explain the ordering process and check on us regularly.

At $95 per person, the price feels exorbitant for the current experience. Even at half-off ($47.50 per person), it still seemed overpriced given the issues with food selection and service.

There’s definitely potential for this brunch to succeed, but significant improvements are needed before it justifies the cost. At this point, I can’t say we’d...