Tre Lune — Restaurant in Santa Barbara

This is our favorite restaurant to go to whenever we are here in the Santa Barbara area or even when just passing through a drive up the coast. This wuaint Montecito neighborhood restaurant checks all the boxes in terms of what a great restaurant is for me. If craving for a real authentic Italian food, with their pasta done al dente and and so perfect, this would be the place. You would think that this place would be a snobbish place because of the known big name residents that dine here regularly but it’s not the case. The service is impeccable, and shout out to Fidencio that convinced us to buy the spicy olive oil because they were truly great to have in our kitchen! And for Fernando’s kind and excellent service even though we walked in a bit late, ( almost to their lunch time closing) because he was still able to give us service not feeling rushed at all! He was also able to give us the “scoop” on how those little chair decorations hanging meant and how to get one. In short, you must be a super regular diner there and to get one, you must have done at least 5 years. And the placing of the chair you get is also very important, kinda like getting the best location in real estate. Of course, we got the common where Oprah’s was lol! And, we were told Harry and Meghan just left the place for their regular lunch when we walked in. Also, we were told that the reason all these celebrities come to dine ( or lunch) there is because nobody ever bothers with them and are treated normal just as everyone is. As for the ambiance, the place is just regular small place in the middle of shops in the Mendocino town, almost nondescript but decor is definitely unique in that it has the old Hollywood vibes… and of course the chairs that each diner earns through the years of dining. The food, superb! I still have yet to order some that I didn’t like there. Even their mixed salad is great, their lasagna amazing and their meatballs great! We parked on the street...

Heads-up - Long review. I'm a food and wine fan and an Italian lover with great experiences. Of course, taste and experience expectations are funny things, but one thing's for sure, the premier restaurants are fairly universally loved. Sometimes the problem is in the kitchen and sometimes it’s on the floor. Tre Luna was a bit of both but by far the worst wine spectator Italian I have ever had, FWIW. On a side note, exceptional kudos to the valet. Our car and the valet were waiting for us (in the unexpected rain) as we walked out. Ratings out of 5: Room - 5 Vibe - 5 Wine list - 5 Wine prices - 5 No. dishes ordered - 3 No. dishes to die4 - 0 Bread (IMHO leading indicator of restaurant performance) bad Olive oil fair Fried seafood medley - ok, though the prawn was fabulous Two pasta dishes, pasta perfectly prepared Meatballs, dry, chewy, tasteless Both sauces good flavor, but dishes were over sauced Service - 2 Waiter didn't know menu well I ordered a 2018 Tignanello, they brought a 2020 wine without acknowledging what I picked. They said they just hadn't updated their wine list. Two huge no-nos for a Wine Spectator restaurant, especially two vintages off. I sure hope they weren't saving the good vintages for customers they valued more. They offered me to pick another. I didn't and as luck would have it, the wine was so bad (unheard of for Tig, though when I checked the rating afterwards, it was rated low by their standards) we...

Food was delicious, atmosphere relaxed/casual, service not to par.

For the very expensive price I was expecting a more romantic atmosphere and spectacular service (I used to work in a restaurant so my standard is high yet forgiving,) but instead received rushed attention if any at all.

All staff seemed to be running, and we only had one check on how things were tasting.

When our plates were taken for boxing the server stacked them on top of the other, and he tossed our bread even though we wanted to box.

The check was set down during dessert without first asking if we wanted anything else. I feel like this was partially due to typefiling— maybe we didn’t look wealthy enough to buy another dish?

The waiter even corrected me bluntly on my poor pronunciation when I first ordered, and I felt self conscious thereafter. Don’t get me wrong— I appreciate critique because that’s a great way to learn new things, but there has to be finesse.

I was also expecting a special celebratory touch because we made a reservation for our anniversary, but received nothing. We had a very different, sweet experience while celebrating our anniversary at a Morton’s years ago where our menus were custom-printed with a “congratulations on your anniversary,” so I guess my bar has been high since then.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend Tre Lune for a...