Coastal Del Mar - Seafood Grill

This is probably the hardest, and longest, review I have written in the past year or two because my bride and I were looking to having a great meal with some good friends from Wisconsin and it turned out to be very disappointing. Let me preface my review with the fact that the staff responded with sincere apologies. Our group of 6 had 7:15 PM reservations and we were promptly seated when we arrived at 7:10. Parking was very difficult around the square as a very good band was playing so plan accordingly. Our server Ashlynn was young and energetic. We are older so everyone is young I suppose. Ashlyn provided us time to get settled by bringing waters for everyone. As we looked through the wonderful menu, I decided I would order the Shrimp and scallop fettuccine. That is until I discovered 3 others from my group decided on the same entree. I just needed to have variety at our table. Ashlyn returned and asked about starters. We ordered 3 clam chowders and a beer and she left. It was a bit odd that she did not take our dinner order but perhaps someone in our group asked for more time. We were sitting 3 and 3 in a bench / chair table with me being squeezed in the farthest bench seat location limiting my ability to hear much … which is typical anywhere so no points off for that. We waited quite a bit in the busy yet finer dining atmosphere before receiving our chowder and beer. Now to order our meals. Asking to hear the specials again as Ashlynn is a very fast talker at first, I ordered the special: Red Snapper with lemon/basil risotto for $36. My bride ordered the Scallops Risotto. It was described as having spinach, tomatoes and shaved Parmesan. When our meals came, they looked great. I tasted a small piece of my fish and it tasted good. My bride asked me to tasted her risotto and it was vastly undercooked and flavorless. I tried mine and it was the same. The rest of our party enjoyed their meals and were quite content. Ashlynn apologized for our meal and took them away stating it would be corrected in a minute or two. Unless they had risotto ready to go, I knew that was not happening. Our friends were trying to eat slow but they were nearly finished when our plates were retuned. My fish was now swimming in a bowl of watery, yellow green sauce with orzo(?) buried within. The same with my brides dish. Ashlynn returned to make sure our meals were now okay. We told her no and she said she would be right back. My bride had pushed her plate aside but I suggested she could at least eat the scallops as I ate my fish. We were so hungry and we needed to eat. The manager came over and immediately saw our plate and stated they should not have been served like that. She apologized and we were told our plates would be removed from our bill. Nothing was said about comping our meal which included the chowder my bride and I ate, just the entrees. Soon after, Michael, the culinary manager came over and apologized as well stating that he did not see our plates go out and that they should not have been served. He also stated they were out of risotto and he provided us with a $25 gift card and a request to ask for him when we come back and he will personally prepare our dish. Lastly, Ashlynn provided our group 3 desserts for free. My bride did not want any of the sweet desserts after having eaten very little but I ordered the key lime pie. It was extremely sweet but I still had no problem finishing it. When the bills came, ours was for $19.05. The cost of the two chowders we had. It really felt like a slap in the face to be charged as we had watch our friends eat and we were heavily disappointed in our experience. $20 is nothing compared to our experience. We decided to use the gift card to pay our bill and left. Our friends enjoyed their meals and for that we are happy but our demeanor had drastically soured. We may try to return next year. This trip we were up from Venice visiting. I feel comfortable that this was a one off and everyone deserves a second chance.

Nice food and staff for the most part. I would say don't order the soft shell crab dinner. The chef took one (1) hotel size soft shell crab and cut it in half. Which is very small to begin with The menu clearly states the meal is (2) soft shell crabs. I didn't complain but everyone else had a nice meal. Don't play around with people from the Chesapeake region of the country.

My favorite dining experience in Santa Barbara.

Very good seafood and service!!

03/03/24 back for brunch. Coastal omelet was very Great food & drinks. 12/27/24 Only negative is one of staff had way to much perfume. We were overwhelmed when she was 5+ feet away.

This is a good fish restaurant in the heart of downtown.