AJ Spurs

Always a good choice. They give a chili soup at the begging, a salad, the main course with potatoes and then a root beer float at the end. You’ll definitely be taking left overs home. The beef ribs are my favorite, the burgers are also really good. The people are always friendly and service is great.

Not good unless you are looking for a salt lick. Everything way too salty and inedible.

Great server. Food was consistently over salted.. . And I love and crave salt! Ugh. Great décor. Large portions. Would not come back.

Drove all the way up from Santa Barbara. Went here as a kid and was super stoked to come back with my girlfriend after over 10 years only to be disappointed by the food. Expensive prices for mediocre food.

All can say is, BIG portions… The prices are well worth the amount of food you get.

OK, gotta be real here. Have been several times and its always been loud and noisy with passable food. Revisited two days ago, and am happy to say that the flat iron steak that I had was excellent! The soup/​cowboy stew with salsa and black beans was very tasty, also. The potatoes, on the other hand, were lukewarm, dry and tasteless. The meals come with rice, so I really don’t get why the potatoes. All in all, a pretty good meal! We will return (p.s. — it still gets very noisy and conversations are a challenge).

At this county-​style restaurant you will definitely get the bang for your buck. Everything here comes in huge portions. Live music on most nights, Fridays are the best. Come to the bar area and the amiable bartenders will treat you right.

Great bang for the bucks. Tons of food. Been there twice last year with my Santa Barbara friends. The potato’s were to die for. Only drawback was during the last visit. All three of us ordered the Flat Iron stake. Cooked the way we ordered but the stakes were salted like the meat came out of the ocean. We were on somewhat of a tight schedule as we were going to see Don Rickles at Chumash but we did complain to our server. The manager came over and told us he was sorry so he took $ 7.00 off of the tab. He acted like the loss of the $ 7 was going to put him out of business. Next time when I order I will make the server know to have the cook not add any salt to our stakes.

This restaurant works to create a rustic/​Western atmosphere with all of the large logs and stuffed animals inside. The food is hearty and even though your are served large portions of potatoes and beans, the steaks, chicken and/​or ribs are very tasty. This is a good venue for family sized groups.

I did make a reservation based upon when I felt we would be passing Buellton. Instead, we arrived an hour early. It is a weekday and a bit early, so it wasn’t packed. We were seated fairly quickly and received our newspaper-​bulletin-​like menu.
After reading numerous recent reviews regarding bad service, I was a bit wary. We have been at a few restaurants with horrible service and attempted to go to a few places we didn’t realize that do not welcome kids. When you have children, kid friendly is always a great thing. We weren’t seated in a booth, but the table was fine. The kids were entertained with the taxidermy.
Our waiter was very good with the kids, was very enthusiastic, and was always attentive. The vegetable soup, salsa and beans were immediately provided. They were on the salty side, but it was very flavorful. Because everyone noted the portions were large, we decided to go for one kids meal and a beef/​pork rib plate. The salad that came with it was there. I had forgotten to ask to have the bbq sauce on the side. When I had asked after about 5 – 10 minutes, he said he see what he could do. He informed us the kitchen said they had it. When the remainder of the food arrived, he brought an extra clean plate. The ribs were a bit fatty, but that made them moist. A lot of the flavor is in reliant on the sauce; however, the subtle smokiness of meat gave it some flavor to stand alone. It is nothing like the boiled and bbq sauce drenched meats some other places serve.
I didn’t touch the rice or the potatoes, so I can’t comment on them. We were so full after the soup and eating a few ribs each, we took a tray home. We opted for root beer floats. Those I was with liked them. Is it a place we’d return to, yes!

If you’re from out of town visiting the country then this is a fun place to go for the kids. The interior decorating is great with stuffed animals and cowboy/​mining paraphernalia.
However the food is not very good. I ordered a ribeye steak and all it really needs is some good seasoning and a proper sear. However it wasn’t seasoned barely at all. My wife ordered ribs which are really hard to mess up. They were a little dry instead of falling off the bone. It comes with rice pilaf, soup, bread and some other items… none of these things had salt, pepper, or seasoning. The soup it comes with was cold.
This place is basically a tourist trap. If you want to take the kids out somewhere this is a great place to go since the chicken tenders were probably the best thing we had.

Excellent service from John! We celebrated 2 birthdays tonight and had great food, drinks and dessert. My husband did the steak challenge and got a free shirt. Must try if you are in town.

Food portions matched the price. That said, you will be paying a lot for the bill, but you will have plenty of food to take home for the next day.
I made the mistake by filling up on the beef/​vegetable stew and salad.
The pasta was good, but too much pasta vs the meat.
I would eat here again but will get a non pasta item next time.

Let me apologize in advance for the long winded review. Here we go.
I decided to take my husband to AJs last night for his birthday. We have been to AJs many times and all has been fine, but last night not so much.
We knew we would have to wait, as we did not have a reservation. Larry (at least I think that was his name) the table guy greeted us, told us it would be 25 minutes and wrote our name down. Where he wrote it down was not even a list of people waiting for tables. Hum? He proceeded to seat people, both with reservations and not. We patiently waited. I don’t know if this guy was having a bad night or what, but his attitude is what I would call «snarky.» The way he talked to people was short and unfriendly, not what a person in this position should be. We saw one young lady that had a compliant and literally he brushed her off. She turned and said to him «You are a horrible man.» I would have been totally peeved.
After about 40 minutes (yes, we are that patient) my husband went up to ask how much longer it would be. The girl at the desk had a blank look, like who are you? Hubby told her that we had been waiting 40 minutes and that people had been seated that came in after us. She asked «Can I get your name?» At that point I stepped up and said that Larry had written it down and sure enough off to the side was our name. The girl apologized, she was very sweet and attentive and said she would take care of it.
Well, when the table guy came back, the girl explained what happened and facing away from us whispered something to the girl about us. I don’t know what it was, but it still ticked me off. Finally, he was able to seat us. Even though he did say «enjoy your dinner» it was in a tone that maybe a snail would have.
Okay, finally on to the service. It was the worst service we have ever had, but the best we have had. The food was great as usual, my dirty martini was exceptional (kudos to the bartender), but our waitress was overwhelmed and not attentive. She seemed very stressed. Another waitress (young lady with blond hair) that was also exceptionally busy, took the time to stop and ask us what we would like for dessert, cleared our table, and took care of our payment. I sure hope our original waitress shared the tip. Our original waitress never once came back and asked us how we were doing.
Well you have made it to the end of my comment. We will probably go back one of these days, but it will be awhile and I hope Larry the table guy gets a better attitude.
Enjoy life.

My favorite restaurant in the world. It’s a family traditional to head to AJ Spurs when staying in Solvang. So so so much delicious food for an incredibly reasonable price. It feels like the courses never stop. You are greeted with a giant pot of amazing soup to hold over your hunger until the salad, steak, potatoes, rice pilaf, garlic bread, etc. etc. etc. etc!!! Then you can top it all off with a delicious night cap! Miss it already and can’t wait to come back next year to this quirky, fun place!

Love this place! The design of this place takes you to an 18^th century western movie. Large location and we got seated right away. The staff was very friendly and welcoming.
As you sit you’ll get a complementary western style pot of vegetable soup, tequila black beans and a tomato salsa. The soup was thick with amazing flavors. With every meal you’ll get a complimentary salad, home made style potatoes and a root beer float or a brandy.
I tried the beef ribs. The ribs were perfectly cooked with a nice char and glazed barbecue sauce drenched all over the ribs. Juicy ribs but pretty heavy.
My friend ordered the filet. I tried a piece and it was very nice, juicy and tender. It’s not your 5 star steakhouse steak but it was a nice cut.
Very reasonable prices and a great place to take the family out for a western style dinner.

1 star for service. Food was 4 stars tonight… not great but pretty good.
Made reservations last week for Moms Birthday… the girl that took the reservation even claimed her birthday was the same day. So why was it every other table had a «birthday» and got the special treatment yet no mention to us. How stupid I felt as Mom was thinking that everytime these folks were starting up the birthday comotion that it was for her. Thats pretty jacked up

This place is literally a slice of Americana. The twangy country music on the sound system is no hipster joke. It is what they play and it is what you would hear in many diners across the country. The stuffed animal heads throughout the place further set the mood. It’s a bit disturbing in a way but I got over it quickly.
As soon as you sit down, and before you even ask for a glass of water, the server brings you a giant cast iron vat of vaquero soup, with sides of black beans and salsa. I thought the salsa was weak, but the black beans were delicious and the soup was very tasty and hearty. By the time you work your way through a bowl (or two), you’ll probably need to loosen your belt for the first time of the evening.
Far be it from me to shy anyone away from appetizers (which I generally love) but the soup, entrée and dessert (included) would probably satisfy your average fattiie. In fact, I had to beg off my dessert at the end.
For my main meal, I ordered a half slab of ribs which were delicious. The pork ribs literally fall off the bone. I was greatly disappointed in the home fries with grilled onions. They were virtually tasteless until I gave them a couple shakes of salt. I’m not sure I know of another restaurant in the world which still serves rice pilaf but it was ok here. I concentrated on the ribs.
Overall, you get a ton of stick to your ribs food (no pun intended). It ain’t cheap but it will put you into a food coma. The service is friendly, the mood is causal and the place is as authentic as it comes. I dug it. Call it a very strong 4 stars.

Talk about large portions!
We usually order a burger, and pasta. But with any entrée comes with salad, soup with chili, potatoes, and desert. The proportions are huge, which means leftovers! The staff is great, very friendly, and they give awesome suggestions on their food. After coming here so many times, you end up trying majority of the food already and you want to try something new, and this is when they come in
Overall, the food is delicious and the ambiance is very cool.
Decorations are very unique, and keep you occupied (lol).
If you’re in solvang, this is the place to definitely try out!

You get a lot for your money! All dinner entrees come with family style starters of soup, beans, salsa and garlic bread. You also get a side salad and dessert (root beer float, ice cream scoop or liqueur) with each entrée. I ordered the 6 ounce sirloin with pork bbq ribs. Portions are big. I was pretty much done after I ate the soup, beans, salsa, bread and salad, but was able to eat a few ribs and a piece of the steak.
FYI: their martinis are strong. Someone ordered the Jesse James martini and I think it burned a hole in my throat.
Service was great, btw!