Willow Nipomo

Lovely place to sit outside and have a glass of wine and munch on some fancy pizza. But that’s it. Don’t bother with the rest of the menu.

We have been here three times since my first check in. The Willow Burger is amazing. My kids love the pizza here. To make the whole experience better the patio is fantastic! We love sitting outside and enjoying the view.
I would give five stars if the service wasn’t so slow. All three times our server apologized for how slow she was, using the same reasoning… «I’m the only one working today.» I don’t mind the wait time on the food because sitting outside is enjoyable, but someone should be helping the servers keep the drinks filled. Each time the host is just sitting inside waiting, so maybe the job titles can change a bit to compensate for that in the future. We will be back though! I’m looking forward to summer nights on the patio.

Surprising gem of a spot. We drove up from Santa Barbara to visit a relative. More upscale feeling than I expected. Tortilla soup was flavorful and had a nice spice, French dip style sandwich with their home roasted meat was delicious, but the fried Brussels sprout and pork belly salad will bring us back! Nice selection of beer on tap. Kudos.

Great outdoor seating. Huge selection of wine, cheese, snacks, etc in the market area. Stopped by today to pick up some cheese and meats to make a board at home. They instead, offered to make us a meat and cheese board to go. It was amazing!

Love, love, love the Willow!!! They have a great menu of non-​traditional (aka non-​boring) meals– and those that seem traditional are prepared with a unique twist to make it their own.
My favorite? The roasted Brussels sprout salad –yum! That with a nice glass of wine, out on the patio on a sunny day — you can’t ask for more!

Well, I am torn with my experience here. We stopped by here Saturday night with high hopes. We had heard so many great things, and it was nice to visit a nice restaurant off the beaten path.
Upon arrival, we were surprised to see such a nice looking establishment just a few miles off the 101 in a remote part of Nipomo. We entered through the front door which is actually their deli, and then the restaurant is off to the left. We were greeted by a hostess and she seated us on the outdoor patio. To our surprise, they had a live band that evening. Our table was right in the front row, which was pretty cool.
We ended up ordering the Fried Chicken Meal and a Pizza. The food just fell flat for us. Our oven baked veggie pizza was very bland, and super watery. Although, I realize veggie pizza can be watery, this one was a little over the top, for me. On to the Chicken, it was very dry. This along with the mashed potatoes having an odd taste, ruined the dish for me. The NAPA slaw that was the plate was quite tasty though.
Service was a little slow. We have been told by others that the bar seems to have the best service. However, not being in a hurry that didn’t really matter for us. We definitely enjoyed the awesome weather and live music on the patio. This was the highlight of the experience.
They do have an extensive beer list. I didn’t count, but I would say they have 200+ bottled beers available. Wines by the glass were also plentiful. However, not near as extensive as the beer list.
Bottom line. This would be a great place to get a drink and appetizer.

Let me start by saying that we were looking forward to eating here. Even with the mixed reviews, I for one. am all about forming my own opinion. I wish I had listened to other people. Our party of 4 arrived and were seated promptly on their patio which was really nice on a warm night like tonight. We ordered our drinks and they were brought out immediately. That is where the goodness ended. the food was sub-​par, and nothing that would bring me back. 2 of us ordered the French Dip since we had heard mixed reviews we played it safe by ordering something that is somewhat difficult to mess up. I took my first bite and my food was cold. Not just sitting in the window cold, but the meat was actually still refirgerator cold and the jus was room temp. After waiting for 5+ minutes for the server to come back, I gave up and went inside to find her and let her know. She took the food back and after about 10 brought our food back. This time the meat was warm but the jus was even colder than before. It obviously had not been heated when the sandwich was re-​made. After sending just the jus back it was brought back out after about 5 minutes and was hot. but you guessed it, by then the sandwich was barely warm. I gave up on having a hot meal and ate about half the sandwich. I will not be going back. The steak sandwich of one of my dining companions was just okay, and the other sandwich that was ordered was so below average that I can’t even remember what it was called. Don’t waste your time or money to eat there.