Crocodile Restaurant & Bar

Great experience even better waitress Carisa was extremely nice and helpful and recommended great food the grilled salmon was delicious the drinks were heavy so that’s always a plus and the mud pie dessert was delicious definitely a classy place to go to

My hubby and I didn’t feel like going all the way downtown, and we thought of The Crocodile, after remembering that they had taken first place in a Clam Chowder contest a few months ago. We were pleasantly surprised by the nice ambience. We had a hard time choosing our selections because almost all of them sounded delicious. Hubby got the stroganoff, I had the tacos. Both Delicious. A lady at the next table was raving about her awesome burger.
Thought the prices were reasonable. We will definitely be back!

Came here for brunch one Saturday morning. It was empty, but that was also because it was probably around 11:30 or 12. Our waitress was attentive, and when she forgot something on my partner’s order, she fixed it right away. The food was tasty – some of the best sourdough I’ve had. Will be back to try dinner some time!

Three cheers for the Crocodile Restaurant & Bar! I’d always known it was there but somehow easily drove past it all these years. My boyfriend and I went for dinner Friday night and we were not disappointed. I had the lemon asparagus penne with a creamy picatta sauce and broiled chicken. He had the steak and argula salad. Both dishes were mouth-​wateringly tasty! My watermelon cosmo, a house signature drink, was delicious. The service and ambiance were excellent as well. It’s Santa Barbara’s best kept secret!

The Lemon Tree Inn is amazing. I love the patio and the view is so peaceful and relaxing just what I needed for our Anniversary getaway! And room is perfect! And Crocodile restaurant was amazing!

Cheguei no restaurante sem muita expectativa, visto que é um restaurante de um hotel!
Porém, fomos muito bem atendidos e meu prato estava delicioso!
Pedi um um spagueti cabelo de anjo com camarões que veio com um pão quentinho com parmesão que amei!!!
O restaurante só peca por ser um pouco barulhento!

Happened to find this place on Unilocal and it was right down the street from the hotel we were staying at. The restaurant is inside the hotel and has a nice ambiance. The staff is friendly and attentive. The food is definitely good. I had the eggs Benedict which was fantastic. I got the avocado instead of ham and it was super fresh. We sat on the patio which is comfortable and large.
Overall a good experience and a good find in a pinch when we didn’t know the area. We would definitely recommend this place and come back.

Great service; terrible food!
After dinning at this place you will wish you would have stayed home and microwaved your three day old fish left over. The menu says, «world famous pizza» but what they really mean is world famous heresy squirts. This place is just poor.
However, the college kid who served us was very good. in fact, they had a team of servers who did an excellent job. To bad their cook specializes in microwave and reheated frozen food dishes.
Yet the highlight of the place is ordering a drink from the bar and then tip toeing over to the pool. So, if you’re going for drinks at the pool you’ll be much happier than if you actually have expectations for a halfway decent meal.
Finally, if you’re looking for something tasty and well priced keep looking.

Me and my husband stayed in the hotel over the 4^th of July and decided to have breakfast and dinner here and we must say we were impressed with the service and the food, as well as the drinks. Met some new friends in the restaurant and were given ideas as to what to order to eat. All that we ordered was off the wall and would recommend the restaurant. Friendly bartender and waiters.

So I went last night with friends to celebrate my birthday. Thought, what the heck, try something new since I’ve pretty much eaten everywhere in Santa Barbara. They get some things right and some things need a little improvement but overall it was a great experience. I’ve bulleted the main things I considered in my rating in hopes that Crocodile might make a few simple changes to make this a 5 star experience in the future.
* Fantastic staff. Both our host and our waitress were super friendly and went out of their way to make sure my group was well taken care of.
* Patio. Oddly enough there really aren’t a lot of great patios in Santa Barbara, but Crocodile’s is an exception and the tables are really large and they have heat lamps if required. Super plus!
* Mac & Cheese as an appetizer. Yeah this is like the real deal, just like the home-​made mac and cheese my grandmother made when I was a kid. Our whole table loved it. It deserves recognition on it’s own. I’ll literally be back to sit at the bar and have a drink and some mac and cheese.
* Drinks. My Moscow Mule was meh, they need to get the proper copper mugs if they are going to highlight a mule on their menu. Also, although they use my favorite ginger beer (Fever Tree) there was too much lime making it taste more like a lime-​ade than a proper mule. I followed up with their rye Manhattan which was great, though I think they should swap out the maraschino cherries and go with some brandied cherries to make it a little more of a «craft» cocktail. The rest of my group did beer and wine and there were no complaints.
* Food. In general the food was good. I loved my stroganoff and the 2 peeps at my table who ordered the chicken though it was fantastic. The only mild complaint was on the salmon but I tried it myself and thought it was good so I think it was just a personal preference thing. The calamari was pretty good though I have to say Trattoria Vittoria and Jill’s Place kill it on the calamari so there is stiff competition. Caesar salad was very good…3 of us ordered it and all we’re surprised at how tasty it was. One thing I would say that needs improvement in general is the plating… and it actually has more to do with the dishware they use. Everything is on these huge white plates and bowls. It makes things seem more old fashioned then they really are. The food here is sophisticated comfort food, and the dishes are just too big and boring. They just don’t compliment the style of the food. For dessert they brought out some McConnell’s strawberry ice cream for my birthday… can’t go wrong with McConnell’s…it was delicious.
So that’s it… fun birthday dinner with no regrets! I’ll be back!

We were a bit skeptical about going here because of a few bad reviews about the quality of the food. Simply put: don’t believe a word, it’s a great place with delicious food. We had drinks at the bar, nicely made cocktails and the bartender was talkative and ambient, but not too much. We had a good time!
I had the chicken with mashed potatoes, sooo good (juicy, soft and a delicious sauce)!! And we had the chocolate layered cake for dessert. The waitress did a good job by explaining us that it’s rather a chocolate mousse than a cake, we were happy with the taste and it was more than enough to share.

Went on Sunday with my boyfriend… just casually cruised in on the Vespa for a drink a ended up tasting the best Caprese salad ever! Beautiful tasting and looking!!! Very impressed!

The food was great! I had the fruit pancake plate and not only did it look good, it tasted good too. My friends enjoyed their meals too. We would come back.

My husband and I went to Crocodile regularly for several years and had no problems, when the restaurant began closing between 2:30 — 5:30 We were treated poorly if we were there anytime after 2PM, the employees started banging stuff around and moving tables and telling us they were going to be locking doors. We had two bad experiences last year and decided to never go there again… then two months ago we gave them a THIRD chance. We got into the restaurant at 2:05 — 2:10 and the waitress came to the table with no menus and told us they were closing in 20 minutes, we said ok, we understand, then the hostess came over and rubbed it in, still no menus. WE LEFT, never again!!! ALSO the smoking (choking) rooms are right next to the patio of the restaurant. When you sit out there you inhale cigarette smoke the whole time, ruins the food. Service is crappy…

This place is great. The patio is beautiful and the ambiance is perfect inside. I had the nacho’s with the beef tenderloin. The beef was a little to tough, despite the waitress promising it was not. My friend had the meatball sliders and they were phenomenal. I had a pear martini and a Moscow mule, both where delicious and not to sweet but a bit tangy which I love.
I would recommend eating here. The staff is great and the food is good.

The Crocodile Lounge exceeded my expectations! The bartender was extremely friendly and informative, but in no way overbearing. We had a very welcomed conversation about the places we’ve lived and what originally brought us to Santa Barbara.
I came to the Crocodile Bar as part of an artwork I’m making. A portion of the piece is dedicated to Jack S. Morrison, who passed away on this day in 1997. His family requested that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the Santa Barbara Red Cross, which is located directly across the Mission Creek from the Crocodile Lounge. Given Mr. Morrison’s life long dedication to the Arts I thought it’d be appropriate that I have a glass of Steele’s «Writers Block» in his honor. It was excellent! The fact that it was the same color (red) as the bus line I took to get here seemed too exciting to ignore!

Really quiet, dark and private
restaurant with nice white linens and candles I like the atmosphere here.
The bar is small but that’s ok cuz there’s plenty around.

We ate at the Croc on mothers day. There were 15 of us and they had our table ready. The servers and head waiter were great and saw to our every need.
The mothers day brunch was really good and the prices were below average for SB.
The Croc is one of SB’s little gems. Too bad the don’t take Axxess cards, but thats ok. I highly recommend this establishment.

We stayed at the Lemmon Tree Hotel and went for breakfast at the Crocodile. Their menu is average, not too exciting, but we were chocked when my husband ordered an Italian Scramble and it came with avocado, although the description did not mention it.
I need to say that being from Brazil, we do not like avocados in the way they are used (or over used) in California, so we stay away of anything with it.
Marisa, our server, was very gracious and asked the cook to make a new one, if it was not for her being so nice and attentive, our breakfast would have been a total disaster and I am giving the 3^rd star because of her.

First time here and i had a great experience! Originally went for happy hour and ended up staying for dinner with my co-​workers. I ordered the panini italiano sandwich and it was quite yummy! For dessert i had the bananas flambé; the only thing i was disappointed about is that it arrived at the table with no flame. Maybe it died down by the time it came to the table but nonetheless it was the best i’ve tried! It was full of flavor and the vanilla bean ice cream was a nice compliment. I would highly recommend this!
I would say they do need a second bartender. It was a ghost town when i arrived with my co-​workers but then it became very busy! I was expecting a second person to help out but that didn’t happen. I was glad we were done with ordering our drinks by the time it got busier.

NEVER AGAIN. We had a mini class reunion this evening that has been set up for the last month. We chose this restaurant since it is away from the normally busy areas of Santa Barbara during the Old Spanish Days Fiesta celebrations.
We had a good time until we received our bill. Now I don’t have a problem with having an automatic 18% gratuity added to the bill but they really do shortchange the staff since I normally leave 20%. BUT, when an extra $ 150.00 was added to the bill as a «rental fee», well that was just too much. It was never told to our group coordinators. None of the three remembered ever hearing about this extra charge. When confronted, they were told, «Well it is Fiesta and you did take up 3 tables».
Yes, we took up three of the 8 – 10 tables outside. During our 3 hours there, only 2 other exterior tables were ever used, and more than ½ the inside dining room was empty as could be during our whole time present. What a rip off. For the management to arbitrarily add this extra fee is disgusting. Now had the restaurant actually been busy or had we been advised of this fee, that would be a different story. But to put it in the middle of the itemized bill is theft at best.
Don’t patronize this restaurant. You can’t trust what they will do to you. Crooks.