Harbor Meat & Seafood

This is a MUST go to place on our trips to Santa Barbara. We discovered it after eating delicious fresh fish in a nearby restaurant. They told us Harbor Meat & Seafood was there supplier and it was just a bit away.
The seafood is reasonable and extremely FRESH. There’s also a great variety from which to choose. The workers are really friendly and offer great cooking tips to boot. On our last foray, they even gave us ice to put in our chest for the trip back to LA.
It’s best to get there early in the morning to have a range of choices because they close early in the afternoon. Make sure to take plenty of cash with you because you will want to buy a lot of delicious stuff to take home.

We found this when we were looking for a whole salmon to poach for a party and Whole Foods was out. But Colleen has been getting friendly with the staff at WhF so they sent her here. Apparently, they get a lot of their fresh fish from here, too.
Only one thing you need to know in advance: No plastic payments, cash on the counter for the general public (although they did accept a check from Colleen).

What better way than to provide your restaurant with fresh seafood and meat from a local vendor? Always happy with their products and customer service.

We’re very fortunate to live in an awesome town that has several fish markets to choose from. Most of them are actually pretty good, but this one is definitely the best! The staff is extremely friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable, but most importantly of all their seafood is super fresh and amazingly delicious!
It looks very industrial from the outside, and it is. They mainly supply restaurants in town, and for a while I wasn’t sure they were open to the general public. I kick myself for not checking it out sooner because they really do have great seafood. So don’t be afraid to go peak your head through the plastic curtain into the chilled fish room where you’ll find one of the friendly staff to help you. You will literally be walking in to a refrigerated room that they do prep in, so depending on the day you may find someone prepping a bunch of fish for a local restaurant, etc. Don’t expect to see a fancy display case of fish. In fact, there isn’t a display case at all. However, they are happy to bring anything out you want to see and are very knowledgeable about their product. I recommend asking them what’s fresh, although really it’s all fresh, but some of it may have previously been frozen. Sometimes they just got something extra spectacular in that day, so I always jump on that. I recently had a piece of halibut from there that was to die for. Best piece of halibut I’ve ever had. I enjoyed seeing how thoroughly everything was cleaned and that they kept it at a nice cool temperature to keep the fish fresh.
I highly recommend checking it out if you like good, fresh fish at really reasonable prices. Also, if you buy a whole fish it’s less expensive and they’re usually willing to break it down for you free of charge (fillets, steaks, etc.) So, if you have a friend or two you can split a whole fish with, or just a hungry family, this is a really great way to buy.
I haven’t checked out the meat market side, although having been to the fish side several times now I’m sure the quality is just as good on the meat side. Just not as big of a meat eater as I am fish.