Los Agaves

Delicious ceviche, chips/​salsa, and steak tacos. This is a great option for a slightly more upscale Mexican food experience (def a notch above the holes in the wall in SB, which by all means are also fantastic).
The only thing I’m not a huge fan of is the way the food/​seating works here. You have to wait in line to order and then choose an empty table. That’s fine, but if you want another drink later you have to get back in line. That’s just silly and impedes the steady stream of Pacifico and margarita entering my system.

Love this food! You can get the basic mexican food options with some fun, adventurous options too. Definitely recommend for groups and picky eaters.

We absolutely love Los Agaves! We do not live in Santa Barbara but always stop by on our way through town. Everything we try is unique and can’t stop eating it until our stomachs are about to burst. The food is so delicious and almost Gourmet without being terribly expensive. It is high-​end Mexican food with a Brazilian twist (?). Everything is amazing; from the burritos, enchiladas, steak,… even the rice and the handmade tortillas are to-​die-​for! There is also a fresh salsa bar with 6+ yummy salsas! There is also another Los Agaves restaurant in Goleta which is equally delicious! Everyone must try– you’ll be hooked from the first bite!

I was doing a drive into Santa Barbara and searched for Mexican restuarants. As someone who grew up on Mexican food the dishes that we ordered were spot on! Not only that but the service and sauces avail were super delicious! I wish that Los Agaves was available in Los Angeles!

The restaurant is beautiful and the food is excellent. Fresh Mexican food with bold flavors with a Santa Barbara twist. The wet burrito with steak is highly recommended– they use high quality steak and put the right amount of sauce to top off the burrito. To top it off, there salsa bar is one of the best– like 8 different, fresh salsas! Great dining experience overall.

Food is OK very basic
The prices are too high for what you get
Ordered the stone bowl OMG have to wait at least an hour for it to cool down so you can actually eat it it reminds me of a boiling pool of volcanic lava
No margaritas what’s up with that?
Especially for me

Orders about sixty dollars worth of food. Ordered chicken nachos. no chicken came on the nachos.
Ordered one meal to go when we arrived. Fifty minutes later. they realized they never made it.
Should be noted: I’ve ordered chicken fajitas to go three times. All three times I got home to realize they didn’t give me tortillas.
I’ve even talked to management in the past. I was polite and asked why then made so many mistakes. He didn’t have an answer.
Sadly.I will not return here. This place has messed my order up four out of the last four times I’ve been here. Like George W. Said «fool me a bunch of times, shame on me.»

The employees are extremely friendly here, I noticed this just as I walked in. They all greet you which is sick.
I had the Green Enchilada dish and it was outstanding. I highly recommend this place!

Fresh great food, professional service, friendly staff, clean restaurant. What more could you ask for? This location is on a fairly busy street. You can eat outdoors if the traffic doesn’t bother you. On this occasion, we opted for the indoors. Gorgeous wooden tables cut from redwood trees (??) and comfy wooden chairs. You order at the counter from the menu and food is brought to your table. Reasonably priced entrees — $ 10 – 20. No kids menu but there’s quesadillas that were delicious (according to our 9 year old) that will suffice. Quick service and everything tasted yummy and fresh. The guacamole and salsa are some of the best I’ve had. We’ll be back when in the area again, for sure!

This place gives you the best portions for their prices. The salsa to go cups are huge which is awesome for someone like myself who takes their food and doesn’t want to take 4 mini salsa cups with me. The agua de jamaica is freakin delicious!
Try the steak alambre! Or Share the nachos with friends. The Goleta location is pretty awesome too!

So, I see this place is highly rated and I figured… here we go, another hyped-​up restaurant. Most times patrons are just in a good mood or had some drinks and their «good time» produces magical reviews that seem to match the last magical review they read. Well, I am immune to such behavior and the food at this restaurant still had me produce this magical review.
I cannot think of one thing that could have made my meal more SCRUMPTIOULICIOUS. The staff is passionate about the food and so am I (6 stars easily!).
One of my dreams is to buy this restaurant just so I won’t have to share the food with anyone — AT ALL… except for my Unilocal friends, of course.
Don’t wait too long to eat here! I’m saving up!

Pros:
From burritos to skirt steaks, this place knows how to cook! Awesome salsa bar too. Service is top notch. It’s easy to see why it’s always filled with happy customers!
Cons: Horchata had too much cinnamon. Parking lot in the back is a tight squeeze. I got a ding on my car from the car parked next to me.

Let me start by saying how much I love their homemade corn tortilla’s! I come here for that reason. I live close to their Milpas location and I get take out all the time.
FYI: I only review spots that I truly have an amazing experience at. And I only give 5 stars when I’m blown away by sales, customer service, and great energy.
Anyway, I felt like that tonight. I felt like I didn’t wanna leave because of how well I was treated by the staff. There was some mix up over the order, so I got two for the price of one. Then I was moved to another table, and got a gift certificate for 10 bucks! It’s amazing how much you can get when you’re easy going. I decided to buy a gift card because I felt so good-​which I rarely do.
Julissa in particular was over the top! She had a great smile, was personable, outgoing and apologetic. She alone earned this 5 star review. So ask for her the next time you stop by the de la vina location. She will definitely make you feel like family.
I get the Al Pastor tacos every time! Great job everyone else. Food was fantastic!

Good, fancier Mexican food. The atmosphere is fun and family-​friendly but still has a niceness to it. I like their salsa bar quite a bit.

Popular spot with their own Mexican twist and fantastic halibut and shrimp enchiladas. 4.5 stars
Food: 4.5, Atmosphere: 4, Service: 4
Cost to worth it rating: 4 (awesome seafood enchiladas meal for under $ 14)
Return worthiness: yes
Eve award: best seafood enchiladas
Highlights:
— Agave enchiladas: full pieces of shrimp and halibut chunks were impressive. Often you get those tiny shrimp or a blended mixture and the intact pieces gave it a fresher taste. Chipotle sauce was creamy with a roasted kick that I also loved a lot. 5 stars
— Fruity salad: mango, cranberry, and mandarin orange little side salad came with my entrée and it was delicious – a far cry from your boring few leaves. 4 stars
Midlights:
— Didn’t specifically have any kid items on the menu but was able to order a side of a small quesadilla that worked.
Lowlights:
— Packed with a line out of the door even on a Sunday night
Loved my meal and I’d definitely return.

Amazingly good salsa, the green sauce, the hot red sauce with tortilla chips.
The chicken taquitas were served with rice and beans curry which was quite delicious. Unfortunately the taquitas weren’t as flavorful as the sauces and sides.
This particular outpost has a large dining table carved out of a large tree trunk which was pretty striking feature. Visited for late lunch around 3.30ish and the restaurant was heaving which does says a lot about the place. They must be doing something tight as rest of the restaurants on De la vina street were just not busy. Will be back to try the mole pablanos or perhaps the molcejate.
My suggestion to them is to get a little more creative for vegetarians and add some interesting Mexican dishes other than just the fajitas or burritos.

I am always intrigued by hole in the wall joints… I know they can be hit or miss… but when you strike gold its so exciting.
Loa Agaves unfortunately wasn’t gold. The place was a bit dirty and pretty empty. The biggest downfall was that the man I ordered from at the counter was quite cold and rude.
On the plus side, they made my tacos to order so I knew they were fresh. And they did satisfy a street taco craving. Still, there is too much good Mexican food in LA to waste it on a place with bad service.

What??? How have I lived in Santa Barbara for so many years and never tried Los Agaves until now? My cousin came into town and suggested we dine here because it is one of her favorite Mexican restaurants in Santa Barbara. Me being a foodie I looked forward to the grub adventure.
Los Agaves hit the Mexican food craving. I ordered the homemade sopes and this dish was outstanding. The server brings out chips after you sit down. They also have a salsa bar so you can choose the salsa of your liking. I adore the large outdoor patio; Los Agaves will be seeing me again in the near future.

I have been here several times and it never disappoints, the food is consistently good for the price point and it may be odd but I rate my experience highly on good chips at a mexican joint! These are great but they do not provide salsa, you get it yourself at the salsa bar but the containers are soo tiny it is hard to dip, plus guacamole is extra, no surprise.
One of the better mexican spots in SB, can tend to be crowded but usually not too hard to get a seat unless you want to be on the awesome patio, then… as the guy from Taken said «GOOD LUCK»
I had the pollo asado, not my favorite of the other dishes but still very good. I think their burritos or enchiladas are better in comparison but most often ylu will be happy with what you order.
Service is good, food comes fast even if you have to wait in line to order, the one downside.

Molcajetes
I’ve heard of it, seen it, now I have finally tried it… A Molcajetes is a dish presented in a lava rock bowl, the same item you would use to grind your spices. The good part of this dish, is that it is good. The bad part is they heat it up to lava like temperatures. Literally, you will have to spoon the food onto a separate plate, blow on it for 20 minutes and then try to eat it. After eating everything in the bowl, there was still steam coming off of it, and I could not hold my hand against the rock.
So, how do they make it? Well, I asked and now I can enlighten you, dear reader. They put the rock on the stove top and put the fire on high. So, yours could be 500 degrees and mine at 900 depending upon how quickly they load the rock. Some of the items are pre-​cooked when they hit the molcajete, some are cooked while it is on the way to you.
Would I do it again? Nope. I prefer not being so close to lava. Everything else about the place was top notch. I would love to try something else.
My daughter had the Camarones guajillo. I believe she was more impressed with the salad than the shrimp. Don’t think she’ll do that again either.