Palazzio

They are under kitchen renovation folks! They are NOT permanently closed. That would be nightmare come true! I call in from time to time and they still closed-​temporarily. I can’t wait until they open again! Yummy pasta, garlic bread, cheap good wine, and it’s on State Street! Open! Open! Open!

I rate this place a 3. Reason being that I haven’t actually gotten to eat here yet because it is closed down. While my fiancé and I sat just outside on a bench we witnessed several couples show up for food only to be disappointed. I stopped one lady and asked if it was any good and she said it was great food. She also said it was great for people with kids, so they can stay occupied while the grow ups have a glass of wine. Hopefully they will reopen soon, although through the windows everything looks abandoned.

Palazzio has been closed since early October ’15 to remodel it’s kitchen, and will re-​open in late November ’15 from what I was told when I called. There was nothing on their Facebook page or on Unilocal that I could see that showed this. :(For this I gave you four stars instead of 5.
I love the food at Palazzio, especially the Chicken Piccata with lemon caper cream sauce. I was so disappointed when I went there to celebrate my birthday in October to find out they were temporarily closed. I can’t wait to visit there again to have my favorite pasta and the garlic rolls. I will call them in the future to make sure they are open.
To the management at Palazzio, please open soon and post on your Facebook page that you are temporarily closed so others don’t make the same mistake I did.

Who hasn’t had Palazzio in SB a million times, yet this is a very tricky review. Let’s just start out by saying that this is a fun, loud american italian place with ten pound (exagerating) puter bowls right in the heart of State street that locals come to, to laugh and carry on in not so much for the food perse’, as this is not what I would call authentic Italian cuisine really, but for the endless garlic butter bread rolls that keep coming, the cheap prices, the fun staff and wonderful owners. I guess that pretty much sums it up. Lots of fond memories indeed!!! Ben Hurr Bowls! Horay!

My family and I visited this restaurant on Sunday actually and I loved it. The second we walked in we were greeted by Cyndie who was such a sweetheart. They serve the best garlic rolls here so definitely a must try. The food portions were a tad bit much, but we were warned of that before ordering. The half portion will be enough for around two to three people depending on how much you eat. And the full portion will be enough for the whole family of that I’m sure.
Great food and amazing service!

I’ve been told by some I’m too easy with my ratings. I do try to keep in mind that we are in Santa Barbara, almost an island, with tourism driving both the cost and prices up for restaurateurs and patrons alike.
That said, I give them a solid 4. Service is friendly and relaxed, at least when I was there around 4PM.
I had the Papas Special Rigatoni, which had chicken… not enough, and artichokes in it, a light reddish cream sauce. It was… nice. You could share a meal of it with someone special without being distracted either way. It could have been served a bit warmer, but I’m picky like that.
The little round garlic rolls were rolled in olive oil and their mix of spices. Nice, but not OMG nice.
They serve everything in pewter-​like plates. Nice, but they have a tendency to pull the heat out of food if not pre-​warmed.
Overall a solid choice for Italian food in Santa Barbara. If we were in New York, the rating would have been different, but this isn’t Palermo. :)

I haven’t ate here in about 10 years, but I remember it VERY well. I remember their extremely filling chicken pasta, I was so excited to come back and try something new. I went with my aunt who visits often and said the place has changed, a lot. She was right, this place used to be really amazing and the food along with the service has gone down hill. I had the Cesar salad and the romaine lettuce was definitely not fresh, the ends were brown and very limp. I tried out the vegetable rigatoni, it was pretty delicious but could use some more flavor.

Came here for a friends birthday… great attentive service with a smile, great tasty food, we shared the shrimp fettuccine in tequila lime sauce. highly recommend and especially the garlic rolls!!! They have an array of desserts to choose from which they brought out with a sparkler as a candle, pretty and neat presentation. They played a birthday song while they brought out the birthday dessert and was nice to hear a different version other than the traditional happy birthday song. Overall it was a great experience. I hadn’t been back since it opened which was a while ago. Only reason I gave it 3 stars is because it was really hot in the restaurant while we were there. The ac seemed to come off and on but not stay on long enough.

My husband and I were on a short anniversary trip with our extremely well behaved standard poodles. The place is listed as pet friendly. The hostess said she had patio seating and it was clear that three tables were open. She excused herself and retuned stating the wait would be 20 mins or longer. Clearly went to double check with a manager of some sort and came back with her «story» when there were clearly three open tables, one being perfectly located in a corner of the patio. So we politely left and the German place welcomed our business. We will not return nor advise our fellow poodle friends to dine there, especially when a French Poodle parade was taking place locally at a festival. The German food was outstanding down the street and in fact we ordered food to go after we ate our dinners there ! Never to return to this «Dog Friendly» eatery.

We come here for the Garlic Bread– just the right amount of garlic and olive oil!
Any pasta is good but it tastes a lot better after you reheat it as a take out!
All the flavors are there but it takes time for it to be tasty!!! I don’t know why but that’s been our trick, enjoy the garlic bread and nibble at the pasta and wait until you get home with the leftovers!!!

Downtown Santa Barbara is a beautiful place to walk around and discover shops, boutiques, restaurants, etc. My family and I came across the Italian restaurant, Palazzio. Forewarning, this is not your ordinary restaurant; there are a couple of differences you should be aware of. First, many have mentioned that the meals are huge. The reason: Palazzio is considered a family restaurant, so the meals are family servings (meant for more than one person). Think of Buca di Beppo. For us, two meals were plenty for the three of us, and we couldn’t even finish. Speaking of the food, we enjoyed our meals. The rosemary chicken was especially delicious. Was the food the best we had? Well, we all cook, so we each had our own critiques based on our own taste. In my opinion, the food was good, but I have had better elsewhere (Buca di Beppo, of course haha).
Ready for drinks? We ordered a glass of wine; we felt it was appropriate for Italian food. The difference with Palazzio is that the wine is ordered based on an honor system. The wines (red, white, blush) are scattered in the restaurant. For each refill, we had to get out of our seats and retrieve the wine ourselves. Each glass is $ 3.95 as well as for every refill. For the honor system, we had to tally each refill on the table cloth in order for it to be added to our final bill. Overall, this system is an interesting idea; however, I don’t care for it. For a relatively small and crowded restaurant, I don’t really want to get up and walk through a maze of tables for one glass of wine. Although, filling the wine near the top of the glass, the price can be worth it.
To sum up the experience, Palazzio is a good place for an inexpensive family dinner (or even a group of friends). I would not recommend taking your date here if you’re trying to get to know each other; the environment is loud, and I personally would hate disrupting our lovely conversation just to get a glass of wine. Anyway, from what you’ve read, you can decide if you want to try the experience or it’s simply not your style.

We ordered rigatoni Donatello with sausage tomatoes spinach and it had rigatoni. We changed the pasta to penne and added onions and broccoli and mushrooms It was quite tasty and delicious. We also ordered the spinach and cranberry salad. We added red onions to it and the balsamic dressing is very good. My only thing I didn’t like so much were the rolls. I like light doughy rolls their rolls are a little tough. All in all we enjoyed our meal and I would go back again.

This has Got to be the Best Italian Food I’ve experienced in all of California. Our second visit here within the last 30 days. We’ve now tried 4different things off this menu and the Appetizer Sampler. All OFF THE CHARTS GREAT!!!
I’m so impressed with the Flavors, Portion Sizes, and Services. There is nothing we saw come out of the kitchen that didn’t look absolutely AMAZING. If you like anything with Gorgonzola Sauces you’ve found your Mothership! Unreal Sauces.

Fun to watch the parades from here with friends ‘n all. Sit outside or at the bar if you plan to do that.
The painted ceiling is super cool to admire!

I visited Santa Barbara a few years back. While I was there, I took the trolley tour and they mentioned this place and something about garlic rolls. There was something about that I remembered so my return trip this past week, I decided to check this place and their garlic rolls out! Also, while vacationing we had pizza, Japanese, Mexican… so it only made sense to have a good Italian meal. Being from Chicago, I hold my expectations high when it comes to Italian dining! Ok, not really but when it comes to Italian dinners, this wasn’t my first rodeo.
By 3:00 we were starving so we stopped in for a late lunch/​early dinner. We sat outside while one or two couples were dining inside at the time. Based on the place being pretty empty, our service was great! Our server mentioned that the portions are huge and suggested we order half orders unless we planned on taking a LOT of leftovers home. Well, half orders it is, because I didn’t have the means back at the hotel in Calabasas to indulge in leftovers… or the time for that matter.
This place is your typical Italian place… cute, clean, and I have to mention the bathroom is very pretty! What’s cool is they have sangria, white wine, and red wine all on the honor system there to serve up yourself! I just ordered my sangria so I didn’t use it but I thought it was a pretty cool option. After the spinach & artichoke dip appetizer my friend ordered gnocchi, and I ordered the pasta with chicken & brie — very good! I was so full from the appetizer and garlic rolls that I couldn’t finish my half order of pasta, but it was all very great.
There are many food options in downtown SB — I had a good experience here, and hope you do too!

We have been coming here since 1998. The portions are huge so please note that even a half order of pasta will last you three meals. Always friendly service, always good food and we come here for the rolls!!! Yep we do!

I came here for the very first time for a birthday dinner, and was very perturbed by the poor customer service. I think the waitress only came by twice. Once to take our order, and the second time to bring our food. I don’t recall being checked on during the meal, and we weren’t offered any refills. Took forever to get the check when we were finished as well.
I let our waitress know upon being seated that this was for a birthday, hoping for something nice (a comped dessert, a song, maybe something embarrassingly funny). All we got was a «Happy Birthday» from her, while another birthday table got dessert, the entire staff, and birthday music playing through the restaurant. I mean really!?! We were totally bummed.
The food portions are generous, yes, but the quality is just okay.
Not sure if I’d make a second trip here. :(

How do you say mediocre in Italian? This place is just a few notches below that when it comes to flavor.
It’s true, the portions are HUGE & they’re clearly meant to be shared but just because it’s a bargain doesn’t mean it’s great. We tried their signature pasta dish and it was anything but good let alone edible. We also got the mahi mahi and it was drier than toast. I’ve had better fish at a hospital cafeteria! Basically, the best part of that dish was the mashed potatoes. I think that alone says a lot. Overall, my experience here was subpar and I wouldn’t recommend it.

Friendly service, large portions, but food was mediocre.
My friend and I came here for dinner Monday night. The restaurant was relatively empty with only a few parties dining inside.
After seating us, the waiter came over right away and took our drink order, a watermelon martini and a pomegranate martini, which were both very strong. Then another waiter came by with fresh garlic rolls.
The menu is mainly pasta dishes and a few specials like lasagna and roasted chicken. We ordered half of the spaghetti bolognese ($ 19) and half of the shrimp fusilli ($ 20). My friend asked about the portions, the waiter said that a half feeds one, and a full feeds two. He was so wrong. A half order was enough to feed two people and to take home.
My friends spaghetti came out and the dish was smelling sour and even tasted sour. A waitress came by and asked us how our dish was, and we asked her if it was suppose to smell and taste sour. She said no, and that she would gladly take it back to remake or she could choose another dish. My friend opted for a re-​make. The second time the spaghetti bolognese came out, it still had an after taste of sourness. Strange. So we asked the waiter to take it back and to take it off our bill.
My dish, the shrimp fusilli, was good, and it kind of tasted like mac and cheese. It had shrimp, broccoli, artichoke, and sun dried tomatoes in a creamy cheesy sauce. Very filling and I had a container full of leftovers, which they put in chinese take out containers.
Although food wasn’t all that great, friendly service definitely made up for it. I’m glad they didn’t mind that we sent the dish we didn’t enjoy back with no complications.
The advertise that you don’t leave hungry with the obnoxious neon light signs, which is true, but I wish food was better.
Street parking or public parking lots free for 75 minutes.

I absolutely love Palazzio, I can not get enough of those garlic buns they give out! DELICIOUS! (So delicious I had to mention it in the first sentence!) The décor is simple yet satisfying and when you look up at the ceiling you feel like you’ve walked right into the Sistine Chapel. It can get busy during late lunch and dinner time so I like to come here early.
And yes, the food is a little pricey but the portions are HUGE. You could split a half size between 2 or even 3 people. I believe any entrée you get here will be amazing.
My latest experience here was great. We didn’t come for lunch or anything but sat at the bar. Our bartender was so nice and helpful. There were drink specials going on for $ 5 peach bellini tini and $ 5 fireball shots, we obviously took full advantage. Even though we didn’t stay for lunch she still brought out some garlic buns. Also, I was a bit clumsy and left my drink right in front of my boyfriend’s arm which resulted in a spill but the bartender was super chill and even gave us another drink free of charge.
A must try if you are coming to the Santa Barbara State Street area! Cheers!