Santa Barbara Bay Cafe

Awesome spot to grab a bite to eat. This place is legit for the mere fact that it is very unassuming. We chose this spot because it was a market/​restaurant. From my experience fish is best cooked and prepared by those who are in the market of selling it. I ordered the swordfish along with a pint of Central Calfornia’s Finest Firestone Ale.
I would recommend this to anyone who wants to relax and indulge in great seafood.

This was our lunch stop during the Captain Jack’s winery tour. It was fairly disappointing even though we kept our choices simple. I had a cup of clam chowder and a serving of the oysters Rockefeller. The clam chowder was off in its flavors. It was a touch more watery than I would have liked. I also did not come away with a nice rich, buttery flavor; this offering was much less nuanced, pedestrian in nature. Clam was seldom seen throughout. The oysters were definitely a miss. These were not the famous ones from Antoine’s. The variation here was a very thick layer of melted cheese spiked with spinach or was that chives? I couldn’t tell, because the only thing I could taste was cheese. It even dominated the natural taste of the ocean in the oysters entirely which really misses the point of the dish. It is called Rockefeller because it is a very rich dish. This was clunky. Worse, one could simply scrape off the layer of coagulated cheese and just eat the oyster. There was no melding of flavors, no subtleness to it at all. A better name for this dish would have been oysters Velveeta. Pass.

This is probably not the greatest fish place in Santa Barbara but I can say that my crab louie was refreshing and fresh. .My husbands seabass lunch was moist and flaky. The appetizer fried oysters that 4 of us shared were very good and melted ion your mouth. When one of our guests had a problem with her meal, they were accommodating and tried to make it right with the appropriate steps to satisfy the customer.

My bf and I went for a low key bday dinner and we had a nice time! It was a quiet sunday evening, but still warm enough to sit outside, while there isn’t much of a «view» per se, the outdoor seating is nice since it’s away from the hustle and bustle of Cabrillo and the beach.
The food was more 3 stars, but the service and ambiance bumped it up one.
We ordered:
(2) appetizers:
– soft shell crab: this was ok. We felt there was a little too much breading on this.
– spicy scallops: this was tasty, but also just ok b/​c I thought the tomato sauce on the scallops overpowered it.
(2) entrees with the clam chowder.
– clam chowder: not bad! creamy but not cloyingly so.
– crab cakes: this was a solid 3 stars. They were topped with a red pepper sauce and caviar.
– «rainbow roll»: this is a mix of salmon, crab, halibut and a little spinach rolled together, breaded and pan fried. This was pretty novel and it was good. It was topped with a red pepper sauce that I didn’t particularly care for and I could have sworn the menu said «seared» and not fried… but at any rate, it was very good, a solid 3.5 stars.
We also ordered a glass of red and a glass of white. Their wine list is rather short, but adequate. They have about two of each type of wine one could really want.
the little sign on the table said they do brunch on the weekends and it sounded intriguing.
Overall, a really nice meal with good service. I would go back and am astonished at the other reviews… but maybe we went on a day that the cook was in!
A good place away from the crowds by the beach, I recommend it!
total for two: $ 80.00

Just OK really, kind of generic and uninspired food, maybe more of a bar that sells food. Nice atmosphere.

I’m actually really surprised to read the other reviews. Maybe they’re all just lacking taste-​buds.
When I went, everyone seemed to have a great time and we were all enjoying our meals. The tomato basil and clam chowder soups were great! Not too watery at all! i had the shrimp, mussels, and salmon pasta, and it was fabulousssssss.
So savory, so creamy, so gooood.
My girlfriend got the Chilean Sea Bass and the fish wasn’t dry at all, we ended up splitting our dishes and enjoyed both!
I suggest giving it a try, regardless of what others have said about this place, its somewhere I plan to visit often :)

The service here was great. Our waitress was attentive but not hovering and another staff member came around a couple times to refill our water. My bf had the paella, which was pretty good. It comes with all sorts of seafood (scallops, mussels, etc) but I found it somewhat bland. I had the crab cakes with were mediocre. I am guessing that my plate came up first because everything was luke warm.
The atmosphere is also nice. They had the Frank Sinatra station playing and the patio had candles and heat lamps. The Christmas lights are a bit cheesy but I liked it.
For the price, I have had better.

Five stars D.R., you’ve got to be kidding me. This is by far the worst seafood restaurant we’ve been to in Santa Barbara. I have heard that the place has changed hands several times, so perhaps our experience was with yet a new owner.
We ordered grilled halibut entrée and several appetizers (oysters on the half shell, spicy scallops, coconut shrimp) and a bowl of clam chowder. The chowder was very disappointing. It was way too watery and tasted like it came out of a can. The spicy scallops were smothered in a tomato sauce and cheese, and weren’t spicy at all. The coconut shrimp were typical, but we had no expectations there. The halibut was dry. The blue point oysters were pretty tasty, however.
As far as service, we were only one of only two tables, which should have been a clue, and the bartender was tending bar, waiting and bussing.
There are too many other good restaurants in Santa Barbara, so needless to say we won’t be coming back to the Bay Café. I won’t be surprised if it changes hands yet again in the near future.

A great fish market. Fresh Yellowtail, Mahi Mahi, just calling out «Grill me! Grill me!»
I’ve been here at dinner and just got an app and a few five or six cocktails. A freshly steamed pound of high class mussels ran just $ 10.
A really convivial place.
I don’t know about the other reviewer encountering problems but I’ve found in life that if you look long enough you can find something wrong.
So just relax.

This place could have earned 4 stars if the owner/​operator wouldn’t have been so condescending.
I ordered a $ 12.95 lunch special of Yellow-​fin Tuna. My wife had the $ 10.95 Red Snapper special.
The Yellow-​fin had a few bones the size of toothpicks [NOT exaggerating] and tasted strong (dark stripe left in) AND it was dry.
Wife’s dish was fantastic: could NOT complain.
Told the waiter who promptly told the owner. She came out with this set of lines:
«All fish have bones.» {This was SO insightful – who knew?}
‘The dark meat is considered a delicacy” {this is why Trader Joes has this dark section of tuna part packed in tins labeled «Tuna for cats”}
«If we were to remove all the bones the fish would be mush.» {yes the old press-​it-​through-​a-​strainer method or the rip-​it-​apart-​with-​your-​bare-​hands method}
Not anything like a sincere apology from this petite blondish woman in her late 40s. More like «I’m sorry you are such a fool. Let me see if I can pull the wool over your eyes. There ya go.»
But I thought I’d warn other Unilocalers to steer clear of this place OR stand up for yourselves and make a scene. I was tired and not thinking straight or I would have made her eat one of the toothpick bones to see how she liked it.
Update NOTE: I since learned that the fish was cut poorly across the back or bottom of the spine, which gave me the long toothpick bones that stiffen the fish dorsally and ventrally. These bones are NOT normally present in a properly done fillet – especially in tuna.
So this place might SAY that it has a fresh fish market next to it, but that is no guarantee that they can cut it properly for their own dishes.