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Beachside Bar Cafe
5905 Sandspit Rd, Goleta
Phone: (805) 964-7881

  • Category: American
  • Hours: Sun-Thu 11:30am-9:30pm, Fri 11:30am-10pm, Sat 11am-10pm, Sun 11am-9:30pm
  • Price: $20+
  • Serving: Lunch & Dinner
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Reviews by the General Public

I love this place!, 10/14/2013
Reviewer: Barbara Cornish from Santa Barbara, CA
I dine here regularly - at luncheons with friends, on my birthday in August when I receive a complimentary hot fudge sundae, on Shrimpfest times, and even on Christmas Eve. I never have had a bad experience with a server or with the quality of the food served. The scallops on a skewer is my favorite luncheon dish and the early bird special of chicken is always excellent with enough that I can take some back home. The outside patio is my absolute favorite location, so close to the sand and ocean. I am going again this next Friday evening with good friends Bob and Annette - a yearly get-together for the Shrimpfest. I anticipate doing this with them for the next 20 years!
terrific friendly restaurant, 7/13/2013
Reviewer: Henry Starlin from Ventura, CA
This was my first visit and after reading all the poor reviews I didn't know what to expect. I had made reservations for a window table for 1 PM. My party walked in at a few minutes before 1 and we were greeted with a smile and shown to our table. The server was professional and friendly and patient - the drinks were brought promptly and the coffee was fresh and very good - we got water refills when we needed it without having to ask. Our food order was perfect and was hot and very very good. We were't rushed and were even given a complimentary birthday sunday that we all shared. We'e eaten at some of the great Santa Barbara restaurants going back to the Green Gables and even Carl's and our meal today stands tall with them all. I am certainly glad I didn't pay any attention to those less than kind reviews and would go back to The Beachside in a heartbeat!
OK place, 6/14/2013
Reviewer: Clara from Santa Barbara, CA
I absolutely "love" being ignored when I walk into a restaurant. My company and I stood by the desk for a good 20 seconds while the a man a woman were too busy looking at their paperwork. Finally someone else has walked up to us and asked if we have been helped. I told her no but we have been ignored. I got no reaction from the woman regarding my comment. Got a table by the window, the view was awesome. The food was fine, I had the fish and chips. The fish was tasty but the fish portion was a bit small. The waitress looked someone irritated (found out because I asked her that she was just asked to stay on for a few more hours). I felt bad for her but that should not concern her customers, I should never become aware of her problem. The service was fine but not very swift. I probably will go back especially when having guests from overseas but this place is not my favorite.

Food and service excellent. Margaritas very subpar.
Reviewer: Stan from Santa Barbara, CA
Have been here several times and always enjoyed food, drinks and service. This time (3/11/2013) the service was supberb, food excellent, but the margaritas were very bland almost tasteless. When pointing this out, we were given more tequila (so they tried) but that was not the answer. No flavor at all. Will not order margaritas again.
Owner needs to try their own food and service
Reviewer: Marsha from Goleta, CA
I too have been going to Beachside for close to 20 years as the only restaurant in Goleta with a view. Every time I go, I tell myself I won't go back. This last time was the worst. Food was horrible, presentation was horrible, service was horrible. It really wasn't the waiter's fault but the fault of management. It looked like there was one busboy for the entire restaurant?! The waiter couldn't possibly serve us in a timely manner. We sat for 1/2 hour before anyone even came to the table to ask for drink orders or to give us water. I had the Halibut. The plate came with rice (off white) with the fish (off white) with no color at all, very unappealing. The fish wasn't cooked in parts and the flavor was horrible. My husband's steak was tough and almost inedible. Over a hundred dollars for a nice view and good bread. Not worth it! Fool me twice, shame on me...finally learned my lesson...never going back!!
Horrific
Reviewer: Lesli from Santa Barbara, CA
Worst service ever! Our waitress was a total "B" She got mad at us when she only brought 2 ice teas We ordered 4.. 3 mango 1 regular. She brought 1 of each and then Ignored us for a good 20 minutes before bringing the correct drinks. She was horrible, bottom line. Lunch took 2.5 hours it's was all gross and cold and seriously over priced. To top it off my car was hit in the parking lot. What a lovely afternoon.. Not!!

suddenly going downhill
Reviewer: peter from Vandenberg village
Been going her for over ten years . Once a week on the average. Loved to take my out of town friends here. All was great until the last few months. Is it under new management?? The service has now become slow. The front desk person acted like she was doing me a favor. The tast quality of the food has been disappointing. And worst of all they have substituted my favorite oysters on the half shell from the tasty pacific oysters to totally tastless bluepoints. Believe me I know seafood and these oysters are totally blah. The cook said that they were only trying them for awhile, but they have not changed in a month. Even the free popcorn has changed from perfectly crisp and tasty to something that seems like it was soaked in motor oil. These changes have been a big disapointment to me as I used to really look forward to driving the 50 miles from my home to this restaurant.Even the mediocre rating I gave it was high . Six months ago I would have rated it 5. My last 3 visits were maybe a 2. I hope they get their act together.
Nice location, food OK
Reviewer: biljana from Santa Barbara, CA
I like the location of this restaurant and the ocean view. The service was OK, but food was too expensive and not very delicious.

NO service and LOUSY food!
Reviewer: Miranda from Santa Barbara, CA
Our first - and LAST time here! It took 45 minutes for them to TAKE our order, and another 40 minutes to get our food. I am not sure what the servers are actually doing as they pass by your table so many times without even giving you a nod. The food was not good, and very pricey. The servers offer no SERVICE. They just dump (after the long wait to order and the long wait to get the food)and dash off. But I loved how they grabbed the paid check RIGHT IN FRONT OF US to see how much of a tip they got. What a waste of a nice location!

My favorite restaurant in SB!
Reviewer: Leanne Race from Santa Barbara, CA
I have been enjoying the food and view for special occasions for the past 29 years, ever since I moved to SB for college at UCSB! It was the restaurant that my parents would take me to when they came to visit, it has been the restaurant of choice for special graduation events, anniversary's etc... My kids just went there for homecoming dinner before their High School dance. Today, I am choosing The Beachside for our 23 Wedding Anniversary Dinner! Thank you Beachside for being there year after year, as a place we can all enjoy through the years! I just ate an artichoke appetizer last week and it was grilled to perfection! YUM !
YUM!
Reviewer: Megan from Santa Barbara, CA
The service was great and great food, we've been coming here for years and always loved it! good job beachside (: we love your bread

go ONLY for the view!
Reviewer: charlotte klein from goleta
Why is it that practically every restaurant I've been to with a great view has terrible food? BECAUSE THEY CAN! Location, location, location! It would be too much to ask to have both! We started off to a rocky start when my $12.00 Mango Absolute Martini had a damn olive in it! and when I called my server out on it, I just got the blankest stare I've ever seen?? The food......We started with the fried calamari. What calamari we got was good but was such an insignificant amount of calamari, it seemed more of a garnish for the salad greens with glops of some kind of AIoli (it should have been sold as a salad for half the price!) The grilled artichoke was undercooked and had no char marks on it, so there really was no evidence that it was ever grilled!!! And then there was the $30.00 Grilled Halibut with Goat cheese Crust...sounds great! Well again, it WAS NOT GRILLED! In fact it was barely warm??? AND it was served RICE-A-RONI......REALLY? YEAH,REALLY! We told our server that the food was terrible and he said something like, "I could take it back but it would take a long time!" I flipped my wig! After dismissing the hopelessly moronic waiter and got the manager involved, we got it comped.....TRAIN YOUR STAFF!!!

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