Reviews for Olio e Limone Ristorante in Santa Barbara, CA

Waiter was rude. Had the seabass which was supposed to be deboned, and got a bone. Seabass was bland and boring. Seafood in... calamari ink was not great. Overall I wont be going back. Read more

A little on the high side as far as price, however, the food and service are excellent.

TLDR; Mediocre pasta, especially for the price. Below par service. Go elsewhere! --- My wife & I visited Santa Barbara for her... birthday & also a babymoon getaway, which I notated in our online reservation and when I called the restaurant in advance. Nomention during our entire evening. We were seated in the cramped back dining room. Glad we weren't sitting at the tabledirectly in front of the bathroom, because we saw how awkward it was for both the diners and those entering/exiting thebathroom. Our waitress took our dinner order, never brought the wine I ordered. She also didn't bother to mention any specialsof the evening. We did overhear her telling our neighboring table about them though. After receiving our food and realizing howmediocre it was, we asked for the check and got out of there. Won't be visiting again, unfortunately. Read more

The risotto was divine, everything delicious the wine was excellent.

This used to be my favorite Santa Barbara dining experience, but it has gone downhill. My first course took 40 minutes to arrive... in a half empty restaurant My food arrived but with the announcement that the kitchen was out of one of the main ingredients ofmy entrée. I had ordered this almost an hour before, but they couldn't tell me until my food arrived! I would have chosensomething different if I had been given a choice when I ordered, but my wife and I did not want another long wait. Thecombination was dry and unpleasant: I didn't finish it, and decided to go elsewhere for dessert and coffee. My waiter wasapologetic, but I went inside to let the manager know what had happened-- only to find out that there was no manager onduty! How can you run a restaurant with no manager? Who will ensure that the kitchen runs smoothly and efficiently? I will notbe returning to what had been my favorite Santa Barbara restaurant. Read more

Let me preface this with we do like Olio. That said every time we go we just feel like it should be better than it is for the... price. It has been many years since we've been back for this reason and unfortunately we were again not that impressed thistime. The food is good but its certainly not exceptional. We've had much better Italian food at a number of places that arecheaper. Also the service feels impersonal and the atmosphere feels a little uptight. We came in at 8pm with four of us tocelebrate two birthdays and it felt like a library. Then, sadly the restaurant emptied out by 9. From that point on it felt likeeveryone was waiting for us to leave so that they could go home. We brought two bottles of wine with us so we paid 60 in corkagefees, but still ended up spending 320 for the 4 of us. We all had basic pasta dishes for dinner, two apps and one desert. Notsure we will ever go back again... just have had this experience too many times now. It's a bummer because we have had goodmeals there in the past... It's just been a very long time since that's happened. Read more

Very good Italian food. During the meal it was almost like I was truly in Italy. The staff was so pleasant and so wonderful to... interact with. The food was amazing and they even offered gluten free pasta. Overall I had a great experience! Read more

Fine authentic Italian restaurant in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is just a beautiful little city. The... city already has a holiday Christmas feel. The lights and decor are up, giving the city a beautiful romantic holiday hallmarkfeel. The restaurant has al fresco dinning and is set up nicely. They have heat lamps out, as its winter in California. Thisonly means its below 70 but the heat lamps give it a cozy feeling sitting outdoors. The food was good. My wife got the duckstuffed ravioli with a cream sauce. She really enjoyed it. She believes it's the best ravioli shes had, and she states that onher Italian heritage and having ravioli's in Italy. It was so good, she had to break some bread to finish the sauce with it. Sheleft a clean plate. I had the rack of lambs with sauteed potatoes and Brussels sprouts. I enjoyed it, it wasn't the best, but itwas good. It had good flavor and was tender. I also got a side of thier polenta. It was grilled and covered in mazzola cheese.It had a weird flavor. Can't say I enjoyed it. I mainly got it to try out and I'm going say wasn't enjoyable. For desert we gotthe raspberry creme brulee and lemon tart. The creme brulee was fresh creamy with the sweet crunch, it was good. The lemon tart,tasted store bought and old. The crust was dry and did not taste fresh. It was tart, but tasted as if it was sitting out fordays. So, the location is a big plus. Very romantic, great date night location. The food, I would have to say, stick to thepastas as its something they do great. I would try this place again. Read more