PWMP Paulsen

After a delightful trip to San Simeon and Hearst Castle, we decided to spend the night in Santa Barbara. Recalling a great Steakhouse from my previous visits, I was drawn to Holdren's. As I explored their website, the familiar name and the photos of the place sparked a sense of nostalgia. Despite the hazy memory of our last visit in 2008, the essence of Holdren's was still vivid, making it a unique and compelling dining option. So we decided to give it a try and walked about a mile from our hotel to the restaurant. We were seated promptly, and the staff was very friendly. The waitress brought over the menus and took our drink order, a margarita. We were there early enough, so the price of $8 was a really good deal for such a tasty, well-prepared drink. Our dining experience at Holdren's was a culinary delight. We started with the buffalo cauliflower, an appetizer that was so delicious it left us craving for more. The wedge salad with its flavorful blue cheese was equally delightful. For the main course, the Rosemary blue cheese sirloin was a standout, cooked to perfection and bursting with flavor. Paired with a baked potato, it was a match made in culinary heaven. The Mesquite grilled salmon, my wife's choice, was equally delightful. And, of course, we couldn't resist ordering another round of margaritas. By the time we left, we were in high spirits, grateful for the memorable dining experience. Our dining experience at Holdren's was not just a meal but a celebration of our 42nd wedding anniversary. It was the best meal we had on our entire trip and the memories we made there will be cherished. I highly recommend Holdren's, and if I'm ever back in Santa Barbara, I surely will have dinner there again, perhaps for another special occasion.

Raiya Safaia

You got a nice outdoor shopping center with a great restaurant to come stop by to eat. The food was exquisite and tasted as good as it looked. The soup alone was worth the trip out here. The atmosphere inside was a fine night dining, but tight on space to get around the restaurant. Very busy and popular place, so you'll want to try reserving a table or booth ahead of time.

John Z

Super good service and food. It is in the very popular State street with lots of other busy restaurants nearby. Specifically recommended the full rack of lamb. You will get 8 chops of lambs, one salad or soup, and one another side. Another recommended dish is the sea bass.

+2

Kelsey SF Wells

The tomato soup here is excellent! On Thanksgiving I ordered the seafood linguine, however when it came I did not like it at all. I'm not saying it wasn't well prepared, I just didn't particularly care for the taste of it. I told my waitress and she happily exchanged it for the turkey dinner that they were offering for Thanksgiving, the turkey dinner was excellent as well! Despite being busy the staff was very friendly and accommodating. It is a very nice place to dine.

+1

Cool place in State street. Very much had that old school steakhouse vibe with the dark leather. Sat at the bar. Great whiskey and bourbon selection. Bartended was cool, but I was irritated when I got my old fashioned with a bunch of ice chips instead of a big block. He said he had them, but usually makes them that way. No bueno. He did, however, strain it out and put in a big block ice cube for me. I had the artichoke and a wedge salad. The artichoke was tasty with the butter and grilled flavor, but was super undercooked, which made the leaves tough and inedible. Salad was a salad. I’ll try their steak next time, but it was an ok restaurant.

Emprise Zepherin

Food was really good, so were the drinks. We ate at the bar because it was packed. The atmosphere was nice. Friendly staff. Happy hour started @ 3pm ended @ 8pm.

Brian Thomas

Nice small place, with good service. Food was pretty good with fairly large portions. It wasn't very crowded on a week night. Definitely worth trying, lots of options for different steaks.

Martin Roberts

Fancied a nice steak when visiting Santa Barbara and so headed to 'Holdren's Steaks & Seafood'. There is outside and inside seating but I opted for inside as it was a little chilly out. The ambience inside was pretty good with a large bar running down one side of the room, booths down the other and tables in between. Some nice options on the menu... I went for the Sauteed Prawns ($18) to start which were delicious followed by the Prime New York Steak ($52) which was fairly good but not the best steak I've ever had by far. Service was friendly but not very attentive with no one asking how everything was after my entree had been delivered to my table. In summary it was nice but not memorable.

+2

C B

Very fresh seafood dishes though a touch on the salty side. Salt was Subdued by super fresh and soft baked bread. Favorite was tuna tartare, could eat that in entree serving if they had it!

Dennis Gavrilenko

Decent food and very friendly serving stuff. Food came out pretty quickly and was very beautifully presented and delicious. Great vibe in the restaurant and nice area in Santa Barbara too. For some reason, my ahi ahi fish tasted like burger

+10

Just Me

Kinda dark inside. Ordered a Rib Eye well done and it came out on the rare side so had to send it back. Had to ask for table bread. My wife ordered a seafood dish that needed a spoon and we had to ask for one. Steak tasted good though. Nice atmosphere.

Matt Collins

Recently dined here with a friend. My friend had the baked Sea Bass, I had the Bleu Cheese Sirloin. Dinners come with soup or salad. Freshly baked breads delivered to table. We both enjoyed our dinners here and would highly recommend this restaurant. Service was prompt and friendly.

+2

Muu Teshima

This was a really great steak place. All their food was very high-quality, lots of delicious options. Very friendly staff. I mean it was just a really good experience was really good quality food. You don't get this kind of quality just anywhere. This is the type of place you go have your anniversary dinner at. And not to mention that but the food came out pretty quick too. I almost had to say it because it was just like a genuinely surprising experience. Great food, friendly staff, what you would expect to pay for, nice Ambiance and table settings. I would definitely go here again in a heartbeat.

Normally this place is a solid option. The food is good enough and it's actually a pretty solid value for what and where it is. This past Wednesday night, we had an absolutely horrible experience. A group of maybe 16 or so came in and just took the place over. They were blocking access in and out of the front door, spreading out and hovering over our booth uncomfortably close, and soooooooo damn loud we couldn't hear anything else but their drunken ramblings about beating people up. Glancing around, I could see that literally every other customer in the place was giving this party dirty looks. Manager - step up and manage. If you're not willing to inform people that their behavior isn't acceptable, cut off alcohol service, or whatever else needs to be done to keep up the customer experience, hospitality isn't the job for you.

I'd given Holdren's a 5-star in the past, but I have to change that after last night. We haven't been in for about 6 months and it was really horrible to pay a few hundred bucks for the food, wine, and service on a recent visit. I was excited to go after so long... Table waitress had attitude with me from the start (food server was fine) despite doing my best not to inconvenience her (which shouldn't be how anyone feels, but I figured maybe she was having a bad night) and she was overall neglectful, the wine was spoilt, they never offered to refill the water, they didn't offer to turn on the heater when it got cold out and I was so busy dealing with my food situation that I didn't have any bandwidth to ask, and both steaks were seared and flipped only when we ordered steaks more cooked. I had to take mine to go, so I can throw it on the grill and finish cooking it today. I can cook my own steaks for $10. I go 9ut and spend more when I want to enjoy a nice night out. But instead had to consistently deal with negative stuff and be the bad guy. I don't think I'll be going back for at least a few years. Let me make something perfectly clear for your staff: "everything OK over here?" is not attentive service when your staff member has made it seem like every request, even just ordering, is an imposition. Nobody is going to say, "actually, no," in that situation. She's lucky she got a tip at all. But please teach them to observe and refill water. Even cheap diners get this one right. The questions are things like, "would you like some more water?" or "do you need a box?" or "is your steak cooked how you asked?" "Dessert menu..." 😒 Like heck I'm going to spend more when you botched the wine, appetizer, and main course. I basically paid $200 for salad and rolls...