The Palace Grill
Cajun · Santa Barbara
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About The Palace Grill
En The Palace Grill, te damos la bienvenida a un rincón de Santa Bárbara donde el sabor vibrante de la cocina cajún-creole se une a un ambiente alegre y acogedor. Disfruta de nuestros platos estrella, desde el cornbread muffin hasta los originales jalapeño martinis, elaborados con ingredientes fresc...
En The Palace Grill, te damos la bienvenida a un rincón de Santa Bárbara donde el sabor vibrante de la cocina cajún-creole se une a un ambiente alegre y acogedor. Disfruta de nuestros platos estrella, desde el cornbread muffin hasta los originales jalapeño martinis, elaborados con ingredientes frescos y un toque de pasión sureña. Con una valoración de 4.7/5, nos esforzamos cada día para ofrecerte una experiencia culinaria inolvidable que te hará sentir como en casa.
What Customers Say About The Palace Grill
The Palace Grill offers a lively New Orleans atmosphere with well-spiced Cajun cuisine. Standout dishes include the gumbo, jambalaya pasta, redfish, and bread pudding. Some found certain dishes bland or portions small, but the service is consistently praised.
Popular Dishes
Best For
Tip: Order the Famous Bread Pudding when you have a full hour to spare, as it takes 45 minutes to prepare.
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What to see nearby
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Explore the area around The Palace Grill
The Palace Grill is located in Santa Barbara, surrounded by cultural and historical points of interest. Here are some of the most notable places nearby.
Historical Heritage
- Casa de la Guerra (A 371m) — place in California listed on National Register of Historic Places Lugar inscrito en el Registro Nacional de Lugares Históricos
- St. Vincent Orphanage and School Building (A 727m) — historic building in Santa Barbara, California, United States Lugar inscrito en el Registro Nacional de Lugares Históricos
Museums
- Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (A 371m)
- Santa Barbara Historical Museum (A 414m) — non-profit organization in the USA
- The Wolf Museum of Exploration and Innovation (A 655m) — museum in Santa Barbara, California
- Santa Barbara Surfing Museum (A 839m) — sports museum in Santa Barbara, California
Parks & Gardens
- Storke Plaza (A 194m) — park in Santa Barbara County, California, United States of America
- Plaza Vera Cruz (A 240m) — park in the United States of America
- City Hall Plaza (A 313m) — park in Santa Barbara County, California, United States of America
- De La Guerra Plaza (A 317m) — park in California, United States of America, United States of America
Data from Wikidata
Frequently asked questions about The Palace Grill
The Palace Grill Santa Barbara Reviews
We had a great time at Palace Grill! The food & service were great, the vibes were there! Also s/o to the magician that made our night with his amazing tricks! We'll be back :)
Well spiced food with deep complex layers of flavor. The kids meals were expensive, but were actually freshly made and would be something you’d be happy to get on the adult menu as well. Will definitely come back- service was excellent. Just wish there were beignets!!
Wonderful cuisine attentive and fun staff - mgr gave us complimentary drinks on St Patrick's Day ! Unique so new Orleans style decor. Procedure reasonable. Felt like we were in a movie:)
Outstanding food and great service. We ordered two dishes, the redfish and a pasta. both were sublime, as were the muffins. we also had a cabernet and a pinot, both were super nice. our server was awesome. mostly though, this 5-star review is about the food. It's hard to make fish "special" but this fish was just that - special. truly outstanding work in this kitchen. know that it won't be cheap. with two entrees, two glasses of wine, and a 20% tip, it was $150. No regrets. It was a special, memorable meal.
The Palace Grill is one of my favorite places to eat when I’m in Santa Barbara, CA. I’ve been enjoying their food for over twenty years. My favorite appetizer is the Gumbo Ya-Ya and for my main course, I love the Filet Mignon and the Jambalaya Pasta. They have several other great looking options that I plan on trying out on my next visit. And the sing along is also one of my favorite treats that just sets the atmosphere perfectly!
This was my first time here and all I can say is if you haven’t tried it, you should! Everything was so delicious. The muffins and the red fish dish were so good!! We had an appetizer so we split the fish and they actually put it on to separate plates for us which was very cool they did that!
All I can say is... WOW! This place is fantastic. I knew from the reviews and the fact that it was recently saved from permanent closure that it would be good, but I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was. I am no NOLA native, but I have been, and swore I would never order gumbo anywhere else on earth, but I am glad I ordered the gumbo here. My mom and I agreed that it was phenomenal. We devoured it so quickly that I didn't even get a chance to take a picture. The gumbo comes with a hearty serving of rice, and since we wanted to save room for dinner, we did not eat all of it, but as I write this review, I wish we did. My mom got the blackened redfish and really enjoyed it. It was perfectly cooked, but she noted it could use a bit more salt. The dish did come with a small cup of a garlicky dressing/sauce on the side and that made all the difference and made up for the lack of salt in the dry rub. I got the crawfish pasta lafitte, and because I am greedy, I added shrimp to it. ;) They do NOT skimp on portions here, even the seafood! Next time I come back, I know not to ask for the shrimp because there is plentyyy of crawfish. The pasta itself was so rich, creamy and flavorful. I could not finish the entire plate. You should plan to bring leftovers home with you, or share it amongst the table. We ended our meal with the bread pudding because it is so highly recommended. My mom did not love it because it wasn't a traditional bread pudding (which they do not claim it to be). I think it had amazing flavor and can see why people love it so much, but after the filling meal we had, we could not eat much of it. Next time, I will try the key lime pie! I would make a trip up to SB from SD just to visit this restaurant, and I am so glad it ended up staying open. If you were on the fence about dining here, please goooo!
READ MY REVIEW FIRST! Only order the Famous Bread Pudding when you have a full hour to spare. IT TAKE 45 minutes It’s worth it. Came here late night for dessert but the service was amazing! We ordered the Bananas Fosters and Bread Pudding and drinks. I got to know the whole staff. Service was top notch. Food was great.
I love this place I've been going here for around 10 years for my birthday. It's amazing, the food is amazing and the atmosphere is off the chain. All the waiters are your waiters. They have an awesome bread pudding that must be ordered when you order your meal because they make it fresh for you. It comes with the best bourbon sauce you ever tasted. Everyone sings a song together at dinner it's just an amazing place. You must make reservations before you go there. Enjoy people
Loved the ambience. Loved their popcorn crawfish! We tried their big easy platter, but it wasn't as amazing as I expected. It was good to try everything from redfish to chicken in one plate, but their seafood items were a bit underwhelming. Rice and fillet mignon were amazing though. Their bread pudding souffle was alright, probably won't get it next time we visit. A bit pricey compared to other restaurants of similar quality in the neighborhood.
I loved this place and cannot wait to go again! The ambiance is wonderful; it has an old school Louisiana vibe in the beautiful city of Santa Barbara. The food was delicious! Creole food always hits the spot with this place being no exception. The service was immaculate, with the server making sure to tell us that if we wanted desert since we would have to order it asap because it would take a while. We got the food very fast, probably because we got there early. I strongly recommend this place! We will be going back :)
The food was phenomenal.! We really enjoyed their blackened Louisiana redfish and their crawfish pasta. And, their dark chocolate soufflé was exceptional! But, I personally didn’t like the Cajun martini too much. But overall, the dining experience was very good and so was the service. Highly recommend!
I was looking for something to eat before heading to the Hollywood Bowl for a show but wasn’t too sure what to have. There are a large amount of Mexican restaurants in Santa Barbara, but I feel like I can get that in LA pretty easily lol. The Palace stood out to me because of its emphasis on Cajun dishes. I remembered that it had been a long time since I’d had jambalaya so I decided to give this place a try and I liked it alot. I showed up exactly at 5, right when they opened, so they were able to seat me right away. The server, Brandon, was really cool and recommended a few of their best dishes. I ended up ordering the Piquante as he said it was one of the dishes most rife with flavor. Needless to say, he was right. The jambalaya piquante was delicious. Served on a bed of dirty rice with an assortment of meats like chicken, shrimp and sausage, I was really impressed by what I ordered. I tend to have jambalaya in pasta form but this was just as good. Also, the little bread basket of mini muffins they give you before the entree is awesome. I can’t say I’ve seen that before at any other restaurant haha. I especially liked the jalapeño muffin and the rosemary one too. One other thing that I enjoyed about this place was the aesthetic. They play a lot of jazz and music relevant to the New Orleans/ Mardi Gras setting, and the decorations and paintings they have up are cool to look at.
Ordered filet mignon waited for 50+ minutes and after that food came out. The portion size was not generous to say the least, steak size is not worth it. Steak was $46, gumbo was $13, good thing it was a 40-year anniversary of the restaurant so cajun popcorn was $4 a serving, we ordered 2 of those. Total $73 for 3 appetizers and 1 main course.
First the bad. I had the fried chicken salad and the crab cake entree. Both plates were extremely bland and tasteless. I've had hush puppies that had more flavor. So, for me, the food is a no go. Drinks were good and fairly priced. The staff worked very hard and the service was great. The atmosphere was loud, cheerful, and festive. Too bad. I really wanted to like this place.
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8 E Cota St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
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8 E Cota St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
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