Holdren’s Steaks & Seafood

We came in for my boyfriends birthday a couple weeks ago. I had been meaning to write a review since then. Our server was Armando I believe. He was amazing. Super friendly and stopped by the table at all the right times. My boyfriend went big for his birthday and got the HUGE cowboy cut steak, which he thoroughly enjoyed and ALMOST finished. I had the rack of lamb, it was cooked to perfection. Thank you Armando for your wonderful service, we will be back for ½ price bottles of wine sun-​Tues!

This is one of my favorite restaurants in SB.
What I usually order:
— 6oz filet (I used to have to send back because it wasn’t cooked to my liking but they’ve been good about getting it just right in the past few months)
— rosemary bleu cheese sauce (I normally don’t like bleu cheese but it’s very good)
— garlic mashed potatoes (great with the steak)
— mac n cheese (really really good. very cheesy)
— side caesar (it’s above average)
— grilled castroville artichoke (SO GOOD. And the dipping sauce they have with this is also really good. I usually keep it for the bread as well.)
— potato skins (also very good)
— peanut butter chocolate pie (really really really good, but it’s a large slice so be prepared!)
Pros:
— the food is very good
— most servers are very good
— they offer promotions occasionally (like 20% off a meal). Subscribe to their email list!
Cons:
— not open for lunch on the weekend (but they are during the week)
— the layout is a bit odd. the kitchen is right there when you walk in, but they wash the sinks in the back so you’ll see them carrying dishes all over
I was sad to see the Goleta location go, but I’m happy there is still a location downtown.

We dined here for our anniversary on Saturday. Service was great, our food server in particular was exceptional. She was attentive, knowledgable and has a great personality. My husband is super particular when it comes to his steak and he was thoroughly satisfied. Loved the flavor of the steak and the quality of the cut. My spinach was fresh and delish. Price was fair and we could not have been more happy. Nice atmosphere and cocktails were also very good. We’ll be back on our next trip up north.

I went here at the recommendation of one of the Canary Hotel bar staff; he said it was locally owned by a good family. Since I’m by myself and it was the beginning of a crazy busy night in downtown Santa Barbara, I sat at the bar. The bartender was a wonderful person who was very helpful in guiding my choice in local red wines — settled on a great Pinot Noir. I ordered the 6 oz. filet mignon and garlic mashed potatoes, with regular salad as a starter. The filet was FANTASTIC. Although I went ahead and specified a sauce (bourbon), I used the sauce for the potatoes. IMHO, if a steak needs a sauce, that’s because the meat is not first class. This filet needed no sauce, and the steak knife was certainly not needed either — just the regular knife was more than adequate. Potatoes were good — of course I can never have too much garlic — and the regular salad to me was so good.
Only thing I will say is that as with all restaurants that I go to, the wait staff needs to learn how to relax around an older woman dining by herself. I call it the «widow’s curse», since being a widow, I noticed that some restaurant personnel are a little uneasy around a single woman and don’t seem to find it necessary to get the check to me as quickly as they would for a couple or a group of men. No big deal — just be aware!!! The population of widows is increasing! And some of us are brazen enough to go out to dinner by ourselves.

I guess I was lucky that the restaurant we intended to try was closed; I never use Unilocal for anything less than 4 stars, which I’m not sure why this place isn’t. Drove 40 minutes to try a Scottish fish n chip place just across the street but as stated, was closed. Instead of using Unilocal like I normally do, I just saw the place across the street and went. I got the Cajun calamari, which I think the batter could have used more spice but I guess the reason they put the jalapeños on the plate is so that the customer can make their bites as spicy or tame as they prefer. I had the sand dabs which were absolutely AMAZING. I will be going back just for those. The SO had the scallops and Sunday special, sirloin and scampi. Normally very critical, the SO loved both. Service was good, soup was great, again, not sure why Unilocalers think this is a 3.5, it’s definitely a 4. The bill for two entrées and two apps was just under $ 90, and I’m no stranger to paying tripple digits for one entrée.
–EDIT–
Also after reading another review who gave two stars because his steak didn’t come with A1 «steak sauce»… if you want A1 «steak sauce» on a good steak, just stay home and get your steak from Ralphs…

Great dinner. I had a salad– the hubby had a pork steak. The food was delicious though the appetizer was just ok. I ordered the coconut shrimp due to a review on Unilocal,but it didn’t say that the shrimp was sitting in the mango sauce (I assumed it was on the side). I don’t like mango, so it was a no go. But the salad was fantastic and my husband loved his meal as well. They have cake bread wine– I’m in heaven. Love this place. Expensive but worth it.

We came to celebrate my brother’s 31^st birthday. And we really enjoyed the service. Small place great quality of food. Drinks was amazing. I will dine there again if in that area.

We joined others for a company Holiday (Christmas) party last night. While someone much more generous than I paid for the get-​together (est. $ 1K), I was given the leeway to decide where we were going to dine. Holdren’s was a great choice, if I do say-​so myself.
All in our party were very happy with the drinks, appetizers, mains, and desserts. Others didn’t specifically mention the quality of the service, but I noticed and really appreciated just how skilled & genial our server handled our party of ten. (shout-​out to Ethan).
I tasted multiple dishes besides my rack of lamb, including filet mignon, calimari, bacon-​wrapped shrimp, popcorn shrimp, potato skins, plus four desserts. I coveted other dishes, too, but couldn’t finagle a taste of that lobster tail. =/​
We will definitely return for future visits when in downtown Santa Barbara, but in the interest of my clothing budget, I should seriously consider dieting beforehand.
4.5 stars

I’ve been coming to Holdren’s for about 7 years now. Until recently, it was my absolute favorite restaurant in Santa Barbara. I hadn’t been able to eat here in about a year due to a medical issue that put me on a severely restricted diet. That’s no longer an issue and I’ve gone twice in the last two weeks. It really pains me to write this review, but I honestly hope that their ownership sees this and is able to make some changes; I want this place to succeed.
I’m going to give a rundown of the things that aren’t working well at Holdren’s right now. Individually some of these are easily forgiven as one-​off miscues, but in totality they really add up. Especially when you’re paying $ 50 for a steak.
— Both times I had reservations that requested the patio and they weren’t able to accommodate this either time. One time we were specifically told that we were bumped in favor of regular customers. I get that this is usually the reason for things like this, but they could have put it more delicately than that. It doesn’t make one feel welcome.
— The waitress we had on Halloween seemed to be in a very bad mood in general and gave us gruff service. She’s worked there for a long time and I’ve sat at her tables before, so this may have just been a bad night for her. I get that. But again, at $ 50 a steak I’m not going to be super understanding.
— Last night there was a considerable delay of over five minutes in bringing out the food of someone in our party. Everyone else had their meal and she was left hanging.
— Last night they overcooked the steaks of both my father and myself. He was too hungry to send his back but I sent mine back. My re-​fired steak came back after everyone else was almost finished.
— They have a hard time getting used plates and glasses cleared. I had a martini when we sat down which I finished in about 5 minutes. The empty glass sat on the table the entire night.
— Continuing that theme, our soup/​salad dishes weren’t promptly cleared. I don’t usually care about this, but I noticed that when they were bringing out our main dishes from the kitchen they had to send them back briefly while they cleared our plates to make room. This shouldn’t happen in a nice restaurant.
— The soup itself was… bad. The waiter told us they ran out of the tortilla soup but that they had clam chowder. What we got tasted like it was hastily thrown together. It was runny and lacked flavor. I’ve had clam chowder at Holdren’s before and it was much, much better than this.
— They’ve increased the prices on their daily specials by $ 3-​$ 5. I understand that prices on food have risen and they need to make money, but if you’re going to do this you need to ensure that your quality remains the same. Instead, quality has taken a nosedive.
— No manager came to apologize to us for last night’s debacle. In fact, I didn’t see anyone who appeared to be in management there at all. Maybe that’s the problem?
All in all, I really hope that this place can get it together. There are a lot of restaurants in this town who sacrifice quality (and therefore the business of locals) in favor of the quick tourist buck. If that’s a business decision they’ve made in the last year then more power to them. But as it stands, I won’t be back.

Me and my family went to Santa Barbara and while walking at their main street we got in this restaurant. We got a lot of dishes and we couldn’t even finish it, so make sure you order not that much because the portions are big. Service was slow.

This place is amazing! Ambience is nice, but casual. Everything tastes fabulous. My favorite is the filet crusted with horseradish and blue cheese. Baked potato was good and the Caesar, too. Skinny marg made with agave nectar didn’t taste skinny at all. And you can’t go wrong with smores table side. If you’re in SB, make a reservation and enjoy.

Been here a number of times. Fantastic every time. The steaks are unsurpassed and great happy hour!
This last visit, last Sunday, was a bit strange as our server reminded us we only had «17 minutes to order happy hour» and looked at our dogs, we did have three, like pests. but besides from that the service was always inviting.

Ok. Been coming here off and on for the last 5 years. I ordered the $ 39.00 Prime NY.
Came with the most pathetic side salad that was dried out mixed greens. The NY was cooked as I like however it was soaked in a sauce when I asked for a side of A1. I couldn’t believe they don’t listen when I asked for a side? Of A1
The bartender looked like he was not having a good time. As a matter of fact he never does.
It was disappointing and gross. Never again will I return. Horrible attitude from the bar and a waiter almost ran me down as I was walking in. I felt his rag on my legs do I moved aside and waited for him to speed by me. You only get two stars.

After experiencing a poor dinner the other night and only a mediocre lunch in the afternoon, I was pretty amazed by this restaurant. I had searched on Unilocal and both of those places for dinner and lunch had received many good ratings, but I beg to differ (I already wrote a review for each of those dining places). I randomly went into Holdren steak and it broke my scale. I got the 6 oz. filet mignon with the Rosemary blue cheese sauce. I’m not one that likes to try new things and especially when it has blue cheese in/​with it, but that sauce was delicious. It was creamy and textured right, it totally balanced the meal out. I would like to note here that if you’re not planning on using any of the sauces, the steak might be a little salty (to me it was).
The service we got was A1 ;). We went in at around 8:30 on a Sunday evening and there was no wait. The waitresses were very friendly and helpful.
Overall, I really enjoyed this place and I would definitely recommend it to others.

Our order:
Chicken breast stuffed with crab — sauce helped the dryness of the breast
Wedge salad — pretty standard wedge — bleu cheese were crumbs, instead of chunks
Sliders — not too juicy
Crab cakes — doesn’t measure up to Boston standards according to my kid
Mac and cheese — doesn’t measure up to any standard according to all at the table
Drinks — house wine, diet coke and milk
Total bill was north of a Benjamin — 2 adults, a teen and a child
Unilocal check-​in gave you 50% off of a house wine, so check-​in.
Service was decent, as there weren’t too many other tables to tend.
Parking — nearby street parking can be found. There’s no private lot as is true for most restaurants on State St.

4^th of July so it was really busy on the street. We had an outside table, enjoyed some local wines, Shrimp Cocktail appetizer I had the crab cakes appetizer for my meal (included rice) He had the Camelized apple & walnut salad. Service was attentive and we were pleasantly surprised this this was on the 4^th of july. Good people watching place !

Pretentious male server who eventually took care of me after sitting for a good 10 minutes before I was even acknowledged for a drink made me wonder if I picked a wrong place to eat. How hard is it to get me «regular» tap water, not bottled water, not sparkling water. Once that was sorted out and I had made my wine choice & didn’t let that ruin a great dinner. I ordered the mahi mahi and the food quality and quantity made up for the lack of service.
If your hungry or in a hurry this is not the place for me. It’s on the pricy side but I wanted a decent dinner & that’s what I wanted.

Took a business client out for dinner per their request
Had the ribeye with the veggies
Overall it was OK. Nothing fantastic not bad either.
The veggies were actually the best part because they were seasoned and cooked properly.
Service was good and attentive.
So if you want an ok steak good service this place works.

Excellent dinner last night
I complain a lot about service in Santa Barbara. Holden’s is the exception. Service is on point!
Another plus is the reasonably priced wine selection.
Be ready to eat when u come here!
And please order the Rosemary blue cheese sauce with your steak. It is AMAZING. Also make a reservation and ask for a booth. They are so cozy.
I am a third generation Santa Barbara resident and my mom told me this used to be the location of Joes. And that room in the back of the restaurant was «the gold room» the bar here is the oldest bar in Santa Barbara. It is very pretty.

Two Words: Rib Night
Every Monday there is an ALL You Can Eat Rib Night for $ 22.95. This time I went with my friend who is a bodybuilder. No, I am not a bodybuilder, but I am a personal trainer who loves to eat well! My record is three rack of ribs… You definitely get your money’s worth, if you can eat a lot!
I am not really a fan of their steak, it is always a hit and miss. They always have quality service and a great ambiance here.
Check out their daily specials on their menu! They have Happy Hour 4−6PM daily.