Moby Dick Restaurant

This place is horrible and service is seriously terrible.
I never want to come here ever again! The food is merely mediocre and the view isn’t that great.
I found a hair in my pasta and the servers don’t know what they are doing.
Don’t come here!

I planned a trip with a friend to Santa Barbara for my birthday (our trip was in May). I made plans to eat at moby dicks mainly because it was less expensive than the others on the wharf. Walked in, sat quickly, and our server was very quick to greet us! Being a server myself, I tend to be semi critical of other servers! After ordering my wine (being carded of course) he asked what brought us to Santa Barbara? We proceeded to tell him it was my birthday celebration. I ordered the New York strip with pesto (DELICIOUS!) after our meal, our server brought me a chocolate cake and candle and sang me happy birthday! Overall, this place was amazing! Great views (even though it was cloudy outside) amazing service and amazing food! If I’m ever back in Santa Barbara, I’ll be going back!

God this place was awful. Decided to go with some friends because it was on the Santa Barbara pier. I was served by far the worst fish and chips at any restaurant I’ve been to. I don’t recommend it. For the lobster, they actually give you and small tiny one pound lobster. There’s no meat in that, the one pound was basically the shell. Would not recommend.

The best service I have had in such a long time. Our food was hot and delicious. Two for dinner $ 29.00. Samon plate and chicken teriyaki plate. We were seated quickly. Hostes was friendly. Our server was on it! During our dinner we got greeted by at least 5 people asking if we needed anything and how we are doing. I loved the attention we received. YOU ROCK MOBY DICK!!!

Second time here and the same as the first. The shrimp and crab cakes are really good. The rest of the food is just ok. Next time I’m in the area I’ll try someplace else.

READ THE REVIEWS. As I’m sure is fairly common (and maybe the only reason people settle for this restaurant), we came here because of the long wait at Shellfish Company. The wait was short here, but that was about the only good part of this experience. It took awhile for the waitress to take our order, and when we tried to order the specials, she told us they were out of the crab. That wouldn’t have bothered me if they had told us that upfront, but we sat there for ten minutes waiting to order something that wasn’t available.
I came here with three other people and only one thought their dish was even satisfactory. Everything else lacked any decent flavor. Oh, and the best part… I ordered the Caesar salad with salmon. The salmon came out way undercooked, so I asked to have it fixed, which they did. But it took another 10 minutes while my compadres ate their food. They didn’t offer a discount or dessert or anything. Pretty bush league if you ask me.
Bottom line… The food is below average and way over priced, and service is subpar. Spend your time and money elsewhere unless you’re willing to drop big bucks for a nice view.

The positive: no wait to be seated, clean restrooms.
The negative: took forever to order anything and even longer for it to come out! I mentioned to the waiter that I’m allergic to tomato and whatever I get can’t touch tomato. He replied okay. The plate comes out-​which is the linguini primavera which had no tomatoes! Very grateful for that. However, I took ONE BITE of the «garlic bread» which tasted horrible. The one bite I had of it caused a major allergic reaction. When we brought it up to the waiter, he denied me ever saying it and didn’t know where tomato would’ve come from. Anyways, his manager comes out to talk to us and he couldn’t even list the ingredients of the garlic bread but swore no tomato was in it and that tomatoes didn’t touch them. He was no where near the kitchen, and doesn’t watch who touches what but still swore that tomato didn’t touch it! He couldn’t care less about my allergic reaction! The service was terrible too! No one offered refills and we had requested more bread 4 times before something was done about it. When I come back to Santa Barbara, I will definitely eat somewhere else with hopefully a better staff and someone who takes food allergies seriously.

Service person did not speak good English missed up on drink order, was slow, the lobster was tough, and they would not honor their coupon from
, they had two many rules.
gave my money back. I would suggest Santa Barbara Fishouse

Lesson learned — when out of town, I should have checked here first…
After reading the «specials of the day» I expected a lot from this place. Turns out they were out of the special I really wanted. So I went with the fresh crab & shrimp cakes. They were very flavorful but spicy, had I know how much — I would have ordered something different. Additionally, the veggie are cooked in the same water the pasta is cooked in — just an fyi if any of you have gluten issues. The mashed potatoes were nothing I’ve had before. All in all, not enough description in the menu to know what I was getting. The food was over-​all average and nothing to come back for.
Our server was nice & did his just… but it felt like it was his first week & his uniform was completely messy. The floor manager was nice, but a little to comfortable & free with her foul language & the challenges of the day when taking to a table next to us.
This is a family friendly restaurant. That being said, there were A LOT of children. LOUD children. So many crying, yelling, verbally demanding children that I will never visit this place again.
PS — the bathrooms were some of the most discussing I have been in a long time for any self respecting restaurant.

Not quality food. And the service was shot. The server seemed irritated each time we asked for something. And when we asked the person who brought our food for bbq sauce and another soda he looked at us weird and walked away. You would think they’d have a decent chef considering they charged 50 $ for crab leg dinner. And they were not busy whatsoever. Not going back here for sure.

This Is a total tourist trap. Do not go here. SO GROSS! Stopped here for lunch on the way from Solvang. I ordered fish and chips for $ 15. What I got was frozen fish sticks. My boyfriends fried shrimp wasn’t any better. It’s pretty hard to mess up fried food but I seriously didn’t even eat. Disappointing that a seafood restaurant on the pier can’t even serve edible fish and chips.

I rarely write bad reviews. Usually, I just eat, pay, leave, and then suppress the memory of a bad meal in therapy. This was worthy of writing the bad review as a form of mourning.
When I was a student at UCSB, I ate at Moby Dick’s a lot. It was relatively inexpensive, and the owner, the late Al Steinman, befriended this young history student, and usually threw in a little extra on my plate or just knocked a little off the bill because I was a student. He was a character and a half, and I miss him. Al aside, the food was great. Very old school in so many ways. They even had scalone steak, which is impossible to find, and it was great.
After Al passed, I don’t know who took control, but the menu has changed, with all of my old favorites gone. That should have been my first clue.
I ordered the Lobster Bisque. Very uninspiring. Thin, overly creamy, no trace of the booze, and slivers of lobster that looked more like curdled egg than lobster. Not altogether bad, just not that inspiring.
Ordered the combo and chips with fried shrimp and calamari. First off, it was a plate of fries and not much fish. Second, the batter was thick, tasteless, and actually subtracted flavor from the actual fish. Ate a few pieces, sent it back. Got a side salad to cleanse my palate. The salad wasn’t bad, but the dressing was clearly out of a Kraft bottle.
So, why 2 stars? The service was great. I reflected that in the tip. So I will give them that. Sure the view was great, but that’s not worth crap food.
Here’s the bottom line: this restaurant has an interesting local history. Al Steinman was local legend, but the restaurant has burned down several times in its history. Each time it has been rebuilt, it stayed the test of time because of both Al and the food. If it burns again, please new owners, just take the insurance check and run.
Or better yet, find a better menu and chef.

Don’t go.
Was given a gift card. Then saw the poor reviews. They were right.
Hostess stood by showing off an employees Moby Dick uniform while we stood right next to her ignored not being seated.
Clam chowder was ok.
My charbroiled shrimp which cost $ 25 or $ 27 had no description. To my surprise it came with a mere 5 shrimp and no charring anywhere to be found on them. Had bland but manageable flavoring, but were undercooked!!! Jiggly and just… how!!! I choked down one then quit. Had it been my own money I would have sent them back. I just didn’t feel like bothering.
My veggies which I presume were steamed were also undercooked, I damn near chipped a tooth on the broccoli & I could practically taste the soil it grew from.
Just dont come here.

If you want a nice ocean view lunch on the pier this is the spot you need to relax to enjoy a good seafood lunch at Sterns Wharf. I enjoyed a small fresh lobster with melted butter dipping sauce with lots of lemons, steamed clams, tsunami pina coloda and a cup of clam chowder. Seafood was as fresh as the ocean here besides the relaxing views of the ocean. Lobster was worth the mess on my fingers when it was tasty. All the food was very delicious. If you’re in the Santa Barbara area you got to try this place at least once.

Location, location, location. They’ve got it.
Quite a nice place on the pier with views you can’t ignore.
Depends on your liking, but food is pretty good here.

Was OK
We stopped on our way home from San Francisco for coffee and cake
I guess at $ 38.00 for three slices of cake and three coffee it’s safe to say
Overpriced
Cake was OK and the coffee was weak
All in all it will be a one time deal

(-) Fish and chips was sad. At least the fries were good but the fish was small and had a strange breading and taste. It included fried shrimp too, again small, same breading as the fish, and I think they left the shell on?!? Maybe, maybe not… the breading was that bad I couldn’t tell.
(-) Seemed overpriced, even for seafood. Is it the location? Shouldn’t it be cheaper since it’s near the ocean? Joking aside, I’ve had much better fish & chips for a lot less.
(+) Décor is interesting, fits the wharf vibe. Lots to look at if you’re bored.
(+) Big enough for large parties and provides great views of the ocean with all the windows.

Went here for a Christmas party Friday night and must say, they don’t really strive for excellent quality. The salad came out with too much balsamic dressing, no croutons or anything to balance the acidity. The steaks that were supposed to be cooked medium rare came out medium and were just okay, even on a hungry palate. Vegetable sides were cooked perfect. My margaritas were toooo damn sweet. The desserts (apple cobbler) were more sugar n cinnamon than anything. There weren’t any Apple bits, maybe a crunch of walnut, that was it. Too sweet anyway.
Service was just okay-​adequate. They seemed to be circulating, collecting empty plates and such but failed to ask if there’s anything else you need, refills, perhaps? Whatever, subpar.

The view is great and nice to eat right on the pier. The food was not so great, the fried fish was freezer food. My friends and I would rather have picked up some filet-​o-​fish combos from Mcdonalds instead! My friend said the clam chowder was also not good.
We should have waited for the shellfish Co, but there were 6 parties ahead of us and it was cold outside!

I am very grateful to my friend for treating us here but I think the group agreed that this place is pretty bad.
Our server was a nice young man but even he looked sad he had to be at this establishment. I am so happy he offered to let us sample the soups because I was dangerously close to ordering the Lobster Bisque which turned out to be watery and tasted liked iodine. I had the clam chowder instead and it was the highlight of the entire dining experience.
We decided to share the seafood platter of mussels, clams, and lobster. It was very disappointing. Almost all the clam shells were empty and the lobster was overcooked. We basically had a few bites of mussels each for $ 33.
The view is not worth the sad dining experience. Grab some clam chowder to go and enjoy your surroundings from the outdoors!

Excelente comida e atendimento. Para quem deseja uma comida saudável dentre tantos fast-​foods!

Ausgezeichnetes essen bei genialer Aussicht auf den Pazifik und auf Santa Barbara.

bonne cuisine et service super sympa, vue port