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Elements Restaurant & Bar
129 E. Anapamu St, Santa Barbara
Phone: (805) 884-9218

  • Category: Fusion
  • Hours: Mon-Sun 11:30am-2pm & Sun-Wed 5:30-9pm & Thu 5:30-10pm
  • Price: $20+
  • Serving: Lunch & Dinner
  • Reservations: Yes, recommended
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Reviews by the General Public

A perfect birthday dinner!, 4/5/2010
Reviewer: Elicia from Santa Barbara, CA
A friend of mine suggested Elements for our dual-birthday celebration and I hadn’t been in a while so thought it was a good idea. We had such a great dinner on the patio and the view of the courthouse is priceless! We ordered 2 entrees that we decided to share. The coconut-curried swordfish was so fresh and full of flavor (I wish I had the recipe for that sauce!) and the filet mignon was very tender and came with potatoes that I will dream about for a long time to come. It was a great way to celebrate my birthday and I have already made a reservation for Mother’s Day to treat my mom to a special night out!
This restaurant used to be our favorite, 3/6/2010
Reviewer: James from Santa Barbara, CA
We used to dine here every couple weeks, but after the visionary chef who created the menu left (maybe 1.5 years ago), it has not been consistent or superior. We still try it every six-months with hopes that they will get another wonderful chef, but unfortunately it is disappointing given the high prices. I think you must scale reviews relative to prices. This used to be one of the top 3-4 restaurants in SB. That said, we still like stopping by the bar with friends - good scene and drinks.
Forgot to cook the dessert!!!, 1/26/2010
Reviewer: Amanda from Santa Barbara, CA
A friend and I went to eat in the bar and split their house burger and a dessert. The burger was delicious and juicy with yummy garlic fries! We ordered the lava flow chocolate cake to split and when it came out, it was cake batter on a plate!! We tasted and sure enough they forgot to cook it!! My friend is a pastry chef and was quite horrified! We returned it and they apologized and said they forgot to turn on the oven! I understand people make mistakes, but forgetting to cook the dessert is a pretty big one! They comped our coffees which was nice, but I expected more coming to this restaurant and probably will not be returning.

First time visit left me highly disappointed , 1/19/2010
Reviewer: Lynee from Santa Barbara, CA
I am sad to say my first experience here was highly disappointing and will probably never come back. I have read the poor reviews, but wanted to give the restaurant a try and see if they could prove everyone wrong. First, we ordered drinks that took a minimum of 20 minutes to bring. Our waiter was nice, but had NO sense of urgency and took his time with everythng he did. The food was decent, but extremely over priced. My pasta that consisted of spinach, pine nuts, butter, lemon and cheese was $25! When dessert came, our waiter asked us if we wanted coffee, of course I said yes because what is dessert without coffee? 20 minutes after our dessert came and about 10 minutes after my dessert was finished, my coffee arrived. When I walked inside the restaurant (we were outside on the patio) I was surprised to see our waiter engaged in coversation with another waitress, ignoring his surroundings and obviously ignoring our table because while he was chatting away he had someone else bring me my too-late cup of coffee. Just a tip for the owners at Elements, maybe hire workers who actually want to work. After all, there are many other restaurants in town I would be happy to spend my money at. Your restaurant has great potential and it's sad to see it going down hill because your service is bad.

Elements does not deserve to be open for business, 12/27/2009
Reviewer: Scott from Santa Barbara, CA
We ate at elements restaurant 12-26-09 1300 hours for lunch. On this day we found one waiter and one brand new busser and no bar tender. The service was not close to what I would expect from a restaurant like this with outragious prices. I would ass- u- me d they try to provide a good service at lunch as well as dinner. Of five meals served, four came with ice cold french fries, the fifth meal was 5 minutes after the others with hot fries. Im guessing they gave us old and cold, tell they ran out then cooked some more cause they had too. Also, the soup we received was only sort of warm. The phone rang loudly off the hook with no one to answer it. All in all the experiance on this day with my family was about a 1 out of 10, with the $120 bill to boot. This place has gone from ok to terrible, do not go there. To many good restaurants in SB to deal with this.
a bad element to our Sunday., 12/13/2009
Reviewer: Ticki T. from Santa Barbara, CA
Let's start with a positive. We positively will never eat at Elements again. To be fair, our Bloody Marys and drinks were great. Frankly, it went downhill from there. The negatives were many, but for brevity's sake: The food arrived cold (that was the best part), and just plain wrong. Poached eggs without yolks, rancid, grey colored "smoked ham", even the hollandaise was turned. When we brought this to the server's attention, her response was indifferent. We ordered something different, and had pretty much the same result. Poorly prepared, bad flavors and not warm. Having dined here many times before, we were really shocked at both the quality and the total lack of apology. We were extrememly polite and discrete about the whole thing, so as not to alarm the other diners. Even still, the check was dropped abruptly, as if to sweep the whole experience under the rug. Thanks for not even asking, but yes, we'll skip dessert.
Some of the Best Food in Town!!!, 12/1/2009
Reviewer: Jill from San Francisco, CA
My husband and I visited Santa Barbara about two weeks ago and we went to several of the nicer restaurants in town. Our favorite, by far, was Elements. I had one of the best meals I've had in a very long time. We have lived in New York, San Francisco and have spent a lot of time Chicago and LA. This restaurant is on par with the great ones of these big cities. It was great to have real quality food where the chef is truly in tune with flavors. We will definitely be back on our next trip!!!
I saved and dreamed of going to this restaurant for years,, 9/7/2009
Reviewer: Shirley Gardner from Santa Barbara, CA
I saved and dreamed of going to this restaurant for years, after seeing it on foodnetwork. The food is overpriced, I had a Monk fish salad that was not fit to serve my cat. It took the one waiter forever, the busboy and barmaid was of great help. Have to say, my husband ordered the pork chop, and it was good, thank God he shared it with me. I should have said something to them, or, returned the dish, I was just in shock, and so very disappointed.
Amazing food, beautiful views, thoughtful service
Reviewer: Mike & Martha from Santa Barbara/ Phoenix, AZ
It was our 28th anniversary and our dinner at Elements was our best anniversary event ever. Since my husband had called in advance,the chefs & staff went the extra mile for us - we were seated with a gorgeous view of the Courthouse at sunset, and our own printed menu that included special wine pairings for each course. Chef Matt & Sous Chef Cosmo came out to greet us during the meal, and made some special dishes,starting with an abalone appetizer (incredibly tender), a poached duck egg & romaine salad (rich AND light), and a melt-in-our-mouths halibut carpaccio,to mention only a few of the memorable dishes. The sommelier Nuri picked out great local and regional wines to pair with it all. We had been to Elements a few years ago, but the new chefs are offering crazy-good & innovative dishes! We would highly recommend a meal at Elements for anyone, anytime.

Dissapointing birthday meal...
Reviewer: sandra from Santa Barbara, CA
We have just eaten at Elements for the first time,and honestly i can't understand all the praise it has received. I left feeling underwhelmed, the service was slow and our waitress was so cold and unfriendly we felt like she was doing us a favor!!The food was really very average and lacked finesse for an alleged fine dining!!The desserts were terrible the s'mores profiteroles were a crime against food!!! not one thing reflecting the season i.e stawberries, go look at the farmers market. Again no finesse,agree with other reviewer very pretentious.one last thing they really should check their menu's hate to see greasy prints from previous diners and crumbs inside menu not a good start, would not go back again...
New Favorite!
Reviewer: Rachel from Santa Barbara, CA
My boyfriend and I just ate dinner at Elements for our anniversary. It is not an exaggeration to say that the entire experience was amazing. Our appetizer, seared scallops with spinach, kumquats, and bacon was delicious. We also had halibut carpaccio which was served with arugula, which was also divine. My boyfriend enjoyed seared sesame encrusted ahi tuna with wasabi mashed potatoes. The fish was very fresh and the sauce drizzled on it went perfectly. I ordered the oven roasted chicken breast after it was recommended by the waitress. It was literally the most delicious piece of chicken I have ever had! It was perfectly moist and hot and full of flavor. FOr dessert, we had some sort of chocolate dome filled with peanut butter and chocolate mousse. My boyfriend said it was the best dessert he had ever had. The waitress told us that Avery made our meal. We will definitely be going back to Elements and recommending it to everyone. They made our anniversary very memorable.

Wedding reception- Elements Rocks!
Reviewer: Barbara from Santa Barbara, CA
We had our wedding reception at Elements last August. It is definitely worth noting that all of my guests raved about how good the food was and the service was wonderful. I thank everyone at Elements and the catering staff for hosting a memorable occasion for my myself, my husband and our guests. The fact that we could walk straight from the wedding at the courthouse to the restaurant and had the entire restaurant for the reception really made it very easy for our guests. Instead of the traditional wedding cake, the Elements pastry chef prepared the assorted cupcakes and these were served family style to our guests. The price was affordable, the atmosphere was warm and we all had a wonderful afternoon.

Had Very High Hopes
Reviewer: Jonathan N. from Santa Barbara, CA
Went here on a date because of the reputation it had. The inside has a very nice decor, a little pretentious with the mini salt and pepper shakers. Our waiter was very nice until we said we did not want any wine or drinks and then I only saw him once more the whole night... when he brought the bill. Others were helpful and brought us our food which took much too long (another couple ordered the same thing after us and got it before us). I got the Slow Braised Beef Short Rib, it was very dry and very one note: Sweet. For dessert I had the Mint Ice Cream Sandwich, and the ice cream was good. The cookie part of the sandwich however was so frozen that I could not break it with a spoon, so I had to scoop out the ice cream from in between the cookies. It was close to being a good meal, moisten up the short rib and unfreeze the cookie a bit and it would have lived up to the expectations.
Splendid food and wine! MEDIOCROE service!
Reviewer: Sonya from Santa Barbara, CA
I wanted to take my significant other to expierience a fine dining atmosphere. We absolutely loved the food! It was so delicious we considered getting seconds. Unfortunately, I was very discouraged by the horrible service by our waiter. Re-considering to return, it's unfortunate since the food is superb! Might just not request him next time!

A Wonderful Dining Experience
Reviewer: Cameron from Santa Barbara, CA
Went here for a company Christmas party recently and had a fantastic time. The ambiance was elegant, but had a very warm feel. The exposed back kitchen is a nice touch. The wait staff was extremely attentive; service was great. I had the filet mignon, which, while expensive, was probably the thickest, most tender cut I've ever had, and perfectly cooked. My girlfriend had the duck, which was also fantastic. My only complaint would be that both dishes tasted heavy on the salt (and in the case of the filet, pepper too).
Delightful Dinner
Reviewer: Arlene from Santa Barbara, CA
I have been here many times for lunch (the burger is awesome!) and thought I'd try dinner with my visiting mom. It was an excellent choice. The food is unique and wonderful. The service is friendly and unpretentious. Too bad the previous reviewer couldn't get past the theme. I will remeber eating heavenly scallops while watching the sunset's reflection on the courthouse for a long time.

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