The Lark Santa Barbara

Such a wonderful experience! They start you out with dill pickle popcorn! I didn't try it i don't le pickles. My husband enjoyed it. My husband and I had an appetizer and chose three dishes to share. Our appetizer was Citrus Marinated Castelvetrano Olives. I love love love olives! These were so flavorful. We had an eggplant dish which was very good. Hand Cut Pappardelle Pasta so flavorful. And The California Fisherman's Catch the fish of the day was Sea Bass. The fish was cooked to perfection. The dinner experience lasted about 2 hours. Reservations recommended. I had 2 glasses of wine with dinner.

The food and drinks were great, chicken was phenomenal, the service was mid.

The food was really delicious! The cocktails were also tasty.

Hostess wasn’t friendly, server was okay and toward the end the service felt rushed.

The food and drinks are worth it but service needs to match.

Fantastic food

Friend of ours recommended this place, so we came with some anticapation. The weather was just lovely, the place has that unique charm to it, the service are super friendly and helpful, the servers are all beautiful. The food is mediocre, the taste is unsophisticated, combine with the portion we ended up at another place for our 2nd dinner that night. Probably not a place I would return again and again.

Best chicken and waffles, good cold brew martini, wonderful outdoor space, friendly crew. Will come back.

Fantastic food! The fried chicken is the best in town, and the cornbread is otherworldly. The drinks are great, the service is fantastic. Would highly recommend to anyone! They keep me coming back from more with their stellar service, and spectacular food menu that constantly seems to be changing.

We had high hopes for this restaurant and made reservations well in advance of our trip to SB. The food was great, especially the fried chicken. Our table ordered two flat iron steaks and one was good, the other overcooked. We would have ordered an appetizer or two and had dessert but our service was terrible. We waited 15 minutes for a server to greet us and 30 minutes for cocktails to arrive. Additionally we were next to a family with kids on devices watching shows at full volume. 65 minutes after we were seated, we received our food. While the food is great, our server was focused on other tables and I wouldn’t recommend this establishment. Especially frustrating was watching the 3 hostesses at the stand hang out and braid hair while we were waiting for service.

This place is as good as it gets. A truly awesome, memorable meal that will certainly be among our best restaurant experiences of 2025, if not even longer. If you don't eat here you will be making a big mistake.

Great food and amazing service. So much personality with the place, decoration, food presentation and goes without saying the special touch with staff. Find Jennifer, she is amazing, she knows her stuff, what you may enjoy and yeah, do it.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Crispy Brussel Sprouts

Had a tasty dinner with great service.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Crispy Brussel Sprouts, Brown Butter Cornbread

Over-hyped restaurant. Would not go back.

Where to start on this one... first impressions were great. Super cute space with lovely warm and inviting lighting. Unfortunately, it went downhill quickly from there.

Greeting: we were slightly early for our table so we were asked to wait outside. Totally fine about this request. The waiting area had two benches in a small space that was full of people. It was dark (I mean no lighting), cold and uninviting. Plus one of the guests was blaring TV on his phone so we wouldn't have been able to talk. We saw an empty table in the unused outdoor area which was lit and had heaters on. None of the tables were set so we were clearly not impeding on the restaurant operations. We sat there happily waiting until the hostess told us the area was closed (even though there was one table eating there) and we had to move.... to stand in the cold, dark waiting area. She was not even nice about it... she was super rude and acted offended. Strike one.

Our service: Phoenix, one of the rudest waiters I've ever had. He had a superficially pleasant tone but he was condescending, agressive and unpleasant. He challenged my husband about his question on the tuna risotto with a nasty tone (why does seared tuna on corn risotto seem unusual??). He walked away mid-conversation several times when we responded to one of his comments. He told my mother in law she wouldn't like a spicy dish (without discussing her taste preferences first). Thr entire meal was negatively impacted by his awful behaviour. It was so bad that we debated not leaving a tip - a cardinal sin the the US. Strike two.

Drinks: My drink was super interesting. We all agreed it smelled like an Indian dish. I enjoyed it. My daughter had a non-alcoholic drink that was strong but good. The wine was good too. Strong suit for the Lark.

Food: It was hit and miss. The popcorn starter was unusual but good. The Brussels sprouts were too sweet as was the cornbread (the rosemary seasoning was great). That could be more about my palate rather than the food. The fried chicken was slightly too salty but it was amazingly cooked. It went well with the bread and butter pickles. The grits were creamy, salty and sweet, and unusually large. I'm a southerner and I've never had grits cooked this way. They weren't bad, just not what I expected. The wedge salad was over salted for my teenager's taste. The Tuna Risotto was unusual but my husband thought it was fine. My mother in law was incredibly disappointed with her shrimp dish. So much so she said it shouldn't be on the menu. Strike three

I've given it 3 stars because of the ambience and some of the food / drinks were good. It doesn't make up for the rudeness of the staff (hostess, server, and busboy) which was horrendous, the food that wasn't good and the dark waiting area. Btw, that guy that was watching TV on his phone when we arrived, watched TV the entire time we were eating (the waiting area was right next to our table and we had to listen to it throughout dinner) and was still watching TV when we left.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 2

Laid back setting with great food (the cornbread is unreal) and our server, Brian, was super knowledgeable about the entire menu. Drinks a bit pricey but were all well done. Will be back!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Brown Butter Cornbread

Wow just wow. Beautiful place with even better food! We had the best fried chicken dish of our lives and came back the next day for brunch and had the jalapeno eggs benedict which was so incredibly delicious.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

From our European point of view the food was rather weird. Brussels sprouts were way too salty and squash was sickly sweet. Service was ok, fairly slow and couple of mistakes were made but then all was sorted out and our waiter was very nice. We went there because it had good reviews and the menu sounded interesting.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 2

Service: 4

Excellent service and very tasty food. The ambience is very nice in a backyard. We thought it was great that all the dishes were meant to be shared and that you could try so many things.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5