gutfud - the food, es ist gut

Bringing someone new here rejuvenates my own fondness for the restaurant. Tonight’s newbie was Alyssa. I sense that she gets down on living in Santa Barbara. By that, I mean *living*, finding vibrancy and all that. Anytime I bump into her around town, she’s flying off to somewhere else the next day.
But tonight was the […]

Does anyone remember the “secret” restaurant in the Calle Real shopping center that was a French deli during the daytime, and at night became a wonderful little Korean restaurant, with a sweet grandmother patiently cooking and chopping all sorts of fragrant kimchi, soups, short ribs and plates of banchan? It was sometime in the late […]

This is the best restaurant in town for diners with any multitude of dietary restrictions. But that does not mean the menu is drab and limited. And that does not mean you must have a multitude of dietary restrictions in order to eat here happily.
The menu identifies which items are vegetarian, vegan, egg free, […]

On Fridays, Whole Foods in Santa Barbara has a pizza deal.
Buy 2 pizzas at regular price, and a third pizza of equal or lesser value is free.

We were hungry, and planned a quiet night in watching videos. What better meal to hunker down on the sofa with than some yummy pizza.
The pizzas ordered were ham […]

Our desire to come here was driven more by our hunger than our desire for another cocktail. What are we on, a pub crawl? No.
Sabrina had planted the seed when she thought Coast had $2 tacos on Tuesdays. At the time I thought she was confusing it with Sharkeez’s tacos on Tuesdays (no thanks). But […]

It’s Brad’s leaving-do, he’s off to live in Hong Kong.
As one of his last adventures, a bunch of us met up at the Marquee for some happy hour drinks. I won’t get into the details.

Kevin made a dealer’s choice request and was served a sweet cocktail called the Marquita. It involved cinnamon, pineapple and lime, […]

I first set foot in Sly’s when I joined some friends on a quest of good cocktails, and not only did we find them, but we also stayed for the food.
Sly’s pedigree includes Lucky’s for upper-end steak and seafood, but that should not turn off an average diner with an average sized pocketbook from exploring […]

This is a place I tried to eat at last year, but we couldn’t get our acts together Sunday morning, and by the time we did the queue for dining was too long. This year we were better prepared.
The queue this time was only 20 minutes, but also, we arrived with adequate time for […]

It is possible to teach an old dog new tricks.
Since first checking this place out in 2007, I’ve figured out that getting dumplings successfully off the menu and into my mouth comes in one of two options.
1. Eat in, during off hours, but not too late when many dumplings might already be sold out.
2. Phone […]

Solid 4 stars for food, price, late open hours, and the extra star for really nice people working there.
My exceptional situation was seeking Korean food after 10 pm. Most other places around Convoy had closed. Props to Do Re Mi for the longer hours.
Props for endless banchan, about a dozen different dishes, with people asking […]