gutfud – the food, es ist gut

Milk and Honey was one of those places I walked by often, heard mentioned a number of times, but could not get motivated to visit. People said it was a tapas bar, but my experience with tapas comes straight from Spain, in small fishing villages where the tapa was gratis with a round of drinks and the nibbles literally came on a plate that sat over the glasses. They were simple and actually Spanish. Places that call themselves tapas bars in Santa Barbara are not Spanish. And the tapas come in two forms: small portions priced like regular portions, or larger portions that would topple a beverage if the bowl was placed upon it. It’s that stubborness that keeps me from patronizing places that advertise themselves as tapas bars.

Milk and Honey, especially, seemed like the kind of place one had to be trendily dressed to fit in. Like the kind of place that CDB’s would frequent. I don’t have big enough sunglasses to eat here, you know?

But we came here, after the Royal Shakespeare Company performance at the Granada, because It Was Time.

The French Gimlet was good! The photo of it was not so good! That is the situation with low light and my point and shoot, unfortunately.
The tapa shown above, if you can call it that, was named Paella and it was unlike any paella I’d had before, both in Spain and outside the country. It was simply a hot spicy stew ladled on rice. It tasted fine, but it was not paella. $15. The portion was also quite big, taking two people to eat.

We also shared a beet salad with walnuts, tomatoes, feta and greens. This was good, on par with other beet salads in town. I believe it was $8. Between two people it was a satisfactory meal.

When I get a really big pair of sunglasses, I might feel more comfortable here. And note: the sunglasses are merely to fit in, not for actual wearing. It’s so dark inside it’s hard to read the menu.

Milk and Honey
30 W Anapamu St
Santa Barbara, CA 93190
milknhoneytapas.com