Holdren's Steaks & Seafood

Very good food and service. Make reservations otherwise you might not get in.

Charming place on lower state.
Great food and excellent service.
Will return once again

Treated us well! Put 5 of us in the private Red Room alcove, with our 2 year-old grand daughter. Worked out great!

Finally found a classic great steakhouse in Santa Barbara! We had a lovely anniversary dinner here - welcoming hosts and servers, perfectly grilled fine quality beef, good wine list, nice variety of music.

Steaks here are good but if you order fish ask for the sauce on the side or you'll never see or taste your fish. Know that substituting a more palatable vegetable for the standard mushy mix will add a disproportionately large extra cost. Wine pour was very stingy. This is a classic place I would have liked to like better.

We had a wonderful family dinner. The food was very good especially the filet medallions and sirloin steak. It was a very busy night but the service still was excellent.
The only negative is it was very noisy.

Spectacular service! Fabulous menu! Tara was "on her game," attending to the lunchtime patrons, while owner, Clay Holdren, was manning the bar. Food was wonderful, as usual, and the flavors of the sauces married well with their meats. We have a dear friend who lives in San Luis Obispo, and we rendezvous in Santa Barbara for lunch, as we live in Studio City. Holdren's is our go-to venue if a hearty lunch is on our collective palates! We will be back soon!

Great the service and food.

Always good; always consistent. This is a great classic spot in SB.

the atmosphere was lively, waitress was friendly and not overly intrusive, salad was fresh and the main coarse was cooked to perfection and so delicious! I had filet minion medallions , and husband had the pork chop, which he said was cooked just right and very tasty

We had a lovely booth, dinner was wonderful and the service very attentive. Will definitely go back when next in town. A definite keeper!

I love this place ! The food is delicious

I made a reservation for the special occasion of V-Day eve @ 8:30 p.m. My date and I were seated at a nice booth after I gave $20.00 to the mattress d'. Our waiter, Josh, was terrific and the food, when it came, was first rate with very larges portions. But the evening went off the rails after we'd eaten about 1/3 of our entrees and SPECIFICALLY ASKED for "to go boxes." Both of us are weight conscious and at least 4 times at lunch. or dinner the previous week at The Boathouse (twice), Mesa Burger and Luckys I had taken a least half of my meals to go. The prix fixed V-Day dinner tab with wine and cocktails came to $197.38 and I was prepared to give Josh a $40.00 tip for HIS great service but when we asked for our food to go a female server named "Jim" (sp?) came to our booth and declared, "It's gone. You told us to dump it." This was a blatant lie. In fact, the only time we'd seen "Jim" was when we asked to split a glass of an Italian Red and "Jim" presented a single glass and started to pour it INTO OUR EXISTING WINE GLASSES, which still held wine. I politely asked for two new glasses and she quickly turned and said, "I'll divide this," then took off. Now, at the end of the meal, she was calling both of us liars re: the food to go. When I asked to see the Manager, the Asst. "Angela" came by, insisting, to the protests of my date and me, that we had NOT asked for the food to go. Of course, neither she nor "Jim" were present when a "bus person" took our food away and WE POINTEDLY ASKED for it to be packed up. Now "Angela" was telling a DIFFERENT STORY: our food wasn't "dumped" as "Jim" had insisted, but "given to the servers." I've been dining out at restaurants in Santa Barbara for nearly 20 years and have never been so mistreated by a server like "Jim" or an Asst. Mgr. like "Angela." I've located the owner and plan to ask him to refund one of our entreés since we effectively got just portions of the entreés we'd paid for.

After eating half of the Halibut we ordered we noticed it was raw. We notified the server and she took the portion that was uncooked and had them re cook it. That was very unusual. It also took 10 minutes to get that portion back. Weird experience.

Food was overall pretty subpar, each item underimpressed. Service was robotic, our server barely said a word to us. Ambiance is similar to a Denny’s. I just don’t understand the appeal of this place.

Great as always!

Went on Valentine's day. Spent 175 for two no alcohol and was given canned crab on top of a fillet mignon. That's like putting earnings on a pig. Epic fail. The staff was very professional on the bright side.

It was fabulous as usual! One had seafood pasta, one had salmon and the other 2 had different cuts of steaks and both were excellent. Never had anything other than a great dining experience overall there.

Wonderful meal, service and all perfectly prepared. Excellent steaks!!!!

Good food and the staff was attentive to our needs.

Our server was very attentive and the food was very good. It was a good experience for my son's birthday.

Gloria

We enjoyed the meal - in our reservation I informed them that we were celebrating a birthday at my table - no cake, no acknowledgement whatsoever - disappointing.

This place is amazing. The food was delicious. The bar was great. Service is excellent.

Wonderful customer service on my boyfriends birthday! It was his first time here and we will be back! Thank you!

We were there on new year eve.
Probably in a different condition it could be better.

Fantastic service and food was amazing

I ordered the halibut as recommended by our server. It was supposed to have cheese and a berre Blanc sauce. It came out with a glop on top, no sauce to speak of and the outside first pieces were cold. It looked as if it was finished off in a microwave. It was among the ugliest dishes that I’ve ever seen. Then the asparagus - it came out cold. I told the server. Unfortunately, when the bill came, my husband just gave the card to her. When she came back, I asked if she took the charge for the cold asparagus off. She didn’t. Why not??? Then there was the obnoxious loudmouth man at the bar. He never shut up. At his table must have been his wife and son. He kept up with being a loudmouth and his son just laughed. It’s a tiny place and he just made a bad meal worse. I would never recommend this place.

Great food, good service and comfortable atmosphere.

We had to change the number in our party at the last minute and they were so great. The food was wonderful and the service was the BEST!!! True professionals in the food industry!!

We recommend Holdren's to friends and acquaintances. We have been enjoying the restaurant for many years.

Excellent. 2 strangers in a new town, we found friendly service, great food and a pleasant surrounding in this quaint spot. We shared their specialty cut of beef, multiple sides, appetizers and dessert and left happy. Thank you.

Always enjoy our meals here, and .... the service is excellent!

Great atmosphere! You’re sure to run into locals here. The food and drinks never disappoint. Steaks are always cooked to your liking. Also, the staff is very friendly and knowledgeable.

Very noisy, slow service and the food just barely ok

Very busy for Thanksgiving but it was great. Service was good and the food was very good.

Everything about our Thanksgiving dinner at Holdren’s was great. The food was AMAZING! Everyone at our table loved what they ordered, and that never happens in our family. My husband, who never likes anything, loved his food. It was a miracle. The appetizers were delicious, our entrees were excellent and the desserts were out of this world. And then our waitress was the best, never an empty glass on the table. We are definitely doing this again next year.

Holdren's is a great place for dinner and or lunch, the food is incredible

Our waitress was amazing super friendly and food was delicious!

Looking for a good steak in a traditional steakhouse setting, Holdren's has the place for you. Service was attentive but not overbearing. Food delivered hot and perfectly cooked. Portion was plenty large.

Holdrens just charges too much for average food. The atmosphere is fun and servers are great, but food is only okay for a little more there are better steakhouses in town.