Pea Soup Andersen’s Restaurant

Although I can make great pea soup on my own, Pea Soup Andersen’s is just one of those constants in my life. We would stop by on our way to Solvang when I was a kid and I still do that now as part of my tradition. It’s just one of those places that make me fondly recall my childhood and special times spent with family and friends.

We ate here as nostalgic treat. Both my wife and I ate here around 50 years ago. We remembered different things about this place. You enter the restaurant thru a large gift shop, that is divided into different themes. WE had the Split Pea Soup and it is what was remembered. The soup came with a garden salad that was amply big enough to fill most people up. The staff was friendly and on top of it. Will go back again when in the area.

We stopped here for breakfast. Very cute and nostalgic… a definite tourist stop.
We had breakfast and it was good… the special is well worth the $ 11 and came with a full sized bowl of pea soup! It was pretty good, but needed a little something… maybe bits of ham?
Very large gift shop, lots of cute stuff to be had.
The service was good, but lackluster… the host seemed beyond bored and the waitress was just doing her job… kinda sad.
It’s an old place, but well kept and the food was pretty good.

Really gone down hill… very, very sad that this one time great restaurant is continuing to decline…
The soup was not as good as it use to be, the salad was old lettuce. Service was good.
Bar is gone and has been turned into a gift, junk shop.
Restrooms are horrible and haven’t been updated since the 1950’s. Gross.
So sad that this icon is on a continual decline… shame on the owners, the Anderson family would be shocked.

A piece of my childhood…
I remember being a little girl and coming to «the windmill» to have pea soup and fritters. On my way back from Monterey this weekend, I decided to bring my son to a piece of my childhood.
Immediately upon walking through the doors I transported back in time. Everything looks exactly as I remember it.
I ordered a cup of pea soup, half a sandwich and chicken tenders for the tyrant.
Everything was bland, boring, watery and disgusting.
I had to ask for sour cream, there was no piping hot pumpernickel rolls and whats worse – the pea soup was just green colored water. My sandwich had two tiny slices of turkey and a big pile of iceberg lettuce.
At the end, I was glad that my son will never remember this meal.

So you park in their lot n walk in thru the gift/​snack/​souvenir shop area to get to the restaurant. We came in around 5pm last Saturday and it was nearly empty.
Nothing too fantastic except the quaint décor, giving it an old school feel. It’s really diner food n diner quality service. Waitress merely tolerated us n a few other customers, nothing above and beyond.
As for the food: chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes n veggies were good. Better than most places. My BF had the Danish sausage sandwich… basically, Philly cheesesteak taste (with onions n bell pepper), except with sausage. Was okay… Nothing crazy.
The pea soup, however, came out hot n better tasting than I remembered.
Other than that… I say your local diner’s better. Stay local, I say!

I wanted to stop at this cute little place to try their famous split pea soup. I ended up getting the bread bowl with split pea soup and all the fixins. Even without the fixins the soup was still delicious! I’ll admit though, with split pea soup, you either love it or hate it. and I love it. The sourdough bread bowl was really good too. It came out hot with perfectly crispy edges. Yum! The waitstaff was also really pleasant. They kept our coffees filled and even refilled my bread bowl with more soup!

I wish I could come here more often! I got the open-​faced pot roast sandwich, expecting a few slices on simple bread. NO! It’s a 1−½″ slab of roast on top of 1″ sourdough, drenched in gravy. I am ve-(urp!)-ry very satisfied and ready for bed. too bad that’s still several hours away! ;-)… The maître’d allowed me to jump ahead of the line out the door, full of SPACE-​X and JPL jackets, to sit at the counter. Some cried foul, but they didn’t take his offer to seat them in other counter seats (7 avail). Too Bad! It was the BEST meal I had in years!

Excellent service by Daniel. Great sense of humor especially this late at night. We arrived 25 minutes before closing. He didn’t rush us at all.
Huge portions! Flavorful food.
We ended up leaving at 10:25pm. We thought the candy section was closed. The General Manager was kind enough to let us make last minute purchases.
Leaving with a food coma.

Unilocal describes two stars as «Meh. I’ve experienced better.» In that case, this is the most generous two stars ever. Andersen’s is a long standing Southern Californian tradition. On the way from Los Angeles to San Francisco, precisely around lunchtime the highway patrolman in Buellton pulls you over doing 74 on the 101. As you have come to a halt in this godforsaken town constructed to graft off of the denizens of Santa Barbara and helpless travelers, you elect to forgo better judgement and stop to eat lunch. You select a restaurant not based on what Unilocal may tell you to eat at but based on who has erected the highest number of garish billboards along the way. Thus, we find ourselves at Pea Soup Andersen’s Restaurant.
The building appears to be a castaway from the nearby Danish colony of Solvang. A half-​timbered building looms just off of the highway to trap those who do not know better. As you enter, you are greeted by the hustle and bustle of the shop. Andersen’s appears to be the kind of place that will attempt to sell anything. You can purchase Danish baked goods, cheese, calendars, and generic rock candy. You are instantly subjected to the smell of the soup, none whatsoever.
Bringing us to the main attraction, Pea Soup Andersen’s pea soup. The recipe (obtained online from a sachet you can obtain in their gift shop) calls for approximately two cups of peas for every quarter cup of everything else. That is a roughly 8:1 stuff that does not flavor split pea soup to stuff that does flavor split pea soup ratio. For reference, the first recipe I could find on google has approximately a 2:1 ratio. This outlines an important thing about Andersen’s, the restaurant has an almost phobic reaction to change.
The recipe that Andersen’s uses to this very day came from the early 1930’s with absolutely no changes in the over 80 years since that time. Since then, we beat Hitler, polio, put a man on the moon, Kennedy was assassinated, and the car phone was introduced. Through all that our world and the tastes within it have changed, Andersen’s remains grounded in an era where tuberculosis was a life-​threatening condition and the manufacturing or sale of alcohol within this country was forbidden.
After being served a half-​gallon of the stuff in three unceremonious to-​go containers (repurposed drink cups) my family had come to the unequivocal decision that something would need to be done to the soup to make it more fit for human consumption. Carrots and onions were sautéd and added along with copious amounts of wine and water (in glasses and in the pot). Croutons were prepared from scratch and placed on top with a cajun seasoning (a part of a culture that was de facto not permitted to vote when the recipe was drawn up) and bay leaves. These simple additions transformed a flavorless pea soup smoothie into a viable dinner item.
Clearly, Andersen’s has a lot of work to do in changing themselves. In the modern age where countless restaurant reviews can be called up over the air whilst in motion, any establishment that does not meet par will be crushed as the invisible hand squeezes it into submission. So, this is a plea to whomever may read this review. Change can be good, change can better a place, do not end up going the way of Blockbuster or Kodak by not adapting to the modern age. As a native Californian, I do not wish to drive up to San Francisco and miss the tall garish billboards of Pea Soup Andersen’s. I look forward to the day when I can take my grandchildren here and have a five star meal.

Well, it had to happen, eventually. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve driven the beautiful stretch of Highway 101 down from Central to Southern California. I’ve even taken in the past few years to stop about «half way» (I put the bunny ears around that term since I mean half way in time, not distance) and stay the night in Buellton, CA, before buffeting the traffic hordes of Southern California on my way to my parents’ house for the holidays.
But of all the times I’ve either gotten gas, stopped for lunch, or did my overnight stay in Buellton, I’ve never eaten at its most famous eatery: Pea Soup Andersen’s. So, with an Expedia discount in my pocket, I booked my room at the eponymous inn, and strolled across the parking lot for dinner at the famous purveyor of pea soup.
Prior to my parking lot stroll, I surveyed the menu online. Simple, but tasty-​sounding: hot open faced turkey, pork, and beef sammys with mashed potatoes; Danish sausage; crisp fried veal cutlet with mushroom gravy; other comfort foods both unique and usual. But one thing that lured my curiosity was something I’d not eaten in… i can’t even remember, something my girlfriend had been longing for recently: Chicken Pot Pie.
Walking into Pea Soup Andersen’s is sort of a combination of walking into a Santa Cruz Boardwalk tchotchke shop and a Disneyland theme store, with racks of snacks flanking you on each side. There is a distinct cattle-​line feeling when you approach the restaurant portion’s entry, with separate lines for entering and departing, adding to the theme park feel of the place. Gladly, it was relatively early on a rainy Monday night when I approached, and the restaurant wasn’t very busy.
That said, I immediately got into it with the host, who refused to seat me at a booth:
«They are for four.»
«So, a single individual can’t sit in one?»
«No.»
“So, you have about eight zero-​top empty booths right now. How about I take one of them?”
«I have a small booth there.»
He pointed, I followed, and sat down across from a delicate view of the dish room – in full wash motion – and a dear mother with her three whining offspring. I picked up my menu and headed for the counter.
I thought of a sandwich – pork and mashed potatoes sounded really appealing – or maybe even the veal, but after seeing the pot pie in pics on the site, and given the recent reminiscences, I made an unusually strong decision. It was chicken pot pie or nothing. Caitlyn, my server, assured me that it was her favorite dish, and she sounded just sincere enough that I actually felt heartened at my choice. I was not disappointed.
First, it’s huge; it’s in an ellipse-​shape baking dish about 10“X4″, capped with a delicious and perfectly baked pastry cap. The interior is creamy, savory, and succulent; tender roasted chicken chunks, carrot, peas, mushrooms, bell peppers. It comes out very hot, as it should, so one needs to use some caution in the beginning. My tactic was to remove several strips of the pastry cap and place them on the remaining whole cap to cool and allow the contents to do the same, and I succeeded in not scorching my tongue, which is a pretty unusual success!
I got through about ²⁄₃ of the pot pie, which would be plenty for two to share, and happily walked my leftovers back across the parking lot to my room at the inn.
The only admission that I have is: I didn’t have the pea soup. I know, I know! I was going to order a cup, I was! But after the somewhat Exorcist-​esque look of the soup in the pics on Unilocal,and the delicious experience I had with the chicken pot pie, I resolved that I’d made the best decision of the day.
So, go to Pea Soup Andersen’s, have the pot pie, and if you have room, try the soup and let me know how it is!

Try the green stuff! It’s delicious! And by «green stuff,» I mean pea soup!!!
It’s a tradition for my family to visit Andersen’s during our yearly holiday trip to Solvang. After a long day walking around in the cold, it’s nice to warm up with a bowl of their famous pea soup and homestyle cooking. While I definitely recommend visiting one of the more upscale restaurants in Solvang for a formal dinner, if you’re eager to get on the road and want to stop for a hearty meal, this is the place!
As unappealing as pea soup may sound, it’s thick, creamy and absolutely delicious! This is coming from a vegetarian, but my family loves it too, and they’re all dedicated carnivores. You can add it on to any meal, or order it all you can eat with accompanying bread and toppings, like cheese and bacon. It also comes with to-​die-​for cheese pumpernickel bread.
They serve large portions here, and I definitely needed a box. I stuck with the veggie omelette with accompanying homestyle potatoes, because who doesn’t love breakfast for dinner? It was standard fare, but I would have liked the potatoes a little more seasoned and crispy.
There’s limited wine and beer on the menu, despite all the tasting rooms for local wineries and breweries in Solvang. They also have a full bar.
The restaurant is decked out in the same Danish style as Solvang, and upon entering, they have a large gift shop with souvenirs of all assortments — in case you forgot to buy any during your visit. Christmas décor; movie & TV paraphernalia; Danish food, jam, and chocolate; and more — you name it, they’ve got it!
If you’re in Solvang for the day or roadtripping up the 101, stop by for their World Famous soup. It doesn’t disappoint!

The Pea Soup Inn is one of our go to’s when we go wine tasting, yet we’d never eaten at the restaurant until our most recent visit, probably because we knew that it was going to be just okay. But, it was open late when nothing else around was, and we did have that 10% off coupon from the hotel. Part of me felt like I was obligated to get the pea soup, but honestly, I don’t really like pea soup, so I passed. I went for the chicken pot pie which was okay. It was a very generous serving size (2 people could definitely share it) and the crust was good, but the filling was a bit too thick and creamy and gravy-​like for my liking. I felt like I might have a heart attack if I ate the whole thing, so I just picked out the chicken to eat (which there was a good amount of). My bf had the sausage sandwich which, again, was a generous serving size, and was essentially just sausages on bread. Nothing much more to it. Again, it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great.
Service was okay. You could tell that it was the end of the day and people just wanted to go home, but I guess you can’t really blame them for that.
I definitely wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to eat here, unless perhaps you are a huge pea soup fan. But if it’s late at night and nothing else is open, it’s a totally okay place to eat, especially since it’s pretty inexpensive (dinner for was under $ 30). The gift shop is cute though!

I’ve always liked pea soup, long before knowing about Andersen’s, either this one or the other off I-​5 in Santa Nella that I frequent more frequently. And they tell me pea soup is a good source of fiber, so as an old galoot it’s lucky that it don’t make me sick.
Since the early days, a side of canned peas and carrots at dinner usually got pulverized into p&c stew. Any scraps of ham or bacon in the fridge? Chop it up and throw it in the pot with a can of split pea soup. I swear I don’t know why I haven’t yet used amplified split pea soup as a gravy to ladle into a mashed-​potatoes crater.
In his five-​star, 500^th review, my Website friend John S. of S.F. calls this mini-​chain «cheesy,» perhaps partially influenced by the samples of tangy soft cheddar to be spread by wooden venti coffee stirrers onto mega croutons offered in a subsection of the vast gift shop. Peering into the waste basket, one wonders how many trees have given their lives so Andersen’s might sell cheese to flatland touristers.
Possibly the highlight of the motorist mecca (not to mention the well-​maintained restrooms) is the bakery counter just before the dining room entrance. This visit, a chocolate-​covered, soft-​textured macaroon (with two «o“s) and a giant peanut butter cookie left the building.

Santa here,
It’s been a while since I posted a review. Since its still November, the Mrs and I (with 1 elf and a couple reindeer) hurry down for a quick weekend to see a young couple get married. We had to stop off at Anderson’s for a hot bowl of delicious split pea soup. What a treat!
Mrs. Claus says it’s very healthy but, ho ho ho, I don’t care about much the healthy stuff as you can see.
Giovanna was such great help and represented Andersen’s.
Anyway we had a great experience and hope you all stay tuned for my next reviews.
Love, Santa

Rolling by yesterday, I was reminded that I haven’t stopped here in too many years.
When you’re cruising up the 101 and see those billboards of Hap-​pea and Pea-​Wee splittin’ them peas, well, the mind and stomach begin conniving in order to make you stop and get a hot bowl of love. …even at 10am.
I roll in, grab an olde skool booth and order. The yummy goodness arrives in no time. I sit, eat and savor. It’s good. Not great but good. I found it a bit bland this time. Perhaps that’s why I haven’t stopped by in so long? Don’t recall. Don’t care. It just reminded me that I need to make some of my own at home, the next time it snows. And I’m told that mine is pretty delicious. We’ll see.
Good times in Danish land.

We always go here whenever we go through town! It’s literally my favorite spot ever. I didn’t even try or like pea anything until I came here. This is the only time I eat pea soup & its vegan/​gluten-​free unless u want to add stuff which is nice for everyone. They have a famous spice u can add to it that’s amazing too! Mmmm. If you’re not vegan, you can add bacon & cheese & stuff too. They give u poppy seed bread with it for free. Filling & yummy.
First off, the travelers special comes with a free drink, & they have all kinds of juices, milkshake, so fun.
Aside from the soup, my favorite main dishes at this location are the chicken pot pie &/​or the fried chicken. So good! You could literally have thanksgiving here & feel like you just went to Grandmas without anyone complaining.
Then…there’s the bakery. Nobody has macaroons, half moons, or Florentines quite like this place. Their fudge is really good too!
These are perfect gifts to family nearby, and there is also the cheese that u can also sample, the year-​round Christmas trees & ornaments that also have your fave football teams on them, random gift shop…
Lastly, to keep the family in the moment, don’t forget to ride the mini carousel & take pictures in the cardboard cut-​outs! Can’t miss this entire experience.

Ok… being totally honest here so do NOT bash me!
1. The ambiance is super historical of those days of the past. The «banquet» rooms are worth the time travel!
2. The split pea soup is, pretty darn good! Gets cold really fast so, be prepared! I ordered the bread bowl because I did not see myself wanting another bowl after the first bowl. $ 10.50 for all you can eat split pea soup and add in another $ 3 for all fixings (cheese, bacon, ham, chives) as opposed to the soup bowl with sourdough bread PLUS all the fixings come WITH it?! No brainer! Or you can do the bowl of soup for $ 6.50 and another $ 3 for all fixings…$ 13.50 compared to $ 10.99 compared to $ 9.50 (you do the math)…
3. The place, has a bunch of toys for kids. Coloring markers, coloring books, books to read… books…puppets, Melissa n Doug toys… candy (lots of candy)…
4. The décor is spot on time wise… you feel like you’ve steeped «back in time»…
5. If you are in the area and you are starving, go in… if you can hold out… hold out. Their turkey dinner was «ok» as was their BLT. Beyond the split pea soup… its just ok… I honestly still think mine is better… (some salt and pepper would do miracles…)
6. Avila Farms is up the road… they have a deli… just saying!!!
7. We can check it off our list…
8. Ooh! Their chocolate shake was super yummy!
9. The onion bread was good…
10. Our service was impeccable!
Will I visit again… sure if I’m starving but I’m coming with a blow torch to keep my soup got next time!!!

All the times I’ve been in Buellton, and I never got a chance to try this place. We used to have friends that lived here, and they would always recommend some other place. They no longer live here, so we have no reason to really come back here anymore.
We were road-​tripping our way home from San Francisco, and I told my Wife to pull over so I can FINALLY try this Pea Soup of theirs. She obliged me, and I was able to run in and get a cup. We all walked around the impressive gift shop, and converse with the VERY friendly staff there. Good people.
Then my soup came. I wasn’t too impressed. Sort of flavorless, I needed to keep adding salt and pepper to it every 3 or 4 bites. It was OK, I ate it, but I just expected «famous» Pea Soup to be amazing. ‘Nuff said. Got back into our car and «split.»

This rating is based mainly on their famous Split Pea Soup. I’ve never been a big fan of Split Pea Soup, however, something about theirs just hits the spot. Our soup arrived really hot with a separate plate of add-​ins, such as ham, bacon bits, chives, cheddar cheese, and croutons. We did without the croutons because the soup already tasted great dipped with torn pieces of the nicely browned sourdough bread bowl it came in.
The service was warm, as we were greeted with a friendly smile and were well tended to. The Fish & Chips tasted a bit stale and the cole slaw was too watery though.
Nonetheless, we continue making Pea Soup Anderson’s in Buellton one of our pit stops, during our road trips up the coast, just for their Split Pea Soup and for the sense of nostalgia this place brings about.