Dishcrawl Santa Barbara

Dishcrawl’s «Santa Barbara Neighborfood Launch» was a total bust!
Definitely the worst food tour/​crawl I have ever been on and the biggest waste of $ 80.00 for the two of us.
Let’s set the scene first. Beautiful, sunny, breezy Santa Barbara afternoon. We ride our bikes down to Arch Rock Fish to check in, get our maps and enjoy our first culinary treats. When we check in, we’re notified by Dishcrawl staff that the one of the restaurants, Blue Owl, cancelled so we will lose one of our stops and eats. Bummer, no offer to visit Blue Owl at a future time, and no other restaurant replacing it. No compensation. Fail.
Okay, at Arch Rock, we were given a fairly generous and tasty sample of their amazing Fried Calamari and a Fish Slider. This was delicious and by far the best food on the entire tour. That being said, we could enjoy either of these items at Arch Rock directly at a fraction of the cost without going through Dish Crawl.
Next, Paradise Café… ugh, literally the tasting was ONE (bold, underline, italic!) tortilla chip, with about a half teaspoon of slimy, pork, something atop it. Fail!
Next stop, Persona Neapolitan Pizzeria. Dishcrawl advertised a Margarita Pizza on the menu for this restaurant. However, when we got there PNP served us a Marinara Pizza and charged us for any additional toppings. Apparently, our $ 80.00 fee could not cover a couple of basic toppings. To PNP credit, they did give everyone a half pizza however serving only the Marinara Pizza and not the advertised Margarita Pizza really left something to be desired. The pizza was flavorless, bland and sloppy. I’ve been here many times so I know that the pizza can be good, amazing even, however, they did not show themselves well for this event. It would have been better to give each person only a slice or two of one of their better pizzas to really showcase their food. So again, fail.
Let me mention, that as we progressed through the dishcrawl we kept seeing other crawlers and checking in with them. Each and every person we spoke to had the same glum expression and negative reaction to the dishcrawl experience, especially for the cost. One couple told me that they felt, «robbed!» You and me both!
Next stop, Union Ale. Oh, Union Ale, you failed too. Union Ale served each guest approx. 3 to 5 noodles of macaroni from their macaroni cheese dish on the regular menu. It was that pathetic.
After Union Ale, we headed to Enterprise Fish Co where we were served, literally, a teaspoon of lobster bisque (which tasted more like Cream of Lobster Bisque — minus the lobster) and about a dime sized portion of puff pastry on top of the teaspoon. They’re saving grace was that they gave out gift cards for a future appetizer and tshirts. Nice touch.
We then headed to Alchemy Café, where we were served a piece of lettuce with a small, green ball of something healthy that kind of reminded me of a really dry hummus.
Lastly, we were off to Silvergreens for a cookie and small froyo. Loved my cookie, didn’t care much for the froyo. Always friendly service.
So let’s recap my plate for a moment… $ 40.00 per person purchased me:
–1 mini fish slider and approx. 10 fried calamari rings
— 1 tortilla chip w/​a half teaspoon of pork slime
— A half of crappy marinara pizza that I did not eat because it was disgusting and gave to the homeless instead
— 4 macaroni noodles
— A teaspoon of cream of lobster bisque with a dime of puff pastry
— A piece of lettuce with healthy cardboard ball
— And, 1 cookie and small frozen yogurt
To sum it up, SB’s Dish Crawl is an epic fail that I hope you never have to endure. You’re much better off going to various restaurants on your own, with a couple of friends, ordering a couple of dishes at each restaurant and sharing them amongst yourselves. You’ll probably spend about the same amount of money, eat much more and much better food and have a great time without feeling like you got completely hustled by a business.