Perry P.
Yelp
The family and I decided to take a weekend and visit the Santa Barbara area. Of course, the foodie that I am I didn't focus on the sites and activity but focused on what I can eat when I get there. Being a city right by the ocean of course seafood was on the top of the list. I'm not too much into crustaceans, crabs and lobster requires too much work , but I'm a huge fan of clam chowders.
Based on Yelpers' recommendation, there are two shops in Santa Barbara that had clam chowders in their highlights, one is Brophy Bros and the other is Santa Barbara Shellfish Company. Since we just spent a day in Solvang, Brophy Bros was along the way to our Airbnb so we decided to give them a try first and then visit SB Shellfish Company on the next day. We got to Brophy Bros fairly late, at around 8pm, and the parking lot was packed. This isn't a surprise since the parking lot is shared with the different stores in the harbor and the boat yard so definitely give yourself some time if you decide to visit late.
We were at the Santa Barbara restaurant of Brophy Bros (I believe there is one in Ventura as well) so the restaurant is located on the second floor and was packed when we got there. It was a cozy space with about 10 tables indoors and a few more outdoors. There is also bar seating with about 15 seats but since I was with family, and it being at night, we opted for indoor seating since we would not be able to enjoy the view. I went up to the hostess and requested for a table for 5 but since it was a busy night, she informed me that it would be a 20-minute wait. Friendly tip: join the waitlist via the Yelp app. I didn't since it was an impromptu decision that we decided to visit Brophy Bros. but if you plan on going, definitely join the waitlist ahead of time.
Seeing that it was a long day, and it was going to be another 20 minutes before we got a table, the family and I decided to take it to go. We ordered a pint of clam chowder, seafood scampi pasta, grilled salmon, and calamari as an appetizer. Each entrée comes with 2 sides, we had more chowder and salad with the scampi while we got fries and rice pilaf with the salmon. We placed an order with the bar tender who was extremely friendly and polite even though he was slammed with orders, and we got our food within 10 minutes of ordering.
After making it back to our Airbnb we dove into our food. The clam chowder was a New England style and was creamy and filled with large chunks of oysters. Sorry, I wasn't able to get a picture of the chowder since it got devoured by the family before I was able to snap a pic. The chowder also had potatoes but there were more for texture and balance instead of filling up the chowder. The seafood scampi included shrimp and scallop with the pasta was cooked al dente. The sauce was not overly heavy and allowed the ingredients to shine. Lastly the salmon was cooked a bit too well for my liking since I like my salmon on the medium side, but the rice pilaf was very flavorful. The sides were decent but if I would order again, I would just go straight for more chowder.
Even though it wasn't fresh at the restaurant, I have to say that Brophy Bros have the best clam chowder in the area, maybe even the west coast (at least to me). Yes, these are bold claims, and everyone has their own unique taste buds, but thanks to recommendations on yelp I've visited the top restaurants where yelpers raved about the restaurant's clam chowder. I've been to Cioppino and Fog Harbor in San Francisco to Mitch's and Edgewater in San Diego, I've even gone to Pike Place in Seattle for some reason it was missing something that Brophy Bros got right. I guess this is where everyone's unique taste buds come in. But hey even if you don't agree with me, you can still try out their chowder to see how they stack up.
Oh and of course for the PG players our there, there are stops there but no gyms so get your remote passes ready if you are dining there.