Beautiful!
The Boathouse at Hendry's beach is the perfect setting for an evening meal during a warm summer evening in Santa Barbara! Little bit tricky to get to, but use a GPS and you will be fine and there is limited parking as the area is used for walking dogs on the beach, but it is worth the drive!
We arrived and informed our table was quite ready yet, so we sat at the bar and enjoyed a pre-dinner drink. The bar was vibrant, but not too loud as we were sat outside, there is a small divide between the bar stools, tall bar tables and the restaurant dinner tables. Even for just a drink this place is beautiful.
It provides the perfect view towards the ocean as the sun sets in the distance. We were lucky enough to enjoy a beautifully warm July evening when we visited, there were people walking on the beach, some with their dogs and The Boathouse provides a beautiful setting for dinner!
After enjoying a drink we were provided a table at the front, closest to the beach and the best view of the ocean. For starters we opted to share the Local Rockfish Ceviche, admittedly I just wanted for the Tortialla chips and avocado, but it came with local rockfish which Mrs BTR convinced me would be ok and indeed the starter was delicious. For main courses we opted to select a range of starter dishes, as after 2 weeks of eating out already in the USA there was nothing we fancied from the main courses.
For our "main meal" I opted for fried calamari and the coconut shrimps, whilst Mrs BTR opted for steamed mussels and crispy pork belly and sea scallops. Absolutely no regrets in our choices, and even though we opted for starter dishes we were both stuffed from dinner and unable to fit in dessert.
The coconut shrimps were excellent, really good size, 4 in a portion and fried perfectly with the coconut topping. In addition to this my calamari was also excellent, fresh, not frozen packet lumps and with a nice light batter that I always appreciate with calamari. Mrs BTR stated the scallops were excellent, whilst I was lucky enough to steal a bit of her crispy pork which was delicious. I am not a fan of steamed mussels so cant comment on these but the portion size was excellent and Mrs BTR enjoyed them.....so they must be pretty good.
Verdict - BTR absolutely loves it when amazing settings are matched by excellent food (compared to amazing settings and over priced rubbish food) and The Boathouse provides this! We were only in Santa Barbara for one evening and so glad we opted to have our dinner in this amazing restaurant. The food is fresh, reasonably priced for it setting and quality, and a beautiful location overlooking the beach and ocean, enjoying dinner outside in the cali evening sun.