Santa Maria Inn Restaurant - A real screw job!

Santa Maria Inn Garden Room Restaurant

The Garden Room Restaurant has a new lunch menu but the restaurant is still empty. The new menu is not inspired by any means and appears to be a ruse to roll out the new prices. Don't get me wrong, there are a number of nice selections, which if consistently prepared will provide a nice lunch for nearly any taste preference. But the prices are on par with those of an upscale city establishment and so should somehow reflect that in food, service and ambiance.

Consider a Caesar Salad at the swank downtown Biltmore in Los Angeles will cost you 8.00 but at the Garden Room, this same salad "Local romaine hearts, housemade dressing and croutons with Parmesan Reggiano" [sic] will set you back 13.00. WOW! Not to mention the fact that this is for a dollars worth of lettuce and dressing.

So, considering the price I should expect exceptional service. FAIL! Just did not happen. There were two tables down at lunch hour and the waitress could not manage to even get us our beverage for 10 minutes.

It feels as though the only real patrons this place has are hotel guests. In place of enticing the local community to dine at the in by producing a good menu with good service they are raising prices to offset the empty dining room.

Cons

Exorbitant prices

Long wait.

Poorly trained food server
Unfriendly food server (maintained my minimum 15% tip and felt like I overpaid by 12%)
Food took so long time to arrive the bread basket was emptied.

Pros

Lovely bread basket of assorted breads
Okay wine selection.
Nice ambiance.

Bottom Line

Very, very overpriced, poor service and nice ambiance. It is one of the few restaurants in Santa Maria that are conducive to a working lunch.  I will return as business associates suggest it for lunch but not of my choosing. I would not ever recommend someone visit this restaurant as there are very fine choices, more realistically prices within an hours drive south or thirty minutes north.

Santa Maria Inn Garden Room Restaurant
801 S Broadway
Santa Maria, CA 93454
(805) 346-7908