3 Ideas for Your Santa Barbara Date Night

We’re going out tonight. Here are three of our top date-night restaurant picks, and what you should be ordering.

Time for tapas!

Cadiz serves up Italian, seafood, and killer cocktails. They’ll even do you a solid with some vegan or gluten-free dishes, if you ask. For tapas, we would recommend the arancini, beet salad, and the hummus. The bolognese and paella will also get your night started in a very good way. Pair it with a beer (starting at around $4) or one of their specialty cocktails (all $7, and each features a different clear liquor of choice).

Their main dinner courses primarily feature your traditional filets and cuts, but Opal can really dole out the vegetables. We would recommend the “Lemon Grass Crusted Fresh Salmon Filet” (with a Thai curry sauce) and the “Vegetable Napoleon” (with a gorgonzola potato Cake and wild mushrooms). And you wouldn’t know it, but their pizza is pretty incredible too. So if you’re feeling it, go for the wild mushroom pizza or the prosciutto, goat cheese, and garlic spinach pizza.

Date night doesn’t necessarily have to be at night.

Maybe that date lasts until the next morning, too? Jane’s got you covered for Sunday brunch, as well. Coming for brunch? Just get yourself a burger — you deserve it. If you make it for dinner, start with some of their more unique options: fried brie and apple fritters, a little eggplant paté, and the pesto oysters. They do a mean seafood pasta too, not unlike Cadiz, and we’d urge you to go in for the linguine and clams (featuring crushed chilies!) or fettuccine and lamb sausage here.

Maybe even stop around for some cocktails afterward. It’s date night, after all! Live a little.

So get on out there, and we’ll make the bed.