Where to Eat in and around Los Alamos

The Valley has a wide variety of places to eat, from upscale wine-friendly California cuisine to Santa Maria-style barbeque to Mexican and all points in between. You can spend a lot or a little, but you’ll be well fed. Here are some of our favorite places to eat.

Los Alamos

For such a little town, there’s a diverse selection of eateries.

Café Quakenbush. 458 Bell Street. http://www.generalstoreca.com/html/cafe.html Breakfast and lunch. Opens 7 am on Friday, 8 am on Saturday and Sunday, closed Monday. Here’s where you can get your latte, admire the local plein air paintings, and shop for antiques or real estate. Diverse breakfasts on the weekend, nice sandwiches.

Javy’s Café. 380 Bell Street. Authentic family Mexican food, usually prepared by Nancy, Javy’s wife. Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Dinners are large, so don’t overorder. Local and very friendly.

Twin Oaks. 645 Bell Street. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Slightly upscale diner style food and Santa Maria-style BBQ (grilled with no sauce over oak fire) for dinner. Run by Cliff and Monica, best friends of the people we bought our house from (it’s a very small town).

American Flatbread. 225 Bell Street. http://www.foodremembers.com/contact/contact.html . Open 5-10 Friday and Saturday nights for dinner. Excellent organic flatbread “pizzas”, but we’re having the reception here on Saturday night anyway, so unless you’re a flatbread addict, eat elsewhere on Friday night.

Los Olivos and Ballard

Upscale eateries and very good food.

Los Olivos Café. 2879 Grand Avenue. http://www.losolivoscafe.com. The "No Merlot" restaurant from Sideways. Lunch and dinner. Truly good California cuisine. Check out the Sideways prix fixe menu at dinner, which is a good deal. It’s also a wine store, so browse an incredible selection of local wines, select your bottle and pay only a nominal corkage fee. Dinner reservations recommended.

Brothers Restaurant at Mattei's Tavern. Highway 154 just north of town http://www.matteistavern.com. A century old tavern and stage coach stop with a lively and fun bar. Fine dining on the expensive side. Wonderful old inn décor. Dinner reservations recommended.

Patrick's Side Street Café. 2375 Alamo Pintado Road. http://www.patrickssidestreetcafe.com/index.html . Los Olivos Café for the locals. Similar California-Mediterranean food, with a smaller wine list and more limited menu. Patrick frequently stops by to talk at your table. Dog friendly.

Panino. 2900 Grand Avenue. (actually the door is on Alamo Pintado, but right on the northeast corner of the two streets). A good place if you just want to grab a sandwich for lunch to eat there or take out on for a picnic.

Ballard Inn. 2436 Baseline Avenue.
http://www.ballardinn.com/restaurant.html. Ballard is 2 miles South of Los Olivos and is a tiny, residential town with a very nice B&B. This is a great place to stay and also a wonderful spot for dinner. The restaurant is under new management and is now one of the best in the valley, serving Pacific Rim cuisine. Dinner reservations recommended. If it's a nice evening, bring a sweater and ask to sit on the veranda.

Orcutt

This is a schlep, about 12 miles north of Los Alamos, just south of Santa Maria, but these are two of the best restaurants in the area.

Chef Rick’s. 4869 South Bradley Road, in the Lucky Shopping Center, on the northwest corner of Clark (freeway exit from 101) and Bradley. http://www.chefricks.com/home.htm . Reservations essential, closed Sunday. An unlikely location, but our choice for the best restaurant in the area if you like New Orleans’ influenced creative cuisine. A very small strip mall restaurant, but lively décor, good wine, and enormous portions.

Wine Cottage Bistro. 285 S. Broadway. http://www.ourwinecottage.com . A new Mediterranean style restaurant in Old Town Orcutt. This is a heavily wine oriented place, that doubles as a wine bar in the afternoon. Quiet and very pleasant. Dinner reservations recommended.

There are numerous restaurants as well in Buellton, Solvang, and Santa Ynez, but we have not sampled these extensively. We will say, however, that we have had mixed experiences at Grappolo and Volare in Santa Ynez and the Hitching Post (in spite of Sideways) in Buellton, and could not wholeheartedly recommend any of those.