Sunday afternoon and evening at El Encanto

After a jaunt to the Santa Barbara Mission, Van and I spent the rest of the day at our beautiful hotel, the El Encanto.  We didn't have lunch, per se, but we did have an adult beverage

on the lounge deck along with a flatbread that was really a pizza of some size.  Then it was on to massage.  Not a couple's massage, alas.  That's always nice.  No, each of us getting a massage in a different room, then enjoying prosecco and the steam room before heading back to the room to get ready for dinner.

I'll be honest.  The hotel was fantastic, but the food and the food service did not live up to the hotel.  Trying to get service on the lounge deck took far longer than it should have (and really, I shouldn't have essentially had to flag someone down to ask).  The flatbread was alright, and it took some time to reach us, to the point where we thought we might be late for massage.  Dinner was a little similar.  The service was better, but there was a long gap between the appetizer (a bowl of artichoke soup for each of us) and the main course.  I noticed that at other tables, and I also noticed other tables sending back food to be cooked more or differently.  Years since I worked in restaurants, and yet I am sometimes more attuned to that sort of thing than I would like.  Ah well.  

The other odd thing was that the restaurant had a set menu.  In fact, it looked more interesting than the a la carte menu.  It was vegetarian, three course, $115.  Not the cheapest, but it's a set menu at a fine hotel restaurant.  Except that when you looked at the choices that were also available on the a la carte menu, you would have seen that you could have three of the set menu courses for, oh, $85 instead.  We were curious, so we asked the waiter if the $115 included wine.  No, was his response.  So we pointed out that the price was a little odd given the prices on the a la carte.  He shrugged and said that he didn't control the prices.  Fair enough, but wow.  Just weird.

I'll say this:  we really liked the squid ink bread in the bread basket and the vegan berry ice cream in the ice cream sandwich dessert (though the cookies were far too hard and frozen to eat enjoyably). 

The crudites served as an amuse were a lovely idea, too. 

The soup was fine enough.  My scallops were a little too heavily dusted with blackening seasoning,

perhaps, and the shared plate of vegetables for the table were alright but maybe not what I would have paired with my scallops (also, mushrooms on a veggie plate?  Why?).

We didn't dine at the hotel on the Monday or Tuesday, finding breakfast and coffees elsewhere in the morning, and not going for drinks in the lounge.  It's a shame - the lounge and the deck are fantastic settings.  But I think the hotel needs to look a little more at its food service and step it up.