Steak was delicious, I loved the rice it was sweet and well cooked. Drinks are strong and good as well. :)
As always, delicious steak & well-prepared seafood. Still love the salad bar. Sides tasty, service very good. Chuck's vibe hasn't changed & that's a plus as well. Gets bustling as the evening goes on. Perfect special dinner for two, group celebration or anything in between. You can dine for a bit less, but best steak, halibut, appetizer and 2 glasses of nice wine $100 and worth it. Never dissapoints!
Very dark and loud, but excellent service and food.
(5-19-12): Hawaiian chicken with artichoke appetizer and side of vegetables were great! I liked the spicy Thai peanut sauce. Sirlion was ok. The Thai tips on skewers were tasty.
Best pork chops ever. Bar is awesome . Get a Mai Tai . Tasty salad bar. Dank dark environment. Friendly greeting and service.
If you love seafood....and I mean really love seafood, then there's no reason you shouldn't like this place...unless you're a priss. Order the King Crab Legs, order the sashimi with the hottest wasabi I've ever had in my life, and order some oysters. Period. Now go enjoy yourself....
Great service, good salad bar (blue cheese dressing a ++) and our main courses were done just right.
It's not a chain like so often in the US and only to find Santa Barbara. One of the best steaks I have ever eaten. We recommend.
Best place for steak in town, period. Love the salad bar, and their rice is among the best I have ever had. Service is always really good as well. Highly recommend.
The service wasn t that great! But the food was really good!!!
Classic old-school Santa Barbara. This is a great place to snuggle up to the bar for a drink and a steak sandwich.
OKAY....best scallops in town, hands down and best price! Love the salad bar too! Its classic beach town food!
I had an excellent experience at Chuck's! I don't get to visit Santa Barbara very often but Chuck's will now be a mandatory stop when I do! The service was fantastic and the food was absolutely amazing! 10 out of 10, I can't wait to go back!
All I can say is, "Wow!". The halibut was the best I've ever had! Tasted the trout as well, oh my gosh! I will definitely be back!
Went for my Birthday a few weeks ago with my wife and 4 year old. Menu is simple self serve salad bar steaks ,chops ,chicken and seafood . The only problem is they don't cater to children and have no children's menu or any smaller portion meals available. Other than that the Food was on point and the service was Excellent . Great date night place ......
Great steakhouse in a cozy atmosphere! Quality of the food was very high quality. Definitely worth a visit!
Chuck s of Hawaii is an Old School but still cool fish and steak restaurant reminiscent of the Tiki Torch places of the 1970 s. It s been open for over 50 years and still is very popular. The menu is written on empty brown Lancer Wine bottles and offers a selection of fish, steaks and chicken and scallops. There is a lively full service bar with a number of televisions for watching seasonal sports. They have a salad bar with a variety vegetables, salad greens and condiments plus several bins of warm fresh bread. I ordered the fresh Halibut which came perfectly cooked and seasoned. My dinner companion ordered the Ahi Tuna rare and again it was perfection. Well worth a visit when visiting Santa Barbara.
Service is great, place is nicely decorated. Food was OK but overpriced
Excellent service friendly good food steaks are amazing
Waitress was rude! Food was burned! Way overpriced! Will never go back!!!
Beatiful place, love salad, delicious steak and very good service.
Excellent steak, friendly wait staff; reasonable price (at least reasonable for Santa Barbara!)
Dinner and service were great! A beautiful setting, too.
I thought the steak was really tough (medium rare sirloin), and quite pricey for coming with only rice. The salad buffet is very basic with lettuce and a few basic toppings. I was very annoyed that the waiter put in my order for a soda with the cocktail waitress who then brought over a tiny glass with a stir straw. I then had to ask for a refill, then again my drink sat empty. It should be obvious to the waiter to get me a refill, I shouldn't have to ask every time.
Chuck's is always a special treat! Very laid back, dark and oldschool. A top choice for steak and salad bar. They also have a full bar with some interesting specialty drinks, like a "Spicy Ghost Pepper Margarita" Definitely a great place for happy hour, with some yummy food choices like "Steak Bites" Etc. Good off street parking in back, with quick freeway access. Aloha!
The servings are large the steak was cooked perfectly, and the salad bar was fresh
Can't say enough great things about this place. Great food, great staff, great service, awesome environment! You won't be sorry you went.
Steaks are great! Salad and rice with steaks are below average. Service and parking good.
Always a great experience, excellent service and fantastic food. Never disappoints.
Excellent food, excellent atmosphere, service is impeccable. You won't be disappointed
Food is decent, price is reasonable, service is great, and the view is spectacular.
Awesome, and it remains consistent and a quality experience. I worked in Chuck's San Mateo (Borel Estates) from 1966-1971 and went to this one in SB, 2015, and was thrown back to those days, 48 years ago. Thanks Brian, asst Mgr., quality guy. I'll be back.
Very busy but excellent food and service. Reservations recommended
It was a great date night after 7 months! Social distancing was good, but more importantly, the steaks were d'licious!!!
Was coming to Santa Barbara for a comedy show at the Arlington. Only had 40 minutes to order and eat. NEEDED a steak. Called ahead and they assured me it wouldn't be a problem. They brought the food out within 10-15 minutes, leaving me plenty of time to enjoy their juicy sirloin and crab legs!!! Thank you Chucks for an amazing meal and wonderful service!
Yes, it definitely plays into the cheeky americanized Hawaii restaurants BUT the food is good quality American and the staff is sooo nice! If you want a fun dinner out with you're family this is the place to go!
Love the late nite bites! We know we'll always have good, well cooked food here. Great service & salad bar.
Oh man loved this place, New York steak can t beat it!!
Very good a place you should go when in Santa Barbara
The only reason why I am giving 4 stars is because they could improve on their drinks. They're not good and they're pricey. But the food is delicious. If Chucks had good drinks and good food I would be there every weekend.
Steaks were good. Sides ok. Cocktails sub par. In total too pricey for what they offer. The Lure around the corner has way better drinks and food. Won't be back.
By far one of the best places to eat in town pork chop was juicy tasted delicious prawns were perfectly cooked the service was excellent 4 people waiting on us haven't eaten at better place in a long time
Chucks has the best Ahi I ever. No joke try it out with both of their sauces and that rice is second to none. Bartenders are awesome. This is my place. I like to go where everybody knows your name, and their always glad you came. (Cheers) Sometimes I will go in the back and tell Jose ( the master chef ) I will be ordering the Ahi today. He says look here, I have the best piece waiting for you. Makes me giggle and feel like Im the s%#t. I know all the pieces of food are delicious. I can't forget the 9 o'clock happy hour specials. Steak bites are off the hook. If you have not been to Chucks get there soon. Ive been out if town for awhile so I will be heading to chucks soon.
Great local place. Great food, great service, its a must go to restaurant.
Giving only 3 stars. Food not so great and tasty. During our stay here in Santa Barbara for 10 days visit we are surely impressed to all restaurants food tastes that weve been and tried. But not this one unfortunately. I tried their hawaiin teriyaki chicken, it wasnt great at all. Not flavorful, meat is old. Ehhh... ;( Giving credits for ribbye which my husband choice, its tender but still not tasteful if you are a person LOVE tasty food. We called the waiter's attention to change my order and i ended up to have the ribbye too. Plus, one girl in the bar is NOT friendly or nice accommodating personnel too. Not so great experience.
The Best Terriaki Ribeye steak that I have ever had and the Best Salad Bar also!
Chuck's is a very long-standing Santa Barbara institution, quite popular with the "happy hour, booze and steaks in a dark place" crowd. So if you don't care about the quality of any of those items, go ahead and enjoy. I have been there many times because friends have insisted, over my objections, so I have lots of experience with the place, and I can confidently state this: The steaks are of mediocre quality at best, the fish specials are never properly prepared, and the drinks are weak, overpriced, and badly made. The salad bar is pretty decent, but even there they skimp on things; the brown bread, which should be (and which presents itself as) squaw bread, is really just a boring, not very tasty, brown bread. There are so many restaurants in Santa Barbara that so far exceed the quality of Chuck's that I am at a loss to explain how it hangs around.
Very friendly staff. Excellent steaks and salads in a cozy atmosphere near the BW Plus Pepper Tree Inn. From the outside inconspicuous but highly recommended!
Great food, but even better service with our Server Martin. He made us feel welcomed, took care of all our needs, & made my wife's Birthday Lunch into the most memorable & exceptional dining experience we've had in quite some time.
My boyfriend and I met a friend here on while on a trip. He arrived late and ordered about 10 minutes after us. He was served first, ate slowly and finished before our food was served. Since we were on a schedule we had to ask for our food to go. Unfortunately, by the time we were able to eat, the food was cold and not very good at all. So we wasted an hour of our time and $175. We were not even offered an explaination for the hold up. Not cool.
dont miss the fresh warm bread and the salad bar, nice place with good atmosphere
Tried this spot already with my friend and I am addicted since then. I enjoyed the fantastic vibes and delightful food and drinks. They never disappoint.
Food was very good, wait staff super friendly. Had a fun time.
Visiting from WA and this is my husband's favorite steak place so we dined here last night. The always overcook my steak so decided to get fish. Description for the halibut is "comes out very moist and flaky". It was served dry and tough. Excuse given was fresh halibut is out of season so the texture is different. 1 waiter for the entire room we were in resulting in inattentive service. Why don't they label the salad dressings so people don't have to guess or continually ask (we sat near the end of the salad bar). They are too expensive not to have good food and better service (this was NOT our 1st visit).
Great drinks and Excellent food! Had a great time!!
Easily the best piece of Ahi I have ever had and I eat out ALOT. great service. Friendly. Was a 10
I drove about 130+ miles looking for some place to actually sit down and have a nice dinner. Chuck's was my first ray of hope. Too much money, but I received great service and I didn't have to eat in my car. Well that's progress.
Great food and service. Trying hard to COPE outside with COVID19. THANK GOD SANTA BARBARA has such incredible weather to allow outdoor dining. Hope it becomes permanent
One of our favorite places for dinner in Santa Barbara. The food, the bar, the service never disappoints.
Love this place located in Santa Barbara great steaks Every time I'm in Santa Barbara I make sure I stopped
We came in for happy hour...the food is very good, very fresh. The service is outstanding! I would recommend this place. We will be coming back for their regular menu.
My family was driving from the LA area to surprise our daughter that lives in Santa Barbara for her birthday. I was tempted to choose another steak place in Ventura to not have to drive much further. I am so thankful we chose Chuck's of Hawai'i! Food was great! Service was fast and friendly. Waiters were accommodating. To top off the evening, we accomplished surprising our daughter. It was so worth the time to drive into Santa Barbara. I only wished there was a little more lighting. Dining area was a little too much on the dark side for me. Other than that, our family will definitely visit Chuck's of Hawai'i when in town and the place has become a family favorite. Thanks again and God bless!
Alex our server was awesome, and the T-bone was amazing
