This place is a must-visit if you find yourself in Santa Barbara. As far as I'm concerned, Opal is the crown jewel of SB when it comes to restaurants. I'll try to keep cliché puns on the name to a minimum.

We went for dinner on a Saturday night and it was pretty busy. Before our meal, we decided to grab drinks at the bar, which included the Purple Haze and the Clooney. Both were good, not overly strong or sweet. I noticed they also had an impressive wine list. I normally don't dabble in wine because I have no clue where to start, but when the wine list is as long as it is here and there are awards on the walls, I think they're doing something right.

After the bar we sat at our table to look at the menus. The menu wasn't practically a book, which is always a good sign to me: in my experience when places try to do too much, none of it is particularly noteworthy. After ordering, they brought out complimentary bread, warm and soft as all bread should be. The food came out surprisingly fast considering how busy the place was. Our feast consisted of the...

- Prosciutto, Goat Cheese and Garlic Spinach Pizza
- Grilled Chicken Scallopini Rolled with Goat Cheese and Pesto
- Homemade Basil Fettuccine with Sauteed Tiger Shrimp
- Herb Grilled Filet Mignon
- Grilled New Zealand Lamb Chops on a Rosemary and Sweet Onion Zinfandel Sauce

I had the scallopini and also tried the pizza and filet mignon, all of which was amazing. I heard nothing but compliments about the dishes I didn't try.

Our server was Eva and we had the pleasure of also sharing the company of two other servers, Camille and Jade. (Potential for another jewel-related play on words here, but I'll spare you.) All three of these lovely ladies were sweet and funny. If there's one thing better than the food here, it's certainly the staff.

I see nothing but a bright, shiny future for this place. There's a not-so-hidden gem here, and it isn't just in the name. Forget diamond: Opal is the big thing now.

If you're feeling blue because there are no good French places in the area, then you haven't felt BISTRO Bleu! It's a smallish place in a smallish plaza. The first thing that struck me when I walked in was that the walls were all blue! Nice to have some color to liven up the place! I think I was even wearing blue when I ate here! Holla!

We got there not long after they opened, so there was no one else dining. Meaning the service was great! But our server was so nice, I'm sure the service would have been good even if the place had been full. She started us with complimentary pretzels with honey mustard and drinks, champagne and a dessert wine. The drinks weren't complimentary...come on, people. We all know I would have hurt myself if they were.

So onto the food! My friend thought it'd be a good idea to have dessert first...I was like, "Wha-...?" But we got the chocolate souffle that they have...as a check-in offer! I'm not a big fan of sweet...I like some kick in my food. But it was very light and fluffy! And the chocolate sauce was just rich enough...not overpowering. Next up were the appetizers: escargot in mushroom sauce, foie de something-or-other (chicken liver), and french onion soup. The escargot was really good...the sauce made the dish. I couldn't tell the mushrooms from the escargot though, and at first I thought my friend took them all! I was like, "Wha-...?!" But there were still some hiding in the delicious sauce...MINE! Also not a huge fan of foie de whatever-it's-called, but theirs was good. Good soup too. Then the entrees: steak with fries and duck breast with mashed potatoes and veggies. Both were good! The steak and duck were moist and tender.

I'll definitely be back! I need to try some of the other dishes on the menu, and they aren't going to eat themselves! So go drop some green on great food at Bistro Bleu and-...damn. I wanted to be cool and have one more color in here somewhere...uhh...

I'm black?

Judging from the pictures I saw, I thought this place would be a cozy little cafe-style spot. The name made me think that too. Holy crap, was I wrong! The place is huge! There's a bar area near the front with some TVs so people can get their drink on and their excite on. There are a few booths and a bunch of tables, and all of them were full by the time we were leaving!

The service was great. We had two servers actually, because that's how I roll. I guess one was a server-in-training, but I felt special nonetheless! Our food and drinks came out fairly quickly and we were checked on frequently. There was so much smiling going on I started to think they knew something we didn't...but they were genuine smiles, not those fake this-is-only-for-the-tip smiles.

All the food was really good. The goat cheese marinara was a must for me, because I'm quite possibly addicted to goat cheese, and there was a lot of it! We also got the fries and fried peppers, some tacos, and the blue cheese sliders. I didn't think I'd like those...I'm a big cheese fan, but blue cheese usually does not cut it. They turned out to be good though! In fact I'm eating the leftovers right now!

So this place initially peaked my friend's interest because of the half-off martinis they so gleefully advertised for Thursdays. I mean, there were all kinds of colors and stuff on the menu...how could you not be excited? Well the excitement died down when we got there and realized that they no longer gleefully offered half-off martinis. In fact, they didn't have them at all...we would have accepted woefully offered martinis, but nope. Well the manager Colin comes over to check on us (the servers must have told him how I roll...it's legendary, really) and when my friend mentioned the half-off martini drought, he offered them to us anyway! Managerial pow-...wait, did I say "us"? How silly of me, I meant "her", because after she ordered one he gave me a knowing glance, as if to say, "Psssh...like YOU want a martini." As he turned to walk away I gave HIM a glance, as if to say, "Wait! I'm feeling particularly elegant today! It's like I don't even have stains on my shirt!" But he was gone...I was martini-less. I heard distant sipping, indicating that it was pretty good.

The food was so good though, I didn't even resent her that much.

Have you ever been to Raging Waters? Pretty much the first "ride" you see when you go in is a big wavepool with a bunch of people on rafts, having a good time. That's kind of what I was expecting when I went to A'Float...to see sushi in a wavepool having a good time. Of course that is NOT what they have...talk about disappointment!

This is a kaiten (revolving) sushi place, with boats. They're bigger than I thought...there were three dishes per boat. They only have one central sushi bar with the boats, so if that's full, you're going to have loads of mediocrity sitting at a regular table, ordering from a regular menu, getting your sushi that is rudely not on boats. And then you can eat to the low hum of the boats going around and around, convinced that somehow this sushi would taste so much better if it were delivered to you via watercraft.

I thought I'd have that kind of experience when I walked in, because naturally the sushi bar was full. But they wrote down a number for us (it was 42! HA!) and told us to wait in their little waiting corner. I started to drift out of that area, looking around the place, when I was politely banished back to the waiting corner. We were the only ones there, so we made the waiting corner our little fortress. We couldn't see where the entrance to the sushi bar was, so we entertained ourselves by making up ways that we thought the sushi chefs got in there. These included a dramatic elevator complete with spooky fog, and them dropping down from the ceiling Mission Impossible style.

After a short wait our seats were ready! One of the cool things about places like this is that you can start eating right away, and I was HUNGRY! I laughed at the menu in front of me and how obsolete it was in the face of rotating food, and started grabbin' stuff! I got a few spicy tuna rolls (they were really good for some reason), some roll with salmon and avocado, some tuna and salmon nigiri, and two pieces of cooked salmon. Careful with that cooked salmon though...my friend got lucky and got pieces that had no bones, by mine were full of them! I hate that! There should never be non-edible things in my food, ever!

My bill came to $30, which I thought was a little high. The prices at this place seem a little much for a kaiten sushi place. For $30 I could have gotten unlimited sushi at Benihana, and I could have drawn a picture of a boat and had the server wave it in front of me and stir my glass of water to make up for not going to A'Float. I don't regret going, but I'd be hard-pressed to go back considering there are just better options. But I guess you can call this place an experience...maybe...