High prices, relatively unfriendly--especially owner.manager. The grocery is at best a conveniience for immediate neighbors. some prices on wine bottles mistaken, owner will has not honored in the past. read more

Holy cow!! I just paid $27!!!! for a roasted chicken that every other local grocery sells for $10! I will not shop in this ridiculously overpriced store again. read more

I bought a surprise bag on the Too Good To Go app and when I went in to pick it up I was told that there were no more and that I could come back tomorrow. Given I had paid for something that needed to be picked up that day I felt her response was completely unacceptable on multiple levels. I've never been to this store before but after this experience I won't be back. Based on the reviews here I probably would have been unhappy with what I had gotten anyway. read more

Montecito Village Grocery was apparently my husband's mother's go-to grocery store. Smaller with less inventory than the big chain groceries in town, but also an easier place to shop, as it never gets crowded. I've been to the Von's on Coast Village Road many times over the years--it's pretty convenient, after all, and impossible to miss if you spend any time in Montecito. By contrast, I'd never even seen this market until Matt B. suggested we go to pick up a few odd things we needed for the week. It's a cute place with some comfortable neighborhood charm, and I enjoyed the ample parking and calm, quiet atmosphere. Obviously, the stock was more limited than at a supermarket--we couldn't find the pasta we wanted and did end up making a Von's run later in the week--but we picked up some of the items on our list, including a few bottles of wine. The wine selection was solid, with lots of local/regional wines. Definitely extensive enough that you'll walk away with what you need if you're not looking for anything too specific. (Our toddler, who was just learning his colors, pointed to a wall of reds and said, "Red? Red?") The cheese/deli section was pretty enticing, too. Check-out was quick and easy and we went home with enough provisions to see us through dinner that night (mostly, we needed wine). I like Vons fine, but it's nice to have Montecito Village Grocery as a pleasant, less busy alternative. read more

Holy shit!! not only is it so expensive but the food that is prepped for lunch is disgusting everything from tacos, burritos, the wraps, chicken wraps turkey wraps. I don't understand how people don't understand that any food you place in a plastic container will get soggy. who wants to pay $13 for soggy food. Don't waste your money!!!!! read more

Montecito Village Grocery - Grocery Near Me - Santa Barbara, California

Cantwells 2.0 Price gouging at its finest. Higher prices than Wholefoods and Lazy Acres. Maybe I was just in there on a off day but the staff and management was very cold, unknowledgable and unfriendly. read more

This neighborhood grocery store has awesome European speciality items, not found elsewhere. From the Deli to yogurt, olives, to plant-based products: it provides quality food at its finest. We've become accustomed to settle for the adjacent and lower quality in our diets: not cool. Treat yourself, this grocery store is Delectable. read more

I went here on my lunch break to meet my wife to grab lunch and go shopping. All a sudden a guy comes up to me saying he will tow my wife's car. Mind you I was stepping out of my work truck. I was very confused. He said he's the owner and I better not leave my car there. I had literally just pulled up as did my wife. I got out of the truck went to her car and kissed my son who was in the child seat of her car. Within a minute I'm getting threatened to be towed. I just left. I will never be coming back there. read more

Bad service and expired products, its always hit or miss there, your better off going to Von's.

I love this place! Great selection of organic foods and gourmet treats, but also conventional favorites. Great wine and liquor selection. The prices are a little high but you are paying for a local boutique grocer and there is a convenience factor as well. Small convenience stores are always more pricey than the supermarket. Not a place to do your weekly shopping, but a great place to stop in for a few things close to home. read more

There appears to be an indifference and apathy here as if they're simply biding their time, or testing the waters before they bail, or the lease is up. The empty promises of renovations, remodels is a typical american--someday someday (passive aggressive--never). Beside Tony (the real butcher), a few of the longer-time staff, and friendly check out girls (Grace et al), being interrogated for rancid/sour cole slaw and trying to return it simply for a fresh batch ($4.24) turns into a federal case of tons of questions, accusatory tones, etc....are these out of town owners serious? The owner's daughter who manages the place does not appear friendly, and looks like she's checked out mentally--robotic and going through motions as they jack up prices to 'test the waters' to see how much they can 'get away with.' This is Santa Barbara--either you have real, visceral customer service, or maybe, get a clue? We're not from Roxy, nor are we clueless tourists who don't mind getting ripped off. Perhaps, some introspection, self reflection, and something other than economic hustling may help this place and its' narrative. read more

Great Deli and I love all the artisan cheese and the most helpful staff when I came in to shop for my clients Rob and Sheryl Lowe.

Great product selection for plant-based foodies! I picked up a bag of plant-based burger patties by MATCH Meats which were delicious! For anyone interested in alternative meats that look and taste like the real deal, I highly recommend visiting this store and giving them a try! read more

I bought a chicken a la mexicana. It turn out that the chicken was really burned. I went to get credit from the manager and the stupid manager gave me $3 dollar credit. The price of the food was $9.99. Everything there is so expensive. read more

I work nearby and I come here for lunch multiple times per week. It's a little hidden gem of a grocery store, with high quality produce, a great selection of canned/dry goods & specialty items (Cafe Dumond coffee on the shelf!), and a great meat section. The deli case is small but the items they have are exceedingly fresh and tasty. I buy the beet salad almost every time I see it. I'm especially fond of the hot food items for lunch. At first glance It looks like any other hot case o' supermarket mexican food and I didn't buy anything for a while. I finally gave in to hunger and tried it one day thinking i'd just have a boring box of sustenance. Boy was I wrong. The food here is solid, tastes totally home-made and is quite satisfying. The soups (when they make it) tastes like someone's abuelita made it. It's like they moved her kitchen to the back of the market :) read more

Loving this old small market in the heart of Montecito. One of my favorite here is their soup. Lots of variety choices cold healthy sandwiches .. their wine alley is amazingly stocked of all kind of best wines... Ill find something here if I'm lazy to drive down in Von's supermarket. read more

Montecito Village Grocery - Wine section - Grocery Near Me - Santa Barbara, California

MARTHA!!! I'm am so thankful for Martha. I was in desperate need of ice cream and the store was going to close 2 minutes after I would arrive. I called and Martha said to come by and they would wait for me. I got there and they greeted me with a smile. I grabbed the ice cream, ran to the register and realized that in my rush to get there, I left my wallet at home. Martha said not to worry as she grabbed her phone and paid for it for me!!! AMAZING!! Super kudos to Martha for making my evening complete with chocolate chip ice cream. read more

This used to be an automatic for lunch but since it changed hands the quality has gone way down and the prices up. Everyone who works here is great. Sandwiches are Continuously stale. The flavor of the hot food is great but seems old sometimes. I really miss this place it was so convenient read more

I love the selection and convenience of this market and the service is always great. The deli/meat counter is great and they are starting to carry the great products I love and used to have to drive all the way to Whole Foods for. People giving a 1 star rating for them because they closed the doors when you are trying to show up at 7:59 to start your shopping is ridiculous! read more

When I walked into the Montecito Village Grocery, it felt like time went back at least 30 years. This store reminded me of how stores used to be before the huge supermarkets. This is your typical local market. It's nice and clean but the prices are very high. On the other hand, I was able to find, and buy, a good political magazine here that I've never seen anywhere else. The staff weren't the friendliest but it was nice to get a reminder of how grocery stores looked many years ago. read more

They didn't have frozen apple turnovers which was kinda sad because those were what we wanted for desert. Be that as it may, we managed to find some mint milano cookies and one oatmeal raisin cookie (SB Bakery, yummy!). I didn't buy anything from the deli case but it looked pretty decent. Frozen cases do not have as much capacity as larger stores, but they looked sufficient as did the produce section. I second the cute-factor of this old timer grocery. read more

Good quick shop. Nice wine selection. Good beers. Lots of cheeses and apps to get as well. We grabbed some stuff for a casual dinner at home. read more

Really disappointing...never a great place to shop with high prices but convenient for a staple you forgot to buy on your marketing run. I was hopeful the new owners would make it great...low and behold..approximately 1 year later it is still "a work in progress" with bad produce, high prices and few improvements if any. Too bad read more

New owners are from out of town. They are not nice to their employees. All the food is is way over priced. The produce is garbage and they don't even have air conditioning. Tony is the only one left that keeps that place a float; he should be the owner. read more

New owners (out of town people who think they know Montecito), higher prices. The place has lost it's luster.

I am a local resident who was in love with our Montecito Village Grocery. That's until yesterday... Last night I bought a bottle of wine that I accidentally dropped and shattered right outside. When I came back inside a couple of minutes later and tried to buy the same wine again a very nice cashier named Daisy Avila offered that they could actually just replace my wine as a courtesy. It was not an expensive bottle but I was really thrilled to see real customer CARE actually working for a change. But I was so wrong! Nice and courteous Daisy called the absolutely unfriendly and confrontational (btw I am not judging from only this incident, I live a block away and shop at your store every single day) guy Jose Maldonado who rudely refused to honor the courtesy offer, which was just made by his colleague. Initially Jose did not even want to tell me his name. Believe it or not he had to call the owner of the store to ask his permission to introduce himself! Net result: insult was added to injury for no good reason as at stake was openly a $19-dollar wine bottle. So, let me break it down for you all: Montecito Grocery is a very expensive store where for all that extra money they MUST have a great customer service. Among many other things that means their staff must be competent, courteous and accommodating to their very narrow client base, i.e. ready to help develop and nourish customer relationships not ruin the same. We the locals come here not just for food, most of which we all can simply order online or buy much cheaper a mile down the road, but for the "neighborhood store" atmosphere, that is definitely missing now. In the business of selling food there is no place for the word NO, there is always a way to please the costumer who you want to see again and again. So, guys ask yourselves: do you really want your customer to come back? Staff MUST learn the word "sorry" when they make mistakes, because this is the only important word Montecito Grocery staff don't know. They just don't care about you, that's the atmosphere felt all over the store, which may be OK at a Walmart, but not OK whatsoever in our beautiful and unique village, that we all live in, and not in the store we all used to love. You cannot offer something that you say you can do as a courtesy and then rudely take back in five minutes. That is not professional and a sure way to make the customer feel upset and turned off. At the end of the day your staff "saved" you 19$ but robbed you of thousands of dollars that I would spent in your store. FYI: we have lots of kids who loved to come to your store for their favorite treats, I have a food blog with almost 15,000 followers and I used to buy ingredients for my weekly recipes at your store etc. Now we would definitely switch to Trader Joe's, Vons, Montecito Bistro and buy some unique foods that you carry online - you know it's very easy this day and age! Now that everybody googles things before doing them nothing matters more for a retail store than customer reviews. They can help you improve your business, look at your business from the outside, identify and rid yourself of the bad staff members whose attitude drags your business down. This is my perception of the Montecito Grocery staff now: unfit for the customer-intensive job, rude and unprofessional. In summary and as the result I am not seeking or expecting apologies or replacement of that proverbial wine bottle. However you don't need to expect us to come back, or keep our concerns about your business to ourselves. The Internet and attentive local press give us plenty of venues to voice such concerns and spread the word. I just wish that here in our lovely-looking Montecito food store, people did not have to feel unwelcome and uncomfortable buying a bottle of wine at the end of the long, hard, rainy day. Not nice! Shame on you, Montecito Grocery! read more

I patronize this market about 3 times a week. The owners have done a wonderful job updating and beautifying, while keeping the small town feel. I find the cashiers very friendly, the meat market personnel very helpful and accommodating, and the rest of the personnel couldn't be nicer. The prices may be a bit higher, but I appreciate that they are convenient, and frankly, don't mind paying a bit more, now that it looks so nice and pleasant. Keep up the good work. Your neighbors are happy. read more

The people that work there simply are rude. I've been there three times in the last week only because my wife's pegnant craving for their particular bread they offer for their sandwiches. The woman making our sandwich the last time could not have been any more unhappy and the way she slammed down her towel when I hinted that I also wanted a sandwich was a sure sign that she was definitely being put out. The cashiers are super friendly as well. "Not"... Any ways. If I wasn't ever going back, I probably would have thrown my sandwich down and walked out. I wonder if the owner knows how his employees act? read more

Dirty. Quirky. Not well stocked. Fresh produce usually not so fresh. On the other hand...this is the place to get your meat--the butchery is great and what keeps this place open, I imagine. The sandwiches are good. And...they sell TAB! read more

This is a great place to look for specialty canned and packaged items you won't find at a mainstream chain grocery store.