I honestly stumbled into this place and I'm so glad I did. I've lived in the Five Cities area for over 25 years and had no idea this was sitting right down the road. Another hidden gem. The building is from 1917 and you can feel it everywhere.... dark wood, stained glass, a ship model in a glass case, an old house telephone booth, a hand-painted figurehead hanging from the ceiling holding lanterns. It's not trying to be charming, it just is. The tri-tip sliders and pretzel bites were so good I forgot to take a picture before they were gone (especiallythe tri tip sliders). Happy hour pricing made the whole thing even better. Seriously, if you're anywhere near Santa Maria, make the drive. I'll definitely be back and I'm a little annoyed it took me this long to find it! Tim the bartender was also outstanding. Friendly, warm and informative and of course a great bartender. read more

Exceptional mixed drinks- I'd especially recommend the Black Manhattan, the Expresso Martini, and the Smokey Old Fashioned. To give an idea of how much we like these, we stayed at the hotel for a few nights so we could drink a few extra rather than drive. I used to get to NYC and LA a lot, and particularly when Tim is bartending you are definitely getting drinks that would be competitive in a major city's better coctail bar. The other bartenders are also solid (e.g., some of us preferred Lorene's Espresso Martini and Dennis down in the Barrel Room is great but does drinks with a different style/mixers). The food is also quite tasty now. We were there in winter 2024 when there was some kind of big turnover on the kitchen area, and it had been hit-or-miss. New kitchen for 2025 does well on bar staples (e.g., burgers, sliders). The fish and chips is also pretty great: I'm a hard grader on fish, but everyone realy enjoyed them: light, crispy breading that goes great with lemon. For kids, the popcorn maker was a huge hit, though they could use one or two more kid-friendly entrees. Service is friendly, with good decorum (e.g., fine to have plenty of drinks, but pretty obviously not a place to get wild). As there is often only one bartender on duty, I usually just ordered up at the bar and they'll take it to you. Happy hour was 3-5 PM, daily I think- a few bucks off of drinks and most (all?) food half-price. Overall, had a great time. We'd definitely get back again. read more

What a cool bar in Old Santa Maria Hotel can't wait to be back. They have TVs and loved the variety of drinks available. #freepopcorn

We usually get at least one drink here when we stay at the Santa Maria Inn. When I stopped in for their terrific happy hour (daily from 3:00-5:00), I had the most wonderful service from Lorene the bartender. She was busy with a crowd of regulars but you'd never know it from her positive and super pro attitude with me. She made me an excellent espresso martini ($9 happy hour price) and brought it over to me at my seat. The room itself was expanded some years ago but the original design was by a very famous designer of the 1940s who also worked on Hearst Castle and the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel. You can guess where the original footprint was expanded as there are several historic photos of the room hanging on the walls. If you sit near the fireplace or in one of the old booths, you can still imagine you're imbibing in the 1940s pub-like tavern of 80+ years ago. The food menu looks incredible and the happy hour specials extend to food as well. The nighttime bartender wasn't quite as charming but he was friendly enough when I returned later for an after dinner Fernet Branca ($16.00 for a non-happy hour double). You can take your drink to your room if you prefer. I would like to return for another happy hour and try the food. read more

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We Came From The City Of KING To Visit My Mom. We're Actually Staying Here At Santa Maria Inn And Didn't Need To Drive Anywhere. Got A Good Buzz On With Friends And Headed To Bed Later. read more

Came here from San Diego on a Sunday evening after visiting with my father in Orcutt, and had a great experience. The place was slow when i first got in but quickly starting filling up with patrons once the Padres game was on for a bit. Tim was bartending and he handled the influx of guests like a champ! He was going back and forth from the main kitchen running food and making drinks and checking on me all the while. Great service and my drinks were all made well! read more

Fun time with good live music. Local feel. Bartenders good! Love the historic hotel. Make sure to take a tour through the lobby and grounds. read more

THE BEST PLACE EVER. It's a nice place to distress after work. the staff is AMAZING! I was served with kindness by Tim and Chad one night. definitely would recommend to anyone wanting a great old fashion! read more

A bit concerned when I saw it was attached to a hotel, NGL. Good was great, and the opening bartender was friendly and personable. The food was great, wish the beer selection was a bit larger but the ambiance made up for it. read more

Awesome place! The Bartender here is awesome! Food is great too. I ordered the Fish and Chips; really good quality.

Very cool old bar, with leather chairs, semi private booths, and great old fashion bar. Food is really good, and reasonable for the portion you get. Lots of TV 's also for sports. read more

The Tap Room - Tri tip platter from bar menu. - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Santa Maria, California

The street picture provided is not useful or just false. Bar comfortable with nice customers and staff. read more

The Tap Room - Bar room on quite Sunday night. But full service e bar with bar good regardless. - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Santa Maria, California

this one is a tough one to rate. I love the bartenders and servers *** 3 stars for them. Food is extremely average 1.5 Stars. Ambiance is old world cool ** two stars. I like the fact that it hasn't been modernized. time to change the menu though. offer drink specials to locals (in the zip code with DL). you'd get more business. read more

I like The Tap Room. It's very dark and has that feel that you're going back in time. It is a great place to sit down and talk for a very long time. The downside is that sometimes you get the wrong crowd and it makes everyone uncomfortable. But I think that the general atmosphere is friendly. Gets a little popping on the weekend but due to the hotel guests, they tend to stop music really early. read more

Limited table with few chairs. Bar one stool the rest is stand up spacing big screen T.V. With background music piped into ceiling speakers. Staff wear mask when leaving bar area to service restaurant read more

Don't go if you are not patient. It took 7 mins to get my first beer and after I drank it, took 10 mins to get the next. My burger took over 35 minutes to get, and then was way over Cooked. There was 3 of us in the whole place when I arrived and started to order. As the place got a little busier, people started getting even more frustrated. The only positive thing is they comped me my burger due to the time that it took to get it to me. read more

Tonight was our third visit to this establishment. We haven't ordered food so I can't comment on that, but the decor is cool, the vibe was lively but not rowdy, the drinks were good and the two bartenders we've seen were both friendly and chill. Bar options are limited in Santa Maria (excluding restaurants), so this is a great option. When you add in the super comfortable bar seats and the fact they also have a lot of small booths available, this is a great place to go enjoy a drink. My wife and I will definitely be coming back more often! read more

Only giving this rating on the food I ordered pork belly blta. First it's not pork belly as one would think when you see pork belly it's just bacon so it is very disappointingly see some thin pieces of bacon and not a thick slice of pork belly read more

We found ourselves in Santa Maria, which appeared to be underwhelming but stayed at the Historic Santa Maria Inn which was lovely. We took a nap then woke around 7 pm deciding we needed some food and a drink. We wandered into the pub because it was closest to our room. Sat down at the bar, the bartender immediately greeted us. I was pleasantly surprised to find Sazerac's on the menu. We had the fish and chips, one between tow of us and it was TONS of food. But the bartender said the entrees are HUGE but the apps are not. So consider yourself warned. :) We stayed way too long, but we had lots of fun and met lots of nice people. read more

Today I arrived a waited for about 10 minutes to get served. Nate the bar tender seemed a little relaxed, not much of a customer service representative for the bar. I seen several people sit and wait to be serviced. There was no hi how can I help you or friendly welcome. As expected they got up and walked away. What a shame lost business to this place. It's obvious that management has no idea how this bar us being serviced. Would I recommend this bar no. It's not a vibe joint nor the attention to your needs are far from a 5 star service. My best bet is to belly to bar and make your self noticed. Other wise you will be waiting... Sorry I'm just being real. read more

I really like the Santa Maria Inn Tap Room, it has a homey feel and the bartenders are friendly. Usually make a stiff drink and always accommodate with extra olives etc. The freebie snack area could really use an overhaul, which I believe will up the ticket as people snack they will drink a bit more. The fireplace is cozy and the tables and chairs are comfortable for a few people to gather round and kibitz. read more

We were staying at the Santa Maria Inn and we were still waiting to check in after 3pm so the woman at the front desk recommended we eat at the tap room while we wait. We ordered a burger, the special which was a tri tip sandwich, wings and a locally made linguica sausage. The burger came out not as requested and was just ok. We were asked how we wanted the tri tip cooked and we told them medium. It came out cooked to oblivion. The wings only came plated with 5 wings for $10. If they were very good wings I might have been alright with but they were gamey and the sauce was thin and not well coated. They even plated it up with brown celery. If you are sending food out with brown produce on the plate that tells you the kitchen doesn't give a shit. The linguica was tasty and coincidentally was the one thing not made in house. The apps were way to expensive and the quality of what was served was below average. read more

I grew up in Santa Maria. I've been to the Tap Room a couple times over the years when visiting. Once for an SMHS reunion, and another time to meet a friend who was in town. For what is basically a hotel bar, it's pretty good. And for Santa Maria, it's probably one of the better choices. It has a nice atmosphere after dark, if nothing else. I would go back. read more

This place was cool and I'm glad we ventured down there from our room at the hotel. Old English style pub with cool, wood decor and lighting. There was a Sinatra type singer there that night and we enjoyed his singing from our bench booth while we drank Tap It IPAs from SLO brewing. We thought we would turn in early for the night and be ready for wine tasting in the morning. But what really happened is we got lubed up for our wine tasting with beer all night. Definitely a cool find and added to the trip. read more

Stopped for lunch and was very impressed. The bartender was sweet and friendly. My order was taken promptly. I ordered the Caesar salad which was absolutely amazing, seriously the best I have ever had. The place was very clean and quiet. The background music kinda sucked but I'll get over it. I'll definitely recommend this place. read more

love this bar! The manager was working the bar- wow he is great. He runs the whole restaurant, too. The martinis are to die for!!!!!

This place is so so. A dollar off on your glass of wine which is only $7 to begin with. It seems a little too quiet and lonely. But it's nice to be able to get the bar bites at a reasonable price. read more

The only reason I even gave this place 2 stars is because the live music was really good, it was some SLO based jazz band with mostly students from Cal Poly, and I've heard that most of the bands that play here are pretty good. However, the actual experience was absolutely terrible! My husband and I went in for some drinks and music because we read about them in the local paper and wanted to check it out. We went up to the bar to ask for some service and they said they would be with us in a moment. 15 minutes later my husband went back up to them and they apologized and said they forgot about us (we were seated in a booth) and they would send someone right over. We did not even have water at this point, and were looking forward to getting a bite to eat. Once again 20 minutes later we were forgotten and my husband had to go up a third time and they actually gave him attitude (different girl) for asking for service. We were tired of waiting so on his third trip up there he just asked for a glass of wine for me and some water for him. 10 minutes after we got our wine from the bar the server finally came to our table and asked us if we wanted anything to drink- Hello?? we have drinks already! Anyway, we asked to see a menu and she said that the kitchen closed 5 minutes ago and if we wanted something to eat we should have come in earlier. WTF!!!!?! we waited for over half an hour to have service! Ridiculous!! not going back unless with friends that are already going there. I really wanted to like this place, but sadly they need to improve the service there. read more

Love this place! Great Jazz music on the weekends. Great classy vibe. A place you can dress up and never be over dressed. Romantic - sexy place! Try it! read more

The Tap Room is a wonderful place to go for great drinks, delicious food, great entertainment on Friday & Saturday. The bartenders are friendly & knowledgeable. I love to visit when I am in town. I enjoy watching football or basketball and chatting with Roger. On Sundays, they have a great champagne brunch! read more

Horrible - not the bartenders fault!! Super busy left her by herself - when we finally got food it was just ok! Friday night - big reunion in house- fun atmosphere! Left her swimming! read more

Worst service EVER. Place was empty, but had to walk up to the bar to order TWICE. Literally had to wave them down..... Guess they didn't care to take my $ when I'm trying to pay :/ read more

Spinach salad with salmon is great. Fish and chips is generous portion. Casual atmosphere. Nice salsa with the chips (probably from the happy hour). Not a great selection of beer, but this is not beer country. This is our type of place. read more

I am torn about the Tap room. It is very cool looking inside and has everything a bar should have. The drinks were pretty good, but nothing out of the ordinary. We were there on a Saturday and Sunday night and they were very diferent. Saturday there was a live band that was just meh, not our style. Sunday we were the only people there and that was kind of boring. The music they play in the bar is dreadful!! We asked both nights for the bar tender to turn it to anything other than what was playing. It's an Englis style pub that plays Cajun style music when there is no band. Luckily I found the juke box so I was forced to spend my own money to hear some good music. Over all it wasn't terrible, but nothing to get overly excited about. If your staying at the hotel then you can't beat the location. read more

Staying at the Santa Maria Inn and having this place inside the hotel is very convenient. The food is delicious and drinks are cold. The old style in the hotel and bar are very cool if you're into that sort of thing. read more

Just spent the evening in the Tap Room. Our waitress/bartender, Maegon, was the BEST! Her customer service was top notch! We'll definitely be coming back! The live music rocked and the food was delicious. read more

Probably the worst service I've ever experienced. Only four customers in the whole place, yet the staff is so wrapped up chatting amongst themselves that we've practicality had to beg to get a menu, order, pay, etc. Avoid this place. read more

Yummy fish and chips. I ordered that and so did my kids. We were all happy. My husband enjoyed his pulled pork sandwich and our friends liked their burgers. I think the pizza that one person ordered was described as "fine", but the rest of the food was great. Fun place, good food, neat atmosphere...definitely recommend after a brewery tour. read more