Wahoo’s Fish Tacos

Wahoo’s has a location in UCSB/​UCen! Call (805) 685‑2582 for directions & hours. LOVE the California burrito, it has French fries in it! Also, a big fan of the churro chips and a must is to add the citrus slaw to everything. They are also looking into opening a location in Goleta this summer!

Came down here for some of their tasty fish tacos to find out that they have closed this location.

It’s just ok. Fish tacos are wayy better at Spencer Makenzies in Ventura.
I live in SB and still make that drive

I like the atmosphere — has a very surfer/​skater vibe to it. Food is decent, a little overpriced but overall okay. Their salsa isn’t too fiery, but their fish tacos are good (obviously, it’s in the name).

Good fish tacos and spicy chicken tacos. Price was little high for the size of the tacos but you expect it on State street. Son’s Wahoo sandwich also was tasty. Very hole in the wall feel.

So I’ve been seeing the «Wahoo’s Fish Taco» commercials lately… like a 7-​second TV spot… homeade pretty lame. However it was enough to get my attention and while in Santa Barbra for Independence Day yesterday, we passed by it and I decided to stop in.
=========
LOCATION
=========
Located on State St. in the heart of Downtown Santa Barbara, down the street from Macy’s among a bevy of restaurants. The inside is nice… a bunch of rocker /​skateboarding stickers slapped everywhere, nice beach’ish theme.
=========
THE FOOD
=========
~ WAHOO FISH TACO — Their staple item, it was pretty good, especially under $ 3.00. It was small but packed full, the battered fish was good, as was the salsa and other toppings. Very good. (⁴⁄₅)
~ SHRIMP BURRITO — One of my friends ordered it, with no cabbage, no beans… it ended up tasting like just tortilla, shrimp and seasoned rice. Pretty bland. (²⁄₅)
========
OVERALL
========
It was solid. Prices were okay, nice theme… I’d need to try a couple more items to give it a fair assessment.

Spicy fish tacos and teriyaki bowl all the way! Seasoned rice with the beans is a meal in of itself. I tried my wife’s teryaki chicken too which was good.

Really tasty food! I love their shrimp banzai burritos. Get the hot sauce and the cilantro sauce, mix the two, and ladle it onto the burrito when you eat it. Trust me — you’ll be impressed. Mmmmm…

Delicious!, friendly inviting staff,
Clean environment. I had the shrimp burrito, it was so favorable came with a side of rice and beans yummy! no complains.

Food was pretty good. I ordered the two-​fish taco combo plate with rice and beans and my husband ordered the same. When our less than cheerful food server brought out our food, she brought mine first WITHOUT even a mention if my husband was going to get his or not. I also noticed that my rice and beans were missing… no mention about that either. I would have asked except my food server (long dark hair) gave me a look that was quite scary! FINALLY, my husbands food comes out and she asks «What else do you need?»…ummm, well how about the rest of my order? I got it with our a «sorry» or any explinatoin of where it had been.
I noticed as I went to get my drink refill that our food server was too busy eating her own meal to see if we were okay… maybe that is why she was so grumpy.
Food is good and filling… service…needs improvement!

I came here a few times before for the carne asada tacos and my girlfriend always gets their shrimp tacos. She loves them and recently found out that they use soy sauce in the marinade. They do describe themselves as Mexican/​Asian fusion.
They have never done me wrong really, until last night. I ordered a carne asada burrito with no salsa because I like to add my own salsa. The burrito came and it had a ton of salsa so I sent it back. When they brought out a new burrito, the «carne asada» was really a sweet beef stir fry with broccoli, carrots, and bell peppers. Don’t get me wrong, I can destroy some broccoli but when I order carne asada, I don’t want broccoli beef stir fry in a burrito with rice and beans.
No amount of tapatio could mask the flavor of the stir fry and even though I couldn’t eat it, I didn’t have the heart to send it back. I don’t know what was happening that night but they were not on their game.

I love this place, food portion is huge and worth the price.
If it’s a slow day, you can always come here, order the $ 5 taco, chip and beer, and do some people watching.

I’ve been a huge Wahoo’s fan since my college days in Orange County and I was super excited for it to come to SB. I don’t really consider it Mexican food — they describe themselves as mexican/​brazilian/​asian fusion. So you just can’t compare it to Mexican restaurants because it has its own unique style and flavor.
I stick to the fish, shrimp, or veggie items. My go-​to order is the Shrimp Bowl. The most important element for me is THE GREEN SAUCE. I drench everything in it. I love that I can get half and half of the spicy white and black beans, and I especially love that they have brown rice now.
The staff is always super friendly and it’s a great place to bring the kids. Yay Wahoo’s!

Strike 1. Nasty, rubbery-​topped, soggy-​bottomed «torta» fresh from the microwave. (Yes, microwave, only nukers do what was done to the lettuce and tomatoes) wet, watery meat. the only savin grace was the 1.79 beers. i had 5 while watching my buddy gulp down his own pile of fishy filth.
dude, that’s strike 2 and 3 as well.
tastes like poop and spray paint.

I always have such a great experience when I go to this Wahoos on State St. First off, the location of this Wahoos is right in the middle of downtown Santa Barbara, in the area where most of the college bars are so they definitely have a draw while you are drinking you start to crave their fish tacos. The décor of the restaurant is different in that it is covered, floor to ceiling even the tables, in stickers. Local stickers, surf and skate company stickers and other business stickers cover the place, and it has a surf vibe. The service is always friendly and very fast, and they have lots of yummy beer to compliment their amazing fish tacos! They have excellent chicken, carne asada and fish. Overall an excellent place for a quick bite to eat!

Great specials. Food is a little pricey but always good. :). Unique tastes. Veggie options are delicious but wish there was an extra spoonful of veggies! Always seems a little less than a full serving. Plus veggies are cheaper than meat, so I never really understand why not fill it up with veggies? :).

Carne Asada tacos all the way! I love every Wahoos I go to, this one is no exception. The owners are super nice. The place is laid back but prompt and clean!!!
EAT AT WAHOOS FOREVER!

We stopped off in Santa Barbara for lunch on the way to Hearst Castle.
Overall, the restaurant is good.
The location is perfect, nestled into the heart of Downtown Santa Barbara.
The food is good. I ordered the dos shrimp enchilada combo plate w/​brown rice on the side. The plate was good, but I have had better. The brown rice was just plain brown rice… nothing spectacular. IMHO, I feel the dish was overpriced for the quality of the food. My friends enjoyed their plate, I could have just chooses the wrong dish.
The service was A+.
I may stop by again, when I’m in the area.

We happened to be walking along State Street, like every tourist, when I noticed the sign for this place. Wahoo’s Fish Tacos… it sounded very familiar. Did I hear about this on the Food Network?
They had a $ 5 special which included a taco of choice, chips, and a beer. Pretty good value, so we ordered the spicy fish taco.
Now we have just recently came back from a trip to Maui and had some delicious fish tacos there. So unfortunately these tacos were underwelming for our taste. The fish was cut really thin, which kind of loses that fish flavor. However, I did like that they had a spicy option, which gave the fish taco that extra kick. Otherwise the fish taco itself was just alright.

I’ve legitimately never had a craving for Wahoo’s. Every time I go there is someone else wanting it or I have a coupon. Today was the latter case.
I got the nachos sans beans, but with steak, rice, pico de gallo, guac and sour cream. It came out to $ 7 or so with my coupon, but I still wished I had just gone to chipotle.
Steak and rice were pretty flavorless and dry. Chips were plain old chips and you can’t really mess up cheese, diced tomatoes, and avocado. It didn’t taste bad, but since two of the big components didn’t have flavor at all, it didn’t really justify the price tag.
I suppose this is why I never crave wahoos. there’s nothing really to crave.
Servers were friendly and brought me out my meal, which I appreciated.
I may wait another couple years before returning, but this has been consistent with my other Wahoo’s experiences.