The Palace Cafe (in Santa Barbara)

 While my friend Ernie was in town last weekend, we took the
 opportunity to visit Bruce, who is a mutual friend of ours in Santa
 Barbara. Well I still haven't tried Citronelle (and still haven't
 written up my Biltmore brunch), so I thought I would try to make up by
 briefly mentioning the Palace Cafe.  I had previously been told about
 this place by Van, a colleague who works at UCLA but lives in S.B.;
 but we ended up eating there quite without planning. To quote from
 their business card: "The Palace features a variety of classic and
 modern dishes from Louisiana and the Caribbean. Fresh seafood flown in
 daily."

 This place has some really good food. The basket of muffins they serve
 are simply delightful--and you get a variety spanning from a sweet
 peach to a jalapeno-cheese muffin. Van says he orders some more to
 take home, and I would have done the same if I'd thought of it in
 time! We didn't try it, but Van apparently never goes without ordering
 their voodoo martini (I think that's what it was called)--basically
 the only hard drink in the house, and so one that's expertly
 prepared. I wasn't overly impressed with the popcorn shrimp, but the
 filet mignon that both Bruce and I ordered, and that came topped with
 a cajun hollandaise sauce and half an artichoke heart (it comes by
 default with garlic butter) and was eminently edible. Ernie had what I
 think was blackened BBQ shrimp over rice, with carrots, zucchini and
 squash; this was a tasty dish, but quite messy and the shelling was
 labor-intensive. The three of us ended up by sharing their signature
 dessert dish, which if I remember correctly was a bread pudding
 souffle with a whiskey sauce; this has to be ordered at the start of
 the meal. It was very nice (although I think I still prefer the
 chocolate souffle at the Moustache Cafe), but I can't imagine how they
 expect any one person to eat one of these things!

 I should mention that we had to wait perhaps ten minutes for a
 table. Of course we just walked in off the street (they do apparently
 accept a limited number of reservations). What was interesting was
 that there were vacant tables available; they simply didn't choose to
 seat anyone immediately. There was a second room off to the left, but
 it didn't appear to be in use that Sunday evening. Celebrities living
 in the local area can be spotted.

 All in all, I would definitely like to return to eat at the Palace
 Cafe, if only for those amazing muffins...