Hibachi at Home in Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara is a real drive from our base — about two hours up the 101 and well past the free 50 miles — so a travel fee applies and is shown upfront in your quote. We build in buffer for 101 traffic through Ventura rather than cutting it fine. The weather is the mildest we serve: marine-layer mornings in May and June, afternoons in the 70s most of the year, and evenings that cool fast once the sun is off the water, so a late-afternoon start gets the cooking done in the warm part of the day and lands the fire show at dusk.

Access is the Santa Barbara specific. Montecito estates and Riviera homes often mean a gate, a long drive, and a terrace up a flight of stairs — all workable, all things to tell us at booking. Downtown and Mesa street parking is tight on summer weekends, so a driveway spot or a note on where the chef can unload saves circling. During red-flag conditions in the foothills we keep everything on hardscape clear of brush. We need about a 6x8 ft flat area with roughly 10 ft of overhead clearance; the chef brings the grill, the food, and everything for the show, and takes all of it away — your rental's kitchen stays closed.

Not sure your space works? Send a photo with your quote request and we will confirm the setup spot before your date.

• Outdoor cooking: Montecito and Carpinteria rentals generally allow a propane grill on the patio or lawn — check the house rules and tell the host it is a private chef, not a fire pit.
• Quiet hours: most rentals here go quiet at 10pm. A 5:30 or 6pm start lands the show at sunset and the cleanup before the hour.
• The spot: a level 6x8 ft area with about 10 ft of clearance — a terrace, lawn, or driveway. Low pergolas and deep eaves are the usual reason we shift a few feet.
• Gates and stairs: estate gates, long drives, and a terrace up a flight of stairs are all workable — tell us at booking. Everything leaves with the chef.

Beef: USDA Choice Angus top sirloin. Choice is the grade above Select. We buy Angus program beef rather than whatever is cheapest that week.

Shrimp: BAP-certified. Best Aquaculture Practices — an independent certification covering the farm, the hatchery, the feed and the processing plant.

Salmon: Atlantic salmon fillet, skinless. Portioned fillet, not trim or belly offcuts.

Chicken: Boneless, skinless breast. Hatched, raised and harvested in the USA. Breast meat only — no thigh substitution.

Lobster tail: Wild-caught Caribbean spiny lobster. Our premium upgrade. Wild-caught, not farmed.

Sauces: Terry Ho’s yum yum sauce and Japanese ginger dressing. The ones you already recognise from the restaurant. Both contain egg.

Allergies: Our standard soy sauce is not gluten free, so a gluten-free guest should have their own gluten-free soy and teriyaki on hand and we'll cook their portion with it. We can't promise a nut- or sesame-free table — the sauces and gyoza are commercial products, the gyoza contain sesame, and one sauce is made in a plant that also handles peanuts. Tell us the allergy when you book and we'll check the labels in use for your date.

Wedding Weekends. The welcome dinner or rehearsal night at the rental house, with a show instead of trays — the one meal of the weekend that is not a seated event.

Wine-Country Weekends. Tasting in the Funk Zone or up in the Santa Ynez Valley by day, and a chef already setting up on the terrace when the group gets back. Nobody drives to dinner.

Milestone Birthdays at Montecito Estates. The fortieth or the sixtieth with twenty people at one long table on the lawn, and a teppanyaki flame as the evening's centerpiece.

UCSB Graduation & Parents' Weekends. Family in from out of town, a rental in Goleta or on the Mesa, and one dinner that the graduate's friends can join without anyone booking a restaurant for fourteen.

See how each celebration plays out: birthdays, pool parties, family reunions and more party ideas.

Montecito & Hope Ranch Estates. Lawns, terraces, and big patios built for a crowd. The grill sets up on any level 6x8 ft spot; the show plays to the whole table at once.

Beach Houses in Carpinteria & Summerland. Decks a few steps from the sand. We set against a wall or windbreak on the ocean side, because the afternoon breeze is real.

Downtown Casitas & Riviera Rentals. Spanish-style courtyards and hillside patios with a view of the harbor — tight on parking, generous on setting.

Santa Barbara is where Southern California goes for the weekend that matters: the wedding weekend, the milestone birthday at a Montecito estate, the family in town for a UCSB graduation, the friends who rented a Carpinteria beach house for three nights. Somebody has to feed everyone at least once, and the group that came for the coast has no interest in cooking. A private hibachi chef turns that night into the one they talk about — the grill on the terrace, the fire show against the sunset, and nobody in the kitchen.

We come to Santa Barbara, Montecito, Summerland, Carpinteria, Goleta, and Hope Ranch. Same published price as everywhere else — $59.90 per adult, $29.90 per child 5–12, kids under 5 eat free, $599 event minimum — and the travel fee for the drive up the coast is calculated from your address and shown in your quote before you pay anything.