What a great night! Far Western had several factors that stood out for us (as Central Coast locals) among the other great Central Coast steakhouses: service, the shrimp cocktail, the soup and the salad course, and the desserts -- along with great steaks and a fun environment. Let's get into it! We reserved on Open Table and requested Yasha's section because she was mentioned in so many glowing reviews. She is also a manager and has worked at Far Western (including the OG location in Guadalupe) for 15 years. She was an ace server but also showed incredible ownership, making great recommendations and spending some time telling us about the menu and the restaurant - even though it was a busy Friday night. We started with cocktails. Although we had ours at the table, their bar is gorgeous and I recommend coming early for a drink at the bar. You also have the option of dining at the bar, and there was room for walk-ins a little before 6:00 on this particular Friday. We ordered a Paper Plane ($16) and an Elijah Craig Old Fashioned ($16) with cardamom bitters - that one was my favorite. Their cocktail program really stood out with classic steakhouse cocktails with top shelf ingredients and skilled bartending. In awesome Central Coast steakhouse fashion, your entree comes with a relish tray, bay shrimp cocktail (excellent spicy, earthy cocktail sauce), a choice of soup or house salad, pressed garlic bread, a choice of starch (with a few upgrade options), salsa, plus pinquito beans. The clam chowder (available Fridays and Saturdays) was a star in a county with so many good clam chowders. It was bacon-y and not too thick- perfect for our palates. The house salad was one of the best house salads I've ever had - the freshest mix of crispy lettuces (in perfect bite-sized pieces), grape tomatoes, carrots, a slice of watermelon radish (classy!), ordered with gorgeous blue cheese dressing (with crumbles on top) - with or without croutons.This was a big salad you'd be happy with if you'd ordered it à la carte. See photo! We ordered the ribeye (they call it the Bullseye Steak, $69) and the 14 oz sirloin ($60); both were terrific. All the steaks are seasoned with a mix they've bottled and is pretty widely available in area grocery stores called Suzy Qs. It was a great seasoning mix and not too salty. My sirloin (14 oz) came out closer to medium than medium rare. I sent it back and the next one came out perfect. It was also handled with grace. We had a second round of cocktails with dinner - another Elijah Craig old fashioned with the cardamom bitters and a Black Manhattan ($16) - terrific! Our waters were refilled and empty plates cleared quickly by professional and friendly bussers. For dessert we shared a Berry Crostada (house made) with vanilla ice cream. Outstanding! Lovely, light and flaky pastry. This is one of those desserts to have when you want to try something but you're pretty full. Of course we ate the whole thing. After dinner we walked around to look at the photos on the wall and soak up the history of the Central Coast ranches. BTW, plenty of street parking in quiet downtown Orcutt. This might be going to the top of the list for our steakhouse favorites! A real experience. read more