Tortilla Flats (Soquel) – Restaurant Review
In Mexico, one of the big holidays is the Day of the Dead, or in Spanish, Dia de Muertos. It’s a three-day holiday during which people remember and pray for…
California Restaurants
Restaurants in Sacramento, California
‘California begins here’. Sacramento, the capital of California has revamped its efforts on a huge scale to match up with more popular destinations in California like Los Angeles and San…
Michael’s on Main, Soquel – Restaurant Review
I liked this place a lot – it’s sort of the Goldilocks of restaurants in this area. It’s not too big and not too small. It’s sort of tucked away…
Café Gratitude, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
I have always been kind of uncomfortable with the while concept of obligatory gratitude. All the treacly demands that I practice daily gratitude, that it’s some kind of moral obligation,…
Restaurants in San Diego, California
With the Annual San Diego Food Festival taking place in September every year, we have compiled a list of restaurants where you can get into the spirit of the festival…
Restaurants in San Jose, California
The largest city within Silicon Valley and the tenth largest in USA, San Jose marries Spanish historical structures with modern high rise buildings. A regular travel spot for business travelers…
Restaurants in San Francisco, California
The foggy city of San Francisco is the perfect excuse to explore the restaurants and bars that line the streets of the city. Almost all the cities in California have…
Restaurants in Fresno, California
The largest and most important city in the fertile Central San Joaquin Valley, Fresno comprises people from 80 different nationalities, who have set up home here. Fresno has an eventful…
Kauboi, Aptos – Restaurant Review
Kauboi doesn’t really work. It doesn’t even seem as if they’re trying that hard. Oh, well. The name (say it out loud) is sort of an inside joke – the…
Pearl of the Ocean, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
After you’ve done it enough, reviewing restaurants becomes, unsurprisingly, a little predictable. Preparing and serving food is, after all, a business. There are best practices, like in every business, and…
Ideal Bar and Grill, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
Santa Cruz is a town with a split identity. Wow, that sounds like the beginning of a detective novel, doesn’t it? One personality is Beach. Sun, sand, surfing, families, Monterey…
20 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles, California
While you hop about in this city in hopes of catching a glimpse of Jennifer Lopez or Johnny Depp, ignoring what the sun is doing to your flawless complexion, you…
Center Street Grill, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
One of the things I find profoundly irritating about restaurants is the unfortunately common practice of Trying Too Hard. This entails dressing up what ought to be straight-ahead dishes with…
Hollins House, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
This place is a hidden gem, and an unbelievably romantic throwback to a whole other era in the history of the Bay Area. A little background: Santa Cruz is overwhelmingly…
Lago di Como, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
Lago di Como is an odd place. The food isn’t bad, and everyone’s friendly and everything, but you get the impression when you go there that they’re just kind of…
Palapas, Aptos – Restaurant Review
Palapas may be the best Mexican restaurant in the Santa Cruz area. The food is terrific, the atmosphere is lively, fun and smart, and the staff is great. Here’s…
Aquarius, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
Santa Cruz is an unusual town. It has an amazing, and slightly unreal list of world-class things to do and see – the Boardwalk, Big Basin, Monterey Bay, surfing. But…
Kabul Palace, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
This was a very, very good meal. A few completely random thoughts: Afghanistan has basically been at war for the past three decades. The life expectancy there is 45 years.…
West End Tap & Kitchen, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
As John Donne famously wrote, “No man is an island.” First of all, what other restaurant review have you read, ever, that quotes John Donne? Second, no restaurant, apparently, is…
Caruso’s, Capitola – Restaurant Review
Caruso’s is, if not the very best Italian restaurant in the Santa Cruz area, damn close. It and La Casa Nostra are neck-and-neck, although they’re as different as two places…
The Crow’s Nest, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
If you walk down the breakwater in Santa Cruz towards the lighthouse on a summer night, you often can look across the harbor and see an enormous party going on…
Stockton Bridge Grille, Capitola – Restaurant Review
It’s important to remember that, at the end of the day, restaurants are businesses. Not everyone can be (or should be) Thomas Keller. Foodies are, for the most part,…
Assembly, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
Assembly is the new “it” girl of Santa Cruz restaurants. Located in the former Aqua Bleu, Assembly has been packed since the night it opened. The day we reviewed it,…
La Posta, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
We tried out La Posta on Oscar night, 2014. Maybe, as Patrick O’Brian put it in one of his novels, I’m turning into a cantankerous old dog rather than being…
The Tyrolean Inn, Ben Lomond
This place is fantastic. No beating around the bush – it is just plain great. I never really had any idea what German food was, or could be, so maybe…
Hula’s Island Grill, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
Santa Cruz is one of America’s capitals of surfing. According to history, three Hawaiian princes who were in town to attend a military academy had crude wooden boards milled…
Malabar, Santa Cruz
In a little spasm of curiosity, I googled the word “Malabar” before beginning to write this. Turns out, “Malabar” is a Spanish word that means “juggling.” Which is appropriate. This…
The Red Pearl, Boulder Creek – Restaurant Review
The Red Pearl is a dump. For ambience, it is easily the worst place I’ve reviewed in the Santa Cruz area. It’s cold, not especially clean, and decorated like an…
Oswald, Santa Cruz
Oswald is a great little place, with exceptional food, but interestingly, it’s located in a seriously unglamorous part of Santa Cruz. It’s kind of a food fortress – there is…
Suda, Santa Cruz
Suda is a great, big, huge, giant surprise. It looks like it’s going to be sort of run-of-the-mill. The restaurant is one big concrete box, with some arty touches for…
Bittersweet Bistro, Aptos
An initial word of caution, please, or a recommendation for a grain of salt. When I went to Bittersweet, I was sick. I mean, really sick. Like, people sitting nearby…
Booka Restaurant and Bar
In many, many ways, I am a complete sucker for a pretty face. For obvious reasons, this has gotten me into real trouble on more than one occasion. However, at…
Café Sparrow, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
The Stranger: Beer… and a bottle. Lutie Naylor: Ain’t much good, but it’s all there is. [brings drinks] Lutie Naylor: You want anything else? The Stranger: Just a peaceful hour…
Café Rio, Aptos
This place wasn’t actually bad. I have had bad. I know bad. Sometimes it makes you physically sick, or sometimes it makes the entire act of eating seem sort of…
Bantam, Santa Cruz
They always mess up the coffee. Every restaurant I have ever eaten in, that I can remember, always serves mediocre coffee at the end of the meal. It’s either watery,…
Oyunaa’s, Santa Cruz | Restaurant Review
I sat and did a little sobering math before writing this review. If you multiply the number of meals per day (3) by the number of years I’ve been eating…
Bella Roma, Capitola – Restaurant Review
Capitola is a little seaside resort town that’s kind of an extension of Santa Cruz. Downtown Capitola, such as it is, is wedged into a tiny little spit of land…
I Love Sushi, Santa Cruz
I Love Sushi is fun. There’s really no other way to describe it. When you think of Japanese culture, at least as an American, you think of seriousness. Tea ceremonies.…
Horatio’s Restaurant Review
For seafood and steaks in an interesting setting, Horatio’s in the San Leandro Marina is a great spot. With great views of the waterfront and a menu that includes signature…
The Point Chophouse, Santa Cruz
There are steak places in every major American city where the whole point seems to be excess. The steaks are wonderful, but they’re incredibly expensive. The side dishes are all…
Yolo, Santa Cruz
I am a huge fan of the remade Ocean’s Eleven series of movies. In the third one, Ocean’s Thirteen, a man goes into a restaurant in a fancy Las Vegas…
El Palomar Restaurant, Santa Cruz
Something that not a lot of people realize (there’s got to be a more elegant way to phrase that) is that California and Mexico have been, for hundreds of…
Mission Coffee, Fremont
Mission Coffee (or Fremont Coffee Roasting) is a local hangout, coffee shop, restaurant, and music venue in the Mission district of Fremont. Its cool and cozy vibes attract a hipster…
Chocolate Restaurant
I have this personal preference for food that, for want of a better term, tastes like something. I like strong flavors. I like unusual ingredients – sometimes I will go…
The Melting Pot Restaurant Review
Why go to the Melting Pot? Because it’s fon to due! When life calls for a celebration, it’s time to head somewhere a little bit special for a nice evening…
Celia’s Mexican Restaurant Review
Introduction Whenever I’m in the mood for some hearty and consistent Mexican fare, Celia’s is my go-to spot. Offering all the familiar favorites, Celia’s is a fairly traditional Mexican restaurant,…
Gabriella Cafe, Santa Cruz
Gabriella Cafe is a funky, classic little French bistro located in downtown Santa Cruz. The décor is eclectic – the tables don’t all match, the interior is a series of…
Louie’s Cajun Kitchen & Bourbon Bar, Santa Cruz
I have to admit, the entire mystique built up around New Orleans leaves me a little cold. I’ve seen The Big Easy, I’ve eaten at some Cajun restaurants, but ultimately…
The Red Rabbit Kitchen & Bar
The Red Rabbit is a trendy spot in Midtown Sacramento, popular among twenty- and thirty somethings looking for fun and a fancy drink. This place had been recommended by a…
Pizza and Curry, Fremont, CA- Review
Not your typical pizzeria, Pizza and Curry offers food inspired by the fusion of Italian and Indian cuisines. My first reaction upon hearing about this pizza joint was bewilderment, a…
California Café, Los Gatos
A couple of years ago, through some finagling, I got to take a first-class flight on Singapore Airlines from Singapore to San Francisco. This flight, in this service class, on…
Shadowbrook, Capitola
Dinner at Shadowbrook, in Capitola, is not an undertaking to be, uh, undertaken lightly. It’s a big deal – expensive, sprawling, and really, really good. It is going to take…
Green Champa Garden – Restaurant Review
On the hunt for a new Thai restaurant, I came across Green Champa Garden, which categorizes itself as a Thai and Laotian restaurant. Laotian food is new to me, but…
Solaire Restaurant & Bar
Not that long ago, what is now the Paradox Hotel, in Santa Cruz, was, to put it sort of gently, a dump called the University Inn and Conference Center. Described…
Digger’s Diner
Digger’s Diner is a casual restaurant that serves old-fashioned, classic American food, including classic burgers, as well as some dishes that are hard to find today, like patty melts, reubens,…
La Mar Cebicheria Restaurant Review
When San Francisco offers one of its rare clear, sunny, and warm days, you have little choice but to make the most of it. With baseball games and the America’s…
Kabuki Restaurant – Bentos and Sushi
Kabuki is a small and inexpensive Japanese restaurant in Fremont, a real Mom and Pop restaurant, run by a Japanese couple. It’s not glamorous or fancy, but it’s clear that…
Lillian’s Italian Kitchen, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
I spent the first part of my adult life living in South Philadelphia. South Philly is a somewhat rundown part of the city that once was solidly – like, completely…
Red Chili Restaurant – Hayward
Red Chili is a Thai and Vietnamese restaurant in Hayward. Though that might suggest a fusion of the two types of food, it was more like a restaurant that served…
Cafe Cruz Rosticceria & Bar
One of the fascinating things about review restaurants is that along with being a place to eat, a restaurant is also a business. It has a number of different moving…
Soif Wine Bar & Restaurant
This part is easy. As far as I can tell, Soif is the best restaurant in Santa Cruz. I may be wrong – there may be others I haven’t discovered…
Mexico Tortilla Factory & Deli
Some of the best authentic Mexican food is found in the strangest of places around here. It’s not unheard of to find great home-style Mexican food served in the back…
Johnny’s Harborside Restaurant
The Santa Cruz Harbor is home to several hundred boats – everything from stand-up paddleboats to the Chardonnay to every kind of boat in between. Particularly in the summer, it’s…
Spanky’s Dog House
It was the name and the logo that got me first. Spanky’s Dog House – the logo of a cartoon hotdog wearing a spiked collar. How could I pass that…
Paradise Beach Grille
I hardly know where to begin to review the Paradise Beach Grille, in Capitola. To say that it was bad is an understatement. It was bad in a way that’s…
Laili Restaurant
There is a lot – I mean, a LOT – of mediocre Middle Eastern food out there. Here’s your hummus, here’s you falafel, here’s your pita, thanks a lot, pal.…
Cafe El Palomar
There’s a certain mystique attached to the California beach restaurant. A lot of the myth about California is attached to the beach scene, and places right on the water almost…
Mission Pizza – Pizza, beer and family fun
A local establishment that’s been run by the same family for over 20 years, Mission Pizza is a surprising spot, not just for food, but entertainment, too. In all those…
Zero Zero – Pizza in San Francisco, Restaurant Review
With a historic Pride Festival going on and quite possibly the best weather the city has ever seen in June, what better place to spend this Sunday than San Francisco.…
Stagnaro’s – A Santa Cruz Classic
Stagnaro’s is a Santa Cruz classic. It’s been in operation since 1947, and is still run by the original family. It’s right on the Municipal Wharf, and in good weather,…
Akira, Santa Cruz – A Review
Akira is not the place to go in Santa Cruz if you are either a) in a hurry; or b) hard of hearing. Otherwise, it’s fine. The restaurant is located…
La Casa Nostra – Serious Italian Food
If you drive North up Route 9 out of Santa Cruz, one of the first towns you come to is Ben Lomen. Tucked into the redwoods on the southern…
Le Moose Crepe Cafe – Thai Fusion, Restaurant Review
Le Moose Crepe Cafe offers what sounds like a bizarre blend: Thai food and French crepes. This strange mixture of cuisines may have been why I was hesitant to try…
515 Kitchen and Cocktails
I increasingly have a real problem with restaurants that are not, at the end of the day, comfortable. When I go out to eat somewhere, I am not interested in…
The Crepe Place – Santa Cruz
Soquel Avenue in Santa Cruz is a busy, relatively unglamorous commercial part of town. Tire repair shops. A supermarket. A dance studio. And lots of busy traffic. The Crepe Place…
Jimmy’s Place – Union City, CA
Jimmy’s Place is your unassuming neighborhood breakfast diner, serving a traditional American breakfast that also caters to Asian tastes. Jimmy’s Place offers a choice between country potatoes and rice as…
The Original Pancake House
Like its name suggests, the Original Pancake House is an old favorite, known for its wide variety of pancakes. Though the restaurant is a chain with about 100 franchises,…
Grub Shack – Tiny Place, Tasty Food
I knew I was walking towards my first Hawaiian meal and it was a just a few steps away from the office. My first reaction after entering this place…
The Vine – Let’s Do Lunch
In a city where chain restaurants dominate the food scene and the people are starved for something new, unique spots like The Vine are a rare find. Its trendy yet…
Oscar’s Mexican Seafood – San Diego
When I think of the quintessential food of San Diego, California, visions of tacos, rice and beans, or super fresh seafood caught just off the coast instantly come to mind.…
Pizzaiolo – Learn to Enjoy Slow Cooked Food
What exactly happens behind these curtains which makes people stand for, sometimes, over an hour? That food and passion go hand in hand is absolutely true for this place. Orders…
Giorgio’s Italian Food and Pizzeria, Milpitas
The Bay Area has quite a few Italian restaurants. Actually, each of the 12 odd cities have at least two good Italian places from which to choose. Yesterday, we were…
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