Pacific Thai, Santa Cruz – Restaurant Review
Pacific Avenue is Santa Cruz’s main street. It’s a fascinating place to go for a walk – there is a lot of street theatre, both deliberate and accidental, and always…
Pacific Avenue is Santa Cruz’s main street. It’s a fascinating place to go for a walk – there is a lot of street theatre, both deliberate and accidental, and always…
San Diego means business when it comes to having fun and celebrating life. It has everything required for a fun getaway – beaches, bays, hills, museums, carnivals, and parks. This…
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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…
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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…
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,…
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…
[easy2map id=”25″] (Click on the map icons to know the Address, Contact No. & Rating of a Restaurant.) Santa Cruz has established itself as a beach resort community. It is…
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 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…
[easy2map id=27] (Click on the map icons to know the Address, Contact No. & Rating of a Restaurant.) Do you call yourself a gastronome? No matter what your taste be,…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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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…
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…
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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…
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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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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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…
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,…
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…
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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…
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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…
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