Assembly

High ceilings, nice open room, friendly service, great Chardonnay and delicious dinner salad. Lingered for a couple hours in conversation without feeling rushed. Will definitely go back!

On my first visit for brunch I found the food and service to be excellent. My second visit however was a disapointment. The lunch menu was very limited so I choose a chopped salad. I did not eat one bite as it did not look like it was chopped and the toppings were unappealing looking — quinoa and sauerkraut — but I ordered it because nothing else appealed to me. The server didn’t come by the table after the food was served despite the light crowd that day. We had to flag him down to get our check. Anyway when a server sees that you don’t touch your meal I would think they’d take it off your bill. I didn’t ask them to do so because I don’t want to have to defend myself over ten dollars. The server sent the manager over and she was asking me why I didn’t like it. I gave her the feedback but the server had already rung up our check and I told her I wasn’t going to quibble over a ten dollar salad and she went ahead and left it on the bill. I still don’t understand why they charged me in the first place but it is awkward to send a manager over and ask me present my position. It was just awkward and undignified.

I ate here twice on my recent visit to Santa Cruz. The menu is diverse and covers all bases, from heathy to comfort food.
On the first visit I had a little gem salad, beautifully dressed with fine herbs and crushed pistachios. To follow I had the pork shoulder with corn bread and broccolini. It melted in my mouth. Dessert, an affogato with Verve coffee.
On my second visit I felt like sampling more dishes and there are plenty of smaller plates to try. I had hush puppies with Gouda and spinach then the burrata plate. The lady next to me at the bar was having an excellent looking superfood salad.
I can not wait to go back and try their weekend brunch.

Yummy snacks and great environment. But the service is a little lacking. Nice servers but just a little slow. Great beer choice! Didn’t get to dine for dinner but definitely will be back.

One word: YES
This is my favorite place for dinner. The food is very good.

Service was a tiny bit slow but that does not matter. The food was obscenely good. Best meal I have ever had in my life. Fair prices too

BUYER BEWARE!!! Guess I was a fool… After a relatively good meal and service (2^nd visit), I realized afterwards that I OVER-​PAYED $ 79 for a $ 20 bottle of Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard Pinot when I saw it in the New Leaf grocery store next door. That’s a 395% MARK-​UP… REALLY??? I’m done with this place — NO MORE!!!

Delicious and nice accommodating staff. This was a good find while visiting in Santa Cruz. After looking at the reviews and the menu for the evening we decided to explore this dining. We were pleased of our chose the roast chicken and halibut was delicious, the deserts were tasty and nice to see Affagato on the menu along with apéritif. Good choice for my son as well who could enjoy the Western burger plus they have a kids menu.

Check-​out the Assembly Pop-​Up right next door to the main Assembly dining room. One day, one chance for fun young budding chefs to try their customer attraction. Tonight, April 2^nd, it’s quail with blood-​orange waffles. New one on ya, right?

Here’s my disassembly. Although big and modern, Assembly is all bark and no bite. With their meh service and their even worse food, I would have to give Assembly a solid ¹⁄₅. They seemed to be short staffed, and our waiter was colder then our water, and that was just the service. The French Dip I always love might as well been called the Canadian Dip, it was lacking flavor and greasy. Overall on a serious note, I would not reccomend going to Assembly and going to one of the other many resturants Santa Cruz has to offer.
–Emiliano

Really great experience at Assembly on a Friday night. I had gotten the Groupon for two prix fixe dinners for $ 68, and it was a great deal!
We each enjoyed a glass of wine and chewed on bread with butter before our appetizers arrived. Scotch olives and the hushpuppies were shared, though neither was off the charts.
The entrees were great! Chicken with veggies and fried yukon potatoes, and short rib with horseradish sauce, spaetzle and veggies. Both dishes were excellent and we wiped our plates clean :)
Dessert was… well, different. The chocolate mousse is more of a deconstructed dish, with cacoa powder, vanilla ice cream and a tart yogurt heaped in a dish with the actual mousse. I believe the idea is to sample the mousse with the different elements, but you could always swirl the whole thing together to make your own dessert. I had three tiny scoops of sorbet. The chocolate was incredibly rich – really good. The lemon sorbet was tart and flavorful, but the third – it was blood orange with anise. If you don’t know what to expect, it’s a real shock to the system. I ended up eating all of the chocolate, some of the lemon and none of the orange sorbet.
Overall, the environment is great, the waitstaff was responsive and the food was worth the $ 68 I spent. Mostly. I’m anxious to go back, and I’ll remember to ask some questions when I order from them in the future.
Note to waitstaff: When dishes are somewhat «different» in nature, it would be lovely if you would elaborate on their makeup when they are delivered. I think most people would appreciate a little description of what they’re getting in advance :)

So I finally stepped inside this place via the pop up space that was slangin’ ramen on monday. One of the bowls was veggie, and knowing better than that I ordered the tonkatsu bowl. $ 9.50.
Out comes this lukewarm bowl of noodles with four pretty tasty pieces of pork, but the soup SUCKED. I was expecting something hot, which I guess is too much to ask for these days. Sure it has some cute garnish etc. blah blah blah but WTF is going on when the weather is cold and shitty and you pay 10 bucks for a bowl of lukewarn ramen?!!
Never again. I should have listened to my intution. These high end whitewashed foodie joints in town are killing me…

I agree with the reviews that say that this place does a pretty good job at imitating a ‘trendy’ restaurant from the City. The interior looks very modern and simple, but there is plenty of room for improvement.
My boyfriend and I ordered the steak/​avocado salad, and I had their west coast burger. Both were alright dishes, but nothing fantastic stood out. For an extra three dollars, I upgraded my side of fries to their «garlic fries», but I think it was far from being as good as the garlic fries offered at one of my favorite burger chains, superduperburger. The dressing on the salad was interesting, kind of like a tangy sun dried tomato dressing? Anyways, total, lunch for two without drinks came out to be about 38 dollars, meh.
Assembly serves as an OK substitute if you are in the area and want the feel of a more hip restaurant. Definitely weren’t any college students around when I went, so I felt a little out of place.
Street parking.
In a nice area with lots of shops nearby, especially Verve & Penny Ice Creamery!

Stopped in recently for a quick drink with a friend and would like to go back when I have more time. We sat at the bar, tried a few beers before settling on one called «Mischief» (and then told our bartender that it should always be served with the exclamation «Mischief managed!» for any potential Harry Potter fans, and he took it in very good humor).
The service was awesome– we were checked on by 3 staff total, and our bartender was adorably personable. We ordered «dirty» fries as a snack, and it turned out to almost be a giant nacho plate made with french fries instead of chips– tasty!
Check this one out. I think it has quite a bit of potential. I’ll come back for a full meal by the fire pit next time.

The last few times we’ve come to Assembly, the system just wasn’t working anymore. Either the service was lacking, or the food quality was off, or the fries were not fresh and hot — and quite frankly, the cold fries and cold poutin were the most disappointing experience of all since it was the fries that got me hooked in the first place! Please return to your original standards or we may not be back. There are other new places filling the demand for «upscasual.» I still love the ambience and décor, and hubby dreams of your fresh-​baked bread and butter with coarse salt. We’re rooting for you!

Tried this restaurant for the first time. From reviews and walking by, it appeared to be a nice, modern, somewhat trendy and hip upscale restaurant in the middle of the Pacific Garden Mall in Santa Cruz. The décor and seating is very comfortable and the decorations are very nice. The service was excellent, and we were seated immediately after making reservations.
Parking is street parking only, but there are numerous public lots just one block West and parallel to Pacific that are $.50 an hour. The kitchen and bathroom were clean and the bar area was nice as well.
The food was excellent. One of my friends ordered the pork belly and cod and the portions size was very very small compared the rest of us. He was the biggest guy in our group as well. There is a $ 15 corkage fee for bringing your own wine, but this beats paying $ 100+ for a bottle at the restaurant. They were also out of the Scottish Olives which had caught my attention in the first place which was a bummer. Also the menu was very limited with basically three choices for appetizers, three salads, and four entrees or one special to choose from. The selection was decent for me, but a couple more choices for appetizers or entrees might be nice.
Overall, the service was great, the place was clean, and the food was pretty decent. It is one of the better choices in Santa Cruz. The bill for four was $ 150 including tax and the $ 15 corkage fee, which was not bad for fine dining.

I’ve eaten here a couple times at this point. But first, may I say, one of the better contemporary beer garden-​esque places I’ve been. The food I’ve had there has always been amazing, though the menu do change from time to time, everything I’ve ordered has been visually spectacular and delicious as well. I got really excited to see spätzle on the menu, and it’s super accommodating to gluten free guests !
Would suggest all the desserts as well, it’s defiantly worth the calories

It was ok. I would say a 3.5! We got the burger and the dip appetizer for 3 and also the chicken. Burger was fine, nothing amazing. Dip was delicious. The chicken was served like warm and barley any meat – for $ 20 it should be a hearty portion, to me. Especially if it’s served with some tomatoes and potatoes. Service was fine… nothing genuine. Unfortunately SC lacks a good upscale restaurant so in the big scheme this is a ³⁄₅ maybe a 4 if we didn’t pay $ 100 for our meal…
It is better the last year when we gave it a shot, I have to say.

The first (and it won’t be the last) time I went there it was part of a food tour. We sampled a few of Assembly’s unique dishes and each and every one of them was very tasty, light, and fresh. According to the food tour guide everything here is made from scratch and is all organic. The founders hail from Manresa (a Michelin star restaurant in Los Gatos) and it shows!
The décor and atmosphere was top notch with interesting antler chandeliers above and hipster-​esque décor throughout. Everything was very clean and orderly.
Service was very friendly as well. I can’t wait to go back to Assembly!

A nice Gastropub in downtown Santa Cruz with good burgers and pretty impressive desserts.
We ordered two burgers, a hummus beet dip and a salad for our party. The salad was very good, the ingredients were fresh and flavors played well together — the dressing was on the side, and that’s a very good thing, it seemed unnecessarily greasy…
The burgers came out with a brioche bun and an impressive thick patty.
They forgot the bring out hummus and beets dip at first, but brought it out later with great lavash chips. I love beets, so it tasted great in my opinion. However, I didn’t discover whole lot of hummus taste in that.
Now, desserts delivered that cherry on top, as they should! Pot de crème was great, loved the combination of flavor, but adding fresh tangerine spoil the experience a bit. The beignets — well, they didn’t really taste like beignets or look like beignets, more like fluffy doughnut holes, but they were delicious with light vanilla sauce and cherry on the bottom. Cappuccino was very nicely done as well.