Samba Rock Acai Cafe

The Ayrton Senna with extra peanut butter topping is incredible. This place is the real deal for acai bowls. Not blended with ice or made in some trendy way. Just really good acai bowls!

I will fully admit before writing this review that it is completely bias. After living in Brazil for 24 months, I absolutely love anything Brazil; therefore a Brazilian café that sells açai and other native foods is a win in my book! I didn’t try their açai on this occasion, but I did have the pão de queiso which has always been a favorite of mine and I must say it was legitimate; made just like Brazil; brought back memories!
Not to mention the employee working their was Brazilian! A+ for authenticity! If you want to try some awesome traditional Brazilian treats, stop by!

So the toppings are good– fresh strawberries, good granola and ripe bananas. The acai — is not so good. Being a Southern California native I’ve had my fair share of acai bowls and this just doesn’t compete. Samba Rock’s acai is WAY too icy… Yes icy. My entire acai was ice shards… I think they pre make the acai blend because they don’t blend it fresh. They scoop it out of tubs so possibly freeing the acai is what makes it have ice shards but regardless I wasn’t thrilled about spending 20 bucks on this. Blending fresh acai for each bowl which is what I’m used to would most likely eliminate the icy-​ness. Awesome strawberries tho!

This was so delicious! I’m no expert on Acai bowls but this was one of the freshest bowls I’ve had. The granola and extra topping options were also to die for– I would definitely recommend the Seu Jorge bowl and I’ll be back to try more! The service was also amazingly friendly!

Best acai bowls ever! Such a cool place with really friendly workers. So many options to satisfy any and all of your acai dreams. I will be back as soon as I can.

My favorite Acai Bowl place IN THE BAY. It’s always a good choice. The menu is simple: Acai Bowls, Smoothies, & a few Baked Goods. I usually get the one with Peanut Butter but last time I ordered the «Amazon Bowl in Santa Cruz» (Acai w/​Pineapple, Banana, Avocado, Granola, & topped with Coconut Cream) and it blew my mind.
Now they do a Mini size and it’s perfect. But if you have a larger appetite, roll with the Regular and you should be more than satisfied.

This place definitely has the right kind of environment and feel. The wait is not very long and their selection has a balanced variety of flavors and ingredients. As an acai coinneseur I would prefer to have unsweetened acai but really my only complaint is that the blend was icy so I know it must have been sitting in the freezer for a bit. I really love the fresh cut pineapple and their granola is nice and crunchy! This is definitely a must try place if you are visiting Santa Cruz!

Came here on a Sunday afternoon. Not the worst but certainly not the best. Texture was reminiscent of homemade sno-​cones. I do like it more overall than Café Brasil’s acai bowl though.
Pros: variety of flavors, fairly cheap
Cons: parking is along water street (could be difficult on a busy day)

It was me and my +1’s first time trying acai bowls. We got two bowls: one with peanut butter, and the other with fruits only.
The thing is, we discovered at this store that acai bowls aren’t really our thang. We ate these for breakfast and they were too sweet for our taste. But, rest be assured, the ingredients were fresh and the overall food quality was great. Perhaps, more fitting for dessert?
Also, cute + hippy santa cruz decors!
TL, DR: Me and +1 no likey acai bowls but this place rocks!

I’ve been everywhere, man. Samba knocks it out of the park E V E R Y time though. I have yet to find a place thats comparable with their prices, quality AND taste. Not to mention authenticity. Another thing thats great about Samba Rock is that they give you a variety of choices for bowl sizes. I can come for a snack, smaller lunch or hardier meal, depending on my mood. I get the Pelé pretty much every time, although I have enjoyed the Tropicalisimo açai smoothie before.
Not to mention, they have indoor bike parking for you, which I feel is over looked despite being a particularly unique and awesome feature. How cool is that?
I always try to make a stop here when I’m home!

We heard good things about this place so decided to try it out. I got an original acai bowl (comes with fruit and granola topping). The acai was a bit on the icy side and not too sweet, but I like it that way. The Airton Senna is blended with peanut butter and sweeter.
The service was quick and there were plenty of seating inside. I’d come back if I were in the area and craving acai bowls. =]

As a known fan of acai my mom took me to this place saying it is better than café brasil. I was stunned how on earth could it be better than café brasil. When we get there we wait in a pretty long line and pick up menus. There are quite a few acai bowls to choose from along with extra tipping and smoothie options. I ended up getting the Da Silva (acai+banana topped with strawberries and granola). I added banana to really compare it with Café Brasil. As we sat and waited we noticed a lot of people coming through and recognized this place is pretty popular. When I got my order I was surprised by how icy the acai was. It was good but I couldn’t get over the texture. Café brasils acai was smoother and creamier which I think pairs well with crunchy granola and yummy banana and strawberry. Although café brasil doesn’t have nearly as many options as Samba Rock I think I will be sticking with café brasil. Tip if you do come here and similarly don’t like the consistency just wait a few minutes for the iciness to melt!

Tasty! The line is long and the service is slow with limited seating but the bowls are great!

I was in the area to drop my sister off back at UCSC, and decided I was in the mood for a quick bite. I wouldn’t say I’ve had acai bowls a whole bunch, but I’ve had them here and there, and it was a warm day, so I searched up Unilocal,and this place had great reviews. My sister and I both decided to go with the Carmen Miranda bowl with honey, a regular size for her and a large size for me. It was kind of an off hour like 2pmish, so the place didn’t seem too crowded, and we received our bowls fairly quickly.
As I dug in, the first thing I noticed was that the texture of their acai was a bit more on the frozen side, sort of slushy-​like. I actually really enjoyed this texture, and I like biting into things because if I wanted to sip/​drink something, I’d buy a smoothie. The honey on top really hit the spot and the fruits on top were delicious.
I’m not sure how my sister felt, but I kind of wished I could have gotten a bit more. For a large priced at 9 $, I kind of felt like there could have been maybe a few more bits of fruit and/​or a little more of the acai. But, overall the flavors were solid.
Parking here seems like it could be terrible at a busy time. There is no dedicated parking lot, and I wouldn’t really want to pay a meter just to step inside for 10 – 15 minutes to order a bowl to go. I’m not from the area so I’m not sure how strict the parking enforcement is on the meters out in front. After I parked, I rushed inside to order and kept nervously looking over my shoulder to make sure I wouldn’t get ticketed.
Aside from the parking situation, I liked my acai bowl very much, and I’ll probably be back here and there to try a few other bowls.

I went here yesterday and got the Ayrton Senna (size regular) + peanut butter on top.
I thought the portions were good, and the acai itself was a thicker consistency than I’d had previously — but I kind of dug it. The bowl itself was amazing and the peanut butter on top made it even better.
The one thing that almost ruined it for me was the girl who made my bowl. I’m always nice to people who have to deal with customers because I use to work shit retail — but she was so hostile! My name got called and I walked up — but the bowl wasn’t mine. There wasn’t peanut butter on top, and it was super busy so I didn’t know if there was more than one person named Stephanie there — so I asked if it was the peanut butter bowl. Homegirl starts snapping at me and then at the cashier guy who’d rang me up. I honestly have no idea what she was saying — because she was half-​yelling at me, half-​yelling at the cashier. In the end she made the bowl I’d ordered and I apologized to her for the inconvenience of having to remake it — because I get it, it’s probably not her dream job to make people’s smoothie bowls. It was still good.
tl;dr = the employees are a little rude but like, the food is good so oh well, deal with it.

I came here at around 4pm on a Friday and was only inside for about 10 mins. My boyfriend and I shared «the regular» (I forget it’s actual name, but it’s the one with granola, strawberries, and bananas) and ate it rather quickly because the portion wasn’t that big. The acai here has a more frozen consistency than I’m used to, but it wasn’t bad. Though I thought the acai: toppings ratio was a little off.
So what made this such an unpleasant experience for me you ask? We left and went outside to find that my car wasn’t the way that we left it… Someone had spray painted my car window, which thankfully we were able to wash off since the paint was still fresh. Still, I don’t plan to relive it for an acai bowl that was just aight imo.

Hands down the best place to get a delicious and refreshing acai bowl with fresh fruits! And it’s awesome that it’s in Santa Cruz because you can take it to go and enjoy it on a hot summer day at the beach!
I usually get the Da Silva but this time I wanted to try something new and got the Seu Jorge, which is the samba rock acai with passion fruit topped with kiwi, banana, and granola. It was super yummy and a perfect healthy snack! I just wish that the acai didn’t melt so fast because I prefer to eat it slow to savor the taste. Other than that, I would totally come back.

I ordered the Carmen Miranda, which comes with mangos, pineapples, papayas, bananas and granola over banana-​blended acai. I made a mental note to add honey on top, as they advised on their little «tip» on the menu but of course I forgot to actually ask for it when I reached the cashier. My bf ordered the Pele, which comes with blueberries, strawberries, bananas and granola over banana-​blended acai.
The fruits were more on the tart/​sour side, but that’s probably something they can’t control? (That honey would’ve really helped on my bowl!) Both were delicious, tasted fresh and had a good amount of granola; our minis were filling for the both of us. On that note, I do notice what seems to be an inconsistency with the bowls. Some bowls would be filled more than others, despite being the same size bowl. (I also wanted to mention that we waited 20 – 25 mins for our bowl; we came when there was no line and probably only 2 – 3 people ahead of us waiting for their bowls) I do understand where others are coming from when they say the customer service can be a little… snarky. Hopefully we just caught them on a bad day???
Just some tips that I would have liked to known on my first time here — The paper menu handouts are situated on a short stand once you walk in towards the right. The bathroom key is attached on a hoola hoop! There is a designated spot for it on the wall, however I don’t think people put it back. I was holding my pee for a loooong time thinking that someone was in the bathroom the whole time! Hahaha. poor bladder. Anyway, look for the hoola hoop! It was chillin’ in front of the bathroom. silly me thought it was some hallway décor… I didn’t make anything out of it. Ha ha ha.
In short, I would only come back if I just so happen to be in the area.

Good stuff. I have had Samba Rocks many times when my husband brought it home after surfing. But, today was my first trip. The line was straight out the door when I arrived and my husband assured me (via text) that it would be pretty quick. Well, not exactly. It probably took about 25 – 30 min from waiting until the food was ready. But, the service was very friendly and the avail bowl was worth the wait. I had the Pele Bowl: banana, strawberries, blueberries, granola and some coconut on top. Super refreshing and filling!
My only thought to the owner is to call out/​provide the orders from a separate area from where people are ordering. That area was a bit congested. In the scheme of things, this is a small gripe. I am totally coming back for more!

I’ll be upfront, I LOVE acai bowls.
I went to school down in SoCal so I’ve had my fair share of them and I like to think I know a thing or two about them. However, this place has to be my favorite! I got their mini and it was like baby bear’s porridge for me – just the right size. I can’t remember the name of my order but I got a bowl with mango and pineapples. The fruit was yummy and everything tasted wholesome and refreshing. My friend and I stopped by after our AM hike on Memorial Day so we didn’t have trouble with street parking. However, I can see how parking can be an issue as they don’t have their own private lot. Wish this place was closer. I definitely recommend checking it out!