Santa Cruz Diner

This is a generous 2 stars. I saw guy fieri stopped here so i had to check it out. Food was cheaply priced. But i guess you get what u pay for. I want my 9 bucks back. Isnt there any place in santa cruz that isnt overpriced with decent food?

We stopped by a little after 11 (leaving the Boardwalk) strictly because it was not a chain restaurant. We noticed on the roof a sign saying «Guy ate here». We were very confused by this — what guy, who, why do we care?
MENU: is ridiculously big and very random. This diner has a lot of American food then there is an Asian section. But don’t get too excited they say on the menu that dinner is not served after 11 and then on the lunch section they don’t make everything in the evening. Rather confusing — especially since everything I wanted they couldn’t make because it was 11:15.
MEALS: Nothing impressive. Clam chowder had too much celery for our liking. Omelet was on the larger size. It would be great if they told us that they were charging us for condiments.
SERVER: We had a total of 3 servers. 1 who said he was new and didn’t think they had a kids menu (they did), he didn’t have answers to any questions. He refilled drinks with no ice. Then he disappeared and two others helped us.
BATHROOM: Womens bathroom was GROSS especially for a bathroom that you need a code to get into. There was pee all over the seat on one bathroom. The other was clogged. Trash all over the floor — I needed to disinfect myself when I left.
OTHER: Décor was overwhelming. Our son who has Asperger’s (Autism) was having a hard time with how close the tables were and the walls were flooded with random stuff. One cool thing is they had on all the tables the game cards, trivial pursuit. We ended up playing with the family next to us.

I know it says that guy ate here but this place is not good. Poor service, food was cold. Took forever to get waited on by a waitress that acted like she didn’t even want to be there. Horrible Father’s Day experience. I wish I would have read the Unilocal reviews before going here. We will not be back.

In my last review I said that I hardly ever write bad reviews but I seem to be having a streak of bad luck in all the restaurants I stop in. Service here was great but the food was terrible. That’s what happens when you have a WIDE RANGE on the menu. Granted that’s usually appealing but here it’s the ruin of this diner. I don’t know why Guy liked this place. I ordered the chicken teriyaki and bit into fat and even a little bit of chocolate? (My brother ordered chocolate chip pancakes and they seemed to be in my food too.) The chicken here is made of thigh chicken not chicken breast.
This place deserves all the negative reviews, and if not for the kind waitress would deserve one star less.
Also their bathroom sucked. Hasn’t been cleaned since 1897. McDonalds would have been better.

I ordered the NY steak and eggs breakfast.
The steak was tender and juicy– the eggs, hash browns and toast was nothing special. Service is okay. Santa Cruz is known for small mom and pop shops. There is not a whole lot of restaurants to choose from and on weekends you should expect to wait at least 45 minutes here.

I love this place. Good variety of food at a reasonable price. Been there any times and will be back for many more.

Wow. Guy Fieri better not go back there right now! All I can say is, YUK! Burger was rubbery, horrible processed cheese on it. Worse part was although the server was excellent in his personality and service, every one of his fingernails had dirt under them! I guess management does not care about cleanliness. Bathroom is horrible. The whole place looks a mess. Dirty. Never again.

Good food good service. Fun place to eat.
Don’t go here if you are looking for a fancy meal but if good, well made, real American food is what you want this is the place for you. The wait staff is fast and friendly. This is a great old time dinner experience.

Quirky Santa Cruz at it’s finest! This is nothing fancy, or gourmet. In fact it’s little grungy, which just ads the the charm. The service is good, and the kids love it here.
I also really enjoy the fact that they have trivial pursuit cards at each table, so you can quix each other while you wait. The food is pretty good. It’s no Zachary’s but it’s a step above Dennys, and you hardly ever have to wait.

We were staying down the street at the Holiday Inn Express and saw this quaint little place. I enjoy going to various diners just to experience a «home-​like» meal. We arrived for dinner around 8 PM and the first thing we noticed as we walked in was the stale smell — attributed it to it being an older establishment. We were seated right away and the waiter came by soon afterwards.
The meal, itself, did not take overly long to arrive. I ordered the bone-​dry teriyaki chicken and rice bowl (oh, bone-​dry was not in the description, but it should have been), my daughter ordered the kids hamburger and fries. The burgers at AM/​PM looked more appetizing. — minus 2 star. After powering through ½ of my tasteless teriyaki bowl, my water cup was empty and no waiter to be seen. 10 minutes later, still no one stopping by to refill cups or ask if everything was OK. For the lack of service alone, mark off 1 star.
As the evening progressed, both my wife and daughter had to leave the restaurant. My daughter felt like she was going to throw up. I attribute that to the stale smell of the restaurant. Minus 1 more star. Once she was outside in the fresh Santa Cruz air, she slowly regained her stomach and things were OK.
It could have been just bad timing, but I can honestly say, I will never eat there again. I highly recommend to those folks that enjoy good food — don’t eat at Santa Cruz Diner. If you want to enjoy a dining experience more appealing, try jack in the box.

Evidently this place is quite famous. Triple D has been here and of course many reviews here on Unilocal.Lots of random junk adorning the walls in an almost Bennigan’s like feel to this place. It was busy and packed full of people for the most part. The service wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible and the food overall was actually quite good .I went with the country fried steak dinner that comes with mixed vegetables mashed potatoes and a cup of soup all of which were quite tasty. Soup, beef dumpling, was a bit cold but not that bad. Price was great $ 9.49. I tried the oreo shake for desert. (Was good not great and plentiful)
Overall I’d say it was good experience and I definitely would come back. For quicker service set up at the bar that’s what I did.

C’mon, Santa Cruz Diner.
I took my husband and daughter here yesterday. We entered at the end of the lunch rush and were seated at the counter where we waited, and waited and waited… Finally a really nice younger gal asked us if we’d been served (since we had been sitting there for 20 minutes without anyone asking us for our drink order).
She was able to get our order and then we waited… and waited. and waited. until regular counter waitress came over to identify herself as our server. Really? After 45 minutes you decided to wait on us?
I watched as part of our food order sat in the window for a good 15 minutes while the cook got around to my turkey burger. Everyone seated long after my family were already receiving their checks and I finally had to ask for our food.
Santa Cruz Diner — look. You rely on us locals to get you through the non-​peak tourist season. Step up on the service or we won’t be back and you will soon find that your local business withers on the vine.

Food is good & diner is comfortable. Definitely good vibes. The hispanic woman (40s) server is pretty rude… Everyone else is more than friendly. Phở is pretty good coming from a diner and I LOVE their ice!

I really don’t know why this place only has 2.5 stars. It’s not a bad place to eat. I’d say 3.5 stars.
It’s a cool diner with lots of signs and junk on the wall that’s fun to look at. You can play trivial pursuit while you wait too.
The food is just fine. It’s a diner, what do you expect? How many diners have Asian options as well as vegatarian and vegan? They got you covered.
The prices are good. A decent NY steak dinner with salad and bread (grilled garlic toast… mmm)for 12 bucks? Sure!
Fried chicken dinner for under $ 10? Yup
Pies, cakes and shakes. Mmmm
Down fall: they need to dust their décor more.
They aren’t open 24 hours anymore. Boooo
They are open late which is nice. The wife and I eat late sometimes and this is a great go to spot when we don’t want to cook late

I’m from NYC. Home of the diners. …I am really picky because I believe I have been to the best. I almost get the same thing everywhere. Steak and eggs rye toast with home fries.
My steak was burnt and not the medium I ask 4. The hash browns seemed like they were frozen and was only cooked on the outside. My husband did like his waffles so that is a plus. Oh My toast was good.
And to top it all off they gave me a paper plate and a piece of foil to wrap my food to go. I guess this is just one of those type of places. It was packed in there too

PROS: They have an assortment of dishes on their menu that will satisfy even the pickiest eater, guaranteed! Been coming to this establishment forever! Whether it’s only my husband and I, OR the whole gang… 8 of us! We’re always served by a friendly waiter/​waitress and always accommodating! LOVE that they wish you well…
CONS: Maybe on busy days it can slow down… and if you’re hungry it can be trying… but, there’s a reason it’s packed and just know, they’ll give you their undivided attention ASAP…

This is my 2^nd time here and I’m writing the review simply for Marcus our server. The moment we walked in he greeted us and showed us to our seats. He was very friendly and he smiled ! I can’t count how many times I’ve gone to a restaurant and the server does not smile. EVER. As a food server in Vegas, I’m very observant and cognizant to this. And I think it’s important to acknowledge a server when they actually care like they want to work. So hats off to Marcus!
P.S Food and prices were good. Next time I’m in Santa Cruz I’ll be back it’s become a tradition to stop in here.
P.P.S love the cheesy, campy décor.

It’s not great, but there are only limited options for late night and I’ll readily choose SC Diner over Jack-​in the-​Crack.

Came here because I saw it on Diner, Dine-​ins and drives.
Big selection of menu and open 24 hours with breakfast served all day. Sounds good.
The prices are reasonable and the service is good enough.
We ordered a make your own omelet and prime rib dinner. For 10 $ that prime rib was well worth it. Super flavorful and juice and really tender. The omelet was nice and fluffy with good flavor. came with side of potato and pancakes. the prime rib came with side soup or salad, rice and a side of greens. I chose the side soup of clam chowder and that was so good I wanted to just order the soup.
I had fun eating here and I enjoyed it. I will return again

I read the reviews after we stopped here for a bit of lunch. The reviews were mixed and so were ours. Parking seems to be at a premium; luckily we found a spot in the lot behind the restaurant
It was busy! The crowd was a cross section of old people, young families, visitors and locals. We were seated after about 15 minutes. I enjoyed the diner like vibe and the hustle and bustle of people coming and going and the servers delivering meals to the table.
I had breakfast at home and ordered something light so I would be hungry later for an interesting dinner. A half of grilled cheese on grilled sourdough was my choice. There isn’t much you can do to a basic grilled cheese than put it on the plate and serve it. I was happy with sandwich and realized I should have had a whole one. Pam had a veggie omelet. The menu did not mention it had curry in it. If it had she would have ordered something else; she left most of it on her plate. Kevin had a hamburger and was happy with it.
The menu is varied and everything is reasonably price. I would come again.