The Picnic Basket

Yum!!! The frittata breakfast sandwich was amazing. A little heavy of the butter, so maybe ask them to go easy on it. Casual environment with above deck to sit and watch people. I’d go back and recommend it!

Good stuff! Had the market salad and the veggie baguette! Really good stuff! Off the boardwalk across from ideal. Go try and find out how good it can be!

Sanwiches are so yummy and fairly priced. The restaurant is in front of the beach. Would definitely come back here when I’ll be in Santa Cruz again.

We had their recommended salad and sandwich. We were on our way back to LA from SF. I thought it was overpriced and taste was alright. If this store was in LA, It wouldn’t be a good business but beach style had many customers to come try, I guess.

Standout spot in a non-​standout area. Santa Cruz boardwalk has its fun but great food is definitely not usually part of it. This place right around the corner is a great place to escape for a good healthy lunch. Good clean fresh ingredients. Interesting takes and flavors on old-​standbye sandwiches. Of the 3 I tried, the reuben was my favorite with nice portion of fresh carrots complementing the usual reuben flavor.
Only gripe is it was running pretty slow — about 20 minutes to get a sandwich.

Definitely one of the better/​cleaner choice to eat across from the beach than most spots. The sandwiches looked great and hearty. The downside for me was the salad that I had ordered. Which ended up being basically a MASSIVE plate of spinach. I think I got all my days worth of fiber on the one plate. Toppings were sparse with a few bits of goat cheese found as random treasure. For the price I was pretty disappointed what I paid for and got. The one thing that this place redeemed itself for was it’s homemade kumquat gelato, which was freaking amazing! Never had anything as good as that!

This place is on the pricier end for what they sell, but quality is there. Located by the wharf and boardwalk, it is a prime location to stop by and grab a quick bite for breakfast, brunch, or lunch.
My mom and I dropped by for breakfast on a Sunday morning, before we began our trip back north. As a marathon took place that morning, the line was quite long for this place. I would say it took about 20 minutes to get to the front of the line to place an order and pay, then another 15 minutes for the food. The turkey avocado cheese sandwich we ordered was delicious and great for sharing! I also greatly enjoyed their fresh-​squeezed orange juice.
Metered street parking or park at the wharf at a much higher rate. Lovely place to grab a bite before or after exploring the wharf and Boardwalk!

I live on the west side, and I am still looking for a great place to have breakfast outside. The only place so far I love is The Bagelry.
I have tried The Picnic Basket three times. My biggest gripe about this place is the super slow pace. Expect to wait forever. The last time I went to The Picnic Basket, I was the only person there. And it still took forever to make, get this, and egg salad sandwich and a salad. In 15 minutes, I could have made the sandwich myself. It really is ridiculous.
There isn’t much seating, but the view is awesome.

Hey, is that Boo Boo Stewart? My wife mistook a young man for the actor, Boo Boo Stewart, who portrayed Seth in the Twilight films. Awkward.
Susan had, what she terms, the best egg salad sandwich, while I had a frittata panini sandwich, which was excellent. You can eat here and enjoy a view of Santa Cruz Beach or Wharf, or take your picnic to hundreds of other sites, such as the Boardwalk, the beach, the wharf, or, you choose. The prices are average for lunch fare, but this is gourmet lunch fare. You cannot walk out with your alcoholic beverage, but the quality of the food is like New Orleans. It’s a gourmet picnic basket, from which Yogi Bear would be lucky to steal. Right, Boo Boo?

The Picnic Basket is okay. The location is nice, the food is overpriced, & the latte’s are awful. The «homemade» jelly donut was not good. How can you mess up a donut? It was cold, dry, & stale. The frittata panini was alright. It desperately needed the additional $ 1.50 avocado (& bacon if you are a meat eater) to give it some flavor, but it was good enough. The breakfast burrito was not your typical brekki burrito which was cool, but it needed the $ 1.50 extra avocado & I suggest using all of the extra sauce that came with it. The goldilock hot oats were my top pick, & for 6 bucks, it’s not worth it. I’d go here again if I was really hungry, but it’s definitely not my first choice.

Got here around 10:45am and ordered the pulled pork sandwich. It’s not bad but nothing special. The make it with tomatillo sauce, which was interesting, and topped it with slaw, which I’m not a big fan of. Kinda pricy for me and it took awhile to make.

This place was awesome! Fresh squeezed orange juice and the best oatmeal I’ve ever had! AND THE PRICES ARE AMAZING! Oh my god. Plus, you can’t beat the view. I really loved the fact that they listed where most of their products are from — that shows how much they care about their food AND customers.
For a quick, delicious breakfast or lunch, I would highly recommend this place.

Excellent lunch stop for a day at the boardwalk. Sunny patio seating. Great location. Grilled cheese was to die for. So was the bacon cheddar apple sandwich. Penny ice cream too! Only weak link was what I ordered, the rueben. It was a little undercooked and too heavy on the carrot slaw.

Our food was decent, but be prepared to wait a LONG time both to order and for your food to come out.
We waited a good 10 minutes for the 2 groups ahead of us to order. We ordered the macaroni and cheese, and the bacon cheddar apple sandwich; it took another 25 minutes for our food to be ready. This was at 2 pm on a Wednesday, which I can’t imagine is their busiest time; so I can only imagine what the wait times are like during peak times.
That being said, we did enjoy the food once delivered!

The girl at the front desk was cute enough and the location/​outdoor seating is what gives this place the two stars for me.
As for the lack of stars, don’t get the breakfast burrito if you usually like them. It’s their own «spin» on a breakfast burrito. Meaning it looks pretty, but completely lacks flavor. They did give a side of «salsa» which I thought would kick it up a notch. It was watered down seeds and peppers, definitely not salsa or even close to hot sauce. Worst part is THEY DON’T HAVE HOT SAUCE. Enough said. My friend had the frittata sandwich, which she said was pretty tasty.
Also, the wait time was pretty ridiculous for the simple dishes of food they serve. The cook is an extreme perfectionist, so don’t think your food will come out timely at all, especially when there are barely any people at the restaurant.
Overall, it’s extremely over priced (I paid $ 10 for a tiny burrito), but the location is beautiful to look at the water. Now I’m about to take the other half of this «burrito» and completely Doctor it the second I get home.

I enjoyed a lovely lunch at the Picnic Basket on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Picnic Basket is a great option for lunch if you’re in Santa Cruz. This place, though located in a touristy spot, does not feel touristy at all. It is located on the main corner of the Santa Cruz boardwalk with a patio overlooking the beach and is great for people watching!
The menu consists of coffees, sandwiches ice cream and other treats. They also have a breakfast menu. I waited in line for about 10 minutes before I had the chance to order, which I was a bit frustrated with, but once I ordered the food was delivered quickly. You could really see that the staff were working hard; they did their best with what they had! I ordered an iced tea and the bacon-​cheddar-​caramelized onion baguette. Really enjoyed my time on the sunny patio at Picnic Basket — definitely a good option if you are looking to blend in and hide from the over-​touristy restaurant options.

This is a cool spot to go to that’s away from the boardwalk. We were walking around and found this place by accident. I checked their reviews and based on their ratings, I had to try this place out. This is a good place to go to for a light snack.
We came here one afternoon for a late lunch and ordered the Egg Salad sandwich and the sandwich was delicious, but the baguette bread made the sandwich good. The bread was soft and it tasted fresh out of the oven.
We also ordered the turkey, avocado and cheese sandwich. The sandwich was good. The ingredients are from local farmers.
This is a simple, yet cozy café. They’re known for their famous Penny Ice Creamery, but I didn’t get a chance to try it. The inside of the café was small, but they also have a patio area with a couple of tables to enjoy the view or for people watching.
*Parking– it’s a pain since you’re close by the boardwalk. You can either find street parking or pay to park in the parking lot of the boardwalk.

Chicken pesto baguette. Really good. A ton of spinach on it too so I guess it’s somewhat healthy for a baguette. :-) for the non bread eaters out there they also had delicious salads. But beware of the chicken salad sandwich. It’s a sandwich!
:-)
Yum yum!

A cool spot to end your walk down the board walk and chill with some good ice cream.
My family and I were on a vacation to Santa Cruz /​Monterey. The Picnic Basket was discovered by a good Unilocal search. We had walked down the boardwalk and wanted some ice cream — Lo and Behold The Picnic Basket!
AMBIANCE
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The inside has a lot of character. The most important thing is choosing your flavors so you can go outside and eat it.
The outdoor seating had great views of the beach and great people watching. There were salsa dancers across the street that we were watching as we were enjoying our ice cream.
It was a little dirty and sticky. It’s also very crowded but I think worth the wait.
⁴⁄₅
FOOD
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ICE CREAM — LOTS OF ICE CREAM
It was very good ice cream with several unique flavors. I had the salted caramel and it was quite yummy. My wife had the pistachio. Also very good.
RATING: ⁴⁄₅
PRICE /​VALUE
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Breakfast for two with beverages was around $ 20 USD.
SERVICE
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Good, friendly service by some local Santa Cruz hipsters
PRO TIP
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Recommendation: you can get two kiddie scoops for $ 4. It may not be on the menu, but definitely the way you want to go even if you are an adult and want to try two separate flavors.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

This place was an affordable restaurant. Came here for brunch and got the breakfast burrito. The line for this restaurant was about 10 – 15 minutes so expect some wait. After ordering, I waited about another 10 – 15 minutes to get the food to me.
The breakfast burrito was a ³⁄₁₀. Couldn’t really taste any of the ingredients inside. The only flavor I tasted was the salsa I put on top of it that was given to me on the side.
There was indoor and outdoor seating so if you have a pet, you could stay with them outside.