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I've been coming here since I first moved to Santa Cruz, and have gotten really great food every time...except today. I guess the servers were having difficulty with their sections, because everyone but the bus boy was extremely inattentive. I ordered the gigantic burrito, which is usually great, but the waitress obviously wasn't listening to how I wanted it, and the kitchen failed at preparing it. I would have sent it back but the waitress never came back to ask how everything was. Totally disappointing experience, which kind of ruined one of my favorite places in SC. epic fail. She definitely didn't get a tip...
Overall: Usually have good food, large portions, good price for lunch. BAD service all around, but thats pretty typical of santa cruz so you can't expect much.
would give 4 stars, but they lost one today for their shi**y food and service
this is a very well presented restaurant with outdoor seating and friendly service.
i wish i could say the same about the food.
good lunch options and a very reasonable price.
i had the lunch combo of enchilada with rice and beans while my friends had the lunch burritos.
plates were filled with food and it looked delicious, but on second inspection, my food was obviously microwaved. the beans had a nuked textured and the cheese is very cheap. the rice was flavorless and had a weird consistency.
it definitely filled me up, but it wasn't a satisfying meal.
yet, $20 for 3 people total is definitely not bad. but i won't be coming back. yeauck.
I've really opened my mind to Mexican food since I've been living out in California. But this doesn't compare to the dirty taquerias that line the mission. But the place was festive,clean, and welcoming. We didn't have to wait for a table on a Saturday night but the restaurant was very lively. One of my favorite things about a place is looking at other people's food and wanting to try everything. The girl next to us was having the burrito, so we in turn also had that. I thought I'd pretend to go healthy and have a taco salad. Everything was just average for mexican food, but the portions were big and everything was served promptly. The menu was pretty big as I had a tough time deciding what to order.
Tip: Hide your leftovers, the dozen or so young homeless hippie kids outside beg you for them.
OMG Fantastic Quesedillas. Great service when it was quite busy. 4 Margaritas and a super sampler and our bill was low 40s. Would definitely recommend to friends and family. The host was busy but checked in a lot and was friendly. Nice but small bar. World Series and College football in HD. What's not to love?
Solid value and fresh ingredients. I ordered the Dos Fish Tacos and the fish was fresh and hot. The rice and beans were nothing to write home about. The star was the fish and the tasty cabbage, dressing and salsa complimenting the tacos. The portions are very generous and the chips and salsa are tasty.
My wife got the taco salad with both grilled chicken and grilled chicken. Her salad was huge and came with all the fresh veggies grilled to perfection. She said that she preferred it over Chevy's Tostada salad.
My only complaint was that when I order my tacos without dairy - they included cheese and sour cream. Also I had to flag down the server every time - he never came by to check in on us. Fortunately, the place wasn't too busy and it was a non-issue. Still if the service was better and they got my order correct the first time, I would give this an extra star.
Definitely not authentic mexican food. But happy hour sure makes me happy.
Margaritas are pretty good at about 4 bucks a pop. Some Appetizers are half off during happy hour. The Nachos are obviously microwaved, but for 6 bucks with meat, cannot really complain. Tacos are not very good at all.
So normally I would only give this place two stars, but my first time there I saw an extremely cute waitress whom I sadly never saw again. But that in itself deserves an extra star.
Two Acapulco restaurants in two days. I was in Santa Cruz with my brother and we were hungry after I helped him play landlord for his rental property. We ended up at the Acapulco in downtown Santa Cruz where they have the typical Corona beer signs, a pseudo thatch hut patio and other hanging mexican decorations. They have a full bar with a wide assortment of tequilas and mexican beers. Plus outside seating to people watch on Pacific Ave.
I ordered one of the lunch specials, the dos fish tacos ($11.95) which is two tacos filled with the cabbage, pineapple and a deep fried Mahi Mahi coated with a light batter. I was surprised because most fish tacos have that Gordon's frozen fish stick taste but these didn't. Tasty and flavorful. The pineapple salsa also added some extra zest. Chips and salsa are plentiful.
Acapulco features a full mexican menu...tacos, enchiladas, burritos, plus a nice seafood selection. Service was good, the food is better.
come during HAPPY HOUR!!
the goods:
i recommend getting the nachos con todos WITH shredded pork. this is guaranteed to feed 3-4 people for only $4.50 during happy hour. The strawberry blended margaritas are my fav here for 4 a piece.
This place is a tourist trap. It's on the main drag , priced like Disneyland, and full of bros, bro-hos, and people in Tommy Bahama shirts old enough to be their parents.
Coca-cola carnitas? That's just not right. Neither is a Margarita that tastes like it came from the mix you can buy in those gallon jugs at Safeway.
Even our server was over it. I can't say I blame him.
STRAWBERRY MARGARITA.
$5, huge and delicious!! it's flavorful and light, but you can still taste the tequila-perfect :D
It's a great little restaurant on Pacific. The food is good, and the service is good too. It's… Read more »
Great talapia fish tacos with awesome lime chili aioli cream sauce!
Nice cantina atmosphere with margaritas flowing. Really nice and friendly wait staff that are attentive. Food came out of the kitchen really fast. The restaurant was busy on a warm April afternoon. I really like the rice that they serve as a side dish. Was a little surprised that they didnt have any beers on tap, but they do have your regular bottled choices. This place is good for larger groups as well.
Happy Hour
Banditos
There are no other reasons to come here...but those two things together makes this a good place to get sh*tfaced before heading out to bigger and better things.
So I came here to check out the Happy Hour specials, and found that it's not a bad spot to hang out at maybe once or twice. The food is very cheap during happy hour, but is definitely nothing special--typical drinking finger foods. The beers are fairly cheap relative to other Happy Hours in Santa Cruz.
I've tried their taquitos, burritos, wings, and pozole. My favorite thing was the pozole, which I find was pretty decent. I was just happy to have a bowl of Mexican soup, which not many places in Santa Cruz serve. It fulfilled my cravings, and I walked out of here without sweating my checking account.
If you want REALLY good Mexican food though, I personally don't recommend this spot. Everything just tasted so mediocre, and their meat was as flavorful as some other spots in Santa Cruz. If you want a small place to kick it with your friends without spending too much coin, why not check this place out?
You know, I always thing this place is going to be better than it is. It's not that it is bad exactly, it's just that my expectations are aways a little higher than the delivery.
Acapulco is the closest thing to an El Torito or On The Border in Santa Cruz. The food is good, just, normal. I feel like I'm in Chilli's when I eat there. True, the chips are good and the drinks are REALLY good, but in a city with TONS of choices for great Mexican food, why go to a place that serves burgers as well?
Though it is nice to have a Mexican place where you can have a sit down meal and pay a check instead of at the counter, there are tons of other places that are better around. If you're going to go here, I'd suggest going for drinks at happy hour and then order food to go with the drinks- not the other way around.
Pros:
Nice pitchers of Margeritas! Potions are generous, prices were very reasonable. Amazing carnitas! free chips and salsa right when you sit down. Sat us immediately on a Friday in June. Fast service nice atmosphere.
Cons:
It's Mexican, not a romantic dinner with a view, but hey sometimes that's just what you want.
I ate here a couple weeks ago and I can't for the life of me remember what I ordered = bad sign
BUT I do remember that I love, love, loved their chips and salsa = GREAT SIGN
For that alone, I recommend at least giving Acapulco's a try!
I have to admit.... the food here was good. They even have a soy crumble option for vegetarians.
However.... the service was sort of sporadic and it was hard to get the bill. But worst of all we had TWO hair-in-food experiences in one sitting.
Can you even believe that? I wouldn't say it if it weren't true, but it was. One in the salsa that they give you along with complimentary chips, and one in my sour cream on the plate with my BBQ Quesadilla.
This could happen at any restaurant at any day, but it seemed like a case of hairy condiments -- so watch out.
+1 star for using taterware for their takeout boxes (100% biodegradable)
You know you're in Santa Cruz when you can stumble randomly into a Mexican restaurant and find ground soy as a menu option. However, despite the moment of excitement seeing this on the menu, the ground soy was actually the least enjoyable part of my meal -- still good, just not as good as everything else.
The rice was really great and certainly not the typical mexican rice with those stupid peas and carrots (nobody likes peas and carrots -- not even vegetarians). The beans were an area of opportunity -- tonight they were a little on the salty side.
The highlight of the meal this evening though was definitely the cheese enchilada. I opted out of the ranchero sauce and instead went for old reliable green... I'm afraid the green was so good that I might not ever get to try the ranchero. But that's life I suppose...
Service was great... my server was very good about being there when I needed her and out of my face when I didn't. One thing I did notice was that they seemed to be shorthanded (help wanted sign on the front door) and though my service was excellent, I could see on a busy night how service might end up being substandard.
booooo my boyfriend and i split a pitcher (approx. 6 drinks) of mango margs and we not nearly sufficiently drunk enough considering the amount of consumption and brain freezes suffered. watered down much?
two words:
.happy.hour.
really, it's the only way to go. anywhere i can get nachos + large margaritas…
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The lunch specials here are great (and so are happy hour specials). The fish tacos are pretty good and so are the quesadillas (but then again, you can't really mess up quesadillas). They offer complimentary chips and salsa and its great since the chips are actually warm and toasty!
I went here with my friends for a birthday dinner and I was kinda disappointed. I dont think I'll go back. The waiter forgot to bring my friend's beer and the food was all kinda fatty and didn't taste like mexican food at all. It is one of those white washed mexican places that really is the farthest thing from authentic you can get. Try Las Palmas or El Palomar instead
THis place was ok, if you like slow service. The food portion was good. But the quality needs to be improved more. The servers need a retraining or they need to hire more help. I give this place a C- .
Overall impression: A cheap mistake.
I suppose consulting Yelp before visiting this place wouldn't have helped us avoid it, so I feel less bad about our decision to enter and eat despite my gut reaction at what I saw on (bafflingly empty) plates - doesn't look so good.
God I feel like a snob*. But, onward.
The guacamole was literally pickled** in lemon and funny tasting. The beans were bland. The lettuce was iceberg. Not great for a taqueria, which is where we definitely should have ended up, and even less acceptable for a sit-down place...and yet the prices were so reasonable, it's fairly guilt-inducing to come down too hard on them.
Definitely a place for the hungry, as their plates are big, and their chips and salsa are excellent. They sell booze and have a patio, which must be pretty instrumental in keeping people coming back. The waitstaff were really nice, too, and happened to mention that the restaurant hadn't been making a profit in some time. My ungrounded suspicion is that were the owner to raise the prices, he'd have to do something about the taste factor of the food (ie ingredients, prep staff), and that might just send expenses to a place where they're making even LESS money. Tough situation. Doesn't mean I feel bad enough to return here, though.
*Because I am. We've established this.
**"effervescent" said Jules, which was a better descriptor
They served me raw tortillas! The food was horrid and I can't believe I actually paid the bill. The service was actually good but thats where it ends. Looks like this is a good place to get drunk but stay away from the food. I know Santa Cruz has terrible food to begin with but this takes the cake. I understand that college kids eat anything but serioulsy! Some of us have out grown that time in our lives and would like to eat a delcious meal - I wish I had gone next door and gotten a slice of Pizza my heart. Next to worst Mexican I have ever had...
Came here with a friend to wait while his bike was being built up over at The Bike Shop Santa Cruz. Place was pretty busy, it was graduation day for the high schoolers.
We sat outside, and service was pretty slow. I can't hold it against them, though. They were doing the best while being understaffed.
Food was pretty good, and the outside seating is very nice. Price was reasonable for what you get.
We had not planned to come to eat here while we were in Santa Cruz, but after strolling down Pacific Avenue looking for a suitable dinner place on a semi-busy Saturday night, we settled on the Acapulco. We were seated right away, toward the back where it's actually quieter. I ordered their taco salad ($9.95) and upgraded the meat to skirt steak for $2 extra. It was well worth the upgrade price as the skirt steak was fantastic. I also liked that the salad included both iceburg and spring mix lettuce, and the combination of all the different texture of the ingredients was very interesting.
By the way, our server, Rachel, was really nice and helpful.
Bottom Line: I'm glad we came here, as it exceeded my expectations.
Honestly I use to live on Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz two year's ago and always came to this place. This Memorial weekend we went for lunch this past Sunday. Me and my husband had the most slow horrible service. I could see the other server busting her chops in checking on the tables and making sure service was fast. Our server Rosie only came to use after 15 minutes of seating. Then my husband went ahead and ordered a beer from the bar himself. She finally came to take our order and when our food came, disappeared on us. We had to ask the hostess for extra tortilla's. The food itself was not bad, we ordered the chicken mole and the chile verdi, but the service was so poor, I know we won't ever return. Not worth it for the prices and then to experience that level of service.
okay let me start off saying that the grande burrito is delicious!
it was hugeee.. and since i came in during lunch it was 5.95.. i thought it was a great deal for a huge ass burrito.
the burrito i had was made with carnitas which is pork meat. so good!
it's smothered in green sauce and red sauce.. I've never enjoyed a sauce so much.. the green sauce is excellent!
the service kind of blowed though.. and they put a lot of onions in my burrito.. i seriously kept burping onions throughout the day.
i definitely would come back for the green sauce!
Since it's nearing Cinco de Mayo, I'm devoting my next 3 reviews on Mexican restos here in SC...starting with this place:
Saturday afternoon lunch spot. Had the fish tacos because I've been craving Rubio's (yes, out of all places...I freaking love their fish tacos!!!!) and santa cruz doesn't have Rubio's. The plate was huge and because I was hungry, i thought that i could the entire thing but i couldn't in the end. Enjoyable fish tacos, friendly service, I wouldn't mind going here for a mid-day pick me up (margaritas) if necessary.
-Free chips and salsa while you wait for your food
-Delicious sopas, chicken sandwich, taquitos, and tamales
-Amazing fajitas!
I was so surprised at the number of options there were on the menu for vegetarian food - they were open to making anything vegetarian (including a soy based protein option), and it actually tasted good.
The salsa that was served in the beginning was quite spicy, but it was very fresh tasting...and the chips were warm, so it made for a great combo.
There was a lot of food for the lunch time portions. I mix and matched and got different items in my combo, and it was a perfect first visit, because I liked everything. I would definitely stop in here again.
Out of all the places to eat in Santa Cruz, I walked into this joint. The food wasn't too bad, but it wasn't anything to write home about either. As for the restaurant itself, well it was okay. There was just nothing at all that jumped out at me, good or bad which makes this place easy to forget.
All in all, I'd say everything was pretty mediocre...the food, the service, the restaurant. They did have decent chips and salsa though.
Not a place I'm planning to return to.
I'm only giving 3 stars because of the exceptional service. Our food was only 2 stars - huge portions - but the food was way too salty. The margaritas weren't that great either. However, the salsa was pretty good and the atmosphere was festive.
On the night we were here, there was some sort of game on the TV and there were people yelling and carrying on - I found this annoying - if I wanted a sports bar, I would have gone to one.
Next time I'm in downtown SC, I'll probably go elsewhere for Mexican food.
I've eaten at Acapulco on several occasions and never had a bad experience. The margaritas are great, they have vegetarian (and vegan items on the menu), and they have outdoor seating which is great for people watching on Pacific Avenue.
They have a great vegan burrito made with soyrizo , which is what I usually get. I've also tried the fish tacos and most of the seafood dishes and they are all very good.
I didn't realize I hadn't reviewed Acapulco yet! After being in Santa Cruz for over 5 years, this is one of the few restaurants in town that hasn't shut down AND has been one I've consistently gone back to.
For a sit-down Mexican meal, this is where I'd go. The service use to be pretty lousy even on an empty day, but over the years they've really ramped it up, so now even on busy nights you are served very timely.
Their lunch menu is nice, and Acapulco is a great spot to take a nicer lunch break than grabbing a quick slice of pizza at Pizza My Heart next door.
I'd recommend the fajitas. Yes, they are a bit on the $$ end but if you are like me, they will easily carry over for another meal the next day. I'd also recommend requesting the vegetarian rice and beans if your meal comes with them- I find them more tasty! Maybe the endless chips and salsa are also probably a reason why I can't ever finish my food here....
Good place to go out to dinner & get some good Mexican food w/ friends. As others have said, great endless chips & salsa! So addicting...just don't eat too many before your meal arrives!
The fajitas are delicious and quite filling. I got the portobello fajitas and they were amazing! I'd def. order them again. They were pretty generous on the portions for everything we ordered.
The staff is very attentive, and took time to take pictures of our group. They checked up on us multiple times to ask if we wanted refills on drinks, and chips & salsa.
Note: For college students who go out to eat in groups, and like to separate checks, they don't do separate checks for groups 5 or larger. Just a heads up.
One of the best Mexican food places in Santa Cruz County. I now live in Fresno and everytime I come home to see my parents I HAVE to go and get the Coconut Shrimp and MOLE! Chips and Salsa are to die for..
Regarding the other comments about the beans and guacamole.. the beans are authentic from Mexico and my favorite! and the avocados do have lemon juice in the guacamole mix so they dont turn brown... Common knowledge if you cook or if you have been to Mexico.
Anyways.. Great place, Fantastic Lunch Prices! You have to try it.
I had just eaten lunch.
I WASN'T hungry.
My boyfriend said he had never been to the Acapulco.
*gasp*
We B-lined it to the Acapulco.
Ordered a margarita and a prawn burrito.
He hates prawns.
But not these prawns.
These were garlic-butter-delicious prawns from heaven.
With veggies, and black beans.
I gained about five pounds that day.
BUT, I earned major cool girlfriend kudos.
I love the Auapulco.
See you this weekend.
Is it the best mexican food you've had, no. Is it pretty cheap? Yes. Do they have awesome service? Yes. Do you get tasty chips and salsa? Yes. Do they mix a mean margarita or daqueria? OH YES.
And well the food, is pretty tasty, I love cheese and there's lot of that, I like there red sauce, the meats are pretty good though not super fantabulous, I love their enchiladas and flautas, mighty tasty. It's tasty, fun, never a huge crazy wait even on weekends and really its a good little mexican place for downtown.
two words: HAPPY HOUR
Santa Cruz, CA
Category: Mexican
Santa Cruz, CA
Category: Mexican
Santa Cruz, CA
Category: Mexican
Santa Cruz, CA
Category: Mexican
Santa Cruz, CA
Category: American (Traditional)
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