Best Italian Restaurants in Santa Cruz

This was the one and time the kitchen was super slow in getting one out of four meals to our table… such a surprise to me as the service is normally spot on here. However, our waitress, Liz, handled the problem well and with a lot of patience with our obvious irritation! She gets a gold star for sure!

My husband and I went for thanksgiving dinner. We arrived an hour early but were seated promptly. Staff was very friendly and quick to tell us the specials and take our order. We split the Brussels sprouts and meatballs. The Brussels are a must. It really could be its own meal. You get 2 meatballs which is a bummer but only because the are so good. I had the cornstar martini which was very refreshing & the perfect balance to my very rich & DELICIOUS spaghetti carbonara. The portion size was double what I expected and a very yummy snack a couple hours later. Pasta tasted fresh & perfect al dente. This is the kind of dish you want for a cheat meal. My husband had the salt & vinegar with kettle one. Personally I hate pickles, but the drink wasn’t bad. He had the seafood stew which I couldn’t try because I’m allergic to shellfish but he loved it, and he’s pretty picky about his seafood. The portion was also big and came with a giant prawn on top. There was a lot of seafood in it too which he was happy about. For dessert we had the chocolate bomb & Americano. The chocolate bomb was a chocolate shell with a mousse inside. Not overly sweet at all. It was ridiculously good. One of the top 5 desserts I’ve had. The Americano was great and a great pair with the chocolate. Normally when I have carbs I instantly bloat…bad. After eating here I was fine! No bloat at all! Everything was high quality and fresh. They really know what they’re doing. Everything we got came out hot. I mean blow on it hot. I’ve never been to a restaurant and had my food come out like that. You can tell it wasn’t sitting under a heat lamp. I loved it! Everything we saw come out of the kitchen looked delicious. We will definitely be back!

The food here is delicious and pasta cooked perfectly al dente. The service could improve by providing a more elevated level of interaction and communication. Our server referred to myself as well as the male patrons on both tables beside us as “boss.” At the end of our delicious meal our check was mixed up with another table and overcharged as a bottle of wine not ordered was added to our bill. We’ll still continue to eat here as the food is well worth the inconveniences we experienced.

Loved the food as always, creative yet simple enough to let the ingredients “talk”. Fabulous service.

Great service and outstanding food! I also love the ambience. I highly a recommend Gabrielle café.