Cafe Brasil — Restaurant in Santa Cruz

This happened awhile ago but I have never forgotten how shitty I felt being treated the way I was. My daughter was so excited to take me here. When I finally went with her we were in such a happy mood and very hungry. The food was hot and good, but the server was such a nasty witch. We had not had any meaningful conversation outside of taking orders. She was busy and we were eating our food. I asked for a coffee refill. I didn't get it after a few minutes, so when I saw her again I KINDLY reminded her, as I do. Suddenly she looked at me like I had called her the worst name. I honestly have no idea why she snapped but she did and afterwards she refused to help us. If she was that busy and in a bad mood then why wasn't she snapping at all her customers? She definitely wasn't. She gave us a nasty attitude and refused to do her job. When I asked for the manager, she was also rude and didn't want to believe her server was behaving badly. it was like being in The Twilight Zone. You know something's happening but no around wants to believe it. As we were leaving I was still looking for a sane person, so I mentioned to the hostess how the server and manager were behaving and that I couldn't understand the attitude. She just pretended she didn't hear me. It was so bizarre. Not one person apologized or even cared what was done. All we got from the manager were these looks like we had committed some offense. Huh? What offense?! My daughter was embarrassed. I was embarrassed. And for what? Who the hell knows! I later contacted the owner and he could not have cared less. He thought I was lying or making it up. There was no apologies for a ruined meal. Surely I had done something to deserve the bad treatment at his restaurant. Uh, no, that's the point. That's not who I am and that's why I was upset. Nothing was said or done. Turns out the server or manager was someone he knew outside the restaurant and for that reason he was not going to believe they would do anything wrong. Oh please. He could not be more wrong. Plus apologies are free. It would not have killed him to just believe us and apologize for the bad experience. Nope. I guess it ran in the Cafe Brasil family. You can be a jerk and be rude to customers and you never have to apologize. Not sure why anyone thought it would mean something to me to want to get someone in trouble for no reason. To make something up. The truth was not nefarious. It's actually very simple. I wanted to enjoy a nice breakfast with my daughter. Pure and simple. Instead we were treated like crap and not a single person out of the four people we talked to gave a damn. An apology would have been nice. A comped meal would have been nicer. Being believed would have been the best. But no, all we got was arrogance down the line. Thanks for one of the weirdest and worst experiences we've ever had eating out. Something we do all the time and treat everyone with nothing but kindness, respect and good tips. Kindness and respect is something your employees should have demonstrated. ...

One of the best breakfast / brunch places in Santa Cruz!

Be warned that this restaurant is so good that people will wait for hours to get a table on the weekend. I’m not sure if the wait is still as long, after the pandemic, but the food is still as good.

I’m not fond of most breakfast foods, especially eggs (which I find to be one of the tastes and textures I despise more than almost any other “food”). However, Cafe Brasil’s egg dishes are actually something I look forward to eating! Honestly, I can count the number of egg dishes that I have ever liked on one hand (before trying the egg dishes here), and still have spare fingers. Yet, Cafe Brasil has several egg dishes that I really like!

If you don’t want eggs, though, they have so many other options that you are guaranteed to find at least a few dishes that you will fall in love with, from standard American fare to the very unusual.

The most popular item on the menu is the “acai bowl”, which is similar to a frozen smoothie made from raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries (the flavor of the açaí berries) with crunchy vanilla granola on top, and then sliced strawberries and bananas topping all of that. I promise that this açaí bowl tastes even better than it sounds like it would! Yum!

I found this restaurant because a friend introduced me to it and I fell in love with the food. Every person I have brought here still talks about it when they visit, and asks to go back.

— The restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating. — The outdoor seating is dog friendly. — There are plenty of options for most people with dietary restrictions; just let the staff know when you are ordering. (I am vegetarian and at least 1/2 of the menu is available for me to order with only a few items needing any adjustments. There are plenty of vegan options as well as gluten-free options. Just note that if you don’t tell your server, you should expect most dishes to come with fresh cooked bread and butter, and often pan...

This is a casual eatery that makes one feel that they have stepped into a cafe in Brazil, with all the bright-colored walls and artworks. Even the exterior walls of the house are painted with the colors of the Brazilian flag. The staff were all very friendly. We got there on a weekday a little bit after noon and had to wait about 20 minutes to be seated. We tried the A Madeira top sirloin steak with sautéed mushrooms in a creamy Madeira wine sauce, muquecas with baby shrimp (cooked in a tomato sauce with coconut milk, palm oil, and green pepper), a small bowl of feijoada (black bean stew with sausages), and Aipim Frito (fried yucca). The steak and shrimp dishes came with rice, farofa (fried cassava flour with some onions) and salad. Taking a bite of the rice and farofa together gives the rice a lot of complexity in flavor and texture. Everything was very tasty, especially with their house spicy sauce (not in the bottles on the tables). The freshly squeezed watermelon juice was good but a little overpriced. Overall it was a great experience trying out Brazilian food rather than those served in a typical...