Gilda's

First and last time eating here 10/15/23. The views are great, food is horrible. I got food poisoning from the fried scallops. They had 1 waitress working for a busy Sunday afternoon. We had to wait a long time for service. Which I would have been fine with that if the food had been good. I got the fried scallops basket and it was awful. They used breading that looked like what you'd put on fried mozzarella sticks, not batter like what should be on fried scallops. I ate one, and noticed when I bit into it, that it was very rubbery and tasted weird. My food was also pretty cold. It had sat under the lights for close to a half hour before they finished making my partners meal and served our meals. I'm from the East Coast where they make fresh seafood that tastes like perfection, so I know what good fresh scallops should taste like and this wasn't it. The scallops this place used were also not the bright white a scallop should be, they were grayish off white color. I thought ok, these may just be frozen ones, I was hungry so I ate 2 more. After that I decided it may be a bad idea to finish any more so I stopped eating them. The waitress asked how our meals were. I told her my scallops were tough and chewy and didn't taste good. She said "I'm sorry I'll tell the chef". She walked away printed the bill and brought it back. She did not speak to the "chef" at all and did not deduct a penny for the awful food. I've never had horrible food before that the restaurant didn't deduct at least something if the food was bad. Within a few hours I was sick as hell. I knew I had food poisoning, and it was the scallops that were bad, as they were the only thing I'd had to eat that day. This place is awful and should be shut down for serving bad seafood. My partner had the fish tacos, and while he did not end up getting sick, he said they were pretty gross and did not finish them. He gave those 3 out of 5 stars. He said the fish they used tasted terrible and definitely wasn't fresh.

Avoid this place at all costs. There has to be better places to eat on the Santa Cruz Pier. I will never ever go here again.