High Tide — Restaurant in Santa Cruz

This is a review for low tide bar & grill - same kitchen and wait staff as high tide side.

Positives: nice decor. Excellent food. Negatives: very poor service.

We have a reservation. We are seated (party of 2) and after us a party of 5 and a family with 3 small children are seated by us. Restaurant has one other table already seated with drinks. Bar is about 50% full. In other words, not exactly slammed.

Both parties seated after us get water, and then orders are taken for them. No one makes eye contact, or checks on us. After 15 minutes the first table gets their food. Still no visit from anyone to us (literally walking around us.)

We let the manager know we’re somehow ignored. The hostess (not a server) brings us water. Another 5 minutes goes by, and our server appears, explaining she was on break. Ok, so don’t seat people at a table with no coverage, or make sure one of the other servers (there were plenty, we could see them hanging around the kitchen) cover your tables. We put our complete order (one drink each, burger and chicken dishes) in. Drinks appear 5 minutes later. Food appears 30 minutes later. The restaurant is not busy. Not sure why it took 30 minutes to cook a small chicken breast and a 1/4 pound burger.

The server offered us free dessert, which we declined.

Total price: $110 before tip. Nothing was removed from the bill.

With excellent service, could have been 5 stars. With average food, 3. The food was good. The overall experience was very poor. We...

Overall, mediocre. It would be relatively easy to get a better quality drink for half the price in Santa Cruz. The drinks are 30% more expensive than other high end places on Santa Cruz and significantly worse. It also took a long time to get drinks and to pay for them.

The food we had here was also relatively flavorless and generic, but extremely overpriced.

The vibe is fine but it is definitely a colonial feel.

Not sure why you would ever go here over Venus, Abbott, or any bar...

Delicious food, great service! Nice addition to the Santa Cruz dining scene. Dessert was...