Jeffery's — Restaurant in Santa Cruz

– A Major Letdown

We were on a road trip, looking for a good place to stop and eat, something a little better than Denny’s, which was our son’s choice. We relied on the good reviews, but oh, how wrong we were!

The calamari was a disaster—not even rings, just chewy, oily chunks. The tartar sauce was the only decent thing on the plate. The country chicken was a contradiction in itself: somehow both oily and dry. The mashed potatoes had a strange, gluey texture, and the vegetables were overcooked into oblivion.

My husband’s burger? Mediocre at best. And my country chicken (if you can call it that) seemed more like an old slab of meatloaf, poorly disguised under a stale Italian breading. The hash browns were clearly reheated, unevenly cooked, and soaked in oil. The gravy was a bland, gray blob with zero flavor. As for the biscuits, they were large but tasted stale and reheated.

Surprisingly, the chicken soup that came with the dinner was decent—nothing spectacular, but at least it was warm and seasoned properly, which is more than I can say for the rest of the meal.

On the bright side, the service was friendly and attentive. The food came out quickly, and the portions were generous. The ambience was that of a classic diner—clean and decent. Even the bathrooms were well-maintained. But the food? Utterly disappointing.

There seems to be a serious lack of communication between the kitchen and the waitstaff—something we overheard while dining. Unfortunately, no amount of good service or diner nostalgia can make up for the awful meal we had. If you’re on a road trip and looking for a satisfying meal, keep driving—this isn’t the place. We...

This is a Santa Cruz institution, I love going here and bringing people here! For breakfast I love their corned beef hache, cinnamon rolls, biscuit and gravy, and the breakfast sandwich on sourdough or croissant you can't go wrong either way! Lunch my highlights for me being their Monte Cristo sandwich, the "down to earth" sandwich, the "BBQ ranch burger", hot wing basket with fries, and also the soup sandwich special with both a sandwich of the day and soup of the day don't forget to always order a side of chili beans with garlic bread! Don't even get me started on their salads which are always clean, fresh, and flavorful I love the salmon or chicken Caesar and the shrimp Louie. For dinner I was delightfully surprised by how good the calamari was as well as the fisherman's platter. I have had the chicken and pasta stir fry before and I was very happy. they also have a rotating nightly special Friday and Saturday is prime rib night (get the thick cut!) and Wednesday is BBQ night. My sweet tooth would attest to the root beer float, banana split, or 2 scoops of sherbet. The menu is a great balance between comfort and American...

DO NOT GET THE FIESTA BURRITO! It seemed as though the meat inside my burrito was leftover meatloaf. It was leaking a watery substance. The rice was hard and tasted like rice pilaf that they had attempted to convert into Spanish rice. The beans were definitely canned, and sadly they were the only semi edible part of the meal. The waiter saw that I did not want my food and he was gracious about it. He offered to get me something else but by then I wasn't even in the mood to eat anymore. He was very kind and he took that meal off of my bill. I know it's not his fault that the meal was nasty and I appreciated his hospitality. My family had other food including a burger, wings and appetizers which seemed to be decent. My other family member had chicken nachos which, apparently were also awful and practically inedible... as far as the atmosphere, it wasn't the cleanest. The bathrooms smelled awful, cups were dirty, and there was a live bug on the table... my take away for all of this is perhaps, if you do go here, DO NOT order mexican food, and the owners should do a better job maintaining cleanliness within their...