The Habit Burger Grill — Restaurant in Santa Cruz

I like their food--most of it anyway--and have been buying lunches for staff and dinners for my family near weekly since they opened up here a couple-three years back.

Pretty Wife and I head over for a late dinner pickup after watching the sunset over the lighthouse, grateful they're still open at 9:15 PM on a Sunday night. Minimal diners and no foot traffic, we took advantage of their stellar online ordering system and awaited their promised 9:36 curbside delivery right outside their front doors. We actually see our food come up at the same time the completion was promised, wow!

9:40... 9:45 we finally get the text our food is ready, which I immediately confirm with return text. Pretty Wife bets me her fries will be cold. Said this happened to her last time; waited over a half-hour, got cold food sent out, asked to swap for some hot and was refused quite rudely. No way I say. Yup, and tells me how the girl gave her the hand and spoke down to her while refusing her requests.

9:50... Waiting... Watching...

"Those are our fries on the counter getting cold in there" says Pretty Wife. "Nuh uh" says I.

Yup. The girl grabbed them, stuffed them into a sack and came walking out past us, trying to deliver them to another citizen down the street who wasn't even a customer. Headed back into the restaurant not 10' from my car when Pretty Wife called out to her, then had to convince her that was us. Yup, the girl confirmed the car description, repeated my name from the order three times and handed the sack off like a quarterback ducking a pass rush.

She stopped up short when PW called out, "Hold on please, here's your tip", came back over, then stiffened up when PW began: "This order is not correct. My fries are missing..." That's as far as she got.

"Noh, naw, das eet. We close now, you go. No mas, uh-uh-huh." She then literally gave my wife The Hand right through the open window less than a foot from her face, took one last glance at the tip currency in my hand, shrugged and turned away to walk back inside.

I got out, waived the cash and said, "Your tip?" She stopped and turned, then saw I had our food in the other hand as I said, "This order needs to be fixed". She then turned and very quickly dashed back into the restaurant, shut the door real fast and locked it in my face. I was in shock!

Pretty Wife behind me says, "See? It's true S.A."

I knock on the door, she doesn't even look. I knock a little louder to get the crew's attention, and they shake their heads, mouthing "We're closed". It is close to closing time, and I understand (I think), but no. I hold up my sack of grub, put my lips to the doors edge and shout that my order is not right. "No, too bad, we're closed."

Seriously? Their manager tolerates this? "I want to speak to your manager" I hum-shout through the door crack. "We're calling the police" is their reply. I see.

There are still a few customers milling about, so I start to walk around the building to the side door when it suddenly turns into a footrace between me and the delivery girl. Wow! I break into a sprint--I've got her beat by 6 feet easy!--when one of the customers reaches over from his spot by that door and locks it in my face. This was becoming hilarious, like a Seinfeld episode, and I laughed out loud along with them.

But I was Castanza, and they were laughing at me. As the audacity became contagious, I pounded once on the glass with great force and threw up dueling birds.

Seems values of quality and good treatment are dying breeds, now fully slaughtered by the New Covidian...

I have gone to the Santa Cruz Habit basically since it opened. I pretty much get the BBQ salad which is one of my top 3 favorite dinners. I have always ordered 3 extra ranch’s. Always had great service. Until about the last 6 months. Honestly, if I didn’t love the salad as much as I do, I would not ever step foot in there again. Here’s how it’s changed: A female, an extremely rude and clearly not meant to work in customer service named Cynthia was often at the register. There were two separate occasions where I went in and asked to use the restroom and was told it was only for customers. I told her I was buying my dinner but I REALLY needed to pee. She refused me! And not nicely AT ALL! Super condescending and very ugly attitude. I offered to leave her with my atm card? NOPE. Ok, so I ordered and was granted access to the restroom. One of those times, they gave me the wrong salad. I live all the way up by the summit only to sit down to eat to find another salad 🥺 Now on to the ranch. As I said, I have always ordered it the same until Cynthia came along. The first time, she charged me for each ranch, which I have always said I would pay extra, but was never charged, until Cynthia 🙄 so I don’t care if I have to pay because that’s just how I like my salad. But the very next time that I went into order, it was another not so friendly, female, and she told me that if I wanted to add ranches, I had to go and order on the app because they could not add ranches! I do love that salad. I have worked in customer service in one form or another for over 20 years. Being rude, aggressive, mean, and frowns are not a good start to greet a customer. Being difficult to the customer and almost argumentative does not represent Habit in a very good light. And at the end of the day, ITS YOUR JOB TO REPRESENT THE COMPANY YOU WORK FOR IN AT MINIMUM, A PROFESSIONAL MANNER! Epic fail on the new...

Went here over weekend and ordered food for family. Food was 20 min later than estimate (40ish min total to prepare). Got the order went home to eat and saw that food was thrown in. Fries and chicken pieces (2 orders each) had some missing paper trays, so they were all mixed in the bag. I had also ordered a salad with no blue cheese, and they had put blue cheese all over it - physical receipt also said no blue cheese.

Had to drive back and asked for return on the salad (which I brought back) since it was the wrong order and receipt clearly stated it. They wouldn't and said I had to call the central office to show them and get a refund....???

Food wise it's nothing to write home about. Fries were soggy and not crisp -- though probably because of the ride home. The chicken was more fried bread then chicken. The burger was ok, small and mostly lettuce. Better than mcdonalds, but not by much. It's still fast food.

I'm sure it would be an ok place to eat if in the store...but I'm pretty big on customer service, and with all the other choices in the area that serve better food (IMHO), we will...