The Crow's Nest Reviews

lousy hostess service, overpriced, but good waiters

The Crow's Next Restaurant is a hidden gem. I loved this place. Everyone in my family had a fantastic meal. I had the Ahi Ruby Rare, which was fantastic sashimi tuna. My wife had the Pacific Rim Chicken Breast, which was cooked perfectly. The kids loved their meals as well. To start, they brought us some fantastic sourdough bread. To end, they gave us free soft-serve ice cream. To top it all off, they have a beautiful view of the ocean. I highly recommend this place.

No waiting, views, service in training but tried hard to make it right.

Had breakfast here. Great Bloody Mary s and food was delicious. Service was outstanding.

The deck is the best place to watch Tuesday evening Santa Cruz harbor PHRF races and enjoy half-price appetizers and happy hour drink specials! The house smoked salmon is delicious added to the ceasar salad.

This is our favorite place to eat in Santa Cruz. The go to meeting spot for Mother's Day, Birthdays, Valentines day... You name it. you can't beat the view of the harbor, and we always seem to be able to get a window seat. The food is great and so is the service.

A special place that holds many great memories. Highly recommend the comedy nights.

An exceptional setting, super good food, right on the marina, just a great pl ace for food, cocktails and atmosphere!

The blacken cod was cold and raw on the bottom, and they dont use local fish it's all imported too bad.

Nice atmosphere, great service, and outside seating has a nice view.

We had a great table with a view of the ocean. The service and food were very good. Parking was a bit of a challenge but didn't take too long to locate a few spots.

Very nice place, food is great, with big windows directly on the beach and the lighthouse.

Great view, the sunset is breathtaking. Good service and flavorful food. A bit too pricey though. All most all the dinner menu is $20 +

Artfully arranged, well prepared fish dishes, though on the expensive side. The upstairs patio bar and grill is seat yourself, also has good food. It is less fancy but also less pricy.

The food is dated, uninspired, poorly-executed, and too oily. It had clearly sat under heat lamps for a while. We tried several dishes and most were disappointing.

The staff however were friendly and extremely attentive. I wish they would direct some of this effort into the food. That said the squash ravioli and coconut rice were very good. Cocktail were tasty.

As usual, great food and service. The blueberry pancakes and eggs Benedict were delicious. Can't beat the setting either, overlooking the ocean and harbor from the patio is our favorite place to sit. Highly recommended!

Honestly the view and the food... its speachless and the service is matching

Second or third time being here. Great atmosphere and great views. Food is really good and so is service. The outside patio is heated and the perfect place for sunset.

we recently came here for brunch and the menu is on point for brunch as well as dinner.

It can be a little stuffy here from time to time, but over all the ambiance is great and the drinks are moderately priced. Best are Thursday s during the summer.

Nice lunch at the beach. Excellent caeser salad with salmon.....

Happy hour with half priced appetizer until 6. Also reduced prices on beer, wine, and cocktails. GREAT VIEWS!!

Nice place to shop for knick knacks and have a quick bite. They have brick oven pizza which is surprisingly good. There is outside seating so you can enjoy the view of the harbor.

Beautiful, sitting by the Ocean and walking the Harbor. Wonderful experience

Amazing views! Food was excellent. Calamari was some of the best I ever had! Great place to watch the sailboats leaving for the races.

Friendly folks here, but it smelled like sewage on the patio at sunset. Nice view tho, and crispy fish and chips.

Great prime rib. Good menu choices. Great drinks. Fairly consistent service. One of the better choices for a serious meal.

Beautiful restaurant with good food. Hosted a rehearsal dinner for my friends and staff was amazing

Upscale dining on the Santa Cruz waterfront. The interior is luxurious and well maintained with an ocean view from the dining area pretty much everywhere. The restaurant menu is typical surf and turf fare with a good selection of spirits and full bar. Good for a special event, rare treat, or an impressive date.

Good Happy hours with reasonable pricing on drinks plus very nice ocean view on 2nd level deck.

The help seems that have an attitude if they have to do anything extra

Great location with ocean view. Food is good, and if you go during happy hour, they appetizers are very reasonable.

This is our favorite place to go! We like upstairs, sitting on either patio, beautiful view, great food, wonder ambience!!!

Good place to enjoy the view and food.. good food , service and pricing.. I would recommend it..

One of my top spots for American food. The service here is attentive.

Beafutiful view, great food, attentive servers and again, beautiful views. Love the location and wish I would have spent more time on the beach than I did, cause being back in snow is not what I call peacful!

I went there yesterday after whale watching and in a big hurry to eat a late lunch and get several errands done by the evening. The location is great. The parking is great. The cleanliness is great. The views are beautiful.The food was fantastic. The place was jam packed on Tuesday at 4pm. The noise level was unbearable. The service was quick, but came with no silverware and I had to get up and find my waitress to ask for utensils! I thot this was funny, but she was embarrassed and apologized profusely. I give it four because it was so crowded and so noisy and echoing that I actually had to run downstairs into the bathroom to hear a phone call! It was so crowded that I had great difficulty getting to the stairs. Because of that experience, I think if there was a fire, it would be a dangerous place to be caught in.

Wonderful service, great food and watch seals and boats as you eat outside.

Everyones food was very good. Went for a midweek lunch; not busy at all. I had what was called "Chicken Azteca." It was very good but I think most places would call it "Chicken Piccata." I'm not sure i can explain why it was named differently, it was Chicken Piccata in my book.

When ever I come to town I eat here as often as I can...Great window seat view of the ocean...Jf u don't want to dine n...get it to go or order outside...There fresh fish is excellent...

Great seafood and a lively atmosphere right at the beach and harbor

Calamari is delish! Wish there were more fresh fish options and less salt was used overall.
Great views are hands down the best along with their live music options.
Restrooms are clean and staff is courteous.
Make sure to allow plenty of time to find parking.

Great Clam Chowder, great French Dip, rum drinks, Panko Shrimp, oh and don't forget the views!

Pro tip: the upstairs ladies room is larger than the downstairs :p

The food was good, but service not so good, switch waitresses and went bad after that.

Honestly never had worse food or service in my life went for my birthday...regret it .....very nice look on to the water tho..that's about it

Does not allow dogs even on patio. Receptionist was nice and recommended other places with 30 seconds walking

Over priced upstairs, paid $27 for a salad with chicken. Great for views but dint go 6nless happy hour or you will pay out the nose for mediocre food.

Great location, but overpriced and attracts too many tourists. There are better, less expensive options nearby.

View, great food - local + tourist favorite at the Santa Cruz harbor.

Great beach spot for lunch or dinner. At the heart of everything. Boating, surfing and hang gliding nearby.

Sadly this has been my worst experience at crows. I loved it here but seems the customer service has declined or certain guest get priority over others. The food as well has declined in quality. Servers don't know the diference between olive oil and canola oil. My last time going here.

This review is specifically for the little cafe & store they just added right outside the main restaurant. Crow's Nest recently bought out the space and converted it into a super cute harbor boutique with fashionable, witty, and constantly changing merchandise. They also have a reasonable priced cafe with great wood fired pizzas and sandwiches.

Food s really great and so is the ambience, would definitely eat here again

Love the crows nest, but the hours posted online are half wrong. The bar is open till 11 but the kitchen closes at 9 or 9:30.

This is a great restaurant with excellent and delicious food. The menu has a great variety for all tastes but of course, the seafood selection is best. We will certainly come back on our next visit to Santa Cruz. The only drawback, if there is any, would be the prices on the menu. However, I wouldn't consider it overpriced since you still get good value for the price.

Excellent place to eat and have a good time, for the day p evening, next to the beach and a jetty, has a magnificent view, and is a good place for a romantic dinner or at least I think, since I only business, but I love the place

Amazing food! Beautiful view! Fantastic staff! All around phenomenal!

Always a fun place to eat.
Upstairs is casual dinning.
Down stairs alittle more formal.
But excellent food.
Can't go wrong, with either choice.

I love this place and their bread is pretty tasty. sit on the patio have a mai tai and some calamari enjoy the sun

We picked this place off of the reviews and sat upstairs at bar area instead of the restaurant. I wasn't impressed. Maybe all the good reviews are for the restuarant downstairs. The view was nice though. It was a quick bite with a nice view.

For those who pass through Santa Cruz, it is worth the stop at the restaurant. The service is very good, as is the environment. The dishes are very well served and the price is right for what is served.

One of the best Crab Cake Eggs Benedict I have ever had. Great atmosphere. Great view. Wish I lived here because this would be a great restaurant to be a regular.

A fun Santa Cruz spot with good food and drinks and spectacular location.