The Best Cafes in Santa Cruz

Blacks Beach Cafe

Have a delicious breakfast and lunch menu. Mellow atmosphere. - G. Freitas  more

A timeless, relaxing downtown dining spot, Café Mare is a Santa Cruz Italian restaurant offering brunch, lunch and dinner menus focusing on simply prepared, fresh and flavorful Italian cuisine. With a quiet ambiance and polite, unobtrusive ser... more

Conscious Creations Cafe

Conscious Creations Cafe features Santa Cruz's freshest local ingredients prepared with exotic international flavors presented healthfully in your favorite comfort food recipes. Feel free to browse our menu, we have a little something for everyone. more

Fins Coffee

Non-descript in appearance, but they serve good coffee and the treats are delicious. more

Hidden Peak Teahouse

Hidden Peak Teahouse is a unique Asian style Teahouse that offers a full tea store, and a place where one can sit down in  the outdoor patio, or inside and drink tea.  It is a retreat from the fast paced, modern day world. more

Iveta Espresso Bar & Cafe

European-style sidewalk cafe featuring freshly baked, award-winning scones, muffins, biscuits and cupcakes, as well as specialty coffee from Lavazza, Italy's #1 coffee, a selection of fine teas and various light breakfast and lunch items. more

Java Bob's

Java Bob’s Coffee Roasting is a full-service specialty coffee roaster providing fresh roasted coffee, equipment, and supplies to cafes, restaurants, hotels, banks, offices, factories, schools and grocery stores. Located in Santa Cruz, Cal... more

Kresge Food Co-op

The Kresge Food Co-op has been a Kresge College tradition for over thirty years, supporting small farmers, the UCSC Farm Project, and the Kresge Organic Garden. Food Co-op Interior The Kresge Community Natural Foods Co-op is a non-profit student r... more

Leyla World Frozen Yogurt and Ice Cream

Leyla World is a locally supplied yogurt shop located at 1306 Mission St, in Santa Cruz, California.  We are a yogurt and ice cream parlor that specilaizes in lower fat, better taste, yogurts and ice cream.  All our yogurts are made fresh w... more

Limelight Cafe

With photography by Jack Johnson. more

MeloMelo Kava Bar - Santa Cruz

Kava is an ancient beverage from the South Pacific made from the roots of the Kava Kava plant Piper methysticum. The traditional beverage has been consumed in that part of the world for thousands of years and we're happy to be the first to bring it h... more

Samba Rock Cafe

Open Since 2009, We are a Cafe with a menu all based in Acai - 10 acai bowls, 10 acai smoothies, hot acai drinks, and also, yerba mate drinks (cold and hot), pastries and really good coffee and espressos with a bike park inside. more

Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting

Conveniently located in downtown Santa Cruz and Aptos, we proudly offer our fresh-roasted specialty coffee, fresh pastries and sandwiches, free wi-fi, and of course our patented BrewBar™ coffee system. We believe that our hand-poured method pro... more

Saturn Cafe

For almost three decades this late-night, all-day vegetarian diner has been serving up instant comfort of the edible variety. The condiment-friendly menu is long on cheeses, salads, faux burgers, french fries and cheeses. Veggie corndogs, mac and che... more

Surfrider Cafe

Surfrider Cafe is located at 429 Front Street in Santa Cruz, CA.  A local favorite for years, you can find great eats, good times, and awesome brews. Surfrider cafe is a great place to hang loose and enjoy all that Santa Cruz has to offer. more

The Walnut Avenue Cafe

When my mom was a kid, she used to come “downtown” from Boulder Creek to see movies at the corner of Walnut and Pacific Avenue. I imagine the fun of those movie palace days every time I have breakfast in the café now housed in the... more

The Windmill Cafe

Windmill Cafe is a cool beach cafe located in the Historic Lincoln Windmill Building just 2 blocks walking to Santa Cruz Harbor and Twin Lakes Beach.  The walls are decorated each month with a new local artists' work.  Windmill Cafe is the... more

Verve Cafe - 41st Avenue

Verve came to be through the serendipitous union of surf, sweat and a love of life and living. In 2007, founders Ryan and Colby built and opened the first Verve cafe on 41st Ave in Santa Cruz, California. Today, Verve has locations in cities from Los... more

Verve Cafe - Seabright

We work with vintage Probat roasters updated with the most state of the art components and monitoring software, which helps us roast with great consistency. Nothing in our roasting facility is automated. Everything we do, we do by hand and with great... more

Zachary's Restaurant

Zachary's Restaurant has been open for breakfast and lunch on Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz since 1985. Simple and delicious, a storied downtown eatery stands the test of time. more