Gilda's - Santa Cruz

The fries THE FRIES. Literally the best fries EVER. The waitress did forget to give us utensils and napkins when our sides came out, but this doesn't matter when you're eating the best fries to ever exist. Five stars literally just for the fries.

We had to wait about 12 minutes to be seated, but were acknowledged. And service was good after that. Excellent luncheon salad with crab meat. And 14.95 prime rib on Wednesdays plus potato, veggies, salad with it. This restaurant is old school diner atmosphere but I visit here for the view and the food. Separate little bar off the lobby.

Good seafood, generous portions. One of us had the sauteed salmon and liked it; one had the white clam chowder and liked it a lot; one had the crab Louis salad (served in an iceberg lettuce bowl! and loved it. I had the crab cakes, which were large, delicious, and made almost entirely of crab (yummy , but they were quite salty and had numerous bits of interior crab shell in them, so take small bites and chew carefully. By 'interior crab shell, ' I mean they had removed almost all of the thick, obvious, exterior crab shell and missed the less obvious, non-digestible, non-chewable, hard, thin, nearly invisible parts of the crab shell. Other than that, it was great! Quite tasty.

Our server was great for conversation and good laughs, very comfortable and welcoming. The good here is delicious, accompanied by a beautiful view and great prices. The menu has so many options and the drinks they have are top notch. We loved it here and felt welcome.

The good: the meal was very good. the shrimp/cratt of my lady louie was very good as my surfing and shaking. our table of witwe offers an excellent view of a lighthouse and cowells beach. the bathroom: the floor was a chaos. at all places the carpet was strongly colored and needed vacuum. the service was slow. appetizers and cocktails were released simultaneously with the entreen.