We had breakfast at Gilda's last week. I ordered the CA Benedict and it was delicious! The Hollandaise sauce was perfect and the eggs were not runny but not hard. A++ from us for our breakfast. M…

Wonderful lunch stop while visiting Santa Cruz Wharf. We ordered Clam chowder, Fish & Chips and the Teriyaki Chicken. Everything was delicious. The sourdough rolls were hot & tasty. Service was exc…

So what a difference a year makes. I decided to give it another try and I was super impressed. The Monday night lasagna was fantastic. Our server Aden was running the show solo, but did a real expe…

I was looking for a place that has ocean views and a clam chowder in a bread ball. This place was close to where I am staying. I got my window table and thinking of the usual size of the chowder,…

What a great time!!! This place is an old restaurant in the boardwalk . The service was amazing. Brandon at the bar gave an stellar service at the bar for a Saturday happy hour. The food and drinks…

Luckily my family of 7 randomly tried Gilda's after noticing they had no wait today while walking the pier for lunch. I would not have tried it if we had read the reviews on Yelp, so I'm glad we …

Clint Chapel

I had the Wednesday Prime Rib Special, and it was delicious. My waitress was very sweet and attentive at the right time.

Elijah T.

We came here to eat breakfast and had the seafood omelette. The portions are massive and you can split one meal for 2. The food is good but not the best I’ve ever had. The atmosphere is pretty nostalgic and the workers are super friendly. I don’t think I’ve had better service anywhere else.

Charles “Chip” Chapin

Good food and drinks. The atmosphere is tired "family restaurant" but with a great view. With The Dolphin now closed, this is probably the best breakfast available on the wharf itself. For the other meals, results vary. Today we enjoyed the Ahi Poke stack and the Wednesday prime rib special.

Jared Bunn

We loved the view of birds and sea lions feasting on the anchovies. I loved my eggs Benedict, the hot chocolate was delicious but my hash rows were the worst I have ever had. It's like they were prepared in a brick last year then reheated with no oil and flavorless.

Vincent Raven

The dinner food was good. The crab cakes and calamari were good but a little peppery. I would've liked a bigger portion for the cost. The snapper was good, and my daughter loved the shrimp and crab sandwich. The rest of the food was good. It was really cool to sit next to the window and watch the sea lions play in the ocean during the whole meal. We would go back again however I'd probably try a different place on the wharf next time. We all enjoyed the whole experience.

+1

We found this restaurant by accident and so happy we did, they had a wonderful view of the ocean and because they are out on the pier it has a great view of the boardwalk\n\nThe restaurant is som…

The service is at this restaurant is so nice and so kind. They are so courteous and well mannered and lovely. The views are excellent too! They comp'd my daughter's pasta dish and took it off the b…

The service is at this restaurant is so nice and so kind. They are so courteous and well mannered and lovely. The views are excellent too! They comp'd my daughter's pasta dish and took it off the b…

Same as the review I left for Hindquarter! I was working an event in Santa Cruz and my sister always comes with me to help. 1st night we went to Hindquarter and wasted $120. So the next night we w…

Kathleen N

I had the chicken fried stk and eggs. The food was okay, waitress was great. We pretty much paid for the view.

Brian Rupert

The loaded baked potato was not very loaded which rendered it kind of bland. The lobster tail was about 4 or 5 Oz, but very tasty. The filet was a bit dry and underseasoned. Nice atmosphere, oceanside, and very good service.

Deborah Savio

We drove down from humboldt county california to santa cruz for thanksgiving.. We made reservations In advanced so that we could have a sunset view during our dinner. We decided to sit in the bar.Because the restaurant was very packed with loud children. Our server was ryan , who was also the bartender. We weren't even acknowledged for the first ten minutes of being in the bar because he was too busy talking to other customers. Once we finally ordered our drink, it took at least 15 minutes before our drinks were brought to us as He kept having to go back and refer to the tablet for the recipe. When he was making another drink for a customer in the restaurant , he went over with his bare hand and grabbed a chunk of ice and put it in the cup without gloves Are you utensils?And that was right after he finished handling cash. And we ordered the turkey thanksgiving dinner. $32 per personThe dinner was cold and it was served on a plate and the potatoes and the stuffing were both served in a round ball like they were served with a ice cream scoop. Both of them were cold. The mashed potatoes were barely warm. The Turkey was barely warm. It was very Unpleasant to look at because it looked like cafeteria food and with it being cold I lost my appetite very fast. Our bill came to a hundred seven dollars for 2 cold dinners and two drinks. It was very very disappointing. Even the cranberry sauce was served in a little paper cup.It felt Like it was giving cafeteria vibes. Needless to say , we will not be back.

Matthias pumpkin

Mahi mahi over cooked and lacked flavor. The shrimp was the better meal, not pricey for the tourist location. Building is dated but staff was friendly. In a pinch and at the pier its a fair place to eat

Shannon Thomas

This is a historic place on the Santa Cruz wharf. Unfortunately the food was average at best. Typical diner/cafe quality. The staff and views are amazing. I'm sure Gilda started out with amazing food in the 70's, but sadly it's not what it was.

Our family was drawn to this establishment because we saw the happy hour menu. Once seated, we were handed menus, but nothing including the happy hour. It seems like only the happy hour food is…

This review is mostly about the Duchess Crab Cake Egg Benedict. It was not flavorful and didn't taste like much, you can taste just a tiny bit of seasoning from the crab cakes but the rest was bland, the english muffin, egg, and even the sauce that comes on it. I saw great reviews about these online but in my experience I would not recommend.

Bill Freeman

My wife and I tried Gilda's happy Hour on Monday afternoon, 9/29/25. We first went into the bar. It's a very cute but small bar. Eight people could fit comfortably; 10-12 if you were all friends and showered. I asked about the happy Hour, and the bartender said we could have it in the bar - which was full up at the time - or go into the main restaurant for it. Seeing that there was really no room at the bar, we went into the restaurant. As you can see from one of the accompanying pictures, the place was nearly deserted (about 4:45 pm). By the kitchen there was a man who appeared to be either the main waiter or the manager. I asked where we could sit for the happy hour, and he pretty rudely repled, "Happy Hour is in the bar." When I told him the bartender told us we could get happy hour in either the bar or the restaurant and that the bar was full, he begrudgingly told us to sit wherever we wanted, and promptly ignored us. Thank goodness there was a young lady there who obviously could see we were extremely put off by the guy's attitude, and she very kindly and amicably showed us to a nice window seat. If it weren't for her, we would have left immediately. She helped us with the happy hour menu for drinks and food, and we ordered. The food at happy hour is - thank goodness - half price, but still pricey. As you can see from the bill, we had crab cakes and calamari. We received two small crab cakes that were very mealy without much crab meat, and some very rubbery calamari. Even at half price, the two dishes were disappointments. Now to the cocktails. I had something called a "Smoke and Smash," which was little more than a couple ounces of mixed fluids, somewhere wherein there was some kind of distilled spirit - not very good. The Merlot was fine. The kicker is that our food was out and on the table long before the two simple drinks arrived. In fact, we were finished with the food before the drinks even came. I saw the bartender was busy with his eight customers, but ... really? The ONLY bright spot in our "experience" at Gilda's was the young lady who helped us out. Jocelyn was kind, friendly, and helpful. She is a true ambassador for Gilda's and should be recognized for her work. I only gave Gilda's two stars for service because of the other employees there; if it had just been Jocelyn's review, it would have been a 5+. Needless to say, we won't be going back to Gilda's, and I'm fairly certain that "Gilda" would be sorely disappointed at the treatment of some of her customers.

Pheng Moua

9/22/2022. My wife and I walked along the wharf looking at menus and this place seem most interesting. It is a bit more expensive than others on the wharf, but the menu had more variety of fish dishes. As we walked in, I did not expect it to be an old school style diner. Inside look old fashion with older music playing. There was only 1 hostess, 1 cook, 1 busser. Service was okay, workers were nice, but our water and pop never got refilled. There were only 5 group there including us. My wife got the seafood platter, I got the Alaskan Halibut. The food was okay, nothing special. Maybe I was expecting a little too much as the menu looked delicous. The seafood platter fish has a light batter to it. It was okay as it was not oily. The Alaskan halibut I thought was okay. The aioli made it tasted good. The side with the diced mango was refreshing. The bread is given was harder than I expected, but I didn't mind. After we ate and left, a group of people were walking by talking about this place and I heard one of the older gentleman said that it used to be good when the original owner was still around. Overall, food was okay, service was okay. For the price, I think I'd rather try somewhere else.

+1

The breakfast was edible but not that great, this review is mostly about the Duchess Crab Cake Egg Benedict. It was not flavorful and didn't taste like much, you can taste just a tiny bit of seasonin…

Went in Oct. 2025 with friends. Food was not good. The fish tacos barely had any fish in it, the pastrami sandwich was atrocious (dry and no flavor), my french dip was good though. Service was good a…

The breakfast was edible but not that great, this review is mostly about the Duchess crab cake egg Benedict. It was not flavorful and didn't taste like much, you can taste just a tiny bit o…

Went in Oct. 2025 with friends. food was not good. The fish tacos barely had any fish in it, the pastrami sandwich was atrocious (dry and no flavor), my french dip was good though. Service wa…

The breakfast was edible but not that great, this review is mostly about the Duchess Crab Cake Egg Benedict. It was not flavorful and didn't taste like much, you can taste just a tiny bit of season…

We walked in at 1030am for breakfast, we waited to be seated. No one helped us. For 10 minutes we stood there waiting. Both waitress's saw us and continued to take food to tables and pass out bil…

We walked in at 1030am for breakfast, we waited to be seated. No one helped us. For 10 minutes we stood there waiting. Both waitress's saw us and continued to take food to tables and pass out bills a…

We walked in at 1030am for breakfast, we waited to be seated. No one helped us. For 10 minutes we stood there waiting. Both waitress's saw us and continued to take food to tables and pass out bills…

We walked in at 1030am for breakfast, we waited to be seated. No one helped us. For 10 minutes we stood there waiting. Both waitress's saw us and continued to take food to tables and pass out bills…

We went to this place for dinner the other night because of the happy hour and kid menu, plus the special of the day menu. I had a bad feeling when we walked in and it was pretty dead, while Riva n…

Really slow service, they forgot that we were waiting and seated 2 groups ahead of us and we had to approach them only for them to say they're closing but they'll get us a table anyway. So we said …

Nate Lopez

I recently went to Gilda’s Family Restaurant with my family, and it was a complete disappointment from start to finish. The food was absolutely bland and completely lacked seasoning it honestly tasted like no effort was put into it at all. Also the carpets were filthy, and the whole place looked like it hasn’t been cleaned properly in a long time. The service was terrible. It seemed like the employees would rather sit around and gossip than actually do their jobs. My cocktail took 38 minutes to arrive, and although I did get my water right away, the cup was dirty, which was unacceptable. The kitchen was painfully slow, and there was no sign of any proper management anywhere in the building. It’s extremely disappointing to know that this place is owned by The Crow’s Nest, because you would expect a much higher standard. Instead, Gilda’s looks like it hasn’t been updated since the 1970s old, cheap, rundown, and boring. The entire atmosphere feels neglected and outdated, and it’s honestly hard to believe this place is even still open. The service was all over the place, the staff seemed unprofessional, and the whole experience was just miserable. I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant to anyone.