4 Best Restaurants in Capitola and Soquel, The Monterey Bay Area

Locals love this casual restaurant where seafood predominates, but you can also order burgers, salads, and steaks. Baskets of battered snapper are among the favorites, along with calamari, prawns, seafood kebabs, fish-and-chips, and homemade olallieberry pie. Many items cost less than $14. Come early for lunch or dinner to beat the crowds.

Whether you're in the mood for an orange-olallieberry muffin, a wild rice and chicken salad, or tri-tip on garlic toast, this bakery-deli's varied menu is likely to satisfy. Munch on your lemon meringue tartlet or chocolate brownie on the shady patio, or dig into the daily blue-plate dinner—teriyaki grilled skirt steak with edamame-shiitake sticky rice, perhaps, or roast turkey breast with Chardonnay gravy—amid the whirl of activity inside.

To get to this romantic spot overlooking Soquel Creek, you can take a cable car or walk the stairs down a steep, fern-lined bank beside a running waterfall. Dining room options include the rooftop Redwood Room, the wood-paneled Wine Cellar, the creek-side, glass-enclosed Greenhouse, the Fireplace Room, and the airy Garden Room.

In a lively contemporary space with a patio in the heart of Soquel Village, VinoCruz offers more than 50 wines by the glass, with a focus on Santa Cruz Mountains but also other California and international regions; it also has local cider and beer on tap. Nosh on artisanal burgers, tacos, flatbread pizzas, salads, and cheese and charcuterie plates.