Santa Cruz Organic Dining Guide

After many, many phone calls, the Santa Cruz Organic Dining Guide is here! You’ll be pleased to know that Santa Cruz has quite a few restaurants offering organic choices. Seasonal availability affects choices, so make sure you ask the waitstaff what is organic whenever you dine out.

Breakfast! All or almost always organic:

  1. Capitola Coffee Roasters
  2. Center Street Grill
  3. Chocolate
  4. Harbor Cafe
  5. Hoffman’s
  6. Lulu Carpenter’s
  7. Michael’s On Main
  8. Oak Tree Ristorante (breakfast Fri, Sat and Sun)
  9. Quail & Thistle Tearoom
  10. River Cafe
  11. Samba Rock Acai Cafe
  12. Windmill Cafe

Some organic, Glaum Ranch cage-free eggs:

Lunch or Dinner! All or almost all organic:

  1. 515 Kitchen & Cocktails
  2. Aquarius
  3. Asana
  4. Backstage Lounge
  5. Benten Sushi
  6. Cafe Campesino
  7. Cafe Cruz (beef not grass finished)
  8. Cafe Mare (except chicken)
  9. Caffe Lucio
  10. Capitola Grille
  11. Cellar Door
  12. Center Street Grill
  13. Charlie Hong Kong (beef and pork are hormone and antibiotic free, not organic)
  14. Chocolate
  15. Conscious Creations
  16. Dharma’s
  17. Gabriella Cafe
  18. Haute Enchilada (free range chicken, wild fish, veggies usually organic)
  19. Hoffman’s Bakery Cafe
  20. India Joze
  21. La Posta (almost everything is local and organic except beef is grain-fed, not grass-fed)
  22. Las Olitas Cantina & Grill
  23. Lemongrass (chicken isn’t free range)
  24. Lillian’s Italian Kitchen (prawns are farmed, not wild)
  25. Main Street Garden & Cafe
  26. Malabar
  27. Michael’s on Main
  28. New Leaf New Beat Cafe
  29. Oak Tree Ristorante
  30. Oswald Restaurant
  31. Pearl of the Ocean
  32. Point Chop House & Lounge
  33. Quail & Thistle Tearoom
  34. Redwood Pizzeria (all organic)
  35. Ristorante Avanti
  36. River Cafe (all organic)
  37. Rockers Pizza Kitchen (all)
  38. Rosie McCann’s (chicken, beef, salads, veggies)
  39. The Red Restaurant & Lounge
  40. Samba Rock Acai Cafe
  41. Soif
  42. Sweet Peas Cafe & Catering (eggs aren’t)
  43. Vivas
  44. Windmill Cafe

More organic than not:

 

  • Au Midi
  • Bluewater Steakhouse (although, ironically, their beef isn’t grass-fed or organic)
  • Burger. (grass-fed beef, seasonal organic and local produce)
  • Chaminade (chicken breast, salmon, and ahi salad, always organic. other organic items are seasonal
  • Hindquarter (free range chicken, organic produce, beef is not)
  • Hollins House At Pasatiempo (about half of produce & most meats)
  • Mint (organic chicken, wild fish, beef is not. Menu changes often, but always try to incorporate a good selection of organic options)
  • Shadowbrook (free range chicken, mostly local organic produce, seasonal wild seafood)
  • Star Bene (salmon, salads, pasta, anything organic upon request if you call in advance)

Some organic options:

  • Alfresco (salad greens)
  • Betty Burger & Betty’s Eat Inn (grass fed, grain finished beef, no hormones or antibiotics)
  • Casa Rositas (produce)
  • Dolphin (seafood wild except salmon)
  • Engfers (salads)
  • Fresh Choice (entire salad bar is organic)
  • Gilda’s (wild sole and snapper)
  • Golden Budda (about half of the veggies are organic: ask upon arriving)
  • The Greek (some produce: ask upon arriving)
  • Coldwater Bar & Grill (wild fish except Atlantic salmon)
  • Hula Island Grill (tofu, wild seafood)
  • I Love Sushi (wild tuna)
  • Laili (some veggies, salads, wild trout)
  • Malone’s (grass-fed beef)
  • Mama Lucia (salads)
  • Mobo (about half of fish is wild)
  • Olitas Cantina & Grille (wild fish & some produce)
  • Owl’s Nest (salads)
  • Pacific Ave Pizza (some veggies, only a few)
  • Palomar (mixed green salad, wild fish, free range chicken)
  • Paradise Beach Grille (not organic, but Creekstone Farms and Honolulu Fish Co. sustainable fish)
  • Peachwoods (only salad greens)
  • Pink Godzilla (wild fish)
  • Planet Fresh (veggies)
  • Pleasure Point Eastside Eatery (produce, salads, never-ever meats, no hormone cheese, clover milk)
  • Sandabs (most veggies, not meat)
  • Saturn (salads, veggie burger patty, hot chocolate, Glaum eggs)
  • Seabright Brewery (spinach, wild trout)
  • Shogun (all fish wild caught)
  • Sitar (all veggies)
  • Stagnaro Bros (wild fish)
  • Surfrider Cafe (veggies, salads, stir fry, meat is not)
  • Sushi Garden (some wild fish)
  • Sushi Totoro (all fish is wild except salmon)
  • Tam’s (some veggies)
  • Taqueria La Cabana (most produce, free range chicken)
  • Tortilla Flats (lettuce and sometimes tomatoes)
  • Walnut Cafe (wild ahi)
  • Woodstock’s Pizza (spinach, almonds, cranberries)
  • Yan Flower (veggies and tofu)
  • Zelda’s on the Beach (Glaum cage free eggs, sustainable seafood)

Why organic?

Some argue that eating organic food is not more nutritious than non-organic food. For argument’s sake, let’s assume it isn’t. What would be the benefit of spending extra money to eat organic?
Two big reasons: reduction of toxic load and environmental impact. Eating organic food reduces the amount of toxins taken into the body (i.e. pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, antibiotics, growth hormones, etc.). Toxins that the body cannot get rid of are stored in fat cells, which is why some people have difficulty losing or keeping off extra weight. Plus, organic farming practices are better for the environment.
Choose organic and local foods: it’s better for you and Mother Nature.