El Hermoso Mar

Was told by many people that this place was the go to place in Santa Cruz, and they were right! Ordered the Garlic Shrimp Quesadilla, Shrimp Cocktail and they were 2 of the best dishes I’ve ever had eating out. Staff is super friendly and I’m ready to come back for more!

Authentic, inviting and excellent service! Rolled in with a group of 9 which is difficult to accommodate in any restaurant but even more so in the smaller beach side restaurants, yet we were able to group a couple tables and all sit together. They have a great variety of traditional Mexican dishes (Super Burrito will not disappoint!) and Mexican sea food (Shrimp fajitas were great as well!) We ordered a round of Micheladas and unlike other restaurants serving skimpy glasses these were large and in charge! (I recommend getting Negra Modelo as the beer option) From the young man taking our orders to the young girls waitressing, service was top notch and sincere! Thank you for providing such great food AND service!

Came with family for the clam chowder festival, and decided to try different for once, and decided to come here. Love the variety of foods, and the variety of aguas frescas. Place seemed authentic, not like most places you go. Guy that took our order was super nice, as well as the waitresses. Food was great, from the burritos to the shrimp fajitas. Overall, very good and would definitely come back. Very pleased. 2 thumbs up!

Off the hook! Best food ever and definitely worth the wait in line. The line moves fast and the food is amazing! Service is remarkable!

Best Mexican food! I love El Hermoso! I am a regular at this great spot. They provide decent portions at a fair price. The staff are always friendly and helpful. They are usually very speedy so you don’t have to wait forever like some places, like Ideal bar and grill. Be sure to stop by and order some yummy food, you won’t regret it!

We had an enjoyable experience here. We happened to be in Santa Cruz on a relatively slow afternoon, and needed a bite to eat after playing in the sand and enjoying the views. This restaurant was close and we could all agree; therefore, we went in.
The guy taking our order (and who also brought out our food) was super helpful and friendly — even giving me a sample of a drink to try since I had never had it before. We ordered burritos and a taco; all were legitimately good. The salsa is a tad spicey, for those of you who prefer a more mild option. The drink (similar to an aqua fresca) was delicious!

I had the chicken burrito. It was flavorful but I wish there were a choice in beans. The hot sauce was super spicy which is great! I also got a margarita which was a little small for the price. Also, I wasn’t carded which is weird because I definitely don’t look super old but I guess I can’t complain lol. The staff was helpful though they looked like their dog just died. No smiles from any of them but that’s ok, I know being in the service industry is testing sometimes and have a 6 person band who are rowdy in the middle of the day is not your favorite

Mexican food is literally what I live for so when I spotted this gem during my stroll along the Santa Cruz boardwalk my heart soared!
El Hermoso Mar is a locally run Mexican restaurant directly opposite the beach with both indoor and outdoor seating and a super chilled out vibe! The menu is extensive and even offers plenty of choices for Vegetarians and Vegans, which is nice of them! After perusing the options I chose a Wet Super Beef Burrito (Green Sauce) with no beans and was amazed by what was brought to my table! This thing was HUGE and it was mind blowingingly delicious! The waiter told me that the make all of their sauces onsite from scratch– they aren’t from a packet so that probably explains why it was so fresh and delicious!
The rest of our group was extremely satisfied with their food choices as well… Until they saw my burrito and then they definitely had food envy!

California boasts plenty of Mexican food restaurants, for some it’s like going to Mexico and the food is the way it was intended. Others, let’s just say, they might fit into the «Taco Tell» category.
The service sucks and they don’t seem to care about you for the most part. I have a weekend home here and drive up here to relax and enjoy good food, but they don’t care about getting better.
Very convenient but this place needs lots of love.
It’s worth the drive to Watsonville to get the real Mariscos and Mexican food.
Leave Santa Cruz for circus/​boardwalk food.
Notice the customers inside, mostly «white» tourist

I’m from out of town and thought el hermoso was a convenient stop after visiting the board walk.
Although the staff here are friendly, the food is awful, I’ve been running around all day and am starving, yet I can’t even force this down. Stay away from the seafood, especially the fish tacos, the other tacos were no prize either.

Victor is the bomb he helped us out chatted. Sat outside had a nice Cold Modelo. With a nice view.

My group of of 21 people (yeah, we roll DEEP) was STARVING and exhausted after being at the Boardwalk all day and we could not walk all the way to the pier for seafood, so we chose this Mexican place over the pizza next door. If I could sum up the experience in one word: BLEHHHHH!
There was a LONG line to order and it was NOT moving quickly. It was around 9pm too! I was getting hungrier and crankier by the minute.
Their menu offers a variety of your typical mexican food — burritos, salads, tacos, chimichangas, ceviche, enchiladas — and also burgers. I got the three chicken flautas plate and my boyfriend got the bacon avocado burger.
Once you order you get a basket of chips and small cup of salsa. The salsa had an extremely weird after taste and was unlike any salsa I’ve ever had. The cups they offer for water are really small and the water was not cold.
The food FINALLY came and it looked good, but looks are deceiving. The beans and rice were incredibly bland and the chicken in the flautas were extremely dry. It was topped with guacamole and salsa, but that did little to help. I was so beyond hungry and I had a headache, so I ate it because I paid for it and could not wait any longer for anything else. It was probably one of the top most disappointing meals I’ve had. At least it wasn’t that expensive.
Overall, the only reason I believe this place stays open is because it’s located right next to the Boardwalk. Their mexican food is not very good. My boyfriend liked his burger, but shouldn’t a mexican restaurant have good mexican food?
I would not return or recommend. I’d give 1.5 stars, but rounded up because the place wasn’t dirty or gross, I just really didn’t like the food. I reserve 1 star reviews for places that have extremely bad service and bad food.

My lady took me here for my birthday. I don’t have anything special to say about my birthday lunch. I will say that my fiancé is Mexican and I love Mexican food. Maybe they were having a bad day but the food was not good that day. Also the service was not good either. Everyone has bad days from time to time so in hoping that was the case here. But I don’t think I will ever be back.

Really long line to get your burritos and tacos but good service and friendly staff. Food is not gourmet Mexican but wasn’t expecting that either. The place is clean, pleasant and they bring the food to your table (even if you order at the register) pretty fast. We sat at the surf board ‘table’ people watching and was a pleasant experience. I suggest you to order the tacos (if that is what you want) just by themselves and skip the rice and refried beans (they don’t look too attractive in my opinion and I rather not request a combo but isolated items. My tacos al pastor were good.

La comida muy buena, tu te sientas y ordenas lo que gustes, no hay presion de nada. Y llegan buenos culos.

I am a big stickler on great staff and this place has wonderful people working there, however the food was not very good. I understand rent is high where they are located but the seafood tasted frozen. We ordered the nachos and shrimp burrito. The nachos were fine but the shrimp on the burrito was not fresh! I don’t know if they ran out of the good stuff and needed to make do for the day but I was disappointed. Overall it was okay but not what I expected, especially for the price.

At $ 12 my super shrimp burrito was lacking in the particular ingredients that make something a super (quac, sour cream) which was terribly disappointing. Also the line took really long which is kinda weird for a taqueria.
On the plus side, their tortilla was particularly good, and was a bit fried, rather than steamed, bringing it closer to more of an SD burrito as compared to an SF one.

So, for a restaurant located in the heart of a waterfront touristy area, El Hermoso was surprisingly affordable and fairly quality for what you got. The outside appears a bit run down, but inside is super clean and inviting. As others have mentioned the ordering process takes a while (form a line at the counter) and the space where you wait is a bit claustrophobic.
Prices are fair-​two veggie tacos were $ 6.95 and include chips and salsa. With whole beans, shredded lettuce, guacamole and rice it was a filling lunch. It wasn’t particularly notable or had any «wow» factor but adequate enough. It’s not memorable or compelling enough to come back and the chips and salsa were super bland. Watery salsa and stale chips-​they need to up their game there.
Friendly, albeit slow service, cheapish and average-​you decide if that’s worth a stop or not…

Good place to grab a bite if you are visiting the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and you want to avoid the crappy food.
This is a walk-​up counter service and a waitress will bring your food and drinks. We tired several items and they were all good and reasonably priced:
Taco Salad with Carne asada. Excellent. Super fresh ingredients. Especially the beans and rice they serve.
Shrimp burrito regular. Big burrito. …so I wonder what the Super Shrimp is like wow!!!
Shrimp taco. Excellent shrimp salsa.
Carnitas taco. Again, all of our food was served hot and with fresh ingredients.
Originally I was going to give this place a 4 star but it’s worth of Phish’s 5 star rating.

Came here yesterday with my friends, since we were craving some Mexican food, and she recommended we try this place, since she said it had some solid food. Too true! I ended up getting a veggie burrito, she got a shrimp cocktail, and our other friend got a quesadilla. The burrito was jammed FULL of all the bean, rice, and veggie goodness, and it was just the right amount of spicy.
My only complaint is that the chairs and tables shouldn’t be so close together, it’s kind of cramped in here.

My buddies and I were biking and we stopped for a bit on Beach Street bc we were getting hungry. We looked across the street and saw 5 spots to choose from — two pizza joints, a falafel place, a taqueria, and an ice cream shop. I said «let’s check the Unilocal stars, and go with the highest ranked.» All of them were 3 stars, except for El Hermoso Mar which was 3.5 stars. So to the taqueria we went.
I think I enjoyed my chips and guacamole the most. My tacos were bland, and by the looks on my friends faces, they didn’t look like they were amazed either. Maybe next time I’ll grab a slice of pizza from one of the pizza joints.