Best restaurants for 7 cuisines in Santa Cruz
America is often described as a melting pot, a place where different cultures have come together over the centuries to form new customs while maintaining the ones their ancestors have long held dear. For many cultures, a major part of their identity is food.
Walk down any main street in the United States and you're likely to see the cuisines of many countries—despite being nowhere near each other on the globe—sitting side by side. You could start in Egypt with some falafel, get a taste of Taiwan with a cup of bubble tea next door, pick up a side of fries at an old-fashioned American diner down the block, and finish it off with sopaipillas from the Mexican restaurant in town.
Of course, we all have our favorite dishes—a juicy cheeseburger from a local pub, a savory bowl of tempura udon at a beloved Japanese restaurant, or some chicken tikka masala from your nearby Indian spot. But maybe you're looking to get out of your comfort zone a little, whether to try a different restaurant that serves your favorite food or to taste a new type of cuisine entirely.
To help point you in the right direction, Stacker compiled a list of the highest-rated restaurants in the Santa Cruz area using data from Yelp for various cuisines: American, Chinese, Cuban, Greek, Indian/Pakistani, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mexican, Thai, and Vietnamese. Data is as of July 13, 2025. Businesses were selected using Yelp's ranking system, which calculates an adjusted rating value that takes into account the number of ratings as well as the rating score itself. Only businesses with at least 50 reviews, and within a 10-kilometer radius of Santa Cruz, were considered.
Read on to find out if your favorite restaurant made the cut and to get inspired for your next dinner out.
