Underprepared, short sighted service. Was here as part of a Maker's Mark tasting and kitchen was closed at 8:40PM. Drinks were sugary, and requests for water went unrecognized. Will not repeat. read more

We were looking for a place with great food at a good price. We found it!!! The atmosphere was fun and easy going. Great music playing in the background. The staff were all very friendly! The food was FANTASTIC!! We both had burgers, 100% genuine angus beef and oh so scrumptious!! Real beer battered French fries. Highly recommended if your looking for a great place to eat and relax!! We will DEFINATELY be returning next time we are in town! read more

I wish I was reviewing the food, drinks or atmosphere but I can't because we were never served. My gf and I walk in ask one of the servers if we can sit anywhere outside to which she replied yes anywhere out there is fine. 10 minutes go by with many patient attempts to make eye contact with the multiple servers that were in and out of the back patio and no dice. So I went to plan B and went inside and sat at the bar and another 10 minutes goes by and although the bartenders were cleaning the piss out of the drinkware they never bothered to ask me if I was looking to get a drink or if I was just there to keep the seat warm. I'm still clueless about why the staff was intent on ignoring us so hard our only option was to apply, interview and get hired so we could serve ourselves or just leave, either way poor display and all around poor effort. 0/5 stars read more

This place has amazing food! It has an upbeat, lively vibe that gave the impression we were going to pay for the ambiance and location and receive mediocre food in return. We ordered 5 different dishes and they were all fantastic, especially the calamari steak sandwich. The prices here are cheaper than many nearby restaurants, and they have a fun variety of cocktails that were delicious. Will definitely come back to try more dishes. read more

Walked in on a Sunday around noon. Seemed it would be a good place after checking out the menu and peeking inside. There were still a few empty tables inside and we just grabbed a table when the person at bar said to sit anywhere. Service was very slow. I'm not sure if they were short staffed or if that's how it is there. We got menus and drinks quickly, but it took a long time for the server to come back and take food orders. The food itself did take a long time as well. Food was not that good. The fish tacos and seafood sandwich lacked flavor. The kids meals were actually better. Finishing my kid's grilled cheese sandwich was more enjoyable than the tacos. After we started eating, we realized we needed other items (napkins more water, another soda, and ketchup). After about 15 mins, I went up to one of the stations and got napkins and ketchup on my own. We went up to the bar to ask for the additional drinks. It then took a long time for the server to follow up and give us the check. It seems the table next to us were getting annoyed by the long waits to order and get their check as well. read more

We come yearly. (July). We've tried almost all the restaurants in Capitola Village. Past years, no issues, excellent food and the male bartender who took takeout orders was wonderful. Returned the next day. Part of the group got take out and awhile later I went to order 3 meals as take out. We were told they stopped take out. Wth? Yet the take out order door and sign still up and the female bartender had just placed a take out order in front of me. The waitress with long black hair is absolutely horrible. She flips her hair around so much it has to be unsanitary. She ignores customers. Customers had to come in to get their own condiments. One family had been waiting an hour for their food then had to sit and wait for the bill while she's flitting around not doing much of anything. Apparently the owner was cooking this day and said he gives his cook a day off and people had to ASK to pay their bill. It was horrible. The cook took time to cook food for someone else behind a door as the waitress delivered that. She walked right by people waiting to be seated and ignored them. One person finally asked her if she was going to continue to ignore them and walk around them. The bartender told us she would do take out for us as the "cook" okayed one last take out order. Got two doors down, decided to check it and part was missing. Had to go back. Last year and this year with the guy bartender it was excellent and he was very nice but this year on the day with the female bartender it was horrible. The waitress needs to be fired. You don't walk around customers waiting to be seated with all open tables but 2 inside and continue to act like they are in your way. You shouldn't have to stop her to ask for her to give you your check because you'd been there 2 hours waiting for food, eating and waiting for the check. She needs to keep her hands out of her hair and a hairnet on the way she flips it around. Great food, really greasy if you like that but the taste is good. I think next time I'll look who's at the bar before deciding to get take out there to take back to the beach. Each person needs to be more attentive to customers. I couldn't believe how they were ignored. The cook / owner then comes out to lean on the counter with a drink and people are waiting for food and he said it's only him cooking. Just beware...again food has great taste but with the exclusion of the male bartender service was horrible. read more

Good food, great service, nice vibe, music & a neat view. We will definitely be coming back here! Our waitress Kathrine was superb! read more

amazing steak nachos! Great service from Adam! Nice warm understanding and great food! Can not ask for more! Will definitely come back again! read more

The Sand Bar - Just the way I wanted - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Capitola, California

This place is what you would expect - in terms of decor and menu - of a low-key bar and grill on a beach. I liked it. Waitress and bartender were friendly and gave prompt service. Too bad there's not much outdoor seating compared to other restaurants on the same street. Our meals (steak salad, Philly cheese) and drinks were good! Would eat here again. read more

See all

Went here after a wedding nearby and was very impressed with the calamari and fries basket. I hate rubbery calamari, so I was hesitant, but the guy who came to our table (great service!) assured me that their stuff was legit. This is true-- that must have been one of the top 5 fried calamari dishes I've ever had. Pretty reasonable prices for the food. The cocktails were pretty good, though I wasn't really into the margarita, which had been pretty clearly made with a mix. Not sure about drink prices, since I wasn't paying! The music is pretty decent, as long as people are buying songs at the jukebox. However, around midnight it seems like it will take a long time for your music to play. Also, the song prices are a bit steep-- I understand this is probably a source of revenue for the bar, but ultimately I think everyone would be better off just using Songza playlists or something like that. Overall, this place has a good vibe and good servers. Definitely a solid choice for a night out with friends. read more

One star for crispy fries and non-rubbery calamari. Another star for friendly servers and nice outdoor seating. Crabcakes taste crabless; all you taste is breading. Hashbrowns are floppy, even when I asked if they could be made crispy before I ordered them. Clam chowder is on the thin side, and came out lukewarm, and came back only slightly warmer when we asked it to be heated up. Minus infinity stars in theory, for the lack of salt on ANYTHING. Crabcakes, fries, fish and chips, calamari, hashbrowns, everything. Super disappointing first meal in Capitola. read more

The Sand Bar - Sad Crabcake Benedict.. - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Capitola, California

My wife and I had a very enjoyable lunch there. We arrived just before opening and Ivy was almost finished setting up. She dropped what she was doing, showed us to a table and made us comfortable. Her service was excellent and the only fault we had with the food was the coconut shrimp was a little overdone. We were impressed with the fries as they looked to have a Panko coating which gave them a crispy-ness without over cooking. We will be back when next in the area! read more

I stopped at The Sand Bar on 9/7/21 to take out fish & chips. I thought the meal was good especially for the price point. However, they added an 18% tip onto the bill WITHOUT my permission and WITHOUT informing me. That is UNACCEPTABLE!!!! First, an 18% tip is for service provided at a sit down dinner, not takeout. Secondly, they should at the very least inform the customer before they pay that they will be adding the absurdly large tip to a take-out order. Note that I do generally tip for take out, and especially during covid my tips have been high, often over 18%. However, it is so WRONG for them to add a tip without informing the customer, especially such a high tip for takeout. I CANNOT recommend this place. read more

Please remove " Chilaquiles" from your breakfast menu! My plate came with two eggs over easy that seemed like they were cooked on the burnt greasy side of the grill. Tortilla strips covered in melted jack a side of refríed beans and two greasy tortillas. All of this, but no salsa on anything The word Chilaquiles means covered in salsa. Here I got no salsa, no onions, no cilantro just greasy chips covered in melted cheese. Please take them off your menu until this is remedied. Drinks were also quite bland. Big mistake going here for breakfast. The rest of the dishes we saw coming out, to be fair, looked amazing. We just happened to choose the worst of the worst from the menu, drinks and food read more

Rude and slow service! we were seated right away on the outdoor patio which was awesome. it took our server some time to get to us and once he did he was cold and rude. we ordered the sweet heat margarita which had no chili rim and tasted like spicy water. Our drinks took 17 minutes to arrive to the table. We were so disappointed in the drink and service we chose to not order food and left as quickly as we could. There are so many other options in this cute town. Don't waste your time on this one. Although it does seem like a cool and fun bar setting at night? read more

This place used to be good for years, now it's pathetic. Extremely long wait times, mediocre food. Used to come here for years when it was still called "The Fog Bank". Apparently within the last year, this place went to shit. They used to have the absolute best clam chowder bread bowls, big portions, fast service. We just finished eating here. Ordered 3 bowls of chowder, an omelette, and a burrito around lunch time. It took 45 MINUTES for the food to arrive. The clam chowder was watery and infested with celery. Barely any other ingredients were in it, maybe I saw one clam. The bread bowl I had with the chowder was barely toasted on one side, burnt on the other. The burrito and omelette were puny. Service had one nice waitress, rest of them seemed off. read more

Yummy food, but it took far too long to get it. We sat for about 10 minutes before getting menus, 30 minutes before receiving our food, and the waitress took forever to collect the bill. If you're in a rush DO NOT COME HERE. read more

Pro: Great view of the water Average Bloody Mary Cons: Service and food is not up to par. It took 30 minutes for drinks to come out and another 40 for the actual food to be served. My husband got an avocado scramble that looked like it had one slice of avocado and one egg. Small portions. One family sat there for 20 minutes before leaving because no one asked them if they wanted to get their order started. one server even told them that it wasn't his job to serve them when they asked for another menu. The same server apologized to his customers for the service being so slow and gave them a 50 percent discount on their meal, while we waitedthe same amount of time and paid full price. Would recommend this place if you have hours to kill and are fine with horrible service and foo read more

This is such a fun joint! My cousins and I came here after going to the Cave wine bar, and they had a live band playing (don't remember their name, but they were so fun), and there was dancing and a bunch of super fun people! Drinks are cheap! Great place for a fun evening. We then came here for sunday brunch, the sun was out, and it was pretty warm so we sat outside. The awesome dude who worked there dried everything off, and was just such a delight. The view is just to die for, but if you coming to Capitola, you already know that. The food here is just wonderful, it has a "Cooked With Love" taste to it, which is really pleasant and unique. I don't eat out too often, but when I do, I look for that "IT" factor; and this place has it. I would recommend this place for either a wonderful mean with a wonderful view, or a cozy little night on the town with some badass live music! read more

Food was ok. Service was good. Can't pinpoint it, but it was just overall ok. Will try other places next time. Should have looked at Yelp first. read more

I have so many reasons to love this place but right now I'm eating a calamari sandwich and although I still have half left I'm plotting my next. It's juicy and has a really unique mix of Anaheim Chile and cheese and slaw and the frys are always the best ever. Just come here. read more

Tired of hoity-toity under-performing restaurants in CA. This is the authentic real deal. Fabulous view (better than the hoity-toities). $5 cover for excellent original all-night music entertainment. Burgers are huge and tasty. Bar tender friendly, cooperative and attentive. Great experience. read more

The Sand Bar is a bar but family friendly. The good is delicious and the service is excellent . We enjoyed the mellow, casual vibe. The coconut prawns were delicious! We also enjoyed the fish tacos which were not on the menu but a recommended special. I would definitely eat here again. read more

See all

went there today for the first time and it was great! really good service and super friendly wait staff:) i had a house salad which was perfect, and to top it off we got a view of the water while we ate. definitely will return here! read more

The Sand Bar - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Capitola, California

This place is very quiet and nice, I love the outside patio/bar, nice view, the food was good, nothing extraordinary but the coconut mojito is just out of this word! read more

See all

The bartender made it rock - the snobby ass waitress can kiss my brown ass !!) ha. Excellent burger glad I had good service !!!

Only 3 stars because the service wasn't that great. We're they busy yes...however acknowledging your patrons if you would at least like another drink, or letting us know how long our food would take, it was taking a very long time. The view is nice outside on back patio. Cramped but nice. Food was good. I had breakfast, I ordered the eggs Benedict over crab cakes. Delicious!!! Price wasn't bad at all. Pub style good It's a good place to go if it's not too busy. read more

Mid afternoon stop for apps and a cocktail by the water in downtown Capitola before saying good bye. Ducked into here to get away from heavy rain and cold weather for one last stop before heading back. Cozy. Had their stormy drink specials which was pretty good and a basket of fries, although still full from lunch an hour ago. Watched a bit of college basketball on TV as the rain hit hard and the windows to the Bay was constantly streaming of big drops of rain. Waitress very attentive. Music played via a juke box, some rock, some rap. Tried hard to concentrate on a conversation regarding a work in which my coworker and I finally gave up on. Instead, we rallied about other things and laughed. Laughed. Laughed. And suddenly the bell rings, the girl behind the bar rings a cow bell and at first thought, "Oh someone's birthday and it's time to sing" but not at all! Us patrons looked puzzled til she announced, "It's happy hour" and menu prices plumetted for beer, cocktails, and apps! But that was our cue that it was time to go. Until next time and I'm brining my own cow bell. read more

Im sure they have forget about me. Took almost an hour to get my calamari and finally got them because I asked for the updates. By the time I got them, they were cold. read more

So I was here at The Sand Bar on New Year's day with six other friends. I had bragged to my friends how good the bacon bloody Mary's were and how awesome the Crabcakes egg Benedict are here! But sad to say I was very disappointed this time!! The bloody Mary's were a bit too spicy! The crabcakes Benedict were not cooked all the way, or at least it seemed to us. The crabcakes could've been cooked a little longer,they seem to be kind of mushy! I don't think I will be bringing my friends here anymore! read more

The Sand Bar - For $11.95 I was expecting a little bit more!! Thank goodness my Bloody Mary had some veggies - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Capitola, California

See all

Pretty awful service. We had to go inside to get napkins and the check. The server brought us our requested condiments (that we asked for twice) when we were nearly done eating. I could look passed stuff like this; however, the restaurant wasn't busy. At all. That should have been an indication when we first walked in. The food was so-so. Certainly not impressed for a beach-front eatery. read more

You can't beat the location, it is perfect. We sat out back and had a nice view of the ocean and the multi-color homes that Capitola is known for. We had the clam chowder, calamari, crab cakes and margaritas. Their Cadillac margarita was delicious. All of our food we would order again minus the crab cakes. The crab cakes had no flavor and looked/tasted like they were pre-frozen. The sauce that came with it also was not appetizing and super watery. Overall I would repeat just for the atmosphere. read more

Such a satisfying breakfast. My family loves alcohol so they all got bloody marys and were very satisfied. I got a coffee and didnt drink it. I got the combo of scrambled eggs, fruit, bacon and pancakes. I ate everything. I was worried the pancakes would be too big, but they are actually quite average size, like the size of homemade pancakes. My family got the breakfast burrito and eggs Benedict and they enjoyed it. Nice beachy feel with reggae music. There is a tv with sports on. The service was pretty good as there wAs only one server for like 5 tables for the start of our meal and he was running around working hard for everyone. I enjoyed this place! Simple breakfast menu, nice feel. read more

It was so good for breakfast we went back for lunch. Sitting on the patio in the September sun, we had some of the best hash browns ever, a mimosa, pancakes, breakfast burrito-all delicious. For lunch the turkey sandwich had lovely toasted bread and the bread bowl in the clam chowder was also toasted and yummy. The Caesar salad was just so so though-the menu said romaine lettuce but it was iceberg and the croutons were wimpy. Still the Cajun chicken breast was good. We'll definitely go back next time we're in Capitola! read more

I dig the new ownership. They seem to be cranking out a decent breakfast and the staff are very welcoming and engaging. They seem to pull all the patrons together with conversation, which is nice and makes the experience seem like you went there with a group of friends even if you didn't. Keep up the good work. Can't wait to come back and try breakfast. read more

Thought it was hole in wall, but so wrong. Great atmosphere, bartender was very accommodating and fun. Love fun bartenders/ waitresses that interact w customers. Patio small but great views Will be back! read more

Yummy breakfast, great views. Very polite staff. I would give 5 stars but they forgot our toast and it took a while to get our drinks. They were busy so it didn't bother us too much. The Persian couple next to us, bless their hearts, offered to share their toast, which was a very kind gesture. All in all it was a lovely experience, the French toast was delish, the omelette was amazing and the prices are very reasonable. Well done folks. read more

Just had Clam Chowder in a sourdough bowl at this Comfortable bar and grill. Four of us had the same meal and agree it was by far the very best Chowder we have ever had, the richness, favor and quality ingredients were evident in every bite. The staff was over the top , and the cleanest of this bar and grill was Was evident throughout the place. Thank you Tony Esparza read more

We got the fish and chips and it was really good. The service was great and the view on the patio was awesome. The food was hot and delicious. Definitely a place to recommend to everyone. read more

The Sand Bar - the view from the patio - Cocktail Bars Near Me - Capitola, California

See all

The fresh ceviche and clam chowder is really good. Not to mention the fantastic view in the patio seating. Our waitress is great. read more

See all